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I've got a first in civil engineering and I wouldn't bother with a degree. When I had a job I was earning **** money, nothing more than a living wage.
Is it worth getting a degree?
- Thread starter ChrisD.
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Associate
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I am 36 and started doing a degree in computer science in 2015, pretty sure it will help me get a job after honors, plus they help find you placements which tend to take people on.
Associate
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I have a Chemical Engineering degree as well as a Process Engineering degree. Been studying most of my life, life's about learning different things. Your never too old to learn.
Oh I`m 42 by the way and have a well paid job in the Oil and Gas sector.
Oh I`m 42 by the way and have a well paid job in the Oil and Gas sector.
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Make sure its a degree you will benefit from. IT on its own is worthless. Security, networking and forensics are good areas.
Surely that's Post Grad once I've got the Hons?
I generally have no idea about the education system in this country, only went to school in the UK for about 5 years in total and left at 16 to join the Army. Still earn more than anyone in my year, makes me laugh sometimes.
Definitely do it, especially if you're getting it free. With the OU you can get other quals (CertHE, DipHE) along the way to your degree, so you can have quals on your CV before you finish the degree.
Once you get the undergrad, you can then move on to more specialist postgrads.
The main thing with the OU is their undergrads tend to be quite general, compared to some unis who may offer very specialised undergrads as mentioned in other posts.
Getting the undergrad degree can open up a lot of opportunities as some employers will only look at people with degrees.
Once you get the undergrad, you can then move on to more specialist postgrads.
The main thing with the OU is their undergrads tend to be quite general, compared to some unis who may offer very specialised undergrads as mentioned in other posts.
Getting the undergrad degree can open up a lot of opportunities as some employers will only look at people with degrees.
Abbreviated qualifications list.
Postgraduate:
Doctorate (PhD/DPhil)
> MPhil - usually an uncompleted PhD but done enough for a masters-level qualification
> Masters (MSc/MA/MEng/MRes/MMath/other things beginning with M) - exception is an MBA, which is more a practical business degree than a standard academic degree
> postgraduate diploma (PGDip) - masters without research project usually, sometimes given for people who studied a masters but failed the project
> postgraduate certificate (PGCert)
Undergraduate:
Bachelors with honours (BA/BSc (Hons))
>Bachelors without honours (BA/BSc) - quite rare, usually means borderline pass for a bachelors (only applies in the UK, in some other countries, honours is an extra year)
> higher national diploma (HND) (generally equivalent to first two years of a bachelors)
> higher national cert (HNC) (generally equivalent to first year of a bachelors)
> A-levels and A-level equivalents (BTEC National, NVQ level 3, etc)
Hons generally means you've passed every module.
There is no standard for how a Degree classification is obtained, only the boundaries. I.e 69/70%+ = 1st, 59/60% = 2:1, 49/50% = 2:2, 40% = 3rd (or Pass). Each university has a different way of crediting your marks based on your modules.
For my degree it worked out roughly as follows:
1st year didn't count towards anything.
2nd year consisted of 120 credits, of which 100 credits of level 2 was used towards the final grade at a weighting of 1/3rd. 120 credits was broken down into 6 modules - a 20 credit module ran for the entire year (or 24 weeks tuition i should say).
3rd year also consisted of 120 credits, of which 100 credits of level 4 was used towards the final grade at a weighting of 2/3rds. 120 credits was broken down into a mixture of 10/20 credit modules. The 10 credit modules only ran for half the year.
So to make this easier to explain, if you did 6 modules in year 2, and 6 modules in year 3, only the marks from the highest 5 modules from both years were counted - effectively meaning you could do badly in 2 modules. However as long as you still obtained 40%, you were credited with Honours.
Also the weighting in the 3rd year is greater, meaning if you didn't do so well in your 2nd year, you could still finish with a good mark in the 3rd year.
If you're able to obtain this degree for free, and you're happy to invest the time into it, then sure why not.
Soldato
When I went to Uni I was told that the Hons part of my degree was a direct result of completing the final year dissertation as that took you over the credit limit for a non honours degree.
Definitely worth it. I've been working in IT with a degree in Computer Science for the last 15 years. It helps being able to say "I have a degree in computer science", though by this stage obviously the 15 years experience is more important.
