Home Study courses

[Soundwave]

Anyone know of any good Home Study companies that will garauntee me a qualification at the end??

I've looked at Learn Direct & they are quite literally rubbish.

I've also looked at Open University but they're fees are way silly it's about £500 a course & you need to do around 3/4 courses to earn a degree which is money I dont have at the moment.

So does anyone know of any that are reasonably priced & also recognised enough to give me a qualification at the end of it all?

Incase you need to know I'm interested in doing my course in one of the following areas:

Marine Bioligy
Literature (With a view to becoming an author)
Media Studies/Film Studies

Any help appreciated as I'm bored with my fairly dead end job & really need a change & something to challenge me.

Thanks

Neil

[wowbagger t.i.p]

I am doing a degree with the OU at the moment and i am very impressed with the standard of the study materials. I have found the courses to be good value and they do have a system to help out people who can't afford the fees.

[shadowninja]

Slightly off-topic, but... Do you have to do a degree in literature to become an author? I would have thought a creative writing course would be more relevant. Besides, having the degree won't necessarily sell the book if it turns out to be rubbish. (Not suggesting you don't have the potential to be a great author, just that the degree might be a waste of your funds. )

[Mrs BlueCerbera]

wowbagger t.i.p said:

I am doing a degree with the OU at the moment and i am very impressed with the standard of the study materials. I have found the courses to be good value and they do have a system to help out people who can't afford the fees.

I'd second this. The OU material is really good.

[Soundwave]

shadowninja said:

Slightly off-topic, but... Do you have to do a degree in literature to become an author? I would have thought a creative writing course would be more relevant. Besides, having the degree won't necessarily sell the book if it turns out to be rubbish. (Not suggesting you don't have the potential to be a great author, just that the degree might be a waste of your funds. )

No I dont suppose you do really, but with a degree in Lit I could explore other avenues as well...Journalist etc.

I am looking into creative writing courses as well, basically I have idea's just not sure how to put them down in a novel.

Thanks for the input guys, looking like OU will be the best option all round really, just need to save a bit first