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PPE vs International Studies or Open Degree?

Hello TSR, trying to decide what course to start this year.
Most of all I was interested in PPE, I have plenty of time at the moment and will try to study full time. While PPE is what I'd really enjoy It would take me 4 years to finish it.
"Stage 1 of the BA (Honours) Politics, Philosophy and Economics (Q45) is governed by strict progression rules because you must complete the Level 1 module, Investigating the social world (DD103), before studying the Level 2 module Understanding politics: ideas and institutions in the modern world (DD211). Therefore, the soonest this qualification could be completed is within 4 years time."
Well PPE is a 4-year course in brick unis, so can't complain. The number of credits is same though.
But today I found an old thread where someone wanted to do 120 credits in the first year :

1.

I'm starting PPE in October and doing the full 120 credits, so DD103 and DD211.
I'm Lizzay and it is nice to know that someone else is doing my course program.



Just wanted to double check maybe there's a way to finish DD103 and then DD211 same year?
My second option after PPE, Is International Studies. Almost all course looks interesting, and I'm sure I'd enjoy it, only thing I think that PPE has an advantage over IR(in terms of employment) which is involvement of economics. All modules I'd take are similar to politics part in PPE plus IR part minus Philosophy and Economics.
And last option is Open Degree, but I have a concern o how would employers react to its name (Especially back in my country). But the advantage of it is that I could take Politics/IR modules part together with couple Economic modules.
I would apply for IR course already, but registration will not be opened until May, so decided to ask for your opinion guys? Which one you think is better and why? How good is Open degree? And maybe there's some secret way to do PPE in 3 years lol.
And would be nice to find people who plan to start the same course this year. Anyway, appreciate your advice guys.
Hi - sorry you haven't had a response to this yet. I'm just going to bump the thread in the hope that someone sees this and can help :h:
Student at the Open University
Open University
Milton Keynes
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Original post by lumpinee
Hello TSR, trying to decide what course to start this year.
Most of all I was interested in PPE, I have plenty of time at the moment and will try to study full time. While PPE is what I'd really enjoy It would take me 4 years to finish it.
"Stage 1 of the BA (Honours) Politics, Philosophy and Economics (Q45) is governed by strict progression rules because you must complete the Level 1 module, Investigating the social world (DD103), before studying the Level 2 module Understanding politics: ideas and institutions in the modern world (DD211). Therefore, the soonest this qualification could be completed is within 4 years time."
Well PPE is a 4-year course in brick unis, so can't complain. The number of credits is same though.
But today I found an old thread where someone wanted to do 120 credits in the first year :

1.

I'm starting PPE in October and doing the full 120 credits, so DD103 and DD211.
I'm Lizzay and it is nice to know that someone else is doing my course program.




Just wanted to double check maybe there's a way to finish DD103 and then DD211 same year?
My second option after PPE, Is International Studies. Almost all course looks interesting, and I'm sure I'd enjoy it, only thing I think that PPE has an advantage over IR(in terms of employment) which is involvement of economics. All modules I'd take are similar to politics part in PPE plus IR part minus Philosophy and Economics.
And last option is Open Degree, but I have a concern o how would employers react to its name (Especially back in my country). But the advantage of it is that I could take Politics/IR modules part together with couple Economic modules.
I would apply for IR course already, but registration will not be opened until May, so decided to ask for your opinion guys? Which one you think is better and why? How good is Open degree? And maybe there's some secret way to do PPE in 3 years lol.
And would be nice to find people who plan to start the same course this year. Anyway, appreciate your advice guys.


You won't be able to take the stage 1 PPE modules in one year, I believe this is because one of the modules, DD211, is actually a stage 2 module in terms of difficulty, in order to prepare one must pass DD103 first.

I think it's unwise to try and do an OU degree in three years, no matter what the subject is. Doing two level 3 60 credit modules at the same time would be very difficult indeed. Four years is a realistic time-frame. I suggest you just pick whichever degree interests you most, the time it takes to complete should not be a factor in your decision.

