to sing the praises of the open university?

[KnitFastDieWarm]

I’ve just been offered a fully funded PhD studentship at one of the best university departments in the country for my area of research.

I never imagined I’d get this far when I returned to study with the open university on maternity leave with a 7 month old baby, having been out of education for a decade. Anyone reading this who is thinking of studying as a mature student, whether it’s getting your GCSEs or doing a PhD - do it now! It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself and has done incredible things for my confidence and sense of self as a parent and as a professional.

There’s no real point to this beyond; never doubt yourself for a second

That should be alumna -

I tried this when my DD was months old and looking back it was a mistake - I was too young and so was she.

I’d love to give it another go sometime.

Oooo thanks for explaining the finance thing - maybe I should take another look

OP congratulations.

My mum did an OU degree in her forties, and I was as proud of her as I have ever been to go to her graduation.

That’s brilliant!

I’m at home with my 19 month old at the moment, I’m really interested in doing a science degree, so was thinking about the OU. you’ve given me the motivation to take a proper look at it. I fear I’m a bit old though, I’m 37 haven’t been working for a while and before that I worked in quite low paid jobs.

I'm due to start an access course next week with OU and starting a degree in Oct. I am so impressed with the service received so far, can't wait to see how far I can go

@Meralia I was the youngest person on my course by at least a decade and I was 29 when I started you should absolutely do it! One of the best feelings is knowing that my DS will remember me doing this - some of his earliest memories will be of his mother being successful and driven and working hard at something.
My dissertation supervisor started her undergraduate degree with the OU at 44; she then did an MA and a PhD and is a highly respected academic in her field. It is never too late, we just live in a society that’s weirdly youth-focussed and expect us all to make life and career decisions at 18.

The best thing about the OU in my view (apart from the flexibility) is how they manage to break down high-level concepts without ever ‘dumbing down’ so that any intelligent person, regardless of formal qualifications, can understand and be excited by them. I’ve met people who left school at 14 having been told they were stupid and now have PhDs.

Thank you. How many credits did you do a year? If I undertook 60 credits per year, it would take me 6 years to complete, but doing 120, it would take me three years. That’s obviously full time, so wondering whether that may be to much to handle?

The OU texts are fantastic; they are written in a much more simplistic way yet still come across as academically rigorous if that makes sense. A few of the authors that wrote my OU stuff taught me at postgrad and their own books were so dry and boring. In our library we had lots of OU textbooks and I always chose those over others as they were much easier to understand.

Congratulations OP! What field of study is it in?