I'm a mature and returning student. I last attempted the OU between 2009 and 2011 studying Law but had to stop when the needs of my children (two of the three have an ASD), became too much to combine with my studies and my results started to suffer.
This time I am doing an Open degree, I have been able to bring some credits forward but it does mean I have to complete the whole thing by July 2026 before more credits start to time out, had I got my bum into gear and not procrastinated, there would have been a whole lot more credits that could have been taken into account (all of first year equivalent, some of second year equivalent).
I'm enrolled in D110 and E104 to start with and the degree will follow a similar path but with a law course of two thrown in along the way so that it balances with the credits being brought forward.
Not only am I a mature student but I am also a disabled one, the DSA process has been an interesting (and at times frustrating) process but I think we are almost at the finish line with that. Not that I am a stranger to the Student finance/DSA process, all three of my boys went to university and two of them also had DSA support.
I go between feeling overwhelmed and wondering if I have bitten off more than I can chew and being excited and positive. My brain is not what it was (one of the reasons for the wheelchair) but having spent the last 18 months doing online courses via Open Learn and other providers, it appears there is still some residue of intelligent working in it, probably helped by having to be the checker and advisor to my children's university assignments and dissertations, although my teacher like scribbles and corrections did not always go down so well.
In my spare time I am the owner, main administrator and site builder of a sporting live results website and have been for the last 18 years, I didn't know the first thing about computers really when I got into it completely by accident (I didn't even know how to copy and paste) but I'm a true believer in the "What does this button do?" approach and if it doesn't work, switch it off, swear a little at it and switch it back on again and if that doesn't work, do some research and work out how to do it.