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finish my degree at a brick uni and do a dissertation or finish it at ou and avoid it

Long story short; I recently dropped out of an NHS degree course after realising it wasn't for me but I got and Fdsc in health and social care in 2015 and have the funding to top it up to a BSc so I can make the best of the situation and this my degree.

My dilemma is if I top it up at a brick uni I d have to do a 10,000 dissertation something which I ve never wanted to do and am not sure I m capable of but if I opted to top it up with open university then I d presumably need a higher average grade to get a 2:1.

So i m a bit stuck as to what to do really, so wondering what tsr thinks I should do?
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 1
Original post by claireestelle
Long story short; I recently dropped out of an NHS degree course after realising it wasn't for me but I got and Fdsc in 2015 and have the funding to top it up to a BSc so I can make the best of the situation and this my degree.

My dilemma is if I top it up at a brick uni I d have to do a 10,000 dissertation something which I ve never wanted to do and am not sure I m capable of but if I opted to top it up with open university then I d presumably need a higher average grade to get a 2:1.

So i m a bit stuck as to what to do really, so wondering what tsr thinks I should do?


Are you absolutely sure you won't have to complete a dissertation with the OU? Most degrees I looked into have an element of "project work" which is essentially their name for a dissertation. I've just looked up the OU BSc Nursing Practice course and it quite clearly states one module is just a project - the final word count is 7000, which is less that the 10,000 you're worried about but not so much less as to make a huge difference. There are also other assessed works in that module which are pretty much mini-projects so will be similar.
Original post by Juno
Are you absolutely sure you won't have to complete a dissertation with the OU? Most degrees I looked into have an element of "project work" which is essentially their name for a dissertation. I've just looked up the OU BSc Nursing Practice course and it quite clearly states one module is just a project - the final word count is 7000, which is less that the 10,000 you're worried about but not so much less as to make a huge difference. There are also other assessed works in that module which are pretty much mini-projects so will be similar.


Sorry,I should have said my fdsc is in health and social care so i d either be looking at a degree in that with the OU or if they d allow it i'd do an open degree Bsc, which both seem like I could do tutor marked assessments and possibly exams as well and avoid project modules? .
Reply 3
Original post by claireestelle
Sorry,I should have said my fdsc is in health and social care so i d either be looking at a degree in that with the OU or if they d allow it i'd do an open degree Bsc, which both seem like I could do tutor marked assessments and possibly exams as well and avoid project modules? .


The Nursing Practice course I looked at does have one module which is solely project, but other degrees have projects as part of them. Sometimes the TMA or EMA will be another name for a project. Tutor Marked Assignment is just a vague name for everything an assignment could possibly cover - some courses have short answer questions, others just have one essay per TMA, an art course may have to draw a picture, a maths course will mean solving maths problems etc. So just because it says you have some TMAs it doesn't actually tell you anything about the nature of that TMA.

For my degree I did this which just says 5 TMAs, but one of those was a project that was essentially a dissertation. Before I did this module I had assumed that if it had an exam it didn't have a project but this isn't always the case.
Original post by Juno
The Nursing Practice course I looked at does have one module which is solely project, but other degrees have projects as part of them. Sometimes the TMA or EMA will be another name for a project. Tutor Marked Assignment is just a vague name for everything an assignment could possibly cover - some courses have short answer questions, others just have one essay per TMA, an art course may have to draw a picture, a maths course will mean solving maths problems etc. So just because it says you have some TMAs it doesn't actually tell you anything about the nature of that TMA.

For my degree I did this which just says 5 TMAs, but one of those was a project that was essentially a dissertation. Before I did this module I had assumed that if it had an exam it didn't have a project but this isn't always the case.


Ah I understand, so it'd be best to contact OU and ask what the TMA's are for any of the modules I'm interested in before I make a decision really, thank you for your help :smile:
Reply 5
Original post by claireestelle
Ah I understand, so it'd be best to contact OU and ask what the TMA's are for any of the modules I'm interested in before I make a decision really, thank you for your help :smile:


The other issue you might have is that for the higher level modules they do like you to have done relevant work at a lower level first. As you've done level 1 and 2 modules in healthcare (at brick uni), you might find it difficult to take modules from other subjects. Depending on what you're hoping to take for your Open Degree this might limit your options.

If you know the course codes for the modules you're looking at you might be able to find details on google - sometimes previous students have set up study blogs and similar. If a project is part of the TMAs for the module it's likely to have a lower word count, but you still might be expected to write 5000 words or so. And that's still a long essay to write.
Original post by Juno
The other issue you might have is that for the higher level modules they do like you to have done relevant work at a lower level first. As you've done level 1 and 2 modules in healthcare (at brick uni), you might find it difficult to take modules from other subjects. Depending on what you're hoping to take for your Open Degree this might limit your options.

If you know the course codes for the modules you're looking at you might be able to find details on google - sometimes previous students have set up study blogs and similar. If a project is part of the TMAs for the module it's likely to have a lower word count, but you still might be expected to write 5000 words or so. And that's still a long essay to write.


The modules I'm considering are either health or biology or psychology related, i wasn't looking at anything that doesnt have some relevance to what i've studied in the past so hopefully they would allow me to study them:smile: I shall get googling some of the course codes now :smile: The most I've written in the past is 3000 words at level 5 which is part of why a dissertation is a worry to me, 5000 word does sound difficult but not impossible.

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