The hard way: two young students who did not follow the

'Some of the other students looked down on me for having a BTEC rather than A A levels'

Calling up the admissions tutor and demanding a place on his course might seem an unusual way of getting into university, but it worked for Paul Rankin (right). "I hadn't filled in a UCAS form, but in September, just before term started, I rang up and told the tutor I really wanted to study physics at Imperial College and he told me to come and have a chat."

Paul had a BTEC higher national diploma qualification in electronic engineering rather than A levels, but he so impressed the tutor, Roy Burns,that he was invited to start the course the following week.

Until he was 13 years old, Paul had been driven by the dream of becoming a pilot. But a trip to the optician put an end to it when he was told he was shortsighted. "I just couldn't believe it. I really wanted to be a pilot and I was told I could never become one. I just stopped bothering at school and never did any more work."

Determined never to study again after leaving school, Paul went travelling to Southeast Asia. On his return, however, he realised that he had few skills and even fewer prospects, so he applied to South Bank University to study an HND in electronic engineering.

After obtaining 15 distinctions and one merit, Paul's course director suggested he try to get a place at Imperial College.

Getting the place was the easy part. When he started at Imperial, Paul was in for a shock. "During my BTEC, I studied a very narrow field of subjects that were all aimed at what you need to know to get a job as a computer technician. But once I started the degree course, there was 100 years' worth of mathematical theory to understand.

"I went from a pure electronics background to deep science, and it was difficult. In the exams at the end of my first term, I came out with 45 per cent, which really woke me up and made me realise I had to work harder.

"Maths was particularly difficult. During my BTEC we had concentrated on basic equations and integration, but now I had to learn about topics such as chaos theory, which was very intense.

"Some subjects such as quantum mechanics were totally new to me, whereas A level students knew what they were getting into. I was just walking in blindly."

It was not only the subjects, but the way they were taught that made Paul feel out of his depth.

"The BTEC teaching was very interactive. The teacher would point to people and keep checking that they understood what was going on, but at university a man just stood at the front of the room, said his stuff and went away.

"Essays had to be far more thorough at Imperial. I had to use correct grammar and set out the work with an introduction, a method and a conclusion, whereas for my BTEC all I had to worry about was getting the ideas across. We had to write a lot of essays at Imperial, and I was only just getting the hang of it when I left.

"When I did my final project for the BTEC, I had the feeling that there was always somebody right behind me to help me. With the degree, it was my responsibility to go out and do the research and I was on my own. I know they were teaching me to be a researcher, but it felt like being thrown in at the deep end.

"I also got the feeling that some of the other students looked down on me for having a BTEC rather than A levels, so I didn't tell too many of them about my qualifications."

Paul graduated from Imperial this summer with a 2:2. At a careers fair, he visited the stall representing the Royal Navy. After a chat with its representative, he discovered that to fly for the Royal Navy your eyesight does not have to be 20:20. He is now going through the Navy's selection procedure and hoping to achieve the career he always desired.

'When I finished at college I realised that I didn't want to end up in a dead end job' Described as a "wanderer", Kate Howe was hardly focused on her academic future. "I just did a bit of whatever I fancied and really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life."

So when it came to leaving school at 16, Kate fancied media studies. Along with her friends, she went to Sheffield College to study for a BTEC.

She found media studies different and exciting. Film studies, television production, desk-top publishing and making a corporate video for a company were highlights of her two years at college. Kate thought for the first time about continuing her education at university.

Finding a place, however, was not so straightforward. "When it came to getting into university, A levels were definitely considered more respectable and looked on as being better than a BTEC.

"I really wanted to do media studies at De Montfort University, but I was turned down and decided to go through clearing. When the results came out, I panicked and accepted the first place offered to me."

This was Leeds Metropolitan University, and Kate started on its then-new media and popular culture course.

"It was a brand-new course and not at all what I was expecting. It was really hard work because we had to read really thick handouts and make notes on them, and I'd never had to do anything like that before.

"I found that I really had difficulty reading through something so in-depth partly because it was so long compared with what I'd been used to and partly because the subjects were things like 'nuns in the Middle Ages',which I wasn't interested in at all."

Kate stuck out the course for a year before calling the University of East London to ask if she could transfer to its communications degree. She started at UEL last September and is beginning the second year.

Kate has enjoyed her new course immensely but found essay writing at degree level her main stumbling block. "I wasn't used to writing long essays for my BTEC, and I found that quite hard to get used to at first. Before starting at university, 2,500 words was considered a long essay. Now I realise how simple my BTEC essays were. For my degree, essays have to be far more in-depth and show serious research.

"I'm pleased that I applied to university because when I finished at college I suddenly realised that I didn't want to end up in a dead-end job,working in a supermarket for the rest of my life.

"I know I messed up one year by starting at Leeds Metropolitan, but I learned from it and am glad I got the chance to start again elsewhere."