Going to university after 7 years out of education - any advice?

First thing to note is just make sure you do meet the requirements now - as often if you've been out of education for a number years unis want to see (or even require) that you've undertaken some recent formal study. This could be an access to HE course, OU modules, an A-level or two or something else. Of those options the Access to HE course is usually the most straightforward and relevant option. This itself will help you adjust to returning to education - and Access courses are usually specifically designed to support students with this too!

Otherwise just try and be proactive, keep on top of things, make sure you attend all timetabled activities, make use of office hours as needed, and if there are any issues or concerns or problems - definitely flag them with your personal tutor as early as possible! If you're struggling with anything (academic or otherwise) it really usually does make a big difference to flag this up early as they can then often try and help you troubleshoot things to help you improve

One thing that does help with higher education in general, which may well be easier for you having been out of education and, presumably, working, is treating it much like a 9-5 job. Keeping a consistent schedule to go up to campus and remaining there working on your assignments, doing readings, doing various "admin" tasks you need to do at uni, and attending all your timetabled activities can make a big difference - even just in trying avoid major "crunch" and stress and anxiety that go with that, and helping you hopefully maintain a "work"-life balance with your studies.

It's easy as a student to find it hard to "switch off" and end up having a constant low level stress of worrying about bits of work you feel you ought to be doing while trying to relax - if you maintain regular "hours" this can help a lot as you can think "actually yes I've done my hours and worked on all my stuff consistently through the day so am happy to take some time for myself").

Also once you're at uni definitely see if there's any specific targeted support for mature students or those from non-traditional educational backgrounds - often there can be some specific things available at unis which can help

Regarding recent formal study, honestly I don't have the time or money to do any of the options you mentioned so I'll have to hope they accept me anyway as I've already sent in my application whilst meeting the grade requirements and there is no going back now under any circumstances. I'll try keep what you said in mind, I absolutely intend to work as hard as I can to do well on the course when I start in a year's time and will try and formulate a schedule that works best for me. I haven't actually been working, I've had a myriad of personal problems and severe mental health problems over the years which has kept me away from university until now. Thanks for the response.

Well you can get funding for OU study (although it may affect entitlement for full time study if you achieve a qualification). You can also get funding for an Access course in the form of an Advanced Learner Loan (ALL) which gets written off if you get a degree after finishing the access course.

Did you contact any of the universities before applying?

Neither of those options are viable to me to be honest, the only plausible alternative would be taking a foundation year but I really don't want to do that as it would saddle me with even more debt and take me off the job market for another year.

I've contacted the universities asking whether I'd be accepted with my grades and did tell them that I received my a-level qualifications in 2017 and that I was applying as a 25 year old mature students, they seemed to have no issues with this however I didn't explicitly say that I'd been out of education since 2017 as I honestly hadn't even considered it since I already met the grade requirements.

I mean the first thing you should be aware of is that student finance "debt" is not like other forms of debt. It's effectively impossible to default on (short of actively attempting to defraud the SLC, or leaving the country and not telling them), does not affect your credit score, and 40 years after you take out the loan it's written off. You also only ever make repayments if you earn above the threshold, and the repayments are based on your income so you are never repaying more than you can afford. For most people student loans aren't even something you think about as if you are a PAYE worker, it's your employer's payroll staff who manage that and so you just see it on your paycheque going out along with your NI contributions and income tax. I would recommend reading this article about them so you understand them better: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/8-things-you-should-know-about-your-student-loan--2

It's not really useful to think about it as debt because it functions so completely differently to every other kind of debt that it will never really have any direct impact on your life. You'll make repayments sometimes, and may not at other times, and eventually it'll get written off anyway. There's also not even any good reason to pay it off early. I can't emphasise how much thinking about SFE loan "debt" in that context is unhelpful and not reflective of what your experience of it will actually be. It should not be a factor in your decision making about whether to do a foundation year or even any other kind of "longer" course e.g. one with a year abroad or similar.

Secondly, and likewise, being "off the job market" for one year in the face of a decades long career is essentially trivial. It's not a useful way to think about things.

In any event you'll have to see what the outcome is, some unis may be fine with it, some may not. If you get an offer for e.g. a course with a foundation year instead of direct entry you should consider that given the above information.

Thanks for the thorough and detailed description of student loans, that's alleviated some of my concerns. This may seem like somewhat of a stupid question but will the universities that I've applied to automatically give me an offer for a foundation year if they believe I need to do one despite me applying for the regular 3 year course or will I have to reapply through UCAS again for the foundation version of the courses I've selected. I didn't have any offer rejections the first time I went through this process back in 2017 so I'm unsure as to what would happen in the aforementioned event.

Hey everyone, basically I'm 24 (will be 25 when I start uni) and I've applied for September 2024 entry, I left Sixth Form back in 2017 with my A-levels and have been out of education since then. I was just wondering if you had any advice regarding getting prepared for being in full-time education again and if you know any ways I can easily acclimatize again to a learning environment after the amount of time that has passed.

Hey, did you get any offers? In a similar situation and worried they won't accept me because of being out of education for so long