There are alternative distance-learning degrees which might interest you, although you won't get as much acadmeic support as with the OU:

https://london.ac.uk/courses/economics-and-politics
https://london.ac.uk/courses/international-relations-bsc
https://london.ac.uk/courses/politics-and-international-relations
Reply 3
Original post by Puddles the Monkey
Hi - sorry you haven't had a response to this yet. I'm just going to bump the thread in the hope that someone sees this and can help :h:

It worked! Thanks:smile:)

Original post by Snufkin
You won't be able to take the stage 1 PPE modules in one year, I believe this is because one of the modules, DD211, is actually a stage 2 module in terms of difficulty, in order to prepare one must pass DD103 first.

I think it's unwise to try and do an OU degree in three years, no matter what the subject is. Doing two level 3 60 credit modules at the same time would be very difficult indeed. Four years is a realistic time-frame. I suggest you just pick whichever degree interests you most, the time it takes to complete should not be a factor in your decision.

There are alternative distance-learning degrees which might interest you, although you won't get as much academic support as with the OU:

https://london.ac.uk/courses/economics-and-politics
https://london.ac.uk/courses/international-relations-bsc
https://london.ac.uk/courses/politics-and-international-relations


Thing is I'm 30 soon 31, so time is precious :smile: plus I will have enough time to do it full-time next year, so wanted to save a year or two.
UoL degree is tempting and was my primary option but a lot of bad reviews about it here like "leaving you with books until May" etc. Sounds pretty tough. Would you go for UoL over OU yourself?
Original post by lumpinee
Thing is I'm 30 soon 31, so time is precious :smile: plus I will have enough time to do it full-time next year, so wanted to save a year or two.
UoL degree is tempting and was my primary option but a lot of bad reviews about it here like "leaving you with books until May" etc. Sounds pretty tough. Would you go for UoL over OU yourself?


That's not old imo (that said, I'm coming up on 30 and I'm not at all happy about it :tongue:), but keep in mind that you're going to be working for the next 40 years, so taking an extra 9 months to finish a degree is not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things.

I personally wouldn't study with a UoL distance learning programme because I'm not very good at independent learning, but for those who can study without support, it's a great option.
I’m currently studying DD103 which is only 60 credits at level 1, therefore you would need to do a further 60 credits at level 1 before you could progress to DD211. I would suggest studying DD102 first if that is an option, as it sets you up well for DD103, which in my opinion, is very difficult as a first module. I took DD102 first and have found it much easier than those who didn’t. I am doing an open degree as well, mostly because I didn’t find a degree which had all the modules I would have liked to do.
Reply 6
Hi, Willow.21 so you wouldn't recommend taking 102 and 103 full time?
I'm now leaning towards PPE and doing it in 5 years (taking DD211 and AA222, the second year).
On the other hand, IR has everything I'm interested in but missing economics module. Taking IR I would try to do 102 and 103 in my first year but I'm a bit worried about my English.
Original post by lumpinee
Hi, Willow.21 so you wouldn't recommend taking 102 and 103 full time?
I'm now leaning towards PPE and doing it in 5 years (taking DD211 and AA222, the second year).
On the other hand, IR has everything I'm interested in but missing economics module. Taking IR I would try to do 102 and 103 in my first year but I'm a bit worried about my English.


It depends entirely on your lifestyle and how much time you can commit to it. Personally, I'm a single working mum and whilst I'd like to get this done quicker, it would definitely have affected my grades to do both in one year. DD103 is a step up from DD102 and many people have found it incredibly challenging. Can I ask why you're worried about your English? There is a lot of guidance for DD102, which is why I think it's best to study that first.

Honestly, I would just go for what you're interested in. Many people are taking either DD102 or 103 as part of a criminology and psychology degree and are finding it difficult because social sciences are not what their main interest is. So doing something that is more interesting is more likely to get you better grades.
hey there. i am currently looking into the PPE as well. My wish is to study a combination of Math Phil and Econ and the PPE is the closest thing I found in the OU besides an open degree. same age as you too, time is and is not an issue.. you dont plan on dieing before 80 do you ?? ^_^
any idea how good the support is at the OU? i was planning to taking Alevels or foundation programs before the OU came into consideration..
Reply 10
Original post by SkillBill
hey there. i am currently looking into the PPE as well. My wish is to study a combination of Math Phil and Econ and the PPE is the closest thing I found in the OU besides an open degree. same age as you too, time is and is not an issue.. you dont plan on dieing before 80 do you ?? ^_^
Yeah PPE is great if you are interested in those modules. Your plan is to do 60 credits a year? Good thing about it that you can get work experience while studying if you not getting it already.
6 years is ling though😀
Original post by SkillBill
any idea how good the support is at the OU? i was planning to taking Alevels or foundation programs before the OU came into consideration..

