Advice please: from those of you who have studied for a degree part time through uni

[Playmate]

After much sole searching I'm now seriously thinking about enrolling on a part time degree course in Sep 2011. I started the OU foundation degree 3 years ago, but after completing the first term just found it to much and very unsupportive. Tutorials were about 80miles away, tutor gave up due to ill health and my family commitments at the time just didn't allow me the time that I needed. In order to do something I did the NVQ level 3, just to keep Mick company as I already had a level 3. Found this very time consuming, but I think some of this was due to lack of organisation of the course tutor!

When I competed the NVQ at Easter I said I would never study again! However I have to think about the future. Mick is 11 years older than me and is quite likely to want to retire from Childminding before I'm ready to give up work and realistically we will still need another income coming in anyway. I'm seriously considering a career change into teaching, but will obviously need to study part time around our business. We currently work a 50 - 55hr week, which we are seriously looking at cutting down over next year.

Those of you who are currently studying part time at uni can you share with me, how many hours a week do you think you set aside to study and do any of you do it around working full time CM week? Have any of you applied for student loan to pay tuition fees?

Sorry this is longer than I expected :D

[Daftbat]

I am hopefully going to start my foundation degree with the OU in October. I have already done my level 4 with them a few years ago and to be honest i found a very different experience to the one you have recounted. My tutorials were local and the tutor was very supportive and availble via phone and email any time.

I have had to go to a meeting with our Early Years people to ascertain if i have the time and inclination to study and basically you need to be able to highlight around 15 hours per week to study on average. I work full time minding but not at weekends and so i have a reasonable amount of time available in the evenings and weekends. I am considering getting a cleaner though to help with keeping things under control - and my own children are older now so not so demanding when i am not working.

Only you know what you can commit to but if you have the determination i would say go for it. Like you, i am looking at this as a way of changing my career in the future and need to update my studies to get a chance of a decent job in the future in my opinion.

Good luck with whatever you decide and if in any doubt about support get in touch with the OU and see if they can allay your fears at all.

[Pipsqueak]

Right, when I embarked upon my FD, the tutor advised putting in (minimum) 15hrs study a week excluding the 8hrs we were in uni. And to be honest she was right! she warned that 'our families would forget who we were'.
If you pace yourself and organise your time into study chunks then it works out fine.
Don't forget study is about research, reading books and media, preparing your notes, collating evidence - not just writing stuff up.
Its doable - I personally worked better late into the night but that is just me.

Now that I am going onto my third year I know I MUST be super efficient and organised and make sure I do things as I need to.

The degree has been extremly worthwhile and interesting and I made some lovely friends on the course.

Once we got to the end of FD - we were offered a choice of which route to take: the BA towards teaching/classroom based or childhood studies (optional of EYPS).
I have opted childhood studies.

[huggableshelly]

I did the same as Pip but only completed the first 2 years due to struggling with the time issue.

I worked 50 hours a wk and studied when I had too which became crammed into a wk before essays had to be handed in sitting up till 2-3am in the morning and being a zombie at wkends. I did not feel capable of continuing on as was not fair on my family.

But now I'm not working I am looking into studying, will most likely have to take a student loan out too as YIH will not fund me now (well I havent asked but presume they will not). I am thinking about social work but can also do training on the job with lower wage but then no course fees to pay out.

Best of luck to you which ever way you chose to go with study.

[manjay]

Have to say I think doing my degree is one of the best things I have ever done. As you know I have just completed the first year and I have really enjoyed it. I do part classroom (3 hrs a week) and I study another module a term by distance learning. I prefer to work on a weekend for a full day as it takes me a while to get into the zone!! Working late into the evening doesn't work for me. Mine is through a local Uni which from September is only offering it by distance learning (which is what Polly2 does now). I don't think I could do OU as to me it is too restrictive in what you are able to read etc. It does stress me out at times )usually when assignments are due) but I could manage my time better and I wouldn't be so bad. I now only work 4 days a week and use a Friday for study but I did manage when I was working 5 days.

I have found my practice has changed immensely and my confidence in my own abilities has also increased. the more I learn the more confident I become.

Mine was completely funded but I do know it is one of the cheapest around if I did have to pay.

It is a massive decision and I do sometimes worry that my family are being deprived of my time but it is not forever and to me the positives far outweigh the negatives.

amanda x

[Polly2]

I am on the same course as Manjay. Really loving it and yes you can do it while working full time cm (I am doing 42 hrs wk) and with a family (I have 4 kids)

Having said that I have tremendous support from my family, my girls are fab and cook dinner through the week. My Hubby helps with the cleaning. I think like Pip said it can be a drain on the family but they all agreed to it so :)

I do a full day studying on the weekend (or try to :rolleyes: ) and a couple of evenings a week. Some of the deadlines have been a bit close together but you get faster as you go along :)

I have been financed by student finance, its worth seeing if you can get funding from your LA.

