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Student at the Open University
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Milton Keynes
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Leaving a polytechnic university for Open University

I've currently just started an undergraduate degree in psychology. I'm not enjoying the social side and feel the course is dumbed down a bit? maybe because I'm a mature student I just feel a bit patronised. I dislike the group work/presentations and research projects we do on my course. I was hoping from my access course I'd feel excited to learn more and go to lectures. However I feel lectures are pretty pointless, they aren't informative and I feel like I'd get more out of learning if I just did most of the work alone.

I'm thinking of maybe leaving this university and halls and moving back home. The psychology degree starts on the 7th Feb 2016, it's so much cheaper too which is appealing. I'd work while doing the course though I don't know if its a great idea. It seems like a bit of a jump. I was wondering about the financial side aswell, can student finance help or do you have to pay directly through your own funds?

Thanks
Original post by automobile
I've currently just started an undergraduate degree in psychology. I'm not enjoying the social side and feel the course is dumbed down a bit? maybe because I'm a mature student I just feel a bit patronised. I dislike the group work/presentations and research projects we do on my course. I was hoping from my access course I'd feel excited to learn more and go to lectures. However I feel lectures are pretty pointless, they aren't informative and I feel like I'd get more out of learning if I just did most of the work alone.

I'm thinking of maybe leaving this university and halls and moving back home. The psychology degree starts on the 7th Feb 2016, it's so much cheaper too which is appealing. I'd work while doing the course though I don't know if its a great idea. It seems like a bit of a jump. I was wondering about the financial side aswell, can student finance help or do you have to pay directly through your own funds?

Thanks


If you think that's dumbed down then I'm sure you'll find first year of the OU even worse! I don't know about psychology but for science the level is GCSE-AS at best. Plus there are very few face-to-face tutorials, books are being phased out meaning materials are entirely online. If I were you I'd look at either transferring to another uni for year 2 or just sticking it out and hoping things get more challenging.

If you start in February then you're going to be stuck either studying for a whole year (February courses run from Feb-Oct, most other courses, particularly level 2 and 3 run from Oct-June) so you might find you're studying non-stop from Feb-the following June, or you have to take a break in your studies to wait for the following October to start.

SFE will do part time tuition fee loans, but there's no other support. You will need to support yourself on top of your studies.

If you're only worried about the challenge of the work then I'd stick it out because it will get harder. Wait until after christmas, they'll probably start to ramp up the work after then.
Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes
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Reply 2
Original post by SuperCat007
If you think that's dumbed down then I'm sure you'll find first year of the OU even worse! I don't know about psychology but for science the level is GCSE-AS at best. Plus there are very few face-to-face tutorials, books are being phased out meaning materials are entirely online. If I were you I'd look at either transferring to another uni for year 2 or just sticking it out and hoping things get more challenging.

If you start in February then you're going to be stuck either studying for a whole year (February courses run from Feb-Oct, most other courses, particularly level 2 and 3 run from Oct-June) so you might find you're studying non-stop from Feb-the following June, or you have to take a break in your studies to wait for the following October to start.

SFE will do part time tuition fee loans, but there's no other support. You will need to support yourself on top of your studies.

If you're only worried about the challenge of the work then I'd stick it out because it will get harder. Wait until after christmas, they'll probably start to ramp up the work after then.

It's everything to be honest I'm just not enjoying it, the work is dull not just because its not challenging, I think I might be on the wrong course but it's the right course for the career I want to go into. I'm also not enjoying the social side of uni, ugh I'm just going to have to stick it out and hope I don't fk up first year because I dislike it so much

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