Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Mature study and retraining

Talk to other Mumsnetters who are considering a career change or are mature students.

Distance learning MSc

13 replies

FamilyLife123 · 23/10/2021 05:51

I am taking a career break at the moment to focus on family needs as it had become too hard logistically for me to continue working for the moment. I'm thinking of doing a distance Masters course during this break as it will hopefully help me to
continue my career when I do return and I think it will be important for me to have something else to focus on. Has anyone done a distance learning MA/MSc? How did you find it? How much work were you doing each week etc?

OP posts:
EdmontinaTiresofNameFlipping · 23/10/2021 11:18

Hi OP - don’t know your age, but you might possibly prefer to have this thread on the new ‘Mature Study and Retraining’ board, under the Education topic.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

You’ll find plenty of people there studying postgraduate degrees via distance learning.

MNHQ will move your thread if you ask.

(And apologies if you’re nowhere near ‘mature’!)

FamilyLife123 · 23/10/2021 11:37

@EdmontinaTiresofNameFlipping

Hi OP - don’t know your age, but you might possibly prefer to have this thread on the new ‘Mature Study and Retraining’ board, under the Education topic.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mature_students

You’ll find plenty of people there studying postgraduate degrees via distance learning.

MNHQ will move your thread if you ask.

(And apologies if you’re nowhere near ‘mature’!)

I'm 38, so definitely classed as 'mature' for study now! Thankyou for the advice - MNHQ, would you be able to move this thread for me please?
OP posts:
Toadmystery44 · 23/10/2021 11:51

Hello. I did my masters distant learning whilst working full time. It suited me as I could plan my study round life.

I studied every Sunday for 8 hours and then studied Saturdays for assignments. It was discipline, but if I needed to do extra work couod do it when I needed

FinallyHere · 23/10/2021 12:10

MBA Aston University, early 1990's.

A brilliant experience for me, my then corporate employers decided to sponsor places on this MBA programme by distance learning offer this. I was part of the first intake of twelve people from different departments.

As I had recently broken up with a long time partner, I welcomed the new focus in my life and signed up without a second thought.

The best part for me was to have the group of colleagues to provide a really made support group. We would discuss each assignment, to understand the different viewpoints then each write up our own. This meant we all got better marks than we would have had individually without any whiff of plagiarism.

The time needed varied around assignments, on average I probably spent a day a week, usually two mornings at the weekend.

Being the first intake from that employer was useful too, as many of the 'corporate stories' were new to the lecturing team. In subsequent years, they were we discovered less impressed by the same examples 😀

This worked well for the nature of the MBA. It really changed my attitude from just understanding my own department's way of doing things to having a much better view across the whole business. My career took off too, helped by the confidence that comes from understanding business things much better too.

Is there a course you are particularly interest in? Can you see what you would gain from adding that to your CV or is it more of an interest thing?

As an extrovert, I'd encourage you to look to maximise the opportunities for interacting with others, online snd in person. If your learning style is different, that may be less relevant to you.

Good luck.

Impossiblecauses · 23/10/2021 12:12

I did distance MSc while pg. Part time 20 hours per week, I did the tutorials via the uni version of zoom.

It looks good CV wise to return to study, I loved it. But I had to learn to get everything done around deadlines. I.e. needed to plan the family food (slow cooker!) And put the washing on in between lectures.

OtterAndDog · 24/10/2021 18:06

Yes - including homework probably around 25 hours a week

FamilyLife123 · 24/10/2021 18:35

Thankyou very much for the replies everyone, I've found them all very useful.

OP posts:
Insert1x20p · 27/10/2021 06:43

@FamilyLife123

I am currently doing a distance masters in international development through University of London, although I live in Asia. While I'd been considering it for a while, similar to you, the trigger was prolonged home learning/ covid where the wheels were at risk of coming off big time. My time commitment is probably 15-20 hours a week, although some weeks are close to FT if I have an assignment. A couple of things to consider

  • Structure- some courses are easier to do at your own pace than others. Mine is modular. It takes a minimum of two years and a maximum of five to do 4 taught modules and a dissertation (also 4 modules), so there is some flexibility. However, once you start a module, you cant get off the train and the spacing of assignments means you have to keep up week by week.
  • Materials- mine is pretty old school. Lots of reading. Very little multi media. No online lectures. While the content is good, it is pretty dry and also relatively few networking opportunities. To be fair, the cohort is very global and people work at very different times (some do a bit each day, some do all evenings or only weekends) so it would be hard to do anything in real time. However, I'd have liked a bit more human contact., even if only a recorded lecture. A friend is doing a philanthropy masters through university of Kent with mainly a UK based intake and there is far more networking and live interaction etc.
EdmontinaTiresofNameFlipping · 27/10/2021 07:04

So is there much online interaction with your fellow students, Insert1x20p?

I can’t imagine how you find the motivation to keep going without all the scratchiness, competition and inspiration of constant contact with peers, or even online lectures. Presumably it’s easy enough to ask a tutor if you don’t understand something - but how do you find out about stuff you don’t know that you don’t know? Or, in other words, how do you stumble upon accidental knowledge if there’s no ‘back and forth’ with other people?

Insert1x20p · 27/10/2021 09:21

Good question - There is a forum where we discuss the weekly unit - the supervisor will frame a broad question and then we all respond to the content based on our personal experiences (vast majority have a development or policy background). However, because people don't work at the same time, it doesn't really facilitate "back and forth" and honestly, I think a lot of people are massively time constrained. For example, I might do the work Monday/Tuesday and add my contribution to the forum but then someone else might not do theirs till Sunday and by the time I see there comments on my contribution I'm full steam ahead on the next week's work. I'd say it's good for making useful professional connections but doesn't really facilitate real time online discussion due to the time differences.

Honestly, my motivation is employability- I'm reversing into this as I have basically done all the practical (worked in ID for 9 years) but have been told when I move back to UK I would likely need a masters to be considered for certain jobs. Also I'm stuck in a tiny city state with completely closed borders due to a zero covid policy so it's not like I've got anything else to do Grin.

The other good thing about this course is there are "off ramps", so I could get a post grad certificate now, or a diploma if I do the taught modules but no dissertation, so if I got some amazing job and didn't have time to finish, it wouldn't have been a total waste of time.

Insert1x20p · 27/10/2021 09:22

*their. FFS. Grin

EdmontinaTiresofNameFlipping · 27/10/2021 10:15

Ah … Yes, the element of flexibility is useful. And it’s probably a better course for someone with years of practical experience than for a newbie with only ‘book learning’.

MLMshouldbeillegal · 06/11/2021 10:31

I'm currently half way through this sort of program. My fellow students are all over the world, mostly UK, but some in North America and one in South Africa.

My advice would be to go for it, but to also find ways of networking and connecting with your fellow students. We have a WhatsApp group which is brilliant, it's very active, lots of chat not just about the course but about the subject in general and lots of other random stuff too. We do social zoom calls every fortnight. Getting to know my fellow students has certainly made things easier, there's always someone there to listen to moans about coursework or to clarify a point rather than emailing a tutor.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread