Tofinally get it re education and costs

[breathing]

As Id love to do some study but dont want to pay the huge costs involved.

Further education has always been an expensive privilege. Most people get it over with long before they have commitments, families, bills to pay etc.... the impoverished student has existed for centuries. Get settled later in life and it's more difficult to give up work to retrain or take a degree. I know people who have done both work and study, however, and there are still a few grants about if you'd be in hardship.

Its such a shame. Id like to learn for learnings sake.

I don't know your situation, but I am doing my degree for free with the OU. There are a few criteria for this obviously, the biggest being low income. There's a calculator thingy on the website.

there are foundation degrees which are cheaper and part time

Sadly i dont get any grant as I already have some studies behind me

Nowadays, you only get one chance at a degree. If you wish to retrain and take a second degree, you must pay full fees yourself. In other words, at the age of 17 you must be wise enough to pick exactly the right course for your next 60 years of working.

This means that career-wise, it would have been better for me to have dropped out a week before the final exams of my first degree. Sure, I would have wasted four years' of tax payers' money*. But then I would be able to do another degree now and actually have a career.

(*Apologies for the DM phrasing. I don't read it, honest.)

As with all things, it depends how much you want it. OU has some options that are not too expensive, and let you pay by installments (I think). Or local colleges have a limited number of A level courses, or other more random 'interest' courses for a few hundred pounds or less.

Guildenstern Not quite sure about that, you get a year's "mistake" - so even if you'd dropped out in the 3rd year, or the 2nd week of your 2nd year, that's it. Game over.

I went at 21, changed degree course after the first year. Not what I'd bloody well choose to do now! The course I mean, not the failure to know what I want... although I'm 37 now and I think I might know what i want to do when I grow up!

It/the system doesnt lend itself to people who already have qualifications and want to enhance them or learn for learnings sake.

breathing - there is nothing stopping you going to the library or educating yourself online. E.g., Harvard do some free online courses - as do many universities. I feel however what you're wanting is a "free" and fully-funded extra degree qualification!

Oh no, Im not after anything for free.

Just lamenting the costs if you want to just learn for the sake of it

Look on iTunesU. Loads of the good American universities put whole lecture courses on there for free.

You don't have to study full time or even at a uni/college. There are lots of adult ed providers of courses including lifelong learning and accredited courses. Government subsidies for education have been gradually reduced over a number of years now but you can still find reasonably priced courses. You may even still get a fee concession if you are on Job Seekers or ESA, regardless of other qualifications.