I almost finished two years of OU and gave up in disgust... some of the modules were simply soul-destroyingly bad, and as I didn't 'need' the degree I wrote it off and will rely on my experience and professional qualifications instead.
were they IT modules out of interest?
I've no experience of IT modules but some of the level 3 maths modules are pretty decent. Pretty much every university in the UK has a complete collection of OU courses in their library AFAIK and they can be great to refer to if you need a refresher on some undergrad maths topic. They're self contained with minimal errors and worked solutions for the exercises whereas normal maths textbooks tend to have say a one line solution for the odd numbered questions etc... the OU, thanks to being distance learning, is forced to give very clear explanations for every topic.
I've no experience of IT modules but some of the level 3 maths modules are pretty decent. Pretty much every university in the UK has a complete collection of OU courses in their library AFAIK and they can be great to refer to if you need a refresher on some undergrad maths topic. They're self contained with minimal errors and worked solutions for the exercises whereas normal maths textbooks tend to have say a one line solution for the odd numbered questions etc... the OU, thanks to being distance learning, is forced to give very clear explanations for every topic.
Is a degree something that would help you with anything specifically? If not it seems like a bit of a time sponge.
Fresher's what?
Fresher's what?
All the modules in my pure Computer Science degree were either genuinely useful or extremely interesting. 'Systems and Networks', 'Systems and Networks 2', 'Databases', 'Advanced Databases', 'System Design & Development', 'Programming' etc. all gave me a solid foundation of knowledge which I've benefitted from and built on from day 1 of my career. Other modules, such as 'Artificial Intelligence & Neural Networks' and 'Quantum Computing', though I've not used the knowledge in my career, were interesting and mean I have an understanding when reading about subjects in which I have interest.
There were other (optional) modules which overlapped with their IT degree which looked very dry and held no interest to me, so I didn't take them.
There were other (optional) modules which overlapped with their IT degree which looked very dry and held no interest to me, so I didn't take them.
Soldato
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Like with all plate glass universities, one has to realise the inherent optimisation such an institution has to go through to have an edge -- the OU is by no means perfect. Some departments will be stronger than others; heavily vocational courses will also require industrial or other formal experience to compensate too (the IT route has the CISCO modules; the sciences offer the 2+2 scheme still; if your employer pays the fees, it's likely you're already doing something that's augmenting you role on top of that). They also have their cycles: at times focusing on industrial collaboration and adult learning; other times, choosing to pursue younger students following more academic routes; likewise for the rigour and depth of courses, as these get reviewed, updated or cancelled and replaced -- a process which is always linked to student feedback and a given department's REF/RAE track record. One has to be selective in terms of module options and strategic in approach in how these are taken and linked.
Having said that and looking at the competition in terms of distance learning or evening study, the OU comes out on top: its materials (essentially self-contained lectures + tutorials in written form) and the VLE are good, taking the student from no assumed prerequisites like A levels to honours-level study in the final year; tutors aren't dunces and generally come from decent institutions themselves, and are available to chat to outside tutorial slots by phone, email or Skype, depending on personality and IT skills; the courses offered are flexible to accommodate part-timers, and with an Open Degree, you can basically assemble your own, dropping in many instances things that are either not relevant or have a more advanced alternative as per your needs. Say for a more hardcore tech route, you may wish to drop the intro modules via the Open route and boost your qualification with applied mathematics (say optimisation, combinatorics and some PDE topics), statistics and a systems engineering module. Yes, they're trying to corral youngsters into a more rigid framework these days, but as before there are ways to weave through and counter the system at will.
Also, the local FE college won't get you as far. And other major alternatives like Birbeck, UoL (night school) and the UoL's international programme (distance learning) have obvious downsides all more conventional undergraduate experiences share. In the former case, you ideally should be in the capital or within easy reach; depending on your other commitments, you may find going in for proper night lectures draining and difficult to keep up with (even harder with a family). The latter is heavily loaded towards a no-frills, speedy route to a prestigious degree via exams and self-study, where self-study means a skeletal course guide, a reading list and some past papers you can get (the VLE does also have some video lectures available now; a few summer schools you can pay for extra to attend too). However, it is indeed cheaper (something like 4500 per degree if memory serves me right; could've gone up, but I doubt it would've been a stellar fee hike given the format). This route is only meaningful for people with few commitments or a very good grasp of the subject matter they're into already, who are merely looking to take exams and get it all formalised on paper with a good brand (say, Economics from LSE).
Having said that and looking at the competition in terms of distance learning or evening study, the OU comes out on top: its materials (essentially self-contained lectures + tutorials in written form) and the VLE are good, taking the student from no assumed prerequisites like A levels to honours-level study in the final year; tutors aren't dunces and generally come from decent institutions themselves, and are available to chat to outside tutorial slots by phone, email or Skype, depending on personality and IT skills; the courses offered are flexible to accommodate part-timers, and with an Open Degree, you can basically assemble your own, dropping in many instances things that are either not relevant or have a more advanced alternative as per your needs. Say for a more hardcore tech route, you may wish to drop the intro modules via the Open route and boost your qualification with applied mathematics (say optimisation, combinatorics and some PDE topics), statistics and a systems engineering module. Yes, they're trying to corral youngsters into a more rigid framework these days, but as before there are ways to weave through and counter the system at will.
Also, the local FE college won't get you as far. And other major alternatives like Birbeck, UoL (night school) and the UoL's international programme (distance learning) have obvious downsides all more conventional undergraduate experiences share. In the former case, you ideally should be in the capital or within easy reach; depending on your other commitments, you may find going in for proper night lectures draining and difficult to keep up with (even harder with a family). The latter is heavily loaded towards a no-frills, speedy route to a prestigious degree via exams and self-study, where self-study means a skeletal course guide, a reading list and some past papers you can get (the VLE does also have some video lectures available now; a few summer schools you can pay for extra to attend too). However, it is indeed cheaper (something like 4500 per degree if memory serves me right; could've gone up, but I doubt it would've been a stellar fee hike given the format). This route is only meaningful for people with few commitments or a very good grasp of the subject matter they're into already, who are merely looking to take exams and get it all formalised on paper with a good brand (say, Economics from LSE).
The UoL international program could well be a good option for the OP depending on how much experience he has... could be much less taxing if he knows a lot of the material and just needs to fill a few gaps then pass exams to essentially get something on paper to show for his knowledge. Much less time consuming that completing coursework etc..
OU is still a reasonable option but less flexible these days - even with the open degree you mention they've still got a requirement for 120 credits at each level and unfortunately the level 1 modules are more like A-Level standard - which is useful for some students if they're starting from scratch but could be a waste of time and money for others.
OU is still a reasonable option but less flexible these days - even with the open degree you mention they've still got a requirement for 120 credits at each level and unfortunately the level 1 modules are more like A-Level standard - which is useful for some students if they're starting from scratch but could be a waste of time and money for others.
Soldato
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Would be interesting to know if Dooksy's fee waver applies to it. The international programme has many interesting combinations in terms of specialisation, with a range of short graduate diplomas / conversion courses available from across the UoL milieu of specialist colleges -- a decent shout for working professionals. From memory, they're also more flexible in terms of what previous experiences and certs can wipe out basic requirements and be credited, though checking in advance never hurts.
I know some people who've done both also: the UoL for undergraduate studies; the OU for their Masters; for financial reasons mostly, as the UoL's rates for Masters courses like finance, law and information security are pegged at what may be considered London's expectations of professional salaries in the respective sectors (the sort or rates which make you think about getting it over in one year's worth of full-time study instead).
Soldato
If you're asking whether it would be good to have a degree then the answer is yes. If you're asking whether it is worth the three years of long effort fitting it in around life and work and all you'll give up, the answer is probably no. Unless you want to do one of the small number if things where a degree is needed, e.g. teaching or research, do more focused certifications such as security ones or management qualifications. Or even just enjoy life if you're already doing fine work wise. Undergraduate degrees mainly help someone get started and you've already achieved that. Going to university is the other big boost and with OU you don't get that.
Soldato
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Of course for general education, one can always do something like this alongside certs: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/?utm_source=ocw-megamenu&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=mclstudy. The formal structure of a degree is however helpful in narrowing down the pathways towards one's goals. It's easy to do a little bit of everything and nothing much via self-study alone.