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Open University

Hi,
i am currently a 3rd year pharmacy student at a brick university, and recently I’ve been feeling like this course isn’t right for me and I have so many regrets about picking it. I’ve been heavily depressed over it and was looking into some options, such as switching my degree to Maths (my favourite subject) and learning with the OU, as my university has said they will not let me transfer. I know i only have two years of the degree left and they’ll “go to waste” but I really don’t enjoy it at all and feel zero motivation, I’ve lost all the love I had for pharmacy. Any advice would be appreciated

Reply 1

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

You say you're on a 5 year pharmacy course - are you doing one with a pre-reg year or similar? Are you able to swap to the 4 year version?

While you probably can't credit transfer much/anything from the pharmacy course to the OU one, you could likely simply start a new degree with them. However as you should be entitled to funding for a part-time STEM course (all courses at the OU regardless of "intensity" i.e. how many credits you study per year, are classified as part-time by SFE currently, and maths should fall under this category), you may want to see if you can swap to the 4 year pharmacy course to just get it under your belt if you feel you can at least pass it, then you can pursue the maths degree with the OU still anyway! That said bear in mind at the OU you can't normally get a maintenance loan - hence it would be useful to have a degree in case you wanted to work while pursuing your maths course, since even outside of the realm of pharmacy having any degree might open more doors for e.g. office based work etc :smile:

If you absolutely feel you can't complete the current course and doing so would be extremely deleterious to your own health (which I can sympathise with, having been in that situation myself previously) then that's definitely something to discuss with your personal tutor to understand a) if there's any support available for you at the moment and b) what options you have otherwise and what the processes are for those.

I would note, if you withdraw from a full-time course in 3rd year you will not get full funding for a full-time in person course somewhere else so do keep this in mind. However if you didn't earn any qualification from the course you should still be entitled to part-time funding (even for non-exception courses), including courses at the OU (which as above are all classified as part-time by SFE). So you should be able to withdraw and start again from first year at the OU to study maths and be fully funded at present (but do confirm this with SFE BEFORE making any big decisions!!).

So in short:

Do look at options for completing the current degree if there's a way to complete it in a shorter time period and still qualify, just as a backup, then doing maths as a part-time second degree.

If that's not viable for any reason, look into part-time options to study a new degree in maths from first year.

As noted at the OU, all study intensities are classified as part-time for funding purposes at present (unless it's changed very recently), so even if you studied a "full time equivalent" of 120 credits a year, it would count as part-time for funding.

Keep in mind you can't get a maintenance loan with the OU normally so do consider the financial picture.

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

Thank you so much🙂 i’ll definitely speak with mytutors and get their advice first. i do honestly feel asthough if i continue with this degree i’ll remain totallyunhappy lol, but from a practical viewpoint i probablyshould start what i finished i guess

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by Anonymous

I mean I can understand the position and I did leave my previous course (also at the start of 3rd of 4 years) for that reason. I was suffering from really bad mental health issues which were being exacerbated by my situation remaining on the course and so I made the decision to leave - it's a valid decision to make, and only you can make it. But it is good to explore all the options first (in my case I actually interrupted my studies twice before I ended up withdrawing as I realised that a short interruption wouldn't improve the situation and I wasn't sure I could even get a decent pass in the degree with the direction my health was going in the end so it just felt not worth it).

If after seeing all the options and talking it through you realise that continuing the course is just a non-starter, and that you the financial/funding implications work out for you, then it's definitely fair to recognise that it was the wrong course for you and unfortunately you just realised a bit later than is ideal. It happens - and you just need to try and make the best of it then!

In my case I took some years out of uni, worked for a bit, did a couple modules at the OU then went back and am now doing my (part-time, for funding purposes) degree in another subject area and am generally a lot happier with that (even with other challenges that have arisen in the meantime!) :smile:

So withdrawing and then starting again is definitely a possibility and it can work out! But yes I think it does behoove you at least to get all the options laid out from your current uni to understand where you are, what the possibilities are, and then you can make an informed decision :h: