What should he (26) do?

My sisters boyfriend (he is also 26) is in the same position as you. With help from my sister he has started an access course and has on offer to study Philosophy (his passion) at Warwick.

IMO, it never too late tell him to go for it. and yes he will be entitled to the loans etc it dosent matter what age. If he genuinely has to passion (whch obv he does) then do it.
Has he got Alevels, GCSES? will he be working toward access to HE?

As for what he wants to study, i think you should sit down with him and start researching courses online and discuss what hes interests are and his future goals.

Good luck.

Thank you for your reply! He has interests in such a varied range of courses from sciences and maths to English, creative writing and philosophy! I think this is mainly because he feels he has missed out and now wants to know everything!! He does have GCSEs (good grades) and A-levels in Science (but got low grades CDE i think, or CDD).

I think he is mostly scared about giving up 8 years of his career and getting in loads of debt for something that may not lead to a better job at the end of it! But my opinion is just go for it! lol!!

I did my first degree from 1997-2001. Graduated with a 2:1 in English/Computer Science and then went to work in the city. Spent 6 years in various roles from programmer to more managerial/project management stuff, and hated pretty much all of it. Voluntary redundancy came up and I thought why not. Spent a couple of years getting qualified in personal training, athletics coaching etc, and then started to get interested in how the body works from people I met with injuries. Thought about doing a sports massage course, but then thought well why not go the whole hog and apply for physiotherapy.

So, sent off my UCAS January of last year a couple of weeks before the deadline, and here I am approaching the end of my first year of three studying physio.

To answer your questions about mature students and funding. I am not eligible for a student loan as I have already had one before. This is applicable to all but a few circumstances I believe. I think you can get a second student loan for medicine from memory as an example. As he has never been to uni, this wouldn't be an issue though. He would also be entitled to whatever additional funding an 18 year old would get. I have also got additional help from the university as I am on a very low income (as are most students hey...).

My advice to him would be to do it. I'm going to be 34 when I graduate, but thinking about it, you still have 30 plus years of your working life ahead of you at that point. If he isn't liking what he is doing, then change it. Thinking about leaving a well paid job for student days again is scary, but its incredible how resourceful you can be when you are forced. I am doing coaching, spin classes and sports massage on the side, and along with my grant am just about surviving. Ontop of this, I am so much happier now than when I was earning £35k a year but hating every single day of work. I don't think you have to get into loads of debt to go through uni - I'm not so far, and haven't needed any help off the bank.

Before looking into uni he needs to find a course he is really passionate about. Because he is potentially going to give up the security of a job with no certain gain at the end of it. So he needs to do something he loves. Maybe he loves it all but he needs to find the one thing that gets him going most and he could stick with for 3 years.

Yes i think this is very important! I know after doing a 3 year degree that it is so easy to go 'off' a subject! lol!

The other thing he is a bit concerned about is his very addictive personality... by this i mean the whole drinking culture of uni!! If he went back i think he would be tempted to REALLY go for the student lifestyle and somewhat spoil his chances. The mature students i know didn't really get involved in the undergrad drinking culture at my uni, but my friend has to be liked and i think he may go down that route to the detriment of his degree...!

depends what type of degree he wants to do, i'm 32 and stating a nursing degree so 26 is not old at all, but if he is worried about doing a degree and not getting a job then maybe he should do a degree where he would be qualified to do something eg. nursing, social work, teaching etc.

I was worried about maybe slipping back into the student lifestyle a bit too much, but its not been a problem. The teenagers all live together in halls, and a lot of the action starts and ends there. As I am not at halls, I haven't really got involved in anything. In the 7 months so far, I have been out a handful of times, and we (mature students) have favoured going to bars and restaurants as opposed to the union. The two times I have been really haven't been that great - just a bit over the whole drinking till you vomit thing. Its not that the kids are unfriendly, far from it, its just that you tend to get into your own groups, and my group doesn't do a lot of socialising as they have children, wives/husbands etc. It probably won't be a riot for him as an older student, although maybe if he were to live in halls he would get more involved in that sort of thing than I have.

Why not check out Open University?

does this route not lack the financial support?

Depends on what he wants to study. There's people in my course that have turned down 55 grand a year jobs to get their degree.

I doubt that. Unless of course they are spoilt brats.

They are likely to be lying to you.

I imagine so. But does he need it as he will still be working and as long as he currently supports himself then he can part time study.

If I was in his situation thats what I'd do. Stay with my career but do an OU part time.