Open University
Has anyone here ever done a degree with them? I'm toying with the idea of doing one is a subject that interests me rather than anything work related although I suspect in the end the cost and my inate laziness will mean I don't go ahead. I was wondering how well their distance learning system works and whether anyone else has done similar i.e. a late life degree just for their own interest.
Unfortunately the one course I fancied, BSc (Hons) in Natural Sciences (Astronomy and Planetary Science) isn't available in Wales for some reason. I guess it must be due to what the Welsh Government allow to be covered by student finance. There is one in photography though that would be interesting or maybe a Geography / Environmental Science course as that was always my favourite subject at school.
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Yes, my MA in Music was with them, and it was a great experience for me, particularly as I wanted to do it with as little help as possible, and it was very cheap back then (2004-2006 - about £3000 total for the three years). I had two good tutors, and it was well structured. It led me up avenues I didn't think it would, and actually discovered I really liked writing essays.
I'm sure there was more support available if one wanted it, but I didn't. Even back then, it was nearly all by email, with just one in-person seminar, and one written exam (both in the first year).
To put the IT into perspective, I was using a PC with a total of 1.2Gb of memory, and I was still on dial-up internet in the first couple of years. But it still worked.
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Not personally, but I know people that have and had good experiences as per BT's feedback. I did return to Uni in my mid 30's to do an MA completely unrelated to work (my employer at the time kindly allowed me to go part time for 2 years). It was a great experience, and going back to study just for personal enjoyment is something I would always recommend to people.
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Yes, I like the idea of studying something purely as it interests you and not because you are hoping to get a job out of it. Also, getting to the age where keeping the brain active is important! I did a work related professional certificate via distance learning about 15-20 years ago (it took about 5 years as I deferred for a year while my daughter was ill). I found that a bit hit and miss depending on the modules and each module did require a day or two of classroom work.
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Indeed. I did it entirely for personal interest, not as a career move, though it obviously hasn't detracted from my value at work. It did actually change my views on a range of things, and seriously considered doing a PhD purely for the interest, but gradually decided against it with the thought it would be (probably) six years of juggling work and study. (The only regret is that the OU PhD gown is lovely - used to be silk - though with my continuing work in education and the extensive use of it, the gown would probably have worn out by now. Yeah, I know, you shouldn't be doing a PhD for the gown.)
The biggest pleasure was, I think, realising I was quite good at it at age 40, whereas I was rather lazy at 18 and didn't have a good method for research and writing the resulting essays/dissertation.
It sounds like you want to do one for all the right reasons. I think they are still probably pretty good value (in comparison with in-person university courses), but I realise it was a bargain when I did mine. IIRC, they basically doubled the cost in about 2010 or soon after, as the amount of government support was reduced.
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Don't do a PhD for either the money or the status, because it never pays for itself and no one cares.
It is sometimes helpful when complaining about customer service.
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The person I met for lunch today - him and his 4 brothers all did PhDs. They all went to therapy afterwards to deal with the mental fallout.
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By mental fallout, do you mean crushing disappointment?
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So you weren't actually there to meet Truss? She's probably.going to get by on the six figure pension she gets for 45 days work I suppose.
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He specifically struggled with only seeing everything through a lens of problems, a sort of destructive perfectionism, and had his whole identity caught up in it which didn't help matters, and that was before he felt he had his life on hold whilst his friends (like me) where getting on in life.
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It sounds like a dawning realisation part through your research that it's not a terribly useful endeavour for mankind. The kicker is realising it has cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost income, the housing ladder, pension and wotnot, and that even in industrial science it doesn't necessarily count for much.
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But I would encourage anyone to do an extra degree for shits and giggles.
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Sounds like the gown is worth bearing in mind then.
Nah, shits and giggles it would have been, plus learning some more stuff about music. But I realised that my area of interest would have involved both neurolinguistics and psychology, and I guessed that was two too many -istics and -ologies for my little brain.
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For some reason I have a mental image of someone at a check in desk wearing a gown and mortar board, demanding to know why they've been bumped from a flight.
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Is it worth pointing out that where I work a PhD seems to almost be a requirement to progress beyond the first round of line management?
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No.
Only joking. It is a door opener in some fields, including mine.
What sort of work, if you don't mind me asking?
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Back to the OP. I have to say that I admire anyone who can do a degree and a job and a family.
I think you've mentioned some fascinating subjects. But you have to be really bloody interested to keep enjoying it through the compromise on your time.
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My plan is to apply to do a PhD in my retirement. My Uncle took early retirement at 50 with a massive Civil Service Pension (jammy %#*). He did his PhD and then got asked to present various papers on it at some pretty nice, all expenses paid, international conferences. I don't expect that myself, would just be nice to be Dr Grimpeur! 😂
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The novelty of Dr. Aspect wore off after about 6 months.
