Student Fees - one obvious solution

[watervole]

How do you get a degree from a good-quality university for under £5000 ? (In total, not per year)

Simple, use the Open University.

Richard's currently looking into doing a PhD in Astrophysics with the OU, probable cost around £2000 per year.

Their cheapest short course - for people who want to dip their toes in the water of degree-level study is only £110.

You can do your degree over as long or as short a time-period as you want.  You can hold down a full-time job at the same time.  They're very flexible as to who they accept - often accepting people with lower qualifications if they have other qualities they can bring to the course.

In short, anyone concerned about rising tuition costs should think seriously about the OU.

Comments

[selenay]

I did my degree through the OU and loved it. Not ending up with huge debts and not having to start out on a named degree for the first couple of courses was perfect for me.

Even better, I now have a job that uses some of the courses that I did in my degree and I've never had anyone question the value of my degree, which was something that did worry me initially. I'd recommend it to anyone :-)

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, except that OU fees are undoubtedly going to have to go up significantly, as the OU will lose the teaching grants just like everyone else will.

[uitlander]

Indeed. The projections I've seen are that the OU will be one of the worst hit Institutions unless the Government decides to make a special case for it. Much as I hope they do, I fear it's unlikely with this lot.

[gair.livejournal.com]

Yup. Analysis of the Government’s plans – commissioned by Labour – shows that, overall, the biggest loser in cash terms is the Open University, which will see its £149million budget cut by £109million.

[uitlander]

Thank you. I couldn't remember where I'd seen that, but this is the source.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Bugger. The OU really was the best option for those on tight budgets.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

The OU received special protection under the last government after they were badly affected by the "no equal qualifcations"change. You really think a government so antagonistic to social mobiity is going to leave that in place?

Also: Richard is doing a STEM subject. STEM subjects are keeping their funding.

[swisstone.livejournal.com]

To be honest, that 'special protection' doesn't seem to have amounted to much if the doom and gloom coming down from the management is anything to go by.

[fjm.livejournal.com]

And a ps: they are as constrained by completion times as the rest of us. If they don't want their PhDs funded, it doesn't matter. If they do, then it does.

[winterbadger]

They are in general a very good bargain; I wish that community colleges in the US were as flexible and cheap as the OU.

One drawback is the very limited selection of offerings in some areas. I looked at the OU master's in history programme a year or two ago, and it didn't offer much breadth. I looked again just now, and they have six modules, of which the student takes four: crime and policing, urban history, industrialization, poverty and welfare, families, and religion. Religion and urban history, the only two of those with any great appeal to me, are severely truncated, only covering the period from the mid-eighteenth century forward. The crime and policing module deals only with the last 35 years--it's less history and more straight criminology.

But, as they say, beggars can't be choosers. I am, however, struck by how nearly impossible it is to get any idea of costs for that programme beyond a vague "£3,000 to 6,000"; that's, erm, quite a range.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

The costs depend on which units you choose. If you look up an individual unit, you'll find the cost given there.

[winterbadger]

I didn't, when I looked up the modules for that programme. They had lots of other information, but no prices. I may not have been looking in the right place, but I looked quite hard, so it's a web design flaw at the very least.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I found a price on the first unit I looked at.

[winterbadger]

That's grand. All I'm saying is, I looked at a programme I was interested in and spent a good deal of time searching, and the information isn't there. I'm a seasoned web user. That spells bad design.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Fair point.

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

Also OU loses the aspect of moving away from home and learning how to become independent.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. Moving away from home tends to result in scattered families. None of my siblings ended up living near our parents after university.

It also increases costs. Living at home saves a lot of money for a typical student.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Your OU is a fantastic project and I envy it to you.
I know that it works because my best friend studies history and literature there!