I went to uni at 18 and left at the end of my first semester. Panicking about debt and would I ever use the degree I was doing.
Hindsight being a wonderful thing, I am 35 and have known for years that the degree I was doing was the right one and I've always regretted leaving. Problem is, I am older and I imagine will be the only mature student on a course full of 18 year olds, I have 2 children age 5 and 8 and I also suffer from ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I haven't worked in years but I find I'm getting itchy feet and I want to do something. I'm currently on employment and support allowance, in the work related activity group and the job centre's so called help is also joke and it's not going to lead me to a job, I know I'm going to have to sort myself out. Obviously problem is a full time job is completely out of the question anyway and part time the hours would have to be limited, far limited than most part time jobs and I have no recent qualifications or experience. As you can imagine, employers will be clamouring to employ me . But as time has gone on, I do feel more able so I have a small hope that my illness has lessened.
After googling last night, the uni near me now does the course I started (only 3 in the country used to do it) and it said full time but also part time options available so I emailed to ask about part time and have received a response. Basically the full time option is half a day of lectures per module per week, 3 modules per semester so the full time option is 3 half days a week, which seems to god to be true if I'm honest. Part time is either 1, 2 or 3 modules per semester so I imagine a 3 year full time degree would take a long time going down the part time route.
What do I do? I am gobsmacked at the fees, full 9k per year for its course. I wouldnt bother with a student loan for anything else as DH works and we could scrape by, my money is due to end in May. But that much debt does scare me although I understand I'd have to earn 21k before it starts being paid off. To me a debt that's a minimum of 27k will never be paid off given I'd be late 30's when I graduate (this is all hypothetical of course, at the moment it's just an idea) I also don't want my family life to suffer too much but it still seems like a lot of time I'd be at home while the DCS are at school so work could be done then and evenings.
I don't know. It seems like a huge thing to do at my age and stage of life with the barriers I have. But I also don't want to waste ,y life which I have been doing up until now, apart from the DCs of course. I'm increasingly aware that they re getting older and when they are teens and later on leaving home, I need to have something there for me. At the moment I literally sit around waiting between school runs then see to them and that's it.
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Becoming a mature student, how?? And barriers with having a long term illness?
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HarryPottersMagicWand · 10/11/2016 20:31
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