Open University

[Raymond Reddington]

Has anyone on here studied with the OU?

Did you find it worthwhile, did it help your career?

Perhaps you found it lacking or hard to fit around work?

Interested to hear of experiences.

[anonymous-user]

I know someone who was bored as a mid level non graduate civil servant, so she did a law degree at the OU, got a first, and became a barrister. That was about three years ago.

[Sycamore]

I'm currently studying with the OU.

I work full time as a Structural Engineer, and my employer offered to fund me through an OU Bachelors degree in Engineering.

I work fulltime, so I do half the amount of credits per year as you would if you studied full time, so I'm 3 years in to a 6 year course.

I'd recommend it all in, albeit I'm somewhat the outlier with regards to background etc as the majority of others on the course don't work in Engineering at all at the moment and are doing the course as their way in. For the same reason most people are self funding their studies, but the course and the OU way of working in general seems very well regarded.

Studies are generally split week by week, with online content to follow along with the many tetxbooks you're provided with. There's currently a ~2 foot tall stack of text books on my desk

The OU suggests that studying the 60 credit per year (two modules) workload, you allow for 15-20 hours a week of study.
If I am completely honest, I've probably done that in total in 3 years so far. I don't think I'd be doing the course if I was having to pay for it myself or using it as a way to switch industry, but ultimately that's just more to do with my personal mindset (lazy unless pushed) and circumstances.

But like I say, my course at least caters to people with no engineering background at all and needs to teach everything from first principles.
If you were to take it seriously and get your head down I could see it taking that long to study each week.

Each module tends to last ~6 months, with a few assignments that need to be handed in along the way, and with some online assessments also dropped in for good measure. These are generally the only time I need to start working through the content properly, but if I were to do it bit by bit weekly as intended then I'd not have to cram it all in last minute.

Edited by Sycamore on Monday 26th October 14:44

Edited by Sycamore on Monday 26th October 14:48

[PorkInsider]

I did a BSc (Hons) with the OU. It took 7 years rather than the more usual 6 as I got completely bogged down in my 6th year due to work pressures and dropped 30 of my 60 points that year.

I would say I averaged 8-10 hours per academic week throughout the years, so somewhat short of the recommended/expected level, but then I was working 60hr weeks quite regularly so something had to give.

An OU degree is definitely taken seriously in industry - certainly in multi-nationals and globals etc, that I've worked for. - as there's a decent understanding of how much effort and commitment it takes to get through it over such a long time. It absolutely opened doors for me.

The courses were great, in my opinion, and it regularly used to be highly ranked for course and teaching quality.

I would wholeheartedly recommend it, if you're considering it seriously.

Edited by PorkInsider on Monday 26th October 17:56

[Sophisticated Sarah]

I found the first year courses for languages were great with lots of content but they became poorer in subsequent levels. I had the impression that they struggled to provide adequate content in year 2 and 3 so you end up with lots of filler that’s a struggle to stay motivated with.

Engineering courses look to be more intense, I’m considering starting again

[vaud]

As an employer I rate the OU, and especially anyone who has been working and studying, it must be really tough.

[Dr Jekyll]

Is your interest in the OU as such or might you consider other part time study options at that level? It's surprising how many options there are for studying evenings and weekends, but most of the alternatives have higher entry requirements subject to the usual wriggle room for mature students.

[renmure]

I did but that was some time ago. I imagine distance learning has come on a long way. At that time I already had both an undergraduate and post graduate degree but fancied doing something interesting and academic in my "spare time." OU didn't give credits for previous study in relation to the initial Foundation Course back then (it may be different now) so I went into it expecting it to be a dawdle and with a slackass approach.

It was anything but that. In the end I didn't continue doing it after the 1st year, not because it was too difficult but because I didn't appreciate the time commitment needed to do it properly and could see in the tutorials that I was winging it while others were working at it. I would have had to really buck-up to keep-up and didn't have the motivation to do that. Huge kudos to OU graduates.

[Rob_125]

I did a BEng top up with the OU. Mediocre experience. It does vary module to module. Some stuff I felt was easier than the stuff I did in my FdSc, some stuff had massive gaps to bridge. I'm electrical by trade, but did a structural engineering module which was the hardest, but by far most rewarding in all respects. Cost around 5k for 2 years (4 modules). I did feel some support was lacking from some tutors, one wouldn't briefly read a piece of an assignment when I was seeking clarification and constantly went on about being a professor at another institution, other tutors were great. I came out with a 2.1. Would I do it again to achieve the same result, yes; did it make me want to continue academic study, no.

Edited by Rob_125 on Wednesday 28th October 09:46

[D1on]

Looks interesting the open university