I’m contemplating starting a degree with th OU later in the year so this thread could be very helpful for me! I’m a mechanical technician by trade but looking at doing Environmental Science as it interests me a lot more than an engineering degree. I’m not too arsed if it gets me rich, I’m doing it to prove to myself that I can more than anything else. I also have no idea what I actually want to do with the rest if my life (I’m 30 at the mo) as in about 6 months I’m leaving my current job (contract ending) and have no idea what I want to do…

With that in mind, am I wasting my time and money?

I’m leaving my current job (contract ending) and have no idea what I want to do…

Give university a try. University isn’t primarily a vocational school, it’s about getting a broader education so that you can understand how the technical fields fit into a broader view of the world (i.e. “university” = universal knowledge). University gives you a lot of chances to take classes that interest you, for example philosophy, literature, history. If you decide your course of study is not what you expected, you can change to a different course or school and take your existing credits with you. I started out thinking I wanted to be an engineer but got bored with that, meandered around studying different things, and finally ended up working in a field that is almost totally unrelated to where I started. If you’re bored with what you’re doing and can afford to not work for a year or two, give it a try and don’t be afraid to just ditch any courses you think are rubbish and try something else that sounds interesting.

Andy: if youre looking at Environmental Science, have a look at Birlbeck: they offer both part-time and/or distance learning courses,coupled with superb facilities and a great reputation in the field of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
I’m doing geology there now. I’m 41 at the moment and not sure where it’ll lead. I’ve started off with a Certificate of Higher Ed. But I can upgrade to the degree if I want.

I would recommend Mendeley for referencing. It’s brilliant! I also recommend teaching yourself to read on screen rather than printing out papers and highlighting. With Mendeley you can highlight the PDF. You don’t then lose the paper on the floor at 2am.

I also recommend staying well away from Endnote. It will ruin you life by crashing at 3am the day of your deadline. Then Endnote demand £200 for the latest version to fix the problem. Especially true if you’re on Office 365. Endnote seems to always be behind the current version of Word

Other than that an undergrad is about discipline. If you go out and get wrecked in the student bars every night you’ll get a carp result. Get organised and do the work an you’ll get a good mark.

** that should say Birkbeck above.

@andypandy85
I would suggest also looking at an apprenticeship if you are looking at paying tuition fees. In my field (Marine Biology) a BSc. will get you a job at pretty much apprenticeship level. The difference being you get paid (a pitance) rather than having scary amounts of debt to pay off. A good enrionmental science company will often pay for promising employees to do a degree/masters/PhD at a later date.

I’ve got a BSc. and and MSc. It cost me £9k in fees plus 4.5 hrs living costs (MSc was funded by EU). The fees would now cost £18k+ With the numbers I paid it just about works out. With todays numbers I wouldn’t do it. You’ll never get rich doing environmental science. But you also need to be careful to make sure you don’t get poor!

Just signed up for an MEd distance, so have book marked this with interest.

I’m told I will need around 19 hours per week to study – My mind says well that is just 3 hours per day, reality is there goes Saturday and Sunday.

OP – i’m an academic and i love mature students. Use that work ethic you have picked up doing a job and, as others have said, treat your degree as a job. If you’re full time that means 37ish hours a week on uni work. Those gaps between lectures/seminars are for doing the reading, working on assignments, looking up those words you didn’t understand.

When you get feedback on an assignment, re-read the work and make your own notes. Read someone else’s and see what they did well/not well. Make a list of the things you got marks for and things you lost them on – in the next assignment make sure you keep doing the good stuff, and address the bad.

If you go to see a member of staff, make sure you have prepared. It is so annoying when someone asks about an assignment but has clearly given it no thought themselves.

Read – you’ll never have a chance to explore a topic in as much freedom as while you’re at university.

Start thinking about your assignments as soon as they are set.

dovebiker – Member
What are you going to do with your degree? 50% of graduates are under-employed/don’t use their qualifications.

I don’t understand what this means. A degree is what you learn, not the qualification. Even if you aren’t using the discipline-specific knowledge learnt on a degree, in all likelihood graduates will be using the skills practiced and developed while at university. Moreover, learning how to learn is pretty crucial.

If you’re full time that means 37ish hours a week on uni work. Those gaps between lectures/seminars are for doing the reading, working on assignments, looking up those words you didn’t understand.

This package is a distance-learning degree. I’m working full time in a Logistics role and doing the degree on the side (when I’m not looking after the children!).

Thanks for the input! It’s all pretty new at the minute.

What are you going to do with your degree?

I’m not really planning anything with it. It was a great opportunity i took / was given for some personal and professional development. That, and it might open some more doors when it comes to career-change time.

I spent a long time at uni (BA, Masters, and PhD). I never worked more than 35 hours a week, I’d say I averaged 5 hours a day at postgrad level, and probably 4 hours a day as an undergrad.
The only people I knew who worked “full time” hours at uni were the science PhDs.
When it came to writing up, I started to use EndNote, but as others have said, it was buggy and crashed a lot. Using some sort of citation software will certainly save you a lot of time in the long run.

