I want to go to uni - *again*

dag_2

I went to uni in the early 1990's, at age 18 - really just to impress mum and step-dad. Whoops. Got LEA funding, scraped into final year but didn't pass finals. Didn't return for resits - too proud. Thought I could cope without my degree. I was never that interested in the subject in the first place (BSc Physics) but when it got to three-dimensional vector calculus, it went totally over my head - and I couldn't keep up appearances any more.

Anyway, I'm now living in a rented studio flat in south west London, I'm on my own and I have no kids, I work as a ward housekeeper for an NHS trust, and I owe about £8000 on my BT'd cards and cahoot flexible loan. I'm getting some housing benefit, but the Tax Credit office think I owe them £800-odd for overpaid working tax credit in year ending 2004. I'm not in the NHS pension scheme, but I'm considering applying for a job as a ward healthcare assistant.

I'm thinking of doing biomedical science. Or nursing. Or both - but if I do both, I'd probably do biomedical science first. I'm hoping to enter in 2006, but I might have to get an A-level in biology before then.

There's a higher education convention going on in a building near Angel tube station on March 7 and 8 - can we just turn up, or do we have to book in advance? Apparently there will be seminar sessions about student finance and money. It's very hard to get coherent advice about finance for second-time degrees, so I hope these sessions will sort out my questions once and for all.

Am I right in believing that tuition fees are subsidised - that is, EU students don't have to pay as much as international students, no matter how many degrees they do? If so, then paying for tuition fees with a credit card is not out of the question. My plastic is currently good for another £25-£30 grand - although the highest interest rate is 19.9% APR. I can only get another £5-grand-odd for less than 7% APR.

Parental support is a possibility, but I don't want to bank on it. I will probably earn £12k per year until I start, and maybe £15k at a push. Once I've started, I could do casual work in the summer - but I don't fancy doing part time work during term-time if I can get away without it. I know that student nurses have to do placements, so I guess this makes it difficult to earn much more than your NHS bursary. This puts me off nursing, and makes me want to consider LEA-funded courses instead.

Anyone have any advice? I want to know about state help with second degrees - tuition fees, student loans, cheap accommodation in London etc - and advice about looking for sponsorship. Thanks.

stuwilky

Unfortunatey dag for September 2006 start the fees/funding picture is very unclear due to the massive changes affecting the sector.

It may be well worth looking at starting this september, remembering that there are likely to be loopholes in the system for student who start this year and subsequently withdraw to continue on the current funding system.

https://www.studentsupportdirect.co.uk has some rather useful information.

You also may very well be able to consider working part time during term time. I work 20 hours a week, whilst being a full time undergraduate (with a wife and two kids under school age!) Its hard work, but possible.

Also try contacting your LEA or the student services department at the uni you want to go to, they are very helpful.

dag_2

It may be well worth looking at starting this september, remembering that there are likely to be loopholes in the system for student who start this year and subsequently withdraw to continue on the current funding system.

Interesting, thanks for that. Skinflint me still worries about a fiver for an UCAS application, mind

Have tried that student finance calculator you mentioned - after the first page of questions, it replied ...

From the information you have given it is not possible for us to provide a loan or fees support estimate for you.

For more information, please refer to the information pages, or call the Student Finance Direct Customer Support Office on 08456 077 577 (open daily from 6.00am to mid-night, local call rates apply).

Still - thanks for the help.

student100

Have you considered a part-time degree course (I'm fairly sure they exist for Nursing, not sure about the other subject) that might allow you to continue your current work and study at the same time? I imagine this would make paying the bills easier and the experience working in a hospital would certainly be useful (and probably well-received by any prospective employer once you graduate), if you're considering a career in nursing.


(note that I am in no way qualified to be giving this career advice, so don't blame anything on me )

dag_2

Have you considered a part-time degree course (I'm fairly sure they exist for Nursing, not sure about the other subject) that might allow you to continue your current work and study at the same time?

It's a good idea. Doing part-time degree doesn't mean you have to work - but you don't qualify for a student loan unless you do a full time course.

Then again - if the tuition fees I have to pay are more than the student loan, perhaps it's not such a bad idea.

Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this: Both part-time and full-time students can work, though part-time students are likely to earn more. Both part-time and full-time students can get working tax credit.

Part-time students can get JSA, but it might be sanctioned if they don't drop out of college to take a job. Any JSA they do get is taxable. Part-time students can get housing benefit - however, any income from employment or working tax credit may reduce it. Full-time students can't get JSA or HB. Part-time students can't get student loans. Full time students can - the loan advance is not taxable, and is unaffected by working tax credit or employment income - unless your income is incredibly large.

