Help with tuition fees? 18 March 2018 at 1:04PM in Student MoneySaving 7 replies 1.7K views

crickett1234

My situation - 44 year old, previous undergraduate degree, not working due to caring responsibilities of adopted child with special needs. He is going to school in September and I found a degree course that I really, really want to do, but I am not eligible for tuition loans because of my previous degree (even though is was over 20 years ago that I graduated). Due to the family finances, there is not an icicles chance in HELL of us getting the money together for me to do the course.

Does anyone know of anywhere that might be able to help me with the tution fees? The course is Medical Herbalism, Bank loans aren't a possibility...

Help?!

Geht_fit

It might be worth contacting the course provider to see if the course qualifies for STEM loans. These were introduced last year, I think, and might be something worth looking at. If this isn't an option, perhaps see if there is an alternative course which could be funded and might incorporate some modules of the course you are interested in. Good luck!

System

is it available as a postgraduate course? you can get a postgraduate loan of upto £10,000 I'm doing a pg course now.

John-K_3

Is that a proper degree, from a real university?

It sounds a bit, well, alternative. Herbalism is not a scientific subject nowadays, even though searching for medicinal effects in nature is clearly legitimate.

Edited to add, I checked, and the degrees look to be worthless. If you want to set yourself up as a medical herbalist you can just do it today, no training needed. You can buy a degree online if you want one, but Thor courses offered at universities are up there with homeopathy.

agrinnall

Geht_fit wrote: »

It might be worth contacting the course provider to see if the course qualifies for STEM loans.

I'd be very disappointed if a quack course such as Medical Herbalism fell under the STEM banner.

John-K wrote: »

Is that a proper degree, from a real university?

It sounds a bit, well, alternative. Herbalism is not a scientific subject nowadays, even though searching for medicinal effects in nature is clearly legitimate.

Edited to add, I checked, and the degrees look to be worthless. If you want to set yourself up as a medical herbalist you can just do it today, no training needed. You can buy a degree online if you want one, but Thor courses offered at universities are up there with homeopathy.

I also checked and did find some courses at legit universities, but I'd agree with your general view of such courses, and I suspect that any university that does offer a degree course has spotted a money making opportunity for them that will be of little benefit to the students (and none at all to anyone unfortunate/daft enough to request treatment).

crickett1234

Thank you for all of your replies. It is pretty much what I expected, although I do know that the college I was looking at has an excellent reputation for alternative therapy teaching and has an on site clinic. Unfortunately, I have been burned by thinking a course would be accredited and it totally wasn't, so I thought this was a good alternative. Clearly not.

Thanks again for going to the trouble of replying.

agatham

I think you need to talk to the relevant University Admissions office and also the banks to get a better idea. Also, did you try any microfinancing organizations? Generally microfinancing organizations, unlike banks, help with loans with less restrictions.

Or if you have a house, you can pledge the house and get a loan.

Geht_fit

If you're still interested, these 2 courses are accredited and are BSc:

Lincoln College with validation by Lincoln University
BSc Herbal Medicine

Westminster University
BSc Herbal Medicine

Google NIMH and herbal medicine degree. As they are BSc, I would also enquire about the STEM loans. Good luck!