SOME 33 students from various Pathway to Higher Education courses at Fife College visited Abertay University for a special taster day and a Kelty student said that the experience made university a target

Organised by Claire Gammie, Widening Access and College Recruitment Officer at Abertay Uni, the taster day offered students the chance to see what further opportunities are available once they complete their college studies.

After the initial welcome, students could opt for two taster sessions, Psychology or Science. There was then the choice of Mental Health Nursing or Nutrition and Consumer Science sessions.

Jaime Meek, from Kelty, was one of the students to take part in the visit.

Jaime, who is studying a Start Here for Qualifications Certificate at the College’s Dunfermline Campus, said: “The IT department looked amazing, and hearing about the support given to students made me optimistic.

"The help on offer is phenomenal and made me realise that university is for me - challenge accepted!”

The trip was arranged as latest figures show Fife College has one of the highest number of articulation routes to university courses of all Colleges in Scotland.

Currently, every Fife College HND course has at least one formal articulation route. In total, the College has almost 250 formal articulation routes to a university degree course while there are also a further 52 generic routes on offer to students.

Ann Playford, University Partnership Co-ordinator at Fife College, said: “The event was a huge success and as part of Fife College’s approach to supporting the learner journey from further to higher education we work closely with all our university partners.

“We feel that the large amount of planning needed for this event is well worth the effort to inform our students and give them the opportunity to experience how their studies at Fife College can open many doors for them. The feedback from students regarding this day has been very positive and we hope to plan more similar events in the future.”

Pathways courses help students develop existing qualifications to then pursue further academic studies.

Many of the students on the courses will now go on to choose to progress to one of the Higher National (HN) courses at Fife College which allows them to articulate straight in to second or third year at several universities, including Abertay University.