I want to go back to Uni

comedy_dave

Hi all,
I guess this goes here.

I went to Uni between 2001 and 2006, and, due to my own laziness and other circumstances, only left with a Certificate of Higher Education in Computing (1/3 of a Degree).

I now want to go back after 2 years in industry working as an ICT Technician in a couple of local schools.

I want to go back full time, get my Degree inside 2 years, then either do a Masters or go back into industry as a software developer (I have noticed that the IT support field has become boring for me, and that the world and its mother are getting into IT support thru online training)

The problem is, I am currently still deep in my student overdraft, have £15k of student loans from my first attempt, and have grown used to my £20k a year salary.
Mature students qualify for a "pay no money now" fees loan. £2000 a year maintainance grant, and £4000 a year maintainance loan from what I can see. Thus my income would drop to £6k (unless i got a part time job, but i am not keen to drop back into retail/customer service either).

If I could get it up to around £12k I could then suppliment it with a part time bar job or something.

Has anyone else been in this situation who could offer advice? or does anyone know of any extra funding I could qualify for?


Many Thanks in advance.
Dave

Oldernotwiser

If you've already had 4 years of funding them I'm afraid that you're ineligible for any further funding for full time study. Why don't you look at the OU courses where they'll happily accept your existing credits for transfer towards a full degree and you'll be able to study whilst working full time.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

comedy_dave

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If you've already had 4 years of funding them I'm afraid that you're ineligible for any further funding for full time study. Why don't you look at the OU courses where they'll happily accept your existing credits for transfer towards a full degree and you'll be able to study whilst working full time.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I guessed that would be the case, I have all the forms for the OU (except the credit transfer. I was considering starting from scratch with them)
Just waiting for my P60 from work, so i can fill out the finance forms

Oldernotwiser

comedy_dave wrote: »

I guessed that would be the case, I have all the forms for the OU (except the credit transfer. I was considering starting from scratch with them)
Just waiting for my P60 from work, so i can fill out the finance forms

Is there a reason that you want to start from scratch? If you transferred your credits (you'd probably get 60 or 120) then at least you'd have something from your 4 years of previous study - apart from debts that is!

foreign_correspondent

I agree, you may as well save yourself a considerable amount of ime and money by transferring your existing credits across to the OU, unless there is a good reason not to?

Nickynoo1

What about a career development loan?

Nickynoo1

Oldernotwiser

Nickynoo1 wrote: »

What about a career development loan?

Really not a good idea for this sort of thing and wouldn't allow the OP to do what he wants anyway.

nimbo

comedy dave, (are you from reading???)

you can transfer 60pts over form your old study and still get a degree in a named subjcet which would cut 1 year off a part time degree or 1/2 a year off a full time degree, aso if you transfer what credit you have (they don't make you cash it in) you could then choose your modules selectively, which would then allow you to cash the credit in for a degree if you again lost interest/drive. (this is what i have done, not the loosing interest bit, but the transfer bit, just in case...)

if you transfered 60pts, it would take you 5 years part itme to get the degree, (and studying part time is realistically what a normal person can manage with a full time job... obviously you may well be super human, but it can be hard going sometimes...)

nimbo

foreign_correspondent wrote: »

I agree, you may as well save yourself a considerable amount of ime and money by transferring your existing credits across to the OU, unless there is a good reason not to?

if you transfer your credit the OU don't recignise what it was for (ie, my two years of english became 240 pts with a BA weighting), meaning that i would (if i used all of these points) only get a degree or degree with honours, the degree would have no name.

Oldernotwiser

nimbo wrote: »

if you transfer your credit the OU don't recignise what it was for (ie, my two years of english became 240 pts with a BA weighting), meaning that i would (if i used all of these points) only get a degree or degree with honours, the degree would have no name.

But does it really matter; most graduate jobs don't specify a particular subject and those that do eg (teaching) would generally be happy to see details of the subjects studied.

nimbo

but surely it looks better on your CV to have a named subject in in area that is perinant rather than a random degree or subject that you picked out of a hat... (i'm thinking surf science or cling on with the hat picking... although that would surly count as a modern language???)