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Open University

Milton Keynes

Open University > Yay or Nay?

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Reply 20

Bill_Gates

Original post by the man from space

i dont see anything bad with it, its for people who want to take steps to improve their career aspects, for example a bin man, could study law while still working so its a great win for him

Why would a bin man whose on 32k + study to become a lawyer who starts on 24kish if they're lucky

Open University

Milton Keynes

Reply 21

Nitebot

Original post by Bill_Gates

Why would a bin man whose on 32k + study to become a lawyer who starts on 24kish if they're lucky

Where did you get 32k from?! I work in local government. 32k is in the range that an experienced professional with no management responsibilities could expect to earn. Salaries for a standard bin man outside London are more likely half that. Supervisors and drivers earn more.

An experienced solicitor in the private sector should be earning 50k plus and 40k plus in the public sector. So it's certainly worth a shot if you have ambition and are patient enough to battle it out for a hard to get training contract.

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Reply 22

Bill_Gates

Original post by Nitebot

Average Bin man in my borough in Birmingham picks up 32k. I know many solicitors who are unemployed and working in call centres. Im sceptical, i know some make a good living but majority these days not really. Even the recycling team earn 24k in my borough.

Reply 23

Nitebot

Original post by Bill_Gates

Surely not basic pay for the binmen? I know that street cleaners can earn big overtime pay if there's accidents or social disturbances. I think there's too many law graduates at the moment. Just about every Uni has a law degree course but there are nowhere near enough training places for them. Same goes for architecture and psychology and other ridiculously popular degrees. People really need to think about the odds of making it in a career before choosing their degree. Nothing wrong with doing a popular degree so long as you recognise that you may have to go into another related or even unrelated profession.

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Reply 24

Bill_Gates

Original post by Nitebot

Basic pay starts at 24k and then goes up by 3k every year. So most of them are on around 32k. I agree with your points.

Reply 25

Rum Ham

Yay. I am very satisfied so far with my degree experience with OU. Many people think OU is for 'thick people', stay at home mums, old people or just for leisure. It is for everyone. I was shocked at how many young people are actually studying with OU instead of attending a brick uni. I am 21 and I chose the OU over a brick uni due to health and money reasons.

You forever hear that OU degrees are of a lesser value than a 'normal' degree but that isn't true. You still have to do all the same work and IMO, its a lot harder studying for a degree with OU because you have to manage your workload all by yourself, keep up motivation which can be very hard at times and you teach yourself most of the time. The support I have received from my fellow students and my lecturers has been great though. OU degrees are in no way easier, despite what people think.

A lot of people think employers look down at someone who has studied with this uni. Yes sadly some will but on the whole, most employers accept them the same as a normal degree or slightly higher because it shows extra commitment and motivation that you balanced a degree around your home life and basically taught yourself and kept up the motivation and kept going.

This uni isn't everyone's cup of tea and that is fine but for my part, I couldn't be happier with my studies with them.

Reply 26

seaholme

Maybe it depends on what you study at the OU but I did a module there and I thought it was a bit of a joke, to be honest. Basically a textbook arrived in the post, I did no work as I was busy at the time, and then the final exam was just this online thing - so I looked up all the answers in the textbook and passed with flying colours.

Perhaps other modules are assessed differently, but with online learning like that I don't see how they can ever fairly assess you or if they're always just assessing your ability to speedily use the index at the back of the book. Not to mention the book was pretty expensive and the online tutor forum thing was pretty naff. I asked one question and nobody on the tutor team replied for a week so I got bored of checking, besides which the forum set-up was ancient.

Different things for different people, but my experience of the OU was not so great. :s-smilie:

You could do all the work and get a degree at the end, or you can do no work and still get the degree despite actually being clueless.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 27

amongsttheweeds

Original post by seaholme

You could do all the work and get a degree at the end, or you can do no work and still get the degree despite actually being clueless.

This would have been level 1. Is the first year of any uni not easy? Plus, the OU has to start easier to ensure everyone has the same knowledge.

The OU has to meet the framework that other unis meet, else it would cease to exist.

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Reply 28

BttrLtThnNvr

I read this thread title as Open University is greater than yay or nay, correct use of <, > please.

Reply 29

IceKidd

Original post by Kate.

