The Higher Education Megathread

I'm sorry to hear it's not going so well, Trelliz. What does your supervisor have to say about all this?

Rightey wrote:Everyone who I've spoken to so far about PhD's has told me they hate it or wish they hadn't done it. Am I the only person who is actually enjoying this?

I don't hate my Ph.D. or wish I hadn't done it, but it's certainly a super-stressful nightmare a lot of the time.

Doing a BSc has been bad enough, I don't envy those doing PhD's.

Having said that I should get my final results next week which will be nice. Or strawberry floating horrible (depending).

Rightey wrote:Everyone who I've spoken to so far about PhD's has told me they hate it or wish they hadn't done it. Am I the only person who is actually enjoying this?

How far along are you? The first two years can be a honeymoon, but then later on you'll hate everything about it.

Karl wrote:I'm sorry to hear it's not going so well, Trelliz. What does your supervisor have to say about all this?

It was after a meeting where we discussed progress so far; despite lots of positive feedback when I explained what I was doing, and based on initial readings everything seemed fine, but when it came together all the political/post-structural theory just wasn't strong enough to stand up to being battered in a Viva. So out it all goes, in with more straightforward analysis and less theoretical wanking. It will have to be submitted by the end of September regardless, which will probably mean missing a trip to Italy at the end of the same month and cutting out 90% of all other social interaction for the next few months.

I am completely disillusioned with academia, it's just a bunch of people writing gooseberry fool to each other in journals that nobody outside their field reads. So for all the talk of 'expanding debate' and all this other altruistic gooseberry fool, it never goes anywhere. I've had enough of my entire life being forceably changed every few years, affecting people around me as life plans are dictated by what I'm doing etc. I just want it done so I can never look at any of it or have anything to do with it ever again. I suspect that, much like the end of my last relationship, the feeling will be of relief and of a great weight being lifted more than anything else.

After that I have no strawberry floating idea. Even if I get the PhD I don't have anything published so getting into academia will be a long and bullshit-laden route with the least money and security. I guess I can look forward to the Kafka-esque nightmare of the DWP/getting routinely ignored by job applications instead.

Trelliz wrote:

Rightey wrote:Everyone who I've spoken to so far about PhD's has told me they hate it or wish they hadn't done it. Am I the only person who is actually enjoying this?

How far along are you? The first two years can be a honeymoon, but then later on you'll hate everything about it.

I'm in my second year Thanks for the positive words.

I hope it all works out for you in the end. What is your field of research?

Got my results early. I got a far lower score in my EMA than in my coursework, I was expecting that though as the wife gave birth early and the EMA was as boring as watching somebody watch paint dry.

Ended up with a grade 3 pass for this final module, which will mean an overall degree classification of 2:2.

I'm well happy with that, never thought I'd have a degree and now have one at the ripe old age of 36!

Woo!

Rightey wrote:

Trelliz wrote:

Rightey wrote:Everyone who I've spoken to so far about PhD's has told me they hate it or wish they hadn't done it. Am I the only person who is actually enjoying this?

How far along are you? The first two years can be a honeymoon, but then later on you'll hate everything about it.

I'm in my second year Thanks for the positive words.

I'm 9 months in

Moggy wrote:Got my results early. I got a far lower score in my EMA than in my coursework, I was expecting that though as the wife gave birth early and the EMA was as boring as watching somebody watch paint dry.

Ended up with a grade 3 pass for this final module, which will mean an overall degree classification of 2:2.

I'm well happy with that, never thought I'd have a degree and now have one at the ripe old age of 36!

Woo!

Congrats Moggy!

What made you go back to school? Was it career advancement or you just wanted to have a degree?

Rightey wrote:

Moggy wrote:Got my results early. I got a far lower score in my EMA than in my coursework, I was expecting that though as the wife gave birth early and the EMA was as boring as watching somebody watch paint dry.

Ended up with a grade 3 pