Open University

epub versions would be perfect :) The postage on the physical books would likely have been ridiculous. As I said, I'd like them mainly to get a feel for the two courses and work out whether or not I want to do them, and whether I can study them both at the same time.

I was pretty set on the OU until I saw how generous Student Finance has become. I didn't think I could afford to study full-time, but £7249/35 weeks is roughly equivalent to the minimum wage at 34 hours/week. If I go part-time at work during term-time, full-time during the summer, I would have roughly the same income as I have at the moment. Discovering this has left me unsure of which way to go. Studying full-time is certainly a lot quicker and (potentially) more manageable, but there's hurdles in the way when it comes to applying (UCAS, Access courses :().
 
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_Andyh_ said:
S104 exam tomorrow, eek ! first time i have sat a formal exam in 19 years !!!
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Good luck, hope you do well!


I'm thinking about doing S104 for my next module and it's a compulsory module in many of the subject areas I'm interested in.


I just finished U116, I'm not entirely sure what pathway to take yet but got a little bit of time to decide I guess.

Do you have a career in the environmental sector? , I'm really depressed at present because I have a dead end job that has nothing of any advantage in my studies, I would love to work in an area that will help with my studies as well but it's so hard finding jobs!!
 
Wayne~ said:
Hey all, was wondering if anyone has any experience of open university courses and how they found it?

It's not possible for me to return to full time education and thought this may be exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks
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OU is good, but if you haven't already, look in to the University of London external courses.

http://www.londoninternational.ac.uk/

Does of course come with pros and cons - The universities running the courses are not specialized for distance learning. The materials I get for my SOAS course are outstanding, but I have heard of other universities materials such as those provided by LSE being not so supportive.

I think it will largely depend on what course you want to do, and how far you want to take it. For social sciences and business, I'd go University of London every time.

In response to RedyGreen's question above, my employer is paying 50% of the fees. However, because I work abroad with them, this in reality saves me the 40,000 odd GBP it'd cost me in fees and living costs in London studying for the duration of the Masters.

I believe the University of London courses are also substantially cheaper than OU, but it's been a while since I've looked in to it all so may be wrong.
 
satchef1 said:
epub versions would be perfect :) The postage on the physical books would likely have been ridiculous. As I said, I'd like them mainly to get a feel for the two courses and work out whether or not I want to do them, and whether I can study them both at the same time.

I was pretty set on the OU until I saw how generous Student Finance has become. I didn't think I could afford to study full-time, but £7249/35 weeks is roughly equivalent to the minimum wage at 34 hours/week. If I go part-time at work during term-time, full-time during the summer, I would have roughly the same income as I have at the moment. Discovering this has left me unsure of which way to go. Studying full-time is certainly a lot quicker and (potentially) more manageable, but there's hurdles in the way when it comes to applying (UCAS, Access courses :().
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One consideration is the starting salary/progression of any likely career you'd take afterwards....

Which is optimal over the next few years or so say...

you're getting a 2-3 year head start in a new career with the traditional uni - if its just a lateral career change then the OU might well make sense... if you're currently on min wage and are targeting some reasonably well paid area it might well be better to just get the degree done as soon as possible and start the higher paid job early....
 
dowie said:
One consideration is the starting salary/progression of any likely career you'd take afterwards....

Which is optimal over the next few years or so say...

you're getting a 2-3 year head start in a new career with the traditional uni - if its just a lateral career change then the OU might well make sense... if you're currently on min wage and are targeting some reasonably well paid area it might well be better to just get the degree done as soon as possible and start the higher paid job early....
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Certainly that's a consideration.

To be honest, if I can get in to a full time course then I'll most likely go for it. Unfortunately, I'm limited as to where I can go. I can't move, so it's Staffs, Wolvo, Keele or (maybe) one of the Birmingham universities at a push (I don't fancy driving there, and the train fare would mount up quickly). I don't want to spend a year doing Access to Higher Education because time is the biggest advantage of studying at full-time pace. I'll need to be given a place on the back of 90 credits of OU study from 2 years ago. Until I hear back from Staffs, Wolvo and Keele, I don't know if full-time is even a possibility.