Can't say for sure but I've read loads of reviews and most students say that's its good/very good but comparisons are usually between OU and UoL which is x3 times cheaper. There are lots of bad comments about UO but most of them not saying too much so can't look at them seriously and most of them from people who dropped out anyway.
If you want more support for distant learning - OU is probably the best choice. Just because there's not much competition for them yet.
Pm me if you will make your mind and enroll, good luck!
Original post by lumpinee
Yeah PPE is great if you are interested in those modules. Your plan is to do 60 credits a year? Good thing about it that you can get work experience while studying if you not getting it already.
6 years is ling though😀

Can't say for sure but I've read loads of reviews and most students say that's its good/very good but comparisons are usually between OU and UoL which is x3 times cheaper. There are lots of bad comments about UO but most of them not saying too much so can't look at them seriously and most of them from people who dropped out anyway.
If you want more support for distant learning - OU is probably the best choice. Just because there's not much competition for them yet.
Pm me if you will make your mind and enroll, good luck!


hey there! thank you very much for your response! researching for open uni is progressing slow and results are so controversial.

Regarding PPE, I am interested in the subjects, but my original plan for a brick uni was to enroll into the social sciences college for the Philosophy and Economics part and take a lot of Mathematics classes for my optional modules. Which I cant do in the OU unless I go for the Open Degree.
One thing I dont know if it will work out for me is that because I have diverse interests I like the idea of having 10-20 optional classes of 10-20 credits each to choose from. I dont know if it will be the same in the OU since they have modules of 30-60 credits. Do they include a lot of different stuff in those modules? Ie in the philosophy module do they have some epistemology,some philosophy of mind and some political philosophy?

My biggest concern though is missing all the lectures and the discussions afterwards, so I m trying to see if they have some meetings every now and then? In the Open Uni where I live (Greece) they do have some every once a month thats why i thought maybe they do it here too?

PS:i plan to do 120 credits a year. but how connected is the OU to employers? can they get you a summer internship for example?
(edited 5 years ago)
Reply 12
Original post by SkillBill
hey there! thank you very much for your response! researching for open uni is progressing slow and results are so controversial.

Regarding PPE, I am interested in the subjects, but my original plan for a brick uni was to enroll into the social sciences college for the Philosophy and Economics part and take a lot of Mathematics classes for my optional modules. Which I cant do in the OU unless I go for the Open Degree.
One thing I dont know if it will work out for me is that because I have diverse interests I like the idea of having 10-20 optional classes of 10-20 credits each to choose from. I dont know if it will be the same in the OU since they have modules of 30-60 credits. Do they include a lot of different stuff in those modules? Ie in the philosophy module do they have some epistemology, some philosophy of mind and some political philosophy?

My biggest concern though is missing all the lectures and the discussions afterwards, so I m trying to see if they have some meetings every now and then? In the Open Uni where I live (Greece) they do have some every once a month thats why i thought maybe they do it here too?

PS:i plan to do 120 credits a year. but how connected is the OU to employers? can they get you a summer internship for example?


You can see the content of the modules. Some of them look pretty wide for me. Most reviews about PPE economics part are very good but I don't think that it will be very maths heavy, people say that there's no calculus in DD209(?).
Keep in mind that you will have to do 60 credits first year because you will need DD103 to move on to DD211.

I have the same concern about missing lectures and discussions. Though even in Oxford students admit they rarely go to lectures(stupid isn't it?). Still, brick uni will win here all day long

They have career department, but I have no idea if they any good. Employment rate after graduation is high but most people are already working while study.
Let's hope we will get more answers from people who studied. :smile:

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