Anyway - going to college isn't just about improving my employment prospects. It's also about netting a classy bird. I'm currently single - and who's going to be interested in me now? Alcoholics, addicts, runaway battered wives, and other potential codependents. Basically, chicks with issues much more serious than my own.

Once I've been to uni and graduated, I can be a bit more picky. Anyone I get together with now has got to be committed to self-improvement - or I'm going to dump her a few years down the line, assuming we haven't had any kids - and part of me wonders if I'm that cruel. So perhaps it's better not to hook up at all.

But as it is - I'm struggling to maintain a social life on top of full time work. If I'm going to college as well, my social life won't happen at all. I'll get demotivated, and my studies will suffer. That's why I'm much more keen to do full-time study, and pay for it with a mixture of whatever casual work, commercial finance, state aid and parental support I can get.

Thanks for the suggestion though. New undergraduates who start in 2006 won't have to pay upfront tuition fees - they get it added to their student loan account instead. But this might not apply to second degree students. So I think I'll be able to get a student loan for maintenance, but not the extra loan for fees. However, I think I'll only have to pay the EU student fees at most - I probably won't have to pay international student fees.

As for starting in 2005 - I think you have to apply to the LEA before March before you start to get any funding at all - and that's assuming a college accepts me late. So it would probably be a waste of my UCAS application fee.

stuwilky

dag wrote:

As for starting in 2005 - I think you have to apply to the LEA before March before you start to get any funding at all - and that's assuming a college accepts me late. So it would probably be a waste of my UCAS application fee.

The forms arent available until March.

You can apply to your LEA right up until you start (and for some time after) - it will also of course give you a definite answer of how much funding you will receive if you did decide to start in Sept 2005.

dag_2

Thanks for not being bothered by me giving too much information!

The forms arent available until March.

Hmm. I appreciate your advice - but I'm not even sure what I want to study yet, or where I want to study it. So how would I fill the form in?

I think the best thing to do is go to one of the conventions, and ask there. I'm planning to visit the one at the Business Design Centre in Islington, in March. If I find out anything that might be useful to others, I'm sure I'll post about it - but if I'm still in the dark, I might come back here, and see if I can word my questions a bit better.

That said, I've noticed the thread ... http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=30751

As this is a second undergraduate degree, I have to pay full tuition costs, which stand at £6000 p.a. (for three years)

Tuition fees of £6kpa would be almost impossible for me without parental support - and incredibly difficult even with support. I'm certainly not going to jump at a 2005 start if that's the sort of figure I'll be paying.

All the same - thanks once again.

stuwilky

No problem,

sharing ones expertise is what this board is about.

As for filling the forms in, this is a little trick someone not a million miles away did when I (i mean he!) was deciding what to do.

I filled the form in for a Business Studies course at my local University (my employer) as long as the course is a standard degree course it wont affect your funding and all you need to do is write to them and tell them that your course/institution title has changed. Piece of cake!

If you prefer not to do that I can probably work out some details for you, but it wont be guaranteed, unlike the LEA stuff. Let me know.

crana999

dag wrote:

I think the best thing to do is go to one of the conventions, and ask there. I'm planning to visit the one at the Business Design Centre in Islington, in March. If I find out anything that might be useful to others, I'm sure I'll post about it - but if I'm still in the dark, I might come back here, and see if I can word my questions a bit better.

those conventions are generally pretty useless for indepth info. you are probably better off to ring your LEA - they can be surprisingly helpful.

Petree

of course if you enter in 2006 or later you will have to pay the big fees, but not upfront, so instead of finding £1250 a year as you would need to if you joined this year, you will pay £3000 but it will be stuck into debt like the student loan and basically you can ignore it. Assuming you have moved out and fit the criteria for being independent and earning under 30K you will get something like £4000 loan, plus a £1000 grant, though in this situation you would likely not need to pay tuition fees either way, so its swings and roundabouts really!
Is there anything you can study at the NHS university? its available to all staff at all levels IIRK.
You have missed the deadline for this year so basically you have got till jan 2006 to decide what you wanna do, and how to fund it.
Conventions are usually free, or a couple of quid, so you might as well go and have a look, also you need to make some decisions in your head about which uni you wish to go to, keele has a good medical school, its brand new and they are pumping millions into it, also your guaranteed accommodation for the whole course IIRK, cheap living too. I am biased being here though!

HTH

Petree

stuwilky

Petree wrote:

Is there anything you can study at the NHS university? its available to all staff at all levels IIRK.
You have missed the deadline for this year so basically you have got till jan 2006 to decide what you wanna do, and how to fund it.

I presume you refer to a deadline within the NHSU?

There is no deadline as such for other Universities - there are ways around the UCAS 'Deadline'