to ask you what you think of OU Degrees...

[SilverDoe]

Trying to decide what degree to, and will be studying with the OU. I'm struggling to decide between a Law degree and a Business degree, and I wanted to hear some opinions on their degrees in general.

I don't technically need a degree for my dream career, but naturally it would be useful to have one. For context I really want to be PA/EA, so am thinking a Law/Business degree would be most relevant? Please correct me if I'm wrong!

TIA :)

(I also have a BA, MA and PhD from traditional universities and have worked in various universities as an RA and a lecturer, so I do feel like I have points of comparison).

To be fair, I do think there’s a massive difference between arts and science degrees within the OU. For arts degrees that certainly isn’t the case and you can gain extra marks for independent study. I probably wouldn’t do a science based degree with the OU, a good friend has and it was a completely different experience

I guess it does depend on the degree. And a brick uni is a pretty broad definition. Academia would have a different definition depending on if we were referring to say Oxford, or an ex poly like Huddersfield.

What students produce varies as much as what and how lecturers might teach.

The main thing is OP is that you put the work in and do what is expected of you on your individual course and from your individual tutor. An OU can be a stepping stone to many places or even just enjoyable for your brain!

It’s your general seeeping generalisation ThePieMother. And it was you that was talking about intelligence, not me.

I'm doing an OU Law Degree (Part time), working 3 days a week and have a school aged child. It's doable, although I feel I'm always juggling and it impacts on my weekends. OU is a great way to study as you can do it in a way that suits you. I'd definitely recommend attending any tutorials/day schools you can if you decide it's the route for you.

If you've got a degree already you may qualify for graduate entry. It's worth looking into as it knocks off the first year (2 years part time) and reduces the cost. Good luck!

Sorry this and posted too soon - baby feeding and MNing is not compatible....

Generalisations such as ‘you’ll find it harder if you’re less intelligent than others’ which is basically what you were saying is just really not helpful and it just doesn’t work like that. There are SO many variables within any university, OU even more so because of the way it is set up with distance learning and the fact that it is open to all. I stated I was an academic to show you that clearly someone with less intelligence (I found OU difficult so obviously I have less academic capability...) doesn’t necessarily follow.

To be fair I think there is a difference between being academically smart and doing well under examinations etc, you can still be very smart and struggle with essay writing, for example.

So pigmcpigface, do you think it would still be worthwhile doing an OU degree? Or in your opinion are they seen as less worthwhile? Do you think an OU degree would still be a good option if it isn't an entry level requirement to a job? Or is the University still important? I did read that the OU's Business degrees are triple accredited, which only around 1% of business schools are, so I am hoping this means something??

I'm 99.9% sure it's the right option for me, but there are other options, such as a certificate of higher education in the same subject or a foundation degree. I'm mainly doing it to advance a career which does not necessarily require a degree, but in which one would be desirable, so it's not absolutely essential.

Sorry Pinky I was writing that as you posted, yes I think I agree that it's all quite variable and some people will be great at academia but not as good at self directed study, etc.

The opinions on the time needed vary so wildly though; some are saying that they can't see why the OU says you need 16 hours a week for part time as it's way too much and study 120 credits per year while working, some people struggle to fit in part time stuff.

What I might do is study full time for year 1 but do the 2 different start dates; 1 starting in Oct and one in Feb. Or does that sound silly??

I graduated from the OU with a 2:1 in Law last year. It took me 4 years in total and I did this whilst working 3 days per week with a primary school aged child. It was hard work and I spent many evening locked away to get the reading required for the monthly assignments done but it did give me a great sense of achievement when it was finally complete.
When I started it there were face to face tutorials which were quite local to me, towards the end this changed to predominantly online ones with different tutors marking the work to the ones who were holding the tutorials. I didn’t attend any of these so can’t say how good they were but I know many of my fellow students were not keen! I also believe the majority of the materials are now online rather than in book form, I personally prefer an actual book to refer to and make notes on. I found the materials quite easy to read although the land equity and trusts was quite dull...
Depending on what you plan to do with your degree a law one can be a big expense - i’m Currently studying the LPC before starting a training contract to become a solicitor and by the time I’ve finished that the academic stage will have cost around £30k in total.

