Educational Details

Batchelor of Science (Honours) in Psychology

Open University, United Kingdom

The Open University is unlike many universities in that students are not required to study within any particular faculty. Instead students are free to pick and choose courses each year until the required number of credits are reached to qualify for a degree. Usually a year's course will return one full or one half credit depending on the amount of study time required. Once six or eight credits (depending on the type and levels of courses studied) have been acquired the student is able to claim a degree. In that time there is no restriction on the types of courses a student may study.

Over the years the Open University has gained a good academic reputation and shaken off the image of old black-and-white TV programmes with bespectacled presenters in cravats and flares. Students at the OU have to work consistently hard over many years without the benefits of the support of other students and academic staff. Only the mature and dedicated last to the end of the six or eight years to get what has now become a well respected degree.

Open University courses passed.

OU Courses are designated codes with letters denoting the faculty (A - Arts, D - Social Science, E - Education, SD - a combination of Science and Social Science, etc.) and a three digit number denoting the level and course identifier. 100 series is always a foundation course, a 200 series indicates second level and a 300 series indicates a third level course. The standard of work required by the student increases with the level. As a rule of thumb it is possible to equate the level of a course to either first, second or third year of study at a full time university.

I may go on to a further degree with the OU, possibly a masters but this depends on the available courses. Another possibility would be to study some classics but all these ideas are just waiting for the right time.

Part time, fixed term contract in support of degree study

1996 - 1997: Lab Technician/Classroom Assistant - Boxmoor House School, Hemel Hempstead

• Working with boys having emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• Working in the Science Laboratory supporting teaching needs.
• Preparation of science experiments.
• Support of IT equipment throughout the school.