Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, my name is Jonny, I'm 35 and I was diagnosed with ASD at the end of last year.
I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with applying for a second degree, specifically in obtaining the funding without any private financial backing?
I graduated from university in 2012 with a degree in illustration, but I was unable to make it work for me, and ended up spending the next ten years working in various roles for the NHS. I'm currently unemployed after the mental health crisis that led to my diagnosis, and I'm trying to use this time to learn computer programming in order to build a career when I eventually return to work.
I'd love to return to university and study computer science in more depth than I can manage on my own, but is that a realistic aim, considering I have no savings and I have already used up my student loan entitlement?
Any experience or useful information would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
I am guessing you are based in England? The rules are slightly different depending where in the UK you live.
My advice is to explore the Open University, they are very flexible, and you can choose how many credits to study while you are working, so you don't lose any income if you can dedicate your 'spare' time to learning. They also offer very good support for disabled students.
I think it depends on what you want to study, the OU have no courses on medieval history, so I couldn't add to my degree. I doubt if I could manage the tech bit of it either. Another thing about an OU degree is if you do decide to study full time you won't get of the student benefits like low or no council tax and no student loans or anything as they OU is for part time study, or at least it is according to local and national government.
One year of my undergraduate OU degree (2017) was full time due to redundancy, I got the fees paid for the year even though I had a an undergraduate degree. I could have taken out a student loan but didn't need to as I had my redundancy money to support me and I don't 'do' debt. I didn't bother applying for council tax discount as I didn't think I'd qualify as I could pay it.
The council tax rules and benefit criteria are set by the local authority, mine says it just needs an official letter stating you are studying full time with any EU based further education institution, which the OU would provide if you are studying courses totalling 120 credits.