Have you secured your training contract @mrsp2009 ? If not, some firms will pay for it plus a bursary so it’s worthwhile hunting those down. My education cost about the same.

Sorry just saw you are already studying it so must have ! Sorry!

"So pigmcpigface, do you think it would still be worthwhile doing an OU degree? Or in your opinion are they seen as less worthwhile? Do you think an OU degree would still be a good option if it isn't an entry level requirement to a job? Or is the University still important? I did read that the OU's Business degrees are triple accredited, which only around 1% of business schools are, so I am hoping this means something?"

If your goal is to get a job, it is absolutely worthwhile doing an OU degree. I don't think that they are seen as less worthwhile than degrees from other places, and (as I said in my previous post), people who get them show often an incredible resourcefulness and resilience in terms of being able to juggle studying with a lot of other life pressures. I think those qualities would be attractive to any employer. I think they make it very difficult to "rank" an OU degree alongside any other, because the demands on an average 18 year old and on a mature student who is also an employee and parent are very different. Employers often aren't just looking at academics, but at a much wider package, and a good OU degree is a pretty great way of showing a whole range of life skills as well as academic ones. Absolutely go for it!

My beef with the OU lies in quite specialist areas - the way that subjects are taught, the way they are assessed and the frankly bizarre employment choices they make in the tutorial system where they genuinely don't pick the most academically qualified candidates to do the work. So no, I don't think it's the best intellectual experience anyone can have - I think you're likely to get a far richer and more rewarding time intellectually from a traditional Russell Group institution, where your primary contact is with really major figures in their field, or rising stars. I also think it would be possible to deliver courses that were more rewarding and stimulating, but also more flexible to take account of people with complex life needs and problems. (Why does everyone have to start and end a module at the same time in the internet age?)

Do those reservations make an OU degree worthless? Absolutely not. Do they mean that there are better places to get the intellectual, academic side of a subject? Yes, in my view, yes.

Congratulations MrsP ! :)

May I ask how you split the degree across 4 years? Did you do full time for the first 2 years and then the third year part time? This is what I'm leaning towards doing as I would really like to be qualified by the time my youngest is in school, and before I'm 30 (am 25 this October)

Sorry MrsP forgot to add that crikey, that is a lot of money! I don't actually intend to take the law degree any further than the degree itself; my only reasoning for doing it was that I noticed a lot of PA jobs advertised were to do with Law firms, and I read on some career guidance website that it can be useful to pursue a degree in a related field. And obviously there isn't a degree in "PA work" available so basically any degree that demonstrates I'm educated to graduate level seems reasonable. I

pig thank you, yes I agree and I totally get what you're saying!

@silverdoe thank you
I started on the Feb intake but they changed it to October part way through which messed up the academic years pathway which meant for part of it I studied without a break as such. In two of the years I studied a 60 and a 30 credit module alongside each other but it was really hard going (particularly as exams are all around the same time as are the deadlines for the monthly assignments). I don’t think I could have managed 2 60 credits together - people I know who didn’t ask have Work commitments tried and even they found it a struggle as it’s quite intense at times. If you have a genuine interest in law you will probably enjoy the course but I imagine it’s a real slog if you don’t! Good luck with whichever route you decide to go down

I did 120 credits a year on top of full-time job, part-time job (5-8hrs a week) in area I was trying to switch careers to in order to get experience and volunteering (3-5hrs a week, same reason).

My friend had two kids (was pregnant during degree) and did between 60 and 90 a week. She also worked 20hrs a week.

We both found it totally fine and have gone on to fulfil our career ambitions easily. So totally doable.

Full-time job was 40 hrs

I'm only talking from my own experience here so take or leave it but I found the standard of teaching in the OU to be shocking. Disorganised, lacking depth and at one point just terrible (our TMAs for one module were lost by the tutor ).

