Mature students - what challenges have you faced?
As per the title, if you are (or were) a mature student at uni, did you encounter any challenges? 
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
Spoiler
Care to share your experiences?
I trained as a teaching assistant once I finished my GCSEs, with the view of becoming a teacher. I did 2 terms on a temporary contract and hated it, so out went that dream haha.
I then went to work as a community care assistant, which I loved. It was quite tough at times due to my personal circumstances, my mom became ill in early 2014, she sadly died at the beginning of 2015. I would of explored avenues to go back into education, I would of probably pursued nursing but I needed to be at home as I have a brother who's considerably younger than me and a dad that works shifts. Fast forward a few years, my brother is older and can quite happily care for himself a bit more so I'm going back into education to get my access course and hopefully do social work.
I'm really fortunate that my dad is so supportive, I wasn't even considering moving away for uni but I've been encouraged to do so by my dad, he said I've been there for him and my brother when needed for the past 3 years..it's my time to live my life. My brother can't wait to have my bedroom as well......harhar.
I had my initial induction last Wednesday and start properly tomorrow, I'm not the oldest but we have a lot of people who are 20/21 on the course...so I feel odd being 23!
The only issues I'm coming across so far is that even though I've swapped my shifts and work and they are well aware of me going back to college I'm still being put on my old shift pattern!!
My advice to anyone would be to just bite the bullet and do it, you'll be (hopefully) be working for a significant portion of you life so you might as well work doing something you genuinely want to do.
I then went to work as a community care assistant, which I loved. It was quite tough at times due to my personal circumstances, my mom became ill in early 2014, she sadly died at the beginning of 2015. I would of explored avenues to go back into education, I would of probably pursued nursing but I needed to be at home as I have a brother who's considerably younger than me and a dad that works shifts. Fast forward a few years, my brother is older and can quite happily care for himself a bit more so I'm going back into education to get my access course and hopefully do social work.
I'm really fortunate that my dad is so supportive, I wasn't even considering moving away for uni but I've been encouraged to do so by my dad, he said I've been there for him and my brother when needed for the past 3 years..it's my time to live my life. My brother can't wait to have my bedroom as well......harhar.
I had my initial induction last Wednesday and start properly tomorrow, I'm not the oldest but we have a lot of people who are 20/21 on the course...so I feel odd being 23!
The only issues I'm coming across so far is that even though I've swapped my shifts and work and they are well aware of me going back to college I'm still being put on my old shift pattern!!
My advice to anyone would be to just bite the bullet and do it, you'll be (hopefully) be working for a significant portion of you life so you might as well work doing something you genuinely want to do.
I'm about to be 
only 21 but still feels like a big change! Hoping I'll get the best of both worlds- I'll still look about the youngest but I can stick with the mature students/postgrads if I want to. Watch this space!
only 21 but still feels like a big change! Hoping I'll get the best of both worlds- I'll still look about the youngest but I can stick with the mature students/postgrads if I want to. Watch this space!
Original post by discobish
As per the title, if you are (or were) a mature student at uni, did you encounter any challenges?
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
For me it was very difficult. I attempted to self-teach 2 A-levels as there were no colleges in my area that were open to teaching mature students. Self-teaching allowed me to study around work but it was difficult to overcome any topics I struggled with. Unfortunately work/life got in the way when my dad was admitted to hospital a few months before exam period for A2. Long story short I completely flopped 2 or 3 exams.
The thing with A-levels is that they rely on how good your memory is for the 2/3 weeks of exams and not your actual knowledge about subjects. If exams were spread throughout the year it would be more manageable. I understand now why most people who go back to studying lean towards Access courses as you are assessed evenly throughout the year.
Original post by Snufkin
Care to share your experiences?
Not quite at uni yet - only just started my access course!
But I'll join in anyway.Why now? I had a pretty rough time as a kid both at school and at home, so my whole childhood and education was a bit messed up. By the time I hit 16 things had gotten so bad at home that staying there and doing the sixth form jig wasn't an option unfortunately. So I took the only option I had, and bailed out of home straight into work at 16.
Thankfully I've never done a lot of dull work (was a theatre technician for most of that and now I have a cushty job in accounts). I knew at some point I would get the stability to go back into education though. That all came together and I started looking into things about two years ago. Now we're here!
What advice would I give? Don't let anyone keep you down!
i started college at 16 to get away from school but a job came up after 3 months so i left. the following year it fell through and i could not find anything else so i wound up on the streets. someone suggested joining the Army so i did but it changed too much while i served so i left after 7 years as a telecommunications engineer.
like most ex-service personnel, i came back to civvy street and became quite reclusive while maintaining a huge gap between personal and professional relationships. i had been driving trucks on the side so i had enough experience to drop straight into that line of work when i left but it is a very lonely job. it suited me for some years but recently i have wanted more from a job than just a wage every week but finding where i fitted in to the grand scheme of things was not easy. i thought i wanted management but when a chance conversation occured with a friend, everything fitted into place. his wife was studying through open university and i decided that if she can do that level of education then so can i. becoming a therapist working with the military seemed to be the ideal career to enable me to go back to working with the military and use my experience to eliminate the hurdles that civvy therapists face (language, understanding, respect, trust etc) due to cultural differences.
college was a challenge because not only was i going back into education but i was also having to travel outside of my area to do the course i needed so i would inevitably be thrown into a large bunch of people who i would not know and possibly had nothing in common with. my class was a mixed group of mostly younger females but it was never an issue for any of us. 10 months later i got the grades that i needed for university and yesterday (12th september) i had my first lectures on Philosophy and Psychology.
my advice to potential mature students? we all have doubts about our own abilities so do not give in to the fear. if you do nothing then you will achieve nothing so go and earn your place in the world. other people have done it which proves that it is doable so go and do it. they are not there to fail you!
like most ex-service personnel, i came back to civvy street and became quite reclusive while maintaining a huge gap between personal and professional relationships. i had been driving trucks on the side so i had enough experience to drop straight into that line of work when i left but it is a very lonely job. it suited me for some years but recently i have wanted more from a job than just a wage every week but finding where i fitted in to the grand scheme of things was not easy. i thought i wanted management but when a chance conversation occured with a friend, everything fitted into place. his wife was studying through open university and i decided that if she can do that level of education then so can i. becoming a therapist working with the military seemed to be the ideal career to enable me to go back to working with the military and use my experience to eliminate the hurdles that civvy therapists face (language, understanding, respect, trust etc) due to cultural differences.
college was a challenge because not only was i going back into education but i was also having to travel outside of my area to do the course i needed so i would inevitably be thrown into a large bunch of people who i would not know and possibly had nothing in common with. my class was a mixed group of mostly younger females but it was never an issue for any of us. 10 months later i got the grades that i needed for university and yesterday (12th september) i had my first lectures on Philosophy and Psychology.
my advice to potential mature students? we all have doubts about our own abilities so do not give in to the fear. if you do nothing then you will achieve nothing so go and earn your place in the world. other people have done it which proves that it is doable so go and do it. they are not there to fail you!
Original post by discobish
As per the title, if you are (or were) a mature student at uni, did you encounter any challenges?
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
The only issue about being a mature student is that there's more *******s in the demographic of the typical university age group than their is for the older generations
Original post by discobish
As per the title, if you are (or were) a mature student at uni, did you encounter any challenges?
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
What made you decide to study later on in life?
How have you found being older than others on your course?
Did family life, work, your finances or time pressure ever become an issue?
What advice would you give to anyone thinking about becoming a mature student?
BBC Radio 4 will be doing a programme on this topic on Wednesday 13th September - if you'd like to share your views, you can email [email protected] now, or call 03700 100 444 from 1pm to 3.30pm on the day.
I'm not at uni (yet) am doing an access course at college and uni next year.
I'm 35 (for the next couple of weeks) and decided to go back into education as I was unhappy with work/life. I wanted to do something I enjoy, I love history and philosophy so that's the plan.
I am one of the oldest but not the oldest. It's a mixed group from 17-45. Everyone talks to everyone, age isn't a barrier or issue.
Getting used to a lower monthly income is the biggest issue we have faced but it's been manageable, childcare was another one but it has worked itself out.
I am lucky to have a supportive partner that gets me and why I want to do this, that's a huge help to being able to prioritise college work and him understanding and helping with kids and house.
Know what you are entitled to, benefits wise and childcare wise, both via government and college.
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