There are more places for PhDs than people who are both able and willing to do them. Same applies to conferences.
However.
If you can get something published, or get a poster presentation together. Or volunteer to speak in front of your research peer group and have funding, you can get to travel. I mean once you are established, academia is a bit of a doddle and saves thousands on vacation costs each year.
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After doing a degree and a professional accountancy qualification the last thing I wanted was more bloody exams.
I did have a quick look at the OU course I might have wanted to do if time were no object, but the were in reality not feasible until I retire. I get the impression that in most lines of work, getting qualifications at this level makes you better qualified but not better paid.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Kids are grown up and I work permanently from home without a massive workload.
That said I’d probably be better off spending my time finally making a submission for CEng. I was the youngest person at the time to gain Eng Tech through my Institution, went on to get IEng before I was 25 and had all the paperwork ready to submit my CEng report about 15 years ago before a combination of my daughter’s illness and the massive pay cut in the GFC put it on hold. I’ve then not bothered due to a combination of a lack of decent project work on which to base my report, a job that became more managerial and less hands on (and that was taking over my life) plus sheer laziness on my part.
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I have done half the requirement for an OU degree, back around 2010 time. I started it with the intention of getting a history degree but it was like yourself Pross, just because it was a subject that interested me. That was partly why I didn't finish it, not doing it for a career obviously puts a different slant on motivation but the main reason was the exams at the end. It turns out I really hated sitting down as an adult and doing three hour exams, it was like a horrible flashback to school and I wondered why on earth I was paying to do it to myself in my spare time.
Also it was around Mr Osborne's austerity drive so the funding changed, initially each module was something like £700 but the government subsidy was pulled and it nearly tripled. I have no idea what it is now but at the time I considered that as I was only doing it for fun the costs it required didn't represent value for money, a four figure sum buys an awful lot of books if you are just interested in that subject and don't require the qualification.
I would however say don't let my experience put you off because there were positives, I enjoyed the essay assignments and meeting different folk at the tutorials and you can commit to only one module at a time if you like, you are not automatically signing up for the full term degree, so just try a single module and see how you get on.
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I wouldn’t bother doing anything career related. It would be a waste of time as I’d be around a decade from retirement by time I finish. It would have to be a subject I’m interested in. If it offered a career change then great but it’s highly unlikely that would happen (or at least not with a salary that would be realistic).
I suspect if I did something more career related I would have more real world experience that the lecturers. That happened with several of the units on the last Uni course I did.
One thing I would like to do that is sort of work related is the Forensic Collision Investigation degree but it is massively expensive and there isn’t really enough private sector work in the field. The most you could hope for would be as a defence expert witness or maybe working for an insurance company but you’d be up against the guy with 20 plus years experience doing it for the police and whose opinion is a jury likely to give more weight to? It’s a shame as it is something that genuinely interests me.
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Trust me, my exams were worse. At least in terms of the number (14) and pass rates.
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My professional exams made me resolve not to do any more. As you say, getting loads of letters after your name might look goof to some people but it generally doesn't increase your earning potential and usually makes you worse off due to the years of lost earnings.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
Yep. I've watched educating Rita and personally I reckon Caine was right, staying a bit thick in life is the way to go.
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Me neither, for the same reasons.
And totally coincidentally the OU course that I would have taken if it just about academic interest is the one you were considering. Took a slightly geeky interest in that sort of thing as a kid and still find it interesting. But the time investment is prohibitive.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]0 -
I've had a look at it to do whatever they call the equivalent of the first year of a chemistry degree to fill in some of the gaps I come across in geochemistry.
There are options to do that so you can try it out for a year or two before committing to the whole thing. You can build on it from there if you then decide to carry on into second year etc.
In third year you have to start thinking about dissertations and stuff which I can imagine gets a little more difficult (the obvious thing here would be doing it on something you are working on but I guess not everyone can do that in any case...)
We're in danger of confusing passion with incompetence
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Probably does but we were talking about PhDs and academic qualifications above. I did my chartered accountancy exams for a reason, but after finishing them saw no benefit in going further and can't complain about the end results.
"I spent most of my money on birds, booze and fast cars: the rest of it I just squandered." [George Best]1 -
I did my CEng as part of the MPDS Scheme so was relatively straight forward when I was "young". I then got contacted about 20 years later and asked if I wanted to apply to be FEng (Fellow) in the IMechE. After a bit of dithering I realised that as they asked me I was half way there so applied and was successful (just!)
However it made absolutely no difference to anything at work other than my name was on a board in the reception (the list of FEng was admittedly a lot smaller than the CEng list), and the only time the FEng Letters after my name get used is when I get a letter from the IMechE, normally asking me to pay my fees.
But I will be honest and I have a certain level of personal pride that I am recognised for a level of professional competence and that has become worth more to me as I get older
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