I refused to sign on for more modules after that and I'm glad I did. I switched to a distance learning course with a well known uni and the difference was very clear. Tutors were academics researching their own areas and teaching across full time and part time courses with bags of experience and academic credibility.

My area was law and business.

OP I haven't done an OU degree but if your goal is to be a PA/EA I would think carefully about whether you really want to spend that much money on a degree which isn't required for the job.

I've been a PA in both the legal and financial sectors. I don't have a degree. Of the legal PAs I worked with I can only think of one who had a degree. In finance I know a couple did but it was by no means a requirement and wouldn't have been mentioned in the job description. It was always far, far more important to have experience. One of the PAs in my current company has a degree in criminology (not remotely related to our industry). The PA in my team doesn't have a degree.

I got into it by taking a very entry level position as a receptionist with a bit of typing, and then moving around a bit for a few years until I had amassed enough experience. That seems to be how most people get into it.

Have you thought about doing something directly relevant to the career you want, like CILEX qualifications?

Saying all this, I don't blame you for wanting to do a degree. I didn't do one and have regretted it for years, I made a post here a while ago about it. I have level 6 professional qualifications that are required for my job and am currently studying for another one, but when that's all out of the way I might have another think about a degree just so I can stop grumping about it.

evilharpy I totally get that and it's something I've been considering (not doing a full degree) however on reflection I do feel like the position I'm in at the moment and the age I am; I'd really like to complete a degree sooner rather than later, because I might decide I want to progress down a different route, or I don't want to get a few years down the line and find a glass ceiling because I'm not a graduate, if that makes sense :)

Thanks for all your replies, this thread has been really useful to me!

OP I did OU back in the day when if your income was below a certain level the fees were paid which was the advantage for me over a red brick. I believe that has all changed now though and fees are about £5k per year, so I would advise that you should weigh up the career opportunities against the cost to see if it will be worthwhile. The £50k thread revealed that most studied a traditional subject rather than a broad 'Life Sciences' so if you are concerned about salary that is something to consider as well.

I did 60 credits per year over 6 years whilst the dc were very young and it was difficult but very doable. I wasn't particularly motivated or organized and mostly only did the relevant reading for the TMA's. I got a high 2:1 and went on to do postgrad in a red brick.

SilverDoe Totally understand :) Also you might find that when you do get a job your employer will be happy to pay for you to study for professional qualifications if you decide to go down that road at some point. So one doesn't rule out the other. I wish you lots of luck anyway. You should very motivated, fair play to you!

I haven't been terribly impressed with the OU yet. Am doing Arts & Humanities but have 2 other (science based) degrees from campus universities so can compare those experiences to a certain extent. The academic standard is not the same as in my previous courses. There have been multiple mistakes in the text books for my modules so far. If you're self funding it is very expensive for really not much content. Am only in my first year still but am working full time (up to 70 hours a week) and easily managing to fit the course in (I don't have children though). Am going to carry on for now because the content is largely interesting, but if I were doing the course because I needed it for career development I'd be thinking of transferring to a campus course.

I'm not doing an OU degree but I am studying online (via a brick uni) and it's tough but I'm enjoying it. I work full time and I did 80 credits last year, 40 credits this year. In fact this year I've not known quite what to do with all my free time

I have one more module to pass and then I can take up my place on a distance learning MSc (via a different brick uni). I couldn't praise online learning more, I'm a huge advocate and wouldn't have had half the opportunities to study without it.

Hiring manager here, so different perspective than the purely academic one:

I have massive respect for people who do an OU (or similar) degree within 3-4 years whilst also busy with something else, like FT employment, several kids, etc. It screams 'dedicated, hard worker' to me.

6+ years for the same degree whilst working a PT position, OTOH, would not be regarded as highly; the impression might be 'hobbyist in terms of both academics and work' (unless there were good mitigating circumstances).

I'd never hire a PA without a degree, though. My PA is my right-hand woman and de facto manages several projects for me at present. She's not an admin assistant in any way.