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Thread: IQA for UK Masters (Hons) Degree - course transcripts - help :)

  1. #1
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    Question IQA for UK Masters (Hons) Degree - course transcripts - help :)

    Hi,

    I've read the INZ / NZQA websites which explain the documents you need to submit for an IQA. I completed my degree nearly 20 years ago in London, UK.

    I have no "secondary school certificate" (I don't even know what one is, unless it's referring to my A-Level results) because that's one slip of paper from 20 years ago which I don't recall ever seeing. Maybe it's in my parent's attic. The university would have been informed directly of my A Level results and awarded me a university place on that basis. Plus I've moved house about 5 times and moved countries since then, so stuff just gets cleared out.

    I also have no "transcript" (whatever that is) of my university course. I don't recall ever having one and again, except for reading a brochure describing the course, and it's 20 years ago so that's not something I would have kept in any case. Rummaging around in my cellar, I have loads of lecture notes, copies of some course marks for some of the years, my university course registration forms for all years, pus my original degree certificate. I have no detailed description of the syllabus and the university won't be able to provide one from 20 years ago! The course still exists today and is almost the same, with a few small changes from what I can see, and this information is available on the university website.

    I'm now really worried that my plans may be scuppered because I haven't kept every bit of paper I ever got from 20 years ago. Can anyone help me to judge if I'm likely to get into trouble here with my lack of original documentation? My degree is listed in the Washington Accord, if that helps. It was also awarded by Imperial College, London and there's nothing complicated about my case (i.e. I am British, studied in London and was awarded the degree in London).

    cheers,
    Dom

  2. #2
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    You are going to have to provide documentation for each of these things. This is a nasty shock that many people have had before you, faced with INZ's requirements. It's you who will have to find this - it doesn't work for INZ to say, e.g., 'I must have had good enough A-Levels or I wouldn't have got into university,' or, 'It's on XYZ website.'

    Yes, your exam results from the end of your schooldays are what they're after as a 'secondary school certificate', so O-Levels or GCSEs, and A-Levels. You may be able to get confirmation of your marks from the Local Education Authority which governed the area where your school was, if you can't find your certificate. (You'll be looking for something approximately like this http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...ml%3B700%3B930, depending on what the exam board was.)

    the university won't be able to provide one from 20 years ago!
    If you write to the Registry of your university, they should be able to provide you with what you need. Normally, they keep records, not only of the courses that were taught, but of what individual students did. When I wanted to do a Master's as a mature student, after working for 23 years, I wasn't sure what I would need, or would be able, to show to gain a place. I contacted my original university for advice, and they came up with the course syllabus (which I'd never seen in detail at the time), and copies of the evaluation sheets of every single module I'd ever done.

  3. #3
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    ok thanks for the advice. I guess I'll have to get onto the School Exam Board (if I can remember what it was!) and the university and see what they say.

    I have a similar problem with getting detailed information on my employment history from 15 years ago, but I'm tackling these things well in advance, so it's not really a shock that will delay anything (yet)

    cheers!

  4. #4
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    just emailed the university and it seems quite a normal thing to ask for. Apparently it will only take 15 working days to get a course transcript according to their automatic email response. Wow, the UK really is good at this kind of thing. I dread to think what this would be like in Germany (where I live now)!

  5. #5
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    Glad you've had a good start on your quest, anyway. Is the next thing, 'Mum, Dad, you know my stuff in your loft...' ?

  6. #6
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    Yeah, my mum proudly declared this morning that she's found my A-Level certificates. This was good for me, but a blow for my dad, who's been trying to convince my mum to stop hoarding for years
    So I now have my A-Level certificates, my degree certificates, and my university transcripts / syllabus and mark sheets will be winging their way to me later this week (free of charge!). I just contacted their Student Records and Archives service by email and they got back to me within the hour. Apparenlty they have records going back to the late 18th Century, so 1992 really shouldn't pose any problems

    I also found out for UK folks that you can get A-Level "replacement certificates" from http://www.ofqual.gov.uk/help-and-ad...t-certificate/ for a small fee.

    So it seems I'm all set for the IQA..

  7. #7
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    Great! All the best with it.

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    another question on the IQA if I may...

    I've been completing the on-line form and reading the guidance notes. I'm a bit confused by the work experience bit. It seems to me that NZQA have this simplified view of the world where students get a degree or other qualification and then get a job doing precisely what they studied.

    I did an aeronautical engineering degree and joined a very large IT / Technology / Consultancy company (www.logica.com) in the Aerospace and Defence Division, doing software development and IT solutions. I now have 17 years' work experience in IT / Software Development and project / programme management, but this of course is only loosely related to my degree.

    Not only does this mean I can't get bonus points for experience in an area of skills shortage, I'm not sure whether to bother putting anything in my IQA Step 5. In the guidelines it says "Please list all work experience that relates to your qualifications". Well, I wouldn't have been able to get my job at Logica doing software development in aerospace if I hadn't got my degree - the recruitment policy was to recruit candidates with at least a 2:1 honours degree in an engineering, scientific or technical subject. So in that sense, my work is related. Both are to do with aerospace, but now I'm working in IT and not specifically employing what I learned at university in my every day job.

    Do you think I should bother entering any work experience? If I did, would it change my IQA assessment result?

    cheers
    Dom

  9. #9
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    I think you need to put it in, maybe adding something like your comment above, that if you hadn't had the degree in the first place, you couldn't have got the job. If you don't, it would give the impression you've done nothing as a working life.

  10. #10
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    yeah, I suppose it can't harm to put it in!

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