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Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes
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Thinking of starting OU. Help!

Hi! I'm a mature student aged 26 and considering starting a Forensic Psychology degree with the Open University, I'm currently studying A Levels in psychology and sociology.

Is any one else doing this course with OU? And if so, how are you finding it? How good is the tutor support? I started a course with ICS distance learning and the whole thing was just awful, and the tutor would never reply to me when I needed help.

secondly, do OU have their own exam centres for exams? Do you have a graduation?

Lastly, there's a chance that I could be moving to live in USA next year due to my husbands work, will this affect me if I do start with OU in the UK? I know that they do operate around the world.

Any advice on OU in general would be great

Thanks :smile:
Well, I'm not doing that course, but I'm an OU student, so I'll see what I can do to answer your general questions...

Hoe supportive your tutor is can vary - mine have all been great and very available, but sometimes people do have other experiences. Your tutor isn't your only source of support, though - there are Student Support Teams and course-wide forums which can be helpful with different issues; and you can go along to other tutors' tutorials if you particularly want to - this can be a good way of getting a different perspective on something you aren't grasping.

Exams are sat at a venue near wherever you live (unless you specifically request to sit them elsewhere) - they basically book venues out to use, so it could be something like a sports hall or a community centre - my recent exam was in a sort of general-purpose local council building that gets used for meetings by day, and as an entertainment venue at night.

Yes, there's a graduation - you don't have to go if you don't want to, but the option is there if you do. Once you've achieved your qualification, I believe you basically just book a place at whichever graduation venue you want to go to. (There's a bit of info here.)

Re: moving to the US, I believe the thing you'd need to really look into is how the finances would work for your study - I'm not sure whether you'd be able to get a tuition fee loan if you weren't in the country, so you'd need to find out about that. Obviously, you wouldn't be able to attend any face-to-face tutorials (although those are optional anyway); and if your course has any compulsory residentials you'd need to figure out what you were doing about those. For exams, I believe that students who aren't close to any of the OUs exam centres can either come to the UK to sit their exam, or arrange to sit the exam overseas, for which there is a fee.
Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes
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Thank you. That's all bery helpful. I will definitely be flying home to the UK regularly so theres a chance I could take the exam here. If they allow me to of course.

What are you studying with them?
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I'm doing an Open Degree, so one where you can pick whatever subjects you want - I'm mainly doing Creative Writing and Design & Innovation.
That sounds interesting, so how does that work? You can pick topics different courses?

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For an Open Degree, you can basically pick whichever subjects you want from all the modules, to make up 120 points at each level. Obviously there are some limits on that - it wouldn't really be possible to suddenly decide I wanted to study, say, Physics at Level 3 when I had no background in it and hadn't done it at Levels 1 and 2, for example - but broadly you get to mix and match whatever you want. It's a good option if (like me) you want to combine subjects that the OU doesn't offer as a named degree; or if some aspect of a named degree programme doesn't quite suit what you want and you'd prefer to substitute another module along the way.
Original post by Persipan
For an Open Degree, you can basically pick whichever subjects you want from all the modules, to make up 120 points at each level. Obviously there are some limits on that - it wouldn't really be possible to suddenly decide I wanted to study, say, Physics at Level 3 when I had no background in it and hadn't done it at Levels 1 and 2, for example - but broadly you get to mix and match whatever you want. It's a good option if (like me) you want to combine subjects that the OU doesn't offer as a named degree; or if some aspect of a named degree programme doesn't quite suit what you want and you'd prefer to substitute another module along the way.


Hmmm very interesting. Thays given me something to think about.
Thanks a lot,.I really appreciate your help :smile:

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