Why is it not fair? The OU is open to everyone, but you won't succeed unless you have the academic ability. Anyone can start a degree, but not everyone will finish. It's not like they just hand out degrees to anyone who wants one.

lol r u sure.everyone can get a degree for nothing nowadays

Reply 30

Kate.

Original post by IceKidd

lol r u sure.everyone can get a degree for nothing nowadays

Yeah...no. Weirdly enough, you still have loads work to do with the OU, and it still has to be at a high standard in order to get a high classification.

Reply 31

Seathestars

I think it's a great idea to be honest, however it does require a lot of commitment and self-motivation... and as others have said I don't think its quite held in the same regard as a degree obtained from a ''standard'' university. Definitely worth doing though if you have the motivation and want to better yourself :smile:

Reply 32

IceKidd

Original post by Kate.

Yeah...no. Weirdly enough, you still have loads work to do with the OU, and it still has to be at a high standard in order to get a high classification.

im talkin in general not just OU

Reply 33

Kate.

Original post by IceKidd

im talkin in general not just OU

And what I said applies to every university. Yes, loads of people go to university now, so more people are getting degrees than 30 years ago, but they don't just hand out first class degrees to anyone who wants one. There are still standards that have to be met...

Reply 34

seaholme

Original post by addylad

Well, the first year of my University was really hard! :s-smilie:

In fact I think it was the hardest year I've done. Not that I represent all people because it just depends on the set-up of your degree as to whether the first year is designed like a mass cull or a gentle introduction, but there's still a difference between something where the material is simple versus a system where the exam is flawed.

If a certificate doesn't actually guarantee that at the time of the exam you knew enough stuff to have earnt the certificate, it isn't really worth much.

Reply 35

IceKidd

Original post by Kate.

i didnt say first class degrees. u can get an easy degree. any mickey mouse subject from any non top 10 uni is easy to get

Reply 36

Nitebot

Original post by seaholme

That sounds like a level 1 ten pointer. They're tasters designed to ease you in for the 30 and 60 credit modules. But try doing S104 Exploring Science if you haven't studied much science in the past. Now that's a challenge especially as it now has an exam at the end. Also, as with most Unis, L1 modules aren't counted towards your degree grade so you've got to do well at the tougher L2 & L3 modules and some of these like S330 Oceanography are notoriously tough as it's like studying for 60 credits but only getting rewarded with 30.

We've discussed degree quality a lot in the past. You can't really knock the OU degrees which have been accredited by professional bodies such as Law, Psychology and Engineering. Many campus based degrees are not accredited especially in subjects like psychology where accreditation bodies like the BPS can be picky. Nor can you knock the many accredited work based qualifications like the Social Work, Education and Nursing courses which have restricted entry and are designed to increase the number of qualified people in essential services. Then there's the postgrad courses such as the MBA and PGCE where the OU is a national leader. May be some of the non accredited hybrid degrees and qualifications carry less weight such as Criminology and Psychological Studies or International Studies but surely they're no worse than doing the much maligned media studies degrees at campus unis.

So to sum up, the OU has quality courses. I often think it probably helps for some subjects like science if you work in the field in which you're studying, as that helps give you the practical experience that campus students usually get. But you don't hear so much about OU graduates ending up on the scrap heap flipping burgers or doing bar work.

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(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 37

niyuco

Original post by IceKidd

i didnt say first class degrees. u can get an easy degree. any mickey mouse subject from any non top 10 uni is easy to get

It's a shame then that they didn't teach you spelling, punctuation and grammar when you were at Oxford.

Reply 38

IceKidd

Original post by niyuco

It's a shame then that they didn't teach you spelling, punctuation and grammar when you were at Oxford.

u dont have to apply something youve been taught

Reply 39

Kittiara

Original post by seaholme

You could do all the work and get a degree at the end, or you can do no work and still get the degree despite actually being clueless.

For my first module (worth 60 points) I had to write five essays to be marked by my tutor, a report, and then an end of year essay. All the grades mattered.

For the 60 point level 2 module I did last year I had to write six essays and sit a three hour exam which was supervised. No notes or books allowed.

The one I am doing this year is the same - six essays and a three hour supervised exam at the end.

I can understand the conclusions you've drawn from your experiences, though. Which module was it that you did?