I've been reading through some of the previous threads on the forum and also the articles. So apologies if I've missed any obvious information. I'm from the UK as well so it makes translating the educational systems a bit difficult. I have professional qualifications equivalent to a bachelors degree in chemistry taken over a combination of full and part-time further education at college and university. Unfortunately Graduateship of the Royal Society of Chemistry Parts I and II doesn't mean much to a lot of personnel depts. so I would like to use these qualifications to gain a BSc/BS or equivalent. That way i won't get the inane response of "we rejected your application since you don't have the degree level education we specified. Why did you waste our time in applying?" Does anyone know of any scheme like that of TESC, which could award a complete degree with no further need for taught courses to be taken, that is in the UK? Everthing I can find would only award partial credit. Also can anyone clarify if it would be acceptable for TESC or anywhere else to submit as PLA my professional standing (Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Member of the Institute of Science Technology etc.) for direct award of a degree. Or would I have to go through the paperwork of breaking down an American degree into courses and challenging each individual course for equivalency? Thanks in advance.
You probably lack most of the general education requirements of an American degree. Otherwise TESC may accept most of your study by portfolio assessment. Direct credit transferred to complete degree - I doubt it is possible.
Thanks for the replies. The American degrees do seem to be a lot less focussed than ours. In general if you do a degree in chemistry your courses are in chemistry. They usually expect maths and physics in year 1 and after that only one elective a year (in general) and its usually maths, physics, biochemistry etc, furthest away you get is computing! We don't need to do anything in social sciences or humanities. Makes us a lot less rounded I suppose. I may be able to challenge enough through other interests and education but it wil be difficult to pick up enough in social science. May do it anyway but doesnt help me with this particular problem. The OU will give a maximum of 240 credits towards a degree requirement of 300 (360 for honours). So 1 year or 2 years away for a degree. They also award minimum pass grade transfers so a good honours grade is impossible. I have applied to start a degree course with the Open University but I plan on doing an additional entirely seperate degree in biology for my own knowledge/satisfaction, so that doesnt really help me get a qualification in chemistry.
