Fantastic place to take a second degree (Open University in general)

Member Name: pussycat

Product:	Open University in general
Date:	23/08/00 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Flexibility, relatively inexpensive, easy way to get a second degree

Disadvantages: At the mercy of your tutor!, need to be able to study unsupervised, lack of contact with others

As I already had an undergraduate degree, the Open University's transferred credit scheme provided an easy and inexpensive way to take a second degree. Basically, you are award credits for prior study with the maximum being awarded for already possessing a degree. This means that you only have to take four modules instead of the standard eight to get a degree. Other qualifications such as BTec and HND also are taken into account but you gain a lesser amount of points for these. The great thing is that certain professional qualification also count which is great for people are taking a degree after many years of professional employment.


There is an immense range of courses to choose from. OU offered modular degrees before they became popular and this is still an option. So you can 'mix and match' any courses that take your fancy and end up with a general degree. They have, in recent years, started offering named degrees too so you can follow a more structured study pattern leading to a BSc Mathematics, BA History, LLB or whatever.

Foundation courses are available for people with no previous knowledge in their chosen subject but these are not compulsory for people with previous study experience even if it is in a totally unrelated field. For example, my first degree is law and I was taking psychology and sociology courses and, although I was advised to take the foundation course, I chose not to do so and managed perfectly well without it. I do think that it would probably have been a good idea if I hadn't had quite a lot of recent study experience and a good general knowledge of the social sciences.

I thought that the courses were good value for money. The prices vary according to whether or not your course has a summer school. I paid £850 for one with a summer school and £490 for one without. This sum includes all your course books and materials. There are various funds that you can apply to for remission
of fees and there is always the access fund if you are in need of financial assistance. The really excellent thing about OU is that if you are in receipt of benefits, the courses are all FREE! This would be such an excellent thing to do for someone who found themselves without employment.

The one thing that I would say about study with the OU is that you are totally at the mercy of your tutor who is your only human contact with OU. My first tutor was abysmal - she couldn't have appeared less interested if she tried. She spent one notable tutorial reading to us from the coursebook - really informative.

The second tutor was an amazing constrast. He was so enthusiastic about the subject that his tutorials were interesting and stimulated some really informative discussions. He also made it clear that he was available to chat on the telephone any evening between 6 and 10pm. I know this was really useful to some of the students on that course and I think that this was the one factor that kept one student on the course as she was really struggling and needed his constant reassurance that she was doing OK. This sort of support is essential especially as the majority of OU students do take the standard A levels/college route into study and may not have had any educational experience for the last twenty years!

There is no way that you can chose your tutor so this is all a bit of the luck of the draw.

So how does it compare to the traditional university experience? Difficult to say really as I think its a matter of individual preference. Personally, I loved university life and the socialising that went with it so if you like the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and to study within a social setting, OU is probably not for you as contact with others is limited. To be honest, if it had been my first degree, I think I would have hated it but as I was only there to get the qualification not to socialise, it was wonder
ful.

It can be a bit daunting being left to get on with it on your own to that extent and, again, I was only OK with this due to my previous study experience.

In terms of the academic standards, it is again difficult to compare as not only was in a different learning situation but I was also studying a different subject. I found the workload to be fine for part-time study and the work sufficiently challenging. The tutorials were often a little basic but this was probably due to the wide mix of abilities within the group.

In summary, I would wholeheartedly recommend OU to anyone thinking of a second degree but would have more reservations for a first course of study although I'll concede that this depends upon your expectations and the sort of person you are.

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