Turned away from university

[issy2]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ce.ukcrime

 

 

 

If anyone wants more info here is an interesting explanation, written by Majid himself

 

 

 

Living in a deprived community, where people my age have low aspirations and no role models apart from unemployed fathers and drug dealers, it's easy to fall in with the wrong crowd when the wrong crowd is all that there is to fall in with. I was duped into entering a property - aged 15, it's not hard to make the wrong decision. How I regret not asking more questions when some people who I thought were friends invited me in to their new "chill out pad". Within minutes of entering the property, I was arrested and confined to a police cell for the first time in my life.

[Kenshinjapan]

I had sent with the appeal letters from my MP, local doctors that I had worked for, managers of charities that I have worked with, the principle at the sixth form I attended and the Bradford and Airedale PCT [Primary Care Trust], all of whom supported my appeal.

 

 

 

I am surprised and disappointed, given all of those recommendations. I also don't have such a high opinion of doctors and other medical professionals that I would consider them pillars of society. They are intelligent and hard working, but in the end they're just in it for themselves like everyone else is.

 

 

 

A lot of people in the medical field are there for their own benefit, but don't you dare declare every doctor selfish.

 

---

 

Anyways, those head officials looked at his record and saw that criminal offense in black and white. There was no explanation for why he did the crime and certainly no excuse for it. Those words were set in stone and those officials shouldn't have thought twice about letting that kid in.

[PizzaMan94]

people CAN change. but on paper it still labels him as a criminal.

 

now to go on a off topic rant with the same general meaning:

 

its like in school. i know people with strait A's but they are incredibly stupid. in fact one of them is partly in special ed. but me and a few of my friends get terrible grades, yet i've even helped a few teachers with stuff they didn't understand. a lot of different stuff too, from computer help to explaining stuff in math. its just a book smart VS life smart. i personally am life smart. i understand life and am smart with almost everything and know whats goin on. yet alot of book smart people don't understand anything in life. eg; i hope for an ok job, with a nice car(suited to my likings - 4x4 ftw?), and a loving family. the book smart people hope to be a lawyer and live with their mom. i'm serious - one that hangs out near me said that.

 

moral of story: what paper says is what alot of schools go off of. yet what the paper doesn't show is what the person has done good. and it makes the 1 bad thing stand out above all of the good things

[Ginger_Warrior]

Anyways, those head officials looked at his record and saw that criminal offense in black and white. There was no explanation for why he did the crime and certainly no excuse for it. Those words were set in stone and those officials shouldn't have thought twice about letting that kid in.

 

It's all very good saying "let's be tough on young people", but it ignores the wider picture.

 

 

 

In this country we have a shortage of doctors and especially dentists. For all we know, this kid had the potential to become a dentist, serving the type of deprived community he comes from.

 

 

 

Is it really justified, therefore, to exclude a young man from his career aspiration, and a community of a good doctor in the future, for a criminal offence as pitifully minor as this?

 

 

 

I agree, if the kid had gone out and assaulted someone, or taken drugs, then he shouldn't be in Medical School. All he did, however, was walk into a property he thought was abandoned anyway, and spend one night in a police cell.

[blackrainbow]

 

Is it really justified, therefore, to exclude a young man from his career aspiration, and a community of a good doctor in the future, for a criminal offence as pitifully minor as this?

 

 

 

 

No. But unfortunately the rehabilitation of offenders act doesn't give any protection to people that are dismissed from or denied entry to a profession due to past convictions. There are also exceptions to the act, certain occupations (working with sick/and or vulnerable people being one) require details of all convictions whether spent or unspent. So even if he were to graduate he would have his past hanging over him for his whole career. Hardly seems fair that one stupid mistake made as a child should be able to blight a person's whole adult life.

[dusqi]

I had sent with the appeal letters from my MP, local doctors that I had worked for, managers of charities that I have worked with, the principle at the sixth form I attended and the Bradford and Airedale PCT [Primary Care Trust], all of whom supported my appeal.

 

 

 

I am surprised and disappointed, given all of those recommendations. I also don't have such a high opinion of doctors and other medical professionals that I would consider them pillars of society. They are intelligent and hard working, but in the end they're just in it for themselves like everyone else is.

 

 

 

A lot of people in the medical field are there for their own benefit, but don't you dare declare every doctor selfish.

 

 

 

I am saying that the distribution of selfish people is just as high in doctors as it is in the general population. Therefore, my argument is that because doctors really aren't pillars of society any more than any other profession is, denying someone on the basis of a criminal offence that was a one-off and has been more than made up for is not justified.

[assassin_696]

Anyways, those head officials looked at his record and saw that criminal offense in black and white. There was no explanation for why he did the crime and certainly no excuse for it. Those words were set in stone and those officials shouldn't have thought twice about letting that kid in.

 

It's all very good saying "let's be tough on young people", but it ignores the wider picture.

 

 

 

In this country we have a shortage of doctors and especially dentists. For all we know, this kid had the potential to become a dentist, serving the type of deprived community he comes from.

 

 

 

As far as i'm aware though, medicine is still massively competitive, Imperial especially, so it's not like turning him down means one less doctor in the world. I haven't read any of the articles, but surely he'll get into another medical school anyway?

[Ginger_Warrior]

As far as i'm aware though, medicine is still massively competitive, Imperial especially, so it's not like turning him down means one less doctor in the world. I haven't read any of the articles, but surely he'll get into another medical school anyway?

 

Not at this stage in the UCAS process, unless he was one of the incredible few who got two offers. Only 10% of applicants get one offer, let alone two. It's not official, proved or confirmed, but there's a strong suspicion the universities rig it so they evenly share candidates anyway, since the course content is controlled almost completely by the GMC so there's no real difference between each university's content. I sincerely doubt he'll have a back-up, and the official guidelines are to reject anyone with a criminal record.

 

 

 

Unless there is a change in legislation to remove minor offences from criminal records, or someone breaks those guidelines, I can't see this guy getting into Medical School. He could go to Cuba I guess... there's an option.

[assassin_696]

As far as i'm aware though, medicine is still massively competitive, Imperial especially, so it's not like turning him down means one less doctor in the world. I haven't read any of the articles, but surely he'll get into another medical school anyway?

 

Not at this stage in the UCAS process, unless he was one of the incredible few who got two offers. Only 10% of applicants get one offer, let alone two. It's not official, proved or confirmed, but there's a strong suspicion the universities rig it so they evenly share candidates anyway, since the course content is controlled almost completely by the GMC so there's no real difference between each university's content. I sincerely doubt he'll have a back-up, and the official guidelines are to reject anyone with a criminal record.

 

 

 

Unless there is a change in legislation to remove minor offences from criminal records, or someone breaks those guidelines, I can't see this guy getting into Medical School. He could go to Cuba I guess... there's an option.

 

 

 

Ah. I'm not applying for medicine so I didn't know the system but I thought you could receive more than one offer and put through two offers (a firm and a backup) so he'd just go to his backup. My mistake.

[angryjoe]

 

Ah. I'm not applying for medicine so I didn't know the system but I thought you could receive more than one offer and put through two offers (a firm and a backup) so he'd just go to his backup. My mistake.

My understanding is that you can but it is just unlikely. I think what most medicine applicants do is apply for 4 medicine courses and one similar course that requires slightly lower grades and see what they get. I have a friend that got 2 offers for medcine (Manchester and Liverpool) and an offer from this other course that he applied for at Leeds. Im not sure what my friend has done but I think most people put down medcine as their firm and then the other course as insurance.