I’m contemplating starting a degree with th OU later in the year so this thread could be very helpful for me! I’m a mechanical technician by trade but looking at doing Environmental Science as it interests me a lot more than an engineering degree.

This could be a good choice, as there is going to be a lot of opportunity in AgriTech over the next 20 years, for which an environmental science degree would be beneficial. Check out AgriTech East, they are bringing a lot of info together, it’s an area I am looking to work in at some point in the future.

^ When I looked at OU it said for the masters level, I could use the term MA(open) but not MA, after my name, is that the case with all OU qualification?

Mendeley for your reference database.

^ When I looked at OU it said for the masters level, I could use the term MA(open) but not MA, after my name, is that the case with all OU qualification?

You can use whatever term you like. If people are that interested, you tell them it was OU. 99.999999% of folk won’t be interested.

Update time:

Chipping away at the first module, and loads of the suggestions on here have been a great help already, so i owe you a debt of gratitude. I’ll buy you all a virtual pint at some point.

I’ve been using OneNote as the portal into all of my study, and i think i’d be a little lost without it. So to those who suggested it (or EverNote, et cetera) i’ll buy you two virtual pints.

Degree distance course? Does this mean you have to sleep with your hand every night? Going to get dull.

I have a wife too, if that counts?

Distance Learning isn’t my field so the only real suggestion I can make is, find out what support there is and use it to the full. It varies a lot, some are very hands off but some institutions are now offering more support- web chats, named academic mentors and the like. We only do it for a few courses but those areas have seen a big improvement in completions and grades, I think we’ll see more of it over hte coming years

Interested in this point in particular:

Don’t read a dozen books when three will do the same thing. The biggest thing I learned was to streamline my learning.

I gather that i will add more credibility to my work by drawing from a wide range of sources. How far am i expected to go with this? For example; if i was to write:

“We know cycling is great because Smith (2010) tells us [a], and [c].”

Is this a credible statement? Or am i expected to say:

“We know cycling is great because Smith (2010) tells us [a], Jones (2005) tells us , and Williams (2013) tells us [c].”

It feels like i’m scratching around for loads of different authors to re-state something that the first one has already covered…

See what your first set of marks tells you! Your marks and your tutor will guide you.
Saying that, I did my course to learn, and learn I did. I read voraciously and, at times, did find it hard to re-focus on writing the essays. But I learned and I’m happy with what I learned.

Treat it like a job.
These are your tasks/meetings for the day, this is when you will do them and to do them at this time you need to have done this prep.

This 100%

I went back to Uni at 31, and did a BSc in Design Technology/Engineering.
I just treated it as a 9-5 job – never really did much work in the evenings, and only looked at it at weekends over the last few weeks before my final stuff needed to be in.

make sure you get a copy of the mark scheme for every major piece of work – you usually get 10% just for presentation etc.

Oh, and I got a first.

Most of my classmates would miss lectures due to all night Playstation sessions/ getting wasted/ etc.. the only ones I missed were due to illness or doing paid work.

TooTall – Are you referring to the same course i’m doing? Or was this pre-employment?

I did a degree as a mature student at Bangor, as has been said treat it as a job, turn up, do the work get a degree.

Did my second year in Finland, the best part of the experience.

I didn’t find it too taxing to be honest, 3rd year was fun and did my dissertation in the easter holidays, went to the computer room every day for a few hours and taadaa it was done. Got a 2:1 which I am proud of.

I enjoyed the experience, good luck to the OP.

Hijack!

I’m nearly 28, got a HND (construction), got a half decent job, but progression to a senior role, or elsewhere is very likely to be limited without a degree, as well as making membership of professional bodies more difficult to achieve.

I’ve been pondering studying for a degree, I could get one (RICS accredited BSc (Hons) building surveying) in 2yrs part time, or possibly 1 year on not quite such a good course.

Work might fund/part fund it, but I would pay to do it myself if they won’t.

BUT, I’m the worst person at doing academic work in the world, so lazy, negative, leave everything til the last minute, just generally crap. Content, presentation, quality, quantity never an issue, I just never get anything done. Any advice for me? School report was always “lacks application”.

Could you pick modules that are more / mostly exam based? I suffer badly from last-minute-itis, quite happy to do loads of reading and studying but sitting down to do a piece of coursework was something else entirely.

TooTall – Are you referring to the same course i’m doing? Or was this pre-employment?

Duffer – I did my A Levels and, other than work-based education, didn’t step back into academia until I did a Masters which I started aged 39, still working full time (military), dad of a 1 year old.
Most of my classmates were very comfortable with the academic side of things. I had a great tutor who told me I might ‘have trouble’ because I was there to learn rather than just to do the minimum and get the pass.
She was right. I loved the learning and read lots. It was then tough to wind myself back in and get a focused-enough essay. I did learn a huge amount tho!
The 1st essay was the benchmark. The feedback was solid, it pointed to where I wasn’t detailed enough, showed me where I was hitting the target. I refined it next time, got better marks having taken the guidance provided. Asking my tutor for further guidance as the course progressed was also helpful.
I did nearly 18 years in Logs but felt a MSc was better value for me in the end.

Ah ok, so you’re talking about DLSC i presume. I might look into doing that in the future. One step at a time!