Back to Uni in your 40’s – Anyone done it?

So for a number of different reasons I have decided on a complete career change and am heading back to unit in a month for three years training to become a Therapeutic Radiographer as a 45 year old.

I have been excited about this over the last six months and my wife and family are all behind it, but to be honest now the nerves are starting to kick in a bit.

Has anyone done similar? if so what was good an/or bad about the experience? any advice on being the old man in the room?

I went back in my late 30s early 40s to do a part time masters as part of my work, it just takes a bit of thinking to get your mind working in an academic fashion, if you’ve been doing a job for a while and used to the actual ‘doing’ it can be a struggle to get the mindset of an assignment sometimes.

Guessing you’ll be starting the pre-course work and other bits and bobs, just make friends and join all the whatsapp groups and so on you can, work out your weak areas and have a plan to improve those to meet the criteria, work out a plan on how to achieve your aims early and use any good practice available (previous cohorts and just asking questions).

A view from the other side of the desk. When I was teaching at uni – in my 20’s – I loved the mature students. They were keen to learn: studious, engaged and world-wise. Perhaps almost as much as they loved me – a young idiot, naive, nervous, but knew a thing or two about electronics.

Not quite your age but I went back to do physio at 30. There was a couple of guys on my course aged 40 and 45. Both graduated but the 45 yr old went back to his original career 6 months after graduating.

The good is that you will find the study easy after working for a living the bad is that you might feel a little bit isolated on your course. The lecturers never seemed to have any problem with student ages (if they were younger than the students) in my experience.

I never regretted it and I did enjoy the Uni experience far more as a “mature” student than when I tried it at 21

Yes, my brief story was, the job i was on came to an end and got let go. Not much on the horizon with the industry i was in contracting. So at 44 decided to fo back to Uni. Full time course, 1 year Masters.

The good was going to learn and do something new, meet new people and open up horizons. I wasnt expecting to relive the glory of my youth and party. But it was something i was interested in and saw it as a leap forward.

There wasnt any bad however getting the mind back into academic thinking, re-structuring my brain for classes, coursework, exams was a bit daunting at first. Especially when you havent done that for so long. That didnt last long.

As to being the ‘old man’ in the room, yes, i was the oldest as most of my classmates were continuing from their previous courses, or overseas students, so they were in the majority early 20s. I didnt have a problem at all and as long as your friendly and interactive, you can make friends easily.

Your age/experience/maturity will be seen as an asset by some, especially in group work….

Did it for a year in my early 40s.  There was a small group of late learners who naturally gravitated together, if you’re the only one then you might integrate with the regular undergrads a bit more than we did. One big difference was that all the oldies turned up to all the lectures and actually paid attention rather than chatting or sleeping etc  I was also able to really immerse myself in the assignments and did a load of wider research beyond the basic papers that we were pointed at, and that translated into decent grades.

Went back at 31. Single no kids so no responsibilities. Had a ball and thanks to my previous role could pull together a presentation at 0830 with a banging head.
The only downside was I didn’t mind questioning the lecturers.
Ended up with a D in my final piece of work as I opened with “Piaget often quoted, seldom read” then went on to compare the “taught” wisdom to the original work. Yeah, possibly not the best idea and ended up in a meeting about whether I should be allowed to pass. I did pass.

I went back a to do a Graduate Apprenticeship about three years ago, it was a day release thing through my work. A few weeks after starting, the uni discovered my HND (in an unrelated subject) from 23 years ago was not properly validated and was, in fact, only a HNC. The silly thing was that I didn’t need any qualification to join the course. SQA were not able to help, neither could the college I did the HND at.  Despite this qualification not being needed for the course, the uni accused me of being a fraud, chucked me off the course and blacklisted me from applying to them ever again!

So I went to uni as a mature student and came out of it with a lower qualification than I had when I started.

That seems about right. I wasn’t allowed to get a qualification to teach secondary school physics even though I had the opportunity to do a second physics based PhD at Bristol University

Everyone is going to be different, but one thing I think is universally true for all 40 year olds is that you are going to have to focus on ergonomics more than 20 year olds.

After 6 months of being hunched over a laptop my back and shoulders were **** to the point I couldn’t complete the course.  Make sure you have a space for studying and doing assignments that is set up for you.  Don’t just go to the library and sit at whatever desk they have.

Not quite the sane thing but I’m 44 and currently studying law part time which has meant a 2 year GDL course and now a further 2(ish) years CILEx course.

I didn’t try super hard at school and scraped through but, who’d have thought, now I actually put some effort in and try my best it is quite easy to do well at these things it turns out.

If only  my 16 year old self had felt the same!

I worked with a bloke who bagged a 1 yr fully paid for (ILEA) masters course. Knowing that he was down the rugby club every night on the lash I asked him how he did it: ‘Treated it as a nine to five, if I didn’t have a lecture I was in the library and knocked off at 4 every day.’

I’d say with the discipline of having worked and maybe the horror of going back to an unsatisfying job you’ll be flying.  The few mature students dotted about when I was a student were held in respect if not a bit of awe.

It’s definitely harder in your 40s than in your 20s and 30s.  It takes more effort to retain and link new knowledge to existing experience or methods especially when some of that new information is abstract.

I went to uni in my mid 20s and graduated at 30.  My job today is research and technology, so I’m largely doing the same thing I was at uni, but with more consequences.

In my 20s I could blitz through 10s of research papers a day and be fairly certain I could tumble them around in my head make notes on them, their pros and cons in relation to each other, etc,  a day, a week or more later.  Today, at 43, papers which match my experience or existing knowledge are equally fine, but a brand new concept in a tangential field – I have to take care with it and really study it. I sometime have to re-read things a couple of times and force a link to something else to make it really stick. It also pays to take notes immediately.

I’ve heard the 9-5 thing a few times and I’d say, for an easier degree or masters, it’s possible, but my 3rd year and MSc – there simply weren’t enough hours in the week to get things done.  30h of lectures + 30-40h of revision and coursework.  It was hellish.

Know what you’re getting into before you commit, speak to the course leaders about content and requirements and try having a look at some of their published learning material (or similar from another uni) and see if it agrees with you.  If it all looks good, go for it.  I’ll be doing another MSc before too long.

38 and literally proof reading my MSc dissertation currently. I gave up work last year and went back to do an MSc in environmental sustainability, with 0 prior academic background in this area.

I’d echo lots of what has been said really…..my back is ****! I’ve not had an office job, so spending extended time on a computer has been tough! I found the first month hard….very hard in fact, it was quite a steep learning curve. I’ve mainly treated it as a 9-5, but for me it’s been 6 days per week for much of it. It has gone very well though, I start a 4 year funded PhD in October, and up until this point I’ve got the highest average mark on the course. I take it very seriously though….lots don’t even bother with the set readings etc.

Socially it’s probably more of a mixed bag at post-grad than you’ll get. I’m a very outgoing personality etc so have plenty of mates on the course. There have been plenty of times when I’ve found folks and their immaturity slightly annoying, but overall it’s not been an issue.

Slight tangent, but when I studied one of my friend group was a woman in her 40’s. We were 20/21/26 I think as a core on the course, so slightly older than others but not by much. She was great to have around, was interested in learning, well organised so was ace at group projects. She even had us over to her house a couple of times for dinner which was a pleasant change from pub/student food.

She did well on the course too, as other have said she was interested in doing well as well as being happy to ask questions and clarify things from less useful lecturers. Overall she enjoyed it and so did we.

Thanks everyone, that’s all really helpful.

Its nice to have a bit of reassurance from people who have done it when the wobbles start.

I went back at 40 to study an MSc in Occupational Therapy (wish I hadn’t bothered and chosen a different subject). Being MSc the amount of time on campus has been minimal, two days a week in the first year and just three actual  days this year although my course runs to the calendar year not the usual academic year. I’m one of the older ones on my course, theres only 15 of us. The youngest is 23 and the oldest 41.

Being a healthcare related course I’ve had to do placement which so far has been 2 x 8 week blocks, effectively working full time hours within the NHS. I was supposed to have just finished my final placement, a 12 week block, but its been deferred to January. These have been tough, its a 25 mile drive to where I’ve been based and its made for some long days. These have been worse at times when my car has been in for repairs and I’ve had to rely on public transport. Hopefully you’ll have easier access to hospitals etc than I do.

Not sure how it will work for your course but mine has needed a lot of self motivation as the amount of self directed study is huge. Time on campus gave us the basics and then we had to head off and expand on what we had been taught. I found this a challenge at first as I’d rather sack it off and go do something else so had to set timetables for myself to manage a study/life balance.

MIL went back in her late 30s. Is now a forensic psychologist.
Wife went back in her late 30s. Is now an LD nurse with the NHS.
I know that it took a lot for both of them, a lot of hard work and sacrifices, but they are both glad they did it.

There have been plenty of times when I’ve found folks and their immaturity slightly annoying, but overall it’s not been an issue.

