Moving to the Mountain

It's been long time since my first post and although a lot has happened to me, most (if not all) is not worth putting down as a permanent record.

After living in Exeter for 24 years I have finally moved to Guildford. Since I couldn't move my LPC to Exeter I've had to move to it (thus the title...) I knew what I wanted (accomodation-wise) and have been lucky to find something that ticks just about all the boxes.


I've received confirmation of the starting date from the College (4th Sept) and a basic breakdown of the first day or so. The biggest surprise (so far) is that my course is not as class-intensive as I expected.

I've been assigned to an afternoon group and so will have to use the mornings for background reading and other preparation. I'm determined to try to extract as much as I can from this year-it will almost certainly be my very last full time academic adventure (though the idea of a Masters degree tickles me a bit...)
BUT (and its a big but)-some of my old bad habits are starting to resurface. At the moment my time is my own. The College have asked me to prepare for the year by refreshing my legal knowledge and using their on-line revision program. This I will gladly do but my days are galloping away. Even though I have little to do around the flat, my time is quickly eaten up by 'stuff' (translation-wasteful trivia).
As I say-very old, very bad habits.
I'm very much of the 'well, I've got a few days to go, I'll leave it to then' brigade. This will not do but can I change? Only time will tell....

At this stage I have no idea of the age compliment of my tutor group-I would hope that I would be placed with more mature students but we may be swept together to promote integration. Likewise I don't know if I'll be with any other Open University (OU) students. If I'm not this could be interesting. Part of me is dying for some form of gentle confrontation with a 'proper' university graduate who is dismissing my degree as second rate (this would be wonderful fun since the OU's course is effectively written and run by the College of Law with both the continuous assessment papers and exams randomly checked by College markers) but then...

The OU
...I do wonder how the world at large perceives the OU these days. When I attended university in the 80's (and after) it always had a 'joke' image. Men with fluffy beards and leather elbow patches appearing in B&W tv programs at 4 in the morning. Not a 'real' university at all. Quite how I ended up enrolling with them is a mystery to me. Certainly I had no preconceptions of quality or excellence.

With hindsight I think my attitude at the time was very much of the, 'I'll buy a degree from these people-as long as I pay the course fees, they'll keep giving me passes' variety. And of course this changed when I graduated!

Or did it?

Certain views have changed;

• The standard of teaching materials is excellent. Easy subjects (and tougher ones) are explained in a straight forward, often colloquialised style.
  
• The standard of tutors and the time that they put in is superb (at least in my experience).
• The institution and it's administrative role are unrivalled (particularly regarding my graduation which was brilliant)

...but there are still nagging doubts about the academic integrity of the course itself.

The hardest thing with the OU is commitment. You could probably do a degree (just) in two years (studying two 60 point courses a year and transfering credit from previous study) but it would be messy.

Otherwise, you would be looking at a course a year from between 4-6 years. The main OU term starts in February and runs to the middle of October (exams) with no breaks-and that can be a killer. It's effectively about 30-36 weeks with no let-up followed by the rest of the year to unwind.

And that means studying throughout the summer-now I'm not one for 'proper' holidays (since every day is a holiday for me), so that was no great hardship (but I imagine, tougher on someone with a young family)-but having to sit down and plan and write essays while the sun is shining and your electric fan is doing overtime-now that can be tricky. Hot weather generally makes people lethargic (as if I need an excuse) and I'm sure that this mid-year stage has more than it's fair share of people dropping out.

Talking of dropping out-When I joined my first OU law group, I was one of 24. There were also 3 other groups in the near vicinity. By the end of the course my group was drawn from the South West generally (Cornwall to Bristol) and only 4 remained from the initial 24 (and one of them had moved to France).

Commitment, dedication, the ability to use your time efficiently and a lot of sacrifice. These are what an OU student needs (brains are an optional extra). I honestly don't know if having academic ability is needed at all.

That may sound very mean after having qualified with them but that's me I guess...


Ouch, yesterday I wrote the biggest cheque in my life so far-for £8,535. This is the balance remaining for the one year LPC. Since it looks like a 38 week year with 5 days at 2.5 hours that makes it about £18/hour.

Hmm, looks like I might need to do some work to justify this one.

Work, now that's a tricky one.

I have started to refresh my memory for that legal stuff but at the moment it's all washing over me and none of it is sinking in. The College swears by its ELITE internet program as a way to strengthen and consolidate a student's legal knowledge. I will have to give this a bash soon but at the moment I am happy to do it the old fashioned way (which has never let me down so far...) but it is a case of grinding away at present. Things are still there but dusty, very, very dusty.