Balancing work and uni

I would be going to open uni as a first time mature student, is it feesable to do this alongside having a 40 hour job? Is it financially feesable to work part time rather than full time? Has anyone experienced this I’m struggling to make a decision on this any advice or experience would be helpful

Reply 1

Kingston Lily

Official Rep

Original post by LouiseC15

Hi @LouiseC15

I believe I saw another post from you about this topic, and just wanted to add that starting university alongside a full-time job is indeed very difficult, I'd even say not reasonable, as there are very high risks are burnout, which I don't suppose you want either 😉 it will be a lot easier to go for a part-time job as you'll be able to work your shifts around your uni timetable.
As the other post suggested, contact open university about funding options is a great place to start, as there may be a loan, scholarship or bursary that you are eligible for, depending on you circumstance. This is a very common difficulty for all students who start university, so I definitely understand your concerns. Definitely contact student life advisors for those specific queries, as they will be best placed to help you out.

I hope this helps 🙂
-Lily (Kingston Rep)

Reply 2

PG Study Chester

Official Rep

Original post by LouiseC15

Hi LouiseC15,

It's great that you have decided to enrol with the Open University to study. Speaking from personal experience, and I know that everybody is different, with vastly different lives and responsibilities, I worked full time as a solicitor whilst working on a Masters degree in English literature with the OU. As the OU is distance learning, my course was compulsorily part time - there was no full time option - I don't know if it is the same for the degree course that you are planning to study. This meant that rather than the degree being one year if it were full time, it was over 2 years and therefore went at a much slower pace than the full time in person course might have been. Also as an additional 'bonus' the work load, although possibly heavier than that of the full time masters degree that I undertook afterwards, at Chester University, in person, was spread over a greater period of time and therefore not so intense. For me, there was no problem in terms of having enough time to juggle a full time career and the OU course, but I will stress that I have no family commitments - I lived at home with my parents so no child care responsibilities. I worked in the evenings and at weekends and it was fine.

Obviously the answer is unfortunately 'it depends' as we all have different lives. I'm not sure what course you are going to take so I think perhaps it might be best to speak to the Open University admissions and applications team who will be able to give you lots of more personalised advice, tailored to the course you are going to take. They will be able to outline the hours it is anticipated that you spend on the work and from this you can then gauge whether you think, based on your own circumstances, if you think you could cope with juggling the two.

I'm sorry I can't be more definite in my response, but I hope I've given you a little bit of help, if you want to ask anything else, please just ask, I'm happy to help if I can,
Jess
PhD English
University of Chester

Reply 3

BelindaFlamazing

I have also done a part-time masters over two years whilst working full time in finance (highly demanding job, I had to travel for work as well).
It is not easy - I had often stayed up until midnight catching up on coursework after work. What was helpful, is that all my classmates had the same issue - so you know you are not alone.
It is doable, you just have to be super efficient with zero procrastination time.

Reply 4

ErasistratusV

Very much depends on the course, the content and the contact time involved I would say. You will have to be pretty consistent and dedicated I would think.