Reverse is also true. Try not to be that guy/gal. You’re on their turf.

I’m currently in my second stint as a mature student after doing my teacher training in my 30s and now retraining in data analytics in my 40s.

My motivation to learn stuff for its own sake now is pretty high and there’s a while bunch of skills I have now that I didn’t in my first two goes at uni. I’m sure some of those are specific to my previous career, but you’ll certainly be bringing stuff to the table that you’ave gained over the years – it’s worth thinking about that whenever you’re feeling unsure of yourself.

I’ll second what others have said about sorting a good study space. Hours with bad posture over a laptop in my teacher training gave me a persistent neck/shoulder thing that still needs managing to this day. My current setup is a full-on WFH job.

Pretty much in the same boat. Going back in two weeks, to do an MSc in Sustainable Energy. The two main concerns are being motivated to finish the course (it’s not like you’re being paid!) and subsequent job prospects. However, it’s something i’ve wanted to do for a long time, so confident of enjoying the course and learning even if all else fails!

I am still good buddies with a chap who was oldest on our degree. He was 40 when he started, I was a month past my 18th birthday and the youngest on the course. He loved it, still thinks it was the best move ever.
I am now 50 and he is 72…

Congratulations!

A mate did it a fair few years ago. He treated it like a job, studied 9-5 and that left him enough family time. Only issue was with group projects/assessments with less disciplined and/or motivated younger students.

Approaching it from another angle, my best man went to uni at 18 and got “very friendly” with the 40 something mature student along the corridor. Don’t do that.

i finally got a bit of paper that povs nothing as a graduate apprentice. 40in november and can’t wait to retire ?

When I was at university, there were a couple of “old boys” on the course. Long term unemployed, part of a scheme Liverpool Council were running to give those the education system passed by a chance.

This was mid to late 80s (Toxteth riots/Boys from the Blackstuff era).  They did well as they had the motivation. Quite odd chatting/ hanging out with guys who were more your parents age!

I did part time / distance learning.
the ley thing for me was being disciplined, taking good notes, transcribing them, getting ahead of essays etc

tough but doable

I am in my late 30’s and have been dreaming of going to uni as a mature student for a while. Unfortunately I am not in a position where I cannot work for 3 years as I have to support family etc… When I was younger I never knew what I wanted to do so just took any job which has got me stuck in an industry I don’t enjoy. Now I’m older and wiser I know what I would like to do (odp), but unfortunately I think it might be too late.

It’s nice to know other people are going to uni in their 40’s – maybe one day circumstances will change so I can do it as well.

I started a full time degree in social work  at 39, whilst working full time simultaneously. I was sponsored and supported by my then employer but all the same it was a very intense three years with little social life. It was far and away my best career move to date however!

I am currently applying to do a post qual level 7 course which would entail studying full time at uni again for six months from January. Not whilst undertaking substantive role this time thank goodness.  This will also be a good career move if it all works out. Just turned 50.

You’re on their turf

No I’m not, I’m a post grad in a department filled with postgrads from across the globe and of a wide age ranges. I am however of course not going to be ‘that guy’ and moan to their face….

Not quite the same thing, but I’m coming to the end of my BA in History with the OU. 1 more module to go and will finish next June, just short of my 53rd birthday.
I only really did this for me, not for the route into the legendary world of opportunity that being a history graduate offers. However, I’ve enjoyed it and will miss the process when its over, so much so that I’m thinking about a Masters, depending on how I end up. If I did though, I’d want to go to a uni to do it, not do it part time from home, like my BA. Expensive though, and possibly not worth it at my stage of life for what is essentially, as its already been pointed out to me, a vanity project.

Anyway, being disciplined through years of having worked helped a lot. You know what you need to do and can organise and prioritise effectively. The tip about ergonomics was really insightful, incidentally. I work from home and study from the same desk in the evenings and at weekends, so thats 50 to 60 hours a week sitting at the same desk. So make sure your study set up isn’t going to hurt you.

Samantha continued her education with a further masters in her 40’s.  She wasn’t a full-time student.  She enjoyed the ongoing learning.

Myself, I haven’t been back – but the majority of good friends I made at university were mature students – when I was only 18.  They were more committed to education and more wise and definitely less self-conscious when presenting back to other students.

Yes, at 44. Coincidently it was the same university so returned to the same societies and sports groups as before. Weird after 20+ years and being picked on to give the mountaineering club dinner speech was terrifying. (It used to be an honour for “proper” climber).

Returning to study habits was easy and very pleasurable after years at work.  Managed to get a reasonable second career out of it.