Open University vs. Staffordshire University (DL)

Hi,

I hope I’ll be able to find some help here.

I’m struggling to choose between Open University MSc in Computing (Information Security and Forensics) and Staffordshire University MSc in Computer Science (Cyber Security) (DL).

Currently, I hold a BA in Law and a PGDip in Jurisprudence. I’ve been working for more than 15 years in compliance and product management in the financial and cybersecurity sectors. Now I want to transit more into cyber security (mostly pentest as a hobby and security engineering as a job) and product management. I hold CCNA certification and on the way to get OSCP certification soon. Working on a position for someone is not a desirable dream for me, as I’m an owner of the business and I like this role, however, I don’t exclude such prospect.

So, why am I looking into MSc in CS?

Firstly, as it might be required for some gov positions or orders
in the future. Secondly, as a pathway for PhD in case I’ll change a vector of my career to academic. Finally, it’s a personal passion to study.

As I live in Slovenia I’m limited in my choice of universities and have to consider distance learning as a solution.

OU on one hand has a good reputation in the UK and very quality study materials, on the other hand, I hate their grading system when they use the worst score from the continuous and examinable scores, which I believe unfair, and despite the fact, that their material is high quality, the course in total looks simple for me, while I like challenges.

Staffs – I don’t know about them much, and difficult to find some useful information. It’s a regular brick uni, which was a polytech long years ago. They are good in forensic, however, I can’t find any reviews of their DL program, which makes me think, that not many people have tried it, and so it might be low quality. Also, they have a penetration testing course in their syllabus, which I would never teach in any uni.

Both universities are not well known outside the UK.

I’m not considering software development degrees, as I’m not keen on software development and it’s just a “tool” for me.

I hope I’ll be able to make the right decision with a help of the community.



P.S. I was also thinking about Harvard Extension School and MA in Information Management Systems, as their course is high quality and the university has an excellent reputation, but unfortunately for me, it’s not fully DL and it’s quite expensive (35k USD).