OU or actual uni?

[juicychops]

in Feb i start my 3rd year of my OU degree. ive been considering my options for when my ds starts school next September and would it actually be possible for me to physically go to university part time? bearing in mind i am also a single parent?

i would love to do this if i could and carry my credits from OU over, but how many hours a day would you be expected to be at uni if you are studying part time? would it fit in with school times?

any advice is greatly appreciated. i have a uni about half hour away and ive signed up for an open day visit

hi! im currently studing full time at an actual uni...i find that the hours do suit and you can get a childcare grant for wrap around care and holidays etc if you need it (85%) plus you will also be entilted to parents learning allowance and a student loan plus other bits and bobs...well worth considering! i debated doing Part time OU course rather than going back full time last year but found that i settled abck into it much more smoothly than i thought.
hope that helps bumping for you! hopefully someone else will have been through the same thing as you.

thanks thats great. what are the differences in hours studying part time and full time at uni then? so full time would still fit in with school hours reasonably well?

lots of students combine full time study with part time work so you should be able to manage it. If you are doing a social science degree you will have around 8 hours of lectures a week and 5 hours of classes. This needs to be complemented by long hours of work at home or the library. (we have a guidline of 1200 hours of work in total between end of september and the end of exams in mid june).
This is around 40 weeks, 7 weeks of which may be school holidays. so 33 weeks when your dc is at school
1200 divided by 33 is around 36 hours a week.
so perfectly doable without extra childcare provided you are able to work for an hour or so most evenings.
my mum did it in the 70s with 2 dcs and got a first!

The only thing is some classes may be scheduled for latish afternoon 4-6 but these will not be every day

Good luck

Thanks. im just waiting for the person ive been recommended to talk to to come out of his meeting so i can discuss all my questions with him and hopefully he'll be able to answer them

The great thing about normal university as opposed to OU is that term times fit around the school terms, whereas most OU courses are quite full on right through the summer holidays, which I have been finding a bit of a problem. On the other hand, OU is far more flexible in other ways and my tutors have been absolutely fantastic.
I am hoping to do a part time Masters at a 'real' university, but it is an hour and half commute so that is an issue as well.