Starting at the Open University

So long story short, I did two and a half years at Coventry University before moving to Brunel university and experiencing trauma. So now im going to study at the Open University and I cannot wait. After studying Psychology for 5 years I'm changing to Biomedical sciences and I feel free especially as I felt stuck at both universities. Any advice on starting as a mature student at the grand old age of 24?

Reply 1

jujulllll

3

I am starting at the ou in september doing a Ba geography degree, i am 48 , i did a previous degree at edge hill 20 years ago. at the ou you will be with loads of mature students , so you will be in good company, Advice i would give is make use of the forum groups that will start up when your course starts , they will be people on your course groupland its a good place for moral support. There are also under the student assoiation, online coffee mornings and interest groups that are a good way to meet fellow students from all courses to get tips and advice. good luck and pop me a message if you need to

Reply 2

MDB512024

11

From my personal experience, I think you are only classed as an adult student from age 25+ unless that has changed but that was the case back in 2011 when I enroled and I was roughly halfway between ages 37 & 38 at that time, I am now 51 and I have enjoyed all my study time with the OU right from the start.

The staff atvthe OH have plenty of ways they can help no matter what your circumstances are and I highly recommend grabbing any offers of help or assistance should you ever need it.

I wish you well with your studies and please don't hesitate to ask any further questions if you need to or you can contact the OU directly on 0300 303 5303.

Hope this helps

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by MDB512024

From my personal experience, I think you are only classed as an adult student from age 25+ unless that has changed but that was the case back in 2011 when I enroled and I was roughly halfway between ages 37 & 38 at that time, I am now 51 and I have enjoyed all my study time with the OU right from the start.

The staff atvthe OH have plenty of ways they can help no matter what your circumstances are and I highly recommend grabbing any offers of help or assistance should you ever need it.

I wish you well with your studies and please don't hesitate to ask any further questions if you need to or you can contact the OU directly on 0300 303 5303.

Hope this helps

It is true that from student finance's point of view you're classed as a dependent student until the age of 25 unless you are formally estranged, after which you're classified as an independent student. However this only has bearing on funding matters generally, and in this case since you can't ordinarily (unless you qualify due to specific disability requirements) get a maintenance loan for study at the OU (and thus necessitate the means testing which requires parental income for those under the age of 25) it ends up being a bit of a non-issue luckily :smile:

Universities themselves normally classify anyone over the age of 21 as a mature student, although the literature has identified that there are realistically at least two distinct "brackets" of mature students who have somewhat divergent needs, "young matures" who are defined as 21-25 or 21-30 usually, and "older matures" who are 25+/30+ (depending on the publication). A few also note a third group, which seem to be unfortunately referred to as "third age matures" in the materials discussing them, namely those who are 50+ or 55+ (since regardless of what you call this group, they do also often have somewhat different academic and pastoral needs as well as motivations!).

(There's also student parents as a major group for mature students particularly but these cut across all the age brackets!).

Original post by Shewins101

So long story short, I did two and a half years at Coventry University before moving to Brunel university and experiencing trauma. So now im going to study at the Open University and I cannot wait. After studying Psychology for 5 years I'm changing to Biomedical sciences and I feel free especially as I felt stuck at both universities. Any advice on starting as a mature student at the grand old age of 24?

I wouldn't worry too much about the age - 24 isn't too old for a mature student and particularly at the OU I imagine you're on the younger side as the OU has a very diverse range of ages in most cohorts in my experience!

Probably the things to advise are less about studying as a mature student and more about studying at the OU - it's pretty different to studying at a brick uni as you don't have timetabled lectures etc, you can schedule your tutorials much more flexibility for when it fits in your time and they are technically optional I think usually. But that does mean it's wholly on you to structure your study time and make sure you cover the material and work on the assignments and prepare for assessments! So you do have to be a bit disciplined about things (and it can take a bit of time to develop that in my experience :redface:

), I find breaking stuff down so you work on material for X block of time then do something else for Y block of time and alternate like that on your "free"/study days, and then on days where you might be working or have e.g. caring/other commitments, to just fit in bits of time where you can.

As noted above the OU are pretty helpful if you reach out to them and need support with things, so do proactively reach out to the OU/your tutor if you have any issues - the sooner you flag any challenges up the better as they are normally quite good in my experience at supporting students :biggrin:

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

Hi everyone! I’m not quite sure whether i should opt for open university. i’ve just finished my alevels and I haven’t heard of anyone being around 18 being a part of OU?

Reply 5

Ebonywildxx1602

1

Does anyone know how it works in regards to obtaining funding for an OU course ? I went to normal university and completed 2 years. Would I still be entitled to funding to do a part time course at the OU?

Thank you x

Reply 6

jujulllll

3

Original post by Ebonywildxx1602

Does anyone know how it works in regards to obtaining funding for an OU course ? I went to normal university and completed 2 years. Would I still be entitled to funding to do a part time course at the OU?
Thank you x

You are for certain subjects, health subjects and stem subjects, you can look online for courses that you can get 2nd degree funding for, the rest are self finance

Starting at the Open University

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