Our Services

This is a similar support package to our very popular ‘Finding Your Future’ but is for students aged 13 upwards and offers up to four years of guidance and counselling.

Its aim is help a student find the right degree subject or subject combination for them to study abroad and then build up their academic strengths, personal skills and (usually) vocational experiences needed for a very successful application to the most appropriate universities.

We start with an initial 1-2 hour private consultation meeting, which is based on a five-page questionnaire, followed by 4-5 similar meetings each year until the end of a student’s penultimate school and cover the following topics:

• Linking personal interests and hobbies to degree subjects
• Identifying academic strengths
• Exploring ideas for careers
• Advice on choosing GCSE, IB subjects and academic profiles
• Action planning for skills development
• Guidance on choosing summer programmes and extra curricular activities to strengthen applications
• Identifying the potential for Oxford and Cambridge applications
• Advice and supports for planning visits to UK universities

Parents can contact their personal consultant for specific advice at any time during this period and we can also help parents explore options for selecting state and private schools both in their home country and in the UK.

This support package will take a student from starting their application to their first semester at university in the UK!

Your consultant will carefully guide the student through each stage of the UCAS application process providing materials for writing their personal statements and reviewing an unlimited number of drafts until they believe it is strong enough for their target universities to submit. They will also help a student’s teachers to write an effective reference which meets UCAS’s current ‘best practice’ guidelines. If the teachers are willing, they will check and review the reference before it is added to the application. If necessary, they will contact universities on a student’s behalf to help resolve any application issues.

After submission, your consultant will be on hand to advise on accepting offers, choosing accommodation and applying for financial support. After they have received their exam results and confirmed their university place, we provide an orientation service to help with the practicalities to travelling to a new country and adapting to a new way of living and learning.

We strongly believe in working with a whole family rather than just individual students: not only do we keep parents fully informed during the application process but we will often solicit their opinions to help us gain the best possible picture of a student’s key strengths.

This dynamic area includes fine art, fashion, graphic, interior and design as well as architecture and photography. Applications for these subjects are much more complex than they are for other degrees; as well as completing the UCAS application, students will need to produce a specific portfolio of practical visual work for each of their five university choices. Applicants will often be given an additional task to complete after they have applied and attend an interview either in the UK or via Skype. Most of our clients have already worked with our art & design consultant, Gay Crystal, the year before they apply through our Finding Your Future support package.

For new students, Gay will evaluate a student’s existing art work and then give them ideas for creating new pieces that you can use for their applications. She will introduce you to British approaches to using sketchbooks and, very importantly, help you put together a targeted portfolio for each university. Gay will also be the technical advisor for your personal statement, reviewing your artistic terminology and making suggestions for improvements.

For art (but not architecture) applications, it is common for students to apply for ‘foundation’ courses as well as 3-4 year degree programmes. These intensive one-year courses are a necessary next step for most British students towards a BA in fine art or other art-based degree courses. For students who have not attended specialist art high schools or have not taken art as one of their exam subjects, they can be used to increase their chances of being accepted by leading universities, or simply to develop their artistic skills and explore a range of creative subjects before committing to an undergraduate degree in a specific area of art and design. The applications are not made through UCAS, and this package includes full support for applying to up to three foundation courses if the student is also applying for BA programmes, or five if they are only foundation courses.

If you are one of the best five students in your year group or, have competed in national or international contests, then you stand a chance of being admitted to one of the world’s very best universities. Albion International Study employs former Cambridge and Oxford graduates as subject specialist consultants and has helped exactly 50 students win places at these universities since 2013 including twelve in 2018.

Starting with our Finding Your Future package, we help students choose their courses and colleges, plan application-strengthening activities in their penultimate year of high school including subject-specific reading programmes.This package focuses on the application itself. It starts with a 2-hour meeting which explains, with the help of many successful examples, how to write a personal statement that is strong enough to get a shortlisted for an interview. The student will then work directly one writing their own with very rigorous feedback and guidance from one of our consultants, who is nearly always a Cambridge or Oxford graduate and experienced teacher. We will also work directly with teachers to make them aware of the particular style of reference paragraphs that Oxford and Cambridge admission tutors are looking for when choosing which applicants to interview.

Obviously the application is also for four other universities and our team will offer advice on choosing these.

Nearly all Oxford and Cambridge colleges require additional pre-entry tests and/or assignments: guidance for taking these is included in the package. The package includes at least five hours of interview practice, of which at least three hours will be delivered by subject specialists and/or current Oxbridge students.

Our preparation regime is very demanding but, if you have the academically ability to be one of the ‘brightest and best in the world’, we’ll significantly increase your chances of Oxbridge success.