Open University?! HELP!

Heyy

I have a part time job which I love and want to continue as I love earning my own money and love meeting new people!

I am 16 and in lower 6th, next June I will either be going to Uni (probably Chester) or doing an Open Uni degree in Law.

I don't want to get into loads of debt, so I think the Open Uni route is best for me?!

I just wanted to know if they are still respected by employers, especially law firms?

Any help would be gratefully received! ... (: x

Reply 1

tigermoth99

OU degrees are respected by employers, I wouldn't worry about it

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 2

ringleaderofhippos

I'm sure if you did an Open University degree in Law and got loads of legal practice while doing it and ended up with a 2:1 or first you will have just as much or nearly as much of a good chance as most people. Law is just a hard thing to get into no matter what uni you go to unless you go to Oxford or Cambridge or the top London ones...

Reply 3

DouglasBrown

The very top prestigious firms are quite old fashioned and tend to recruit from the top universities.

An OU degree is respected, will get you into the College of Law and is a good step on the way to a career in law. However a full time degree, with the connections it brings may be the best in your circumstances.

If you can get into one of the top courses at a full time university it will probably help get you work when you graduate.

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings?s=Law
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-guide-law

Chester are quite low down in the league tables. Are you planning on going there as it is close? or are you going by expected UCAS points?

It is hard to judge the Open University in terms of 'employability' as the graduates tend to have experience when they graduate so there is no real comparison. I suppose after a few years of younger OU students it may be possible to place the OU on a league table for 'school leavers' but now it is not possible.

If I were in your position I would seriously consider getting advice from someone in the profession before going down the OU route. Maybe show your initiative and e-mail someone from one of the 'magic circle' law firms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Circle_(law)

An education in Law is very expensive, and it takes a lot of time. It is great that you are considering it and I am sure you will enjoy it. Just make sure that you go to the best university you can. It makes a lot of difference unfortunately.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 4

TheFoxBlip

Some will respect OU degrees others won't. I know someone who went for a job interview and she basically had to justify why she did an OU degree and not attend a 'physical' University. However, I would much rather do an OU degree than attend an average university. Would you consider around £9k a year good value to study at Chester?

Reply 5

SpySapper

There are also other distance learning degrees. The University of London (Ie goldsmiths college etc) have them, and the costs area much less, and according to the prospectus (I briefly thought about it) says you end up with the same degree as someone who attended the "physical" university... therefore employers don't actually know that you did it from home!

Reply 6

thewitch

My daughter is a barrister and I know how much it cost us to get her through her first degree course her legal practice course and her other postgrad training. About £60,000 in total. It is a hard choice to make as a large percentage of people who start out to become a lawyer never make it. It is hugely competetive at every stage, even getting on to the courses is.
She found that her degrees (from Reading and Bristol) were looked down on by some chambers she tried for but that doesn't mean an OU degree would be by any more. Some are still just very set on candidates from certain universities.
An OU degree will cost you considerably less money.
OU does demonstrate that you are very self motivated, an important requirement for a lawyer.
She found that it helped her a great deal to undertake several mini pupillages with chambers to get to know people in the field she was interestd in. Again, they're hard to come by but do help you get accepted by employers.
You can apply to shadow a judge and that also gives you smarty points.
If I were employing someone as a lawyer I would prefer an OU degree to a Chester one. That however would be because it is my personal view, all prospective employers will have them.
Demonstrate good grades, a lot of practical work experience if you can get it such as volunteering in a legal advice centre once you've done a year or two. Those things sell you well.

Reply 7

Hanji123

To be honest, whether you go away to university or not, it's unlikely you'll go straight into a "top prestigious firm", right? I'm in my second year of college so I can't give the wisest advice, but as far as I see it they will respect you for having a degree and getting any experience in law. I bloody admire you for doing Law, it bores the heck out of me! Good luck with whatever you decide

Reply 8

Clip

DouglasBrown

An OU degree is respected, will get you into the College of Law and is a good step on the way to a career in law.

Although in fairness, as long as you have £12,000, a degree from the University of my garden shed will get you into CoL.

DouglasBrown

Maybe show your initiative and e-mail someone from one of the 'magic circle' law firms:

I wouldn't do that. No point. The HR departments are obviously going to say that their graduate programmes are open to all on the basis of merit alone. Why on earth would they come out with it and say that they have preferred Universities? The Chambers Guide has some reasonable information on where trainees come from.

Also, bear in mind that the MC firms are either 100% commercial, or overwhelmingly commercial with some smaller departments so they can claim to be "full service". If the OP is not interested in that type of work, there's no point looking at the MC firms.

For all I know, she might be really into Human Rights, Crimes or Family - or want to practice High Street - in which case, as long as you can see your way to a TC, there's really no issue with an OU degree.