My reflections on applying to university amidst a pandemic

Developing resilience and determination

As the daughter of Kurdish immigrant parents, I grew up watching my mother and father navigate a system of education unfamiliar to them. In this way, my academic development was different to most of my peers, as both my parents and I often navigated each stage of the system for the first time together. Although both my parents studied higher education in England, neither of them knew the workings of secondary education or the university application process well enough to advise me in the same way others may have been (as the system substantially differed from the baccalaureate system they grew up with in the Middle East). Therefore, at eighteen years old, plodding through the final motions of A Levels, the higher education application process was new terrain for all of us. This coupled with the effects of Covid made for a turbulent and challenging reckoning with the systems we were already grappling to understand.

It’s hard to forget how the pandemic shook the roots of ordinary living for all. The effects of the exam cancellations completely overturned the realities of transitioning to higher education for all A Level students, particularly state school students, such as me. The government U-turn on the grading crisis allowed CAG’s (Centre Assessed Grades) to substitute what would have been our exam results; a process that could not cater to a plethora of circumstantial influences, in which many deserving and capable students were affected. As a result, I found I had lost all my university places, my grades had dropped from A*AA predictions to ACC. I had to choose between going through ‘Clearing’ or sitting the ‘Autumn Examinations’. Students who felt unrepresented by their CAG’s had approximately seven weeks to study for the final A Level papers they would have sat if not for Covid.

Then ensued seven arduous weeks to reclaim the reality of my future. To this day, I reflect on that period as one of unanticipated, but very necessary, transformation on every level: mentally and physically. A change that compelled me to realise the extent of the restraints state schools face in the support they can provide for students, especially those of minority backgrounds, such as myself, who contend with numerous added layers of cultural factors. Despite this, I achieved the grades I needed, took a year out to reapply for university, and accepted an offer to study at UCL. I am now completing my first year. I look forward to pursuing my academic career and intend to eventually obtain a PhD - all the while remembering the sacrifices my family made to get me here.

I feel there is much that can still be done to support families and children with minority backgrounds - both to enable them to access all the opportunities available and to include them in future conversations and actions as the systems in place develop.

LAVIN OUSI, student at University College London www.ucl.ac.uk