Different sponsors offer different styles of training and different graduate career opportunities. It is really up to each candidate to decide which will suit him or her, though we will of course discuss the options if this is helpful. Some students have found it possible to get sponsorship part way through their degree course, following vacation employment at the end of the second year. We must of course be honest and say that some students do not complete the course. Most of these students withdraw or transfer to other courses soon after the commencement of the course, having decided that the subject is not for them.
Students sometimes transfer into the course as well.
There are very few academic failures, i.e. very few students actually fail their exams totally if they really wish to continue with the course, and it is very rare for a student who reaches the final year to fail to obtain a degree of any sort. Clearly the most important ingredient for success on any course is motivation. This is why we try to make clear what our courses entail, so that candidates can assess for themselves whether they believe it is something they want to do. When the results come out candidates who meet their offers have their offers automatically confirmed. For candidates who have not quite met their conditions, we have to submit a faculty list of borderline candidates to a University committee to see if they can be offered a concession.