yep, it must have been really tough on 25k plus weekly allowances compared to now !!
Wasnt quite that much back then, and you actually needed to survive at the college long enough to pick that up. No automatic recourses, if fact someone getting a recourse was only generally if it was on medical or personal grounds.
And before summatives, was the great system of where you do your 6 summatives, to average out a pass or fail, for each phase of assesments, you got one 30 minute assesment, fail that....and it was off to the job centre. there was more of them per course, oh and at one point they even invented something called periodic reporting, where they wrote a report at the end of each week, and graded that. if you got a C in that and then also a C the following week, you were then made to sit an extra assesment that everyone else didnt do. No multiple choice Written papers, it was all from memory. And the best of all was diverse evidence that was generally applied in a negative way not positive, so we actually had guys pass a practical assesment, only to then have it down graded to a fail based on diverse evidence!
Now dont get me wrong, I think the college has far better improved its methods i some ways, I saw a lot of controllers, be zapped that would and in fact did make very good controllers outside of NATS afterwards. There was a very bad attitude to of we are here to fail you, rather than here to help you pass. That from my experience now is very much improved. But at the same time, I've seen some right monkies come out of the college in recent times, only to find out they were recoursed 3 times, failed loads of things at the college, and with the streamlined courses actually had very little knowledge or skill, subsequently failing at the unit. One Aerdrome only guy, got to a unit, sat in the tower looking at the ATM, and asked why when they get airbourne does that ring flash around them!
But back to the original poster.....You'll have a great time there, will make some of the best buddies, Bournemouth is a great place to live, the course although still challenging, is very rewarding. Just keep it real, do the work, but enjoy it. and hopefully we will see you valid somewhere soon!