The Open University? Good value for money or not?

Answer 1

I would say so. I studied at the Open University and a 60 point course worked out at about £60 a month which I thought was good for the level of education received.

You would have to work out the amount it would cost you for your whole degree and figure out if it's worth it to you but they do have accounts where you can pay monthly and then it doesn't seem as bad as one full lump sum.

Answer 2

Yes, in comparison with other institutions when you think about time, materials, attendance at lectures / tutorials and the like. Have a look at the OU website about the cost per course. Some employers also sponsor, as mine did for a year and it was counted towards professional training.

Answer 3

Yes it is good value for money but only if you keep going and finish your course. Most people do some modules then stop which I suppose is what the OU are counting on.

Answer 4

Yes. With a quick look at their website, you can see how much its going to cost if you pick a degree profile you want to do.
In total (at to days prices) you can get a degree in 6 years and it will cost £ 3885, possibly less.
They enrol in October for February starts, so pull your finger out if you want to start in 2007. They also run taster courses over the winter.

Answer 5

if your serious bout completing a course, getting a degree or a diploma, its definitely value for money, u can really change your life around, i know people hu have attended and are leading much fuller lives...
hope this helps
x

Answer 6

I noticed that it is very hard to find info on the cost of the programme on their web site. That makes me wonder just how good of a deal is it.

Answer 7

It all depends on your personal circumstances.
What mode of studying you prefer - do you think that the regular classroom academic environment of a university would push you to study harder? Do you think that having set timetables for lectures, regular coursework and constant examinations/tests would help you to gain more out of the kind of degree course you want to take? If yes, then you might benefit more from taking a degree at a traditional Uni. I know people who have failed to pass their courses in traditional Unis, then took a degree at the Open Uni and managed to pass with a Class 2(2) result at the end. They were also working part-time while they were studying in the OU, but I think they might have worked a bit harder while studying in the OU as they don't want to flunk again like they did when they were in a traditional Uni. Most of them tell me that you need LOADS of motivation to do an OU course until the end - as you'd probably be working as you study, its very easy to get lazy or distracted by daily responsibilities at home and at work, and not feel like studying your course material. And because in the OU you have fewer lectures to attend and fewer coursework than in a traditional Uni, there's no "peer pressure" or lecturers there to "push" you to do more studying work... its very easy to starting slacking in your studies.

The cost of a complete degree course from the OU may not come up to be much more than a traditional Uni course, in fact it might turn out to be lower when you factor in things like not having to travel to the Uni everyday for lectures and tutorials, you can simply just organise your studying work around your free hours (maybe after work, after dinner)... if you already have children, OU courses will definitely seem a lot cheaper as you wouldn't have to pay for childcare while you study your course material. Unlike going to a traditional Uni everyday for lectures and tutorials (and even practicals)... where you'll find paying for childcare everyday will cost you a bomb in the end, especially if your household income just doesn't qualify you to receive state benefits to help with such costs while you study in a traditional Uni.

However, if you do decide to quit whatever job you're doing and commit to a traditional Uni degree course full-time, you can get a student loan to pay towards all or most of your course fees and living expenses while you are doing the course, so you can devote much more of your time and attention to doing well in your course. Also, you graduate within 3 to 4 years in a traditional Uni, but in an OU degree, you can take up to 6 years to graduate - although in the OU you can graduate as early as you want as long as you complete all the modules, but since the quality of the courses are meant to be equivalent in difficulty to the ones in traditional Unis, I can't see how you can expect to graduate in less than 6 years unless you intend to study your OU degree in a full-time manner (i.e. devoting 6 to 8 hours a day towards studying your coursework), and if you do decide to do just that, it would seem tough since you'd probably only be able to work part-time or not at all... plus you'll have to have all the funds needed to pay for all your OU modules since OU degree courses and its related expenses aren't covered by the government's student loan company. I just think its quite pointless to do an OU degree full-time anyway, but it can come up a bit cheaper than doing a full-time degree in a traditional Uni. Also, if studying in a traditional Uni has not worked for you before, you might be one of those who'd benefit from the OU's type of course. Studying full-time in a traditional Uni will culminate into a massive debt at the end, but you have to weigh up the pros and cons of doing a traditional Uni degree full-time versus doing an OU degree for your own circumstances.