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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be irritated by being asked by my FIL

54 replies

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/01/2009 16:07

whether my OU degree will count the same as one from a real university.
It is a real university FFS.
Am tired of patiently explaining this to patronising twunts who clearly do not believe that the OU is not some sort of dodgy degrees by post option.

OP posts:
dashboardconfessionals · 05/01/2009 16:11

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

believer07 · 05/01/2009 16:14

LOL - Bit of pride in there.

georgiemum · 05/01/2009 16:18

It's harder. You don't have the day-to-day tutor/colleague support and are usually working/looking after a family too.

I have 2 degrees and part of a OU one and the OU was defenately harder because of these points.

Original poster
LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/01/2009 16:18

Do you mean I am being unreasonable to feel irritated, or that I would have been unreasonable had I shown myself to be irritated (which I did not)? Bearing in mind that this came at the end of a a virtually teetotal (MIL objects to alcohol) three-day visit in sub-zero temperatures (they do not seem to feel the cold) where the children were made to go to bed early so we could make non-conversation over the breaded chicken pieces and oven chips before retiring to the living room to watch FIL have a nap while MIL decided we didn't need to turn the television on because there was nothing worth watching and I was sent upstairs every time she heard one of the children turn over in bed to see what they were doing (just trying to read their books while exposing minimal bodily surface area to said sub-zero temperatures).

OP posts:
piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 16:21

I think you are being a bit over sensitive-a lot of people don't know anything about the OU.

laweaselmys · 05/01/2009 16:21

He's being really rude and I would say something. That kind of attitude really pisses me off. Degrees have grades to tell you what standard they are, where you got them from is totally irrelevant - you still have to meet the same universal standard to get the degree.

If you don't say something now, imagine what he will say if your DC wants to go to shock an ex-poly because they do courses they are interested in.

piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 16:22

He isn't being rude-I expect he knows nothing about it whatsoever-why should he?
A good time to put him right.

piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 16:24

They are not the same standard-a degree from Thames Valley isn't the same as an Oxford degree!

Ashantai · 05/01/2009 16:24

Nah i dont think he was being rude either, probably just a little uninformed. My dad would probably ask the very same question

TheFallenMadonna · 05/01/2009 16:25

He isn't being rude. He just doesn't know. Well, of course his tone might be off or something. Tell him.

Have just completed my OU Psychology degree

laweaselmys · 05/01/2009 16:26

Oxford and Cambridge are different because you have to do far more work than is actually necessary - which is why you can pay after a year and get your degree upgraded to a masters.

Everywhere else is the same, and I'm sorry but there's nothing to convince me otherwise.

piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 16:29

I don't for one minute think that a first in History from Luton is equal to a first in History from Bristol.

Original poster
LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/01/2009 16:36

I just wonder why as the OU has been around for so long, people still seem so uninformed about it.
FWIW I have also got a degree from a very ancient "proper" university and the academic content of my OU degree course is at least its equal.
I am just weary of going through this over and over again. I am in the third year of this now so he has had it explained to him a few times already.

OP posts:
piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 16:41

He doesn't have an excuse if it has been explained before!

Jux · 05/01/2009 16:42

I thought most employers regarded an OU degree as a rather better achievement than one from a 'normal' uni because you are essentially doing it alone and miss the constant support, atmostphere etc, as well as having to do 'real' life alongside.

It sounds like the sort of idiotic, uninformed twaddle my sFIL would come out with. In his case, he would say it to demean me; in yours? Well, you know your relationship with him. I would inform him of the true facts, either way.

laweaselmys · 05/01/2009 16:45

Do you have any evidence to back up your statements pisces? Or is this just prejudice?

nickschick · 05/01/2009 16:47

I think its an age thing tbh im a nursery nurse (nneb) and my lovely fil insists on asking my dvice on all illness and even tells the dr 'my daughter will sort me out she is a nurse ' despite me telling him for at least 15 years im not a nurse !!!

Original poster
LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/01/2009 16:48

I don't think he is trying to demean me, Jux. He just can't get it into his head (and he is not the only person I have encountered who feels like this) that the OU is an academically respectable institution. I just find that attitude real frustrating - it is as if people find it amusing that I am trying to pretend that my 'correspondence course' is just as good as a 'real degree'. I HAVE one of those already FFS, so I KNOW it is.

OP posts:
Original poster
LadyGlencoraPalliser · 05/01/2009 16:49

PMSL Nickschick. Don't ever get a PhD!

OP posts:
piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 16:52

Why would students aim for top universities laweaselmys if they could get equal degrees from those at the bottom?

laweaselmys · 05/01/2009 16:55

No evidence at all then.

g The teaching standard and opportunities at top universities are almost always better they have more money and better staff - IMO it is easier to get a good degree at a high rated university.

It doesn't mean the actual first vs first had any more or less an exceptionally high standard of work put into it.

piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 17:02

I think that future employers are going to take into account which university gave the degree.

piscesmoon · 05/01/2009 17:04

My DS has his UCAS application in now, he has had to do very careful research on his course-he doesn't want to end up with a worthless degree;something that could very easily happen in his subject.

georgiemum · 05/01/2009 17:07

My uncle hires psychologists and he said that he prefers OU candidates as they tend to be more mature and harder working.

To be honest I worked with one Oxford grad who was as thick as two short planks.

lavenderbongo · 05/01/2009 17:11

As far as I understad it a degree from one of the older/traditional Universities used to be seen as more valuable about 15-20 years ago - However since then Universitiy standards have been far mroe stringently managed and monitored. So now all degrees (Oxford and Cambridge aside) from all Universities are to the same standard and worth the same.