Decided to bite the bullet and start working towards a degree with the open university. £17k fml

I know that’s nothing compared the debts built up by full time students, but it’s still a fuck ton of money to find when you have a mortgage and other stuff to pay

I pay 3.5k gbp total lol

I mean i'd pay if it wasnt free

Can you get student loans with OU? Student debt is not really a big concern, the amount taken is not very big 9% of everything over 21k I believe. So even on 30k you pay back less than £100 a month.

I have about 50k student debt before any interest, I'm not really concerned about it. It's a good system.

@Wozza365 I have looked at it and I can get a part time student loan.

I’m going to aim for starting thre first module in October, as once my wedding and honeymoon is out of the way I’ll know how much money I have.

@zarathustra I'm curious, what will you be studying?

@kunashe I have decided on the Computing and IT Bsc (Honours) degree following the “software” path which focuses on software development/engineering.

*laughs in free education*

@hawkes further education shouldn't be free. It just devalues it and then requires students to go even further to stand out from the crowd. It should be seen as an investment, for most career paths it is simply not needed and so many waste 3 years of their life. A loan system is potentially the best of both worlds.

@Nanos I think the problem there is/was the push under the Blair government to get everyone into university.

You have people who would have perhaps gone into apprenticeships now getting degrees. This means that the market is flooded and a degree is often required for even the most basic entry level jobs, where wages are so low people don’t earn enough to pay the loans back.

@Nanos they offer ridiculous wages.

When I left the army I was trying to get into network/it support. Some entry level jobs wanted a degree and 3 years experience but were offering less than 20k pa in central London.

I think once you’ve got your foot in the door a piece of paper becomes less important, as you have the work history and references to back up your experience and ability.

The only reason I want to do a degree is because I want to see if I can. I’ll be pushing 40 by the time I finish it (6 years to complete)