Any more questions just ask :thumbsup:

[Playmate]

thank you ladies, as I thought we are looking at a lot of hours :panic:
My worry is I don't seem to keep ontop of EYFS and business paper work now, so how I would manage studying as well frightens me. My family are getting older and in a sence less demanding, my youngest will be 11 next year and starting secondry school. Obviously we are going to have to cut down children on at least one day for me to attend college and possibly make it two days, because I'm absolutely hopeless in the evenings :( At present we finish work at 6.30 by time we have cleared up, had dinner etc I'm ready for bed :eek: I think I will have to think long and hard about this, such a huge commitment :panic: :panic:

[The Juggler]

we were told the same as Pip, 15 hours on top of contact time. I probably, if I'm honest with myself averaged 10 per week, some weeks 15, some maybe a few (if I was away at the weeknd) and topped up at assignment due dates.

I know girls who did far less - by which they read and wrote their assignments at the same time, crammed in before due dates, so probably if you averaged that out only a few hours a week. Some of them just passed, some didnt'.

I'd say it depends on your personality, if you're the sort of person who doesn't do things by halves you'll want to put in the 10-15 hours, if you don't mind getting by to pass, you could probably do a lot less and get your FD.

[Playmate]

I did the same as Pip but only completed the first 2 years due to struggling with the time issue.

I worked 50 hours a wk and studied when I had too which became crammed into a wk before essays had to be handed in sitting up till 2-3am in the morning and being a zombie at wkends. I did not feel capable of continuing on as was not fair on my family.

But now I'm not working I am looking into studying, will most likely have to take a student loan out too as YIH will not fund me now (well I havent asked but presume they will not). I am thinking about social work but can also do training on the job with lower wage but then no course fees to pay out.

Best of luck to you which ever way you chose to go with study.

I think Young in Herts still have some funding this year, but the impression I got from forum meeting last week was that by next there will be funding for nothing :( Even the ordianry short courses and study days are now going to cost us the price it costs to put on instead of the £10 admin fee :( Another Herts CM suggested the student loan which is why I mentioned it on here, mind you having just applied for it for my son to go to uni, I'm not looking forward to that process.

Manjay and Polly, you must have posted whilst I was posting, so glad you are enjoying your course that makes feel a lttle more encouraged. :clapping:

[Playmate]

Right, when I embarked upon my FD, the tutor advised putting in (minimum) 15hrs study a week excluding the 8hrs we were in uni. And to be honest she was right! she warned that 'our families would forget who we were'.
If you pace yourself and organise your time into study chunks then it works out fine.
Don't forget study is about research, reading books and media, preparing your notes, collating evidence - not just writing stuff up.
Its doable - I personally worked better late into the night but that is just me.

Now that I am going onto my third year I know I MUST be super efficient and organised and make sure I do things as I need to.

The degree has been extremly worthwhile and interesting and I made some lovely friends on the course.

Once we got to the end of FD - we were offered a choice of which route to take: the BA towards teaching/classroom based or childhood studies (optional of EYPS).
I have opted childhood studies.

Pip, you mention being in your 3rd year now, I remember a thread on here some time ago about having to have Maths GCSE to get onto the BA. Was this a requirement for you?

[Pipsqueak]

Pip, you mention being in your 3rd year now, I remember a thread on here some time ago about having to have Maths GCSE to get onto the BA. Was this a requirement for you?

You have to have a GCSE C grade or above in Maths and English to get onto the EYPS section of the third year.
I am only doing the top up of the degree to get my full BA Hons, as I don't have GSCE c grade maths. However, I found out yesterday another lady who is doing the same course as me has applied for EYPS and is doing her maths at the same time - something I was told I couldn't do:( Am going to look into that but I am in two minds now about EYPS - the way things are going and many settings already cannot afford their EYP, I think it will become a redundant qualification under this current government. they are doing away with TA's and stuff right across the sectors. So I think I will just settle for the BA hons and revisit the EYPS at a later date.

[Playmate]

You have to have a GCSE C grade or above in Maths and English to get onto the EYPS section of the third year.
I am only doing the top up of the degree to get my full BA Hons, as I don't have GSCE c grade maths. However, I found out yesterday another lady who is doing the same course as me has applied for EYPS and is doing her maths at the same time - something I was told I couldn't do:( Am going to look into that but I am in two minds now about EYPS - the way things are going and many settings already cannot afford their EYP, I think it will become a redundant qualification under this current government. they are doing away with TA's and stuff right across the sectors. So I think I will just settle for the BA hons and revisit the EYPS at a later date.

In that case I think I shall also leave it for now, was thinking I might do the GCSE this year before starting degree but maybe I will wait. Obviously If I did it this year i would need to find a course that is designed for old adults like me who haven't got a clue and not one that is designed for a 17 year old who has just failed maths (thats if there is such a thing) :D