FWIW, I'm not on minimum wage, but I'm not massively far above it. Student loan + grant + 12 hours a week at work totals about £10,600 over the 35 week university year. Factor income tax and NI in to the equation and that's roughly what I currently earn over the same period of time. I'd just need to pick up extra work to keep me going over the summer (hopefully relevant work experience, but if I can't find anything my Dad has already said he'll throw some work my way - landscape gardening :eek:). I'm really quite shocked at how much the government now considers students need for 'living costs'. If I ditched the car, stopped paying in to my pension and moved in to student accommodation, I'd feel loaded.
 
RedvGreen said:
Are you folks self-funding or is work/other sponsor paying?
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I self-funded mine. Cost me about £5,500 all-in (between £400-£450 per 30 points, one 60-pointer was about £600 and the project cost £900 I think). Finishing it this year. I started before the 'transition' price increase, to do the same now would cost me £10,800. :eek:

The OU says:
The total cost of your chosen qualification starts from £15,792 based on our current fees. Blimey. :eek:
3-fold increase. Think I'd consider going to a brick uni for that.
 
yeah the fees thing is a bit off these days...

I wonder if the London external system would be more popular in future - no tutorials/coursework AFAIK just a syllabus, buy the books etc.. work through them and then sit the exams - the various degrees are administered by the different colleges making up the University of London.

For example there is a post grad economics diploma run by LSE - fees cost 1.5k...

That sort of thing is prob the lowest cost option going if you want to self study and get some official accreditation for it.
 
Cost me about 2.5k for S104 which is a 60 point module so would be ~15k for a full degree. Am self funded, adds to the motivation a bit !!!
 
Luckily for me I started after putting it off a while mind, right before they bumped all the fees up! I still have them on the old ones so long as I continue to do 1 module a year. TU100 went from around £700 to 2.5 I think. I got student finance on mine and haven't had to pay the full amount for all of them luckily.
 
_Andyh_ said:
Very similar to the mock/past papers to be honest so am confident of at least passing it (famous last words ??:D)....
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Which questions to part C did you go for? I had planned on choosing the Physics and Chemistry questions but ended up answering the Physics and Biology questions - I started looking for the chiral carbon atom in Question 28, thought "nope, can't see one!" and decided to move on.

I think I did alright in part A and part B was exactly the same setup as the past paper and specimen paper so I should be fine.
 
Sheff said:
Which questions to part C did you go for? I had planned on choosing the Physics and Chemistry questions but ended up answering the Physics and Biology questions - I started looking for the chiral carbon atom in Question 28, thought "nope, can't see one!" and decided to move on.

I think I did alright in part A and part B was exactly the same setup as the past paper and specimen paper so I should be fine.
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Also did 27 and 29, I was always planning on doing the biology question which I think I did ok on, the physics one I did fine on the energy transfers, not so sure about the rice and laser questions.

I half wished I had paid more attention on the Geology side as question 30 looked indentical to specimen paper and one of the TMA's.

As you said part B was identical to the specimen paper and A was pretty similar too so should be good there.
 
I want to do a degree or postgrad with them, degree for personal enjoyment, postgrad for career reasons.

They're just so expensive.
 
M258 Exam today...

I've done a previous thread on OU study back in 2011 that keeps reappearing, but so my thoughts are in here two.

Level 1 modules... you pretty much don't need to do anything. Write the assignment with the TMA in front of you and the module materials. Unless its the EMA report, you don't need longer than an evening. I've done that and never scored under 75%. These modules do not count towards your degree, and every tutor told me to do it that way to save time.

Level 2 modules... I'm doing my first one now, and whilst the above has sort of applied to me still, its because its a module I know very well (IT Project and Service Management, I'm PRINCE 2 Practitioner qualified and have 1 exam left to do in order to complete ITIL certification).

The level 1 modules I thought were good, but this particular one is the first run, and frankly, its appalling. Content is poor, and some of it was being written as we were progressing through the course (only in some instances a couple of weeks ahead of when we needed to do it). Lots of mistakes, and IMO, the final exam structure is exceptionally poor (It won't be anything like the PRINCE 2 format - open book, theres too much to cram in - or ITIL (Graded Multi choice, focusing on case studys and 'best practice' graded answers. Instead its 'write a blah on blah' type questions, which ITIL did away with 10 years ago as it was so ineffective at truly grading someones understanding.

What I will say, is the OU have been incredibly receptive to all of our feedback. They are keen to improve the course, and I believe they will be taking a relaxed approach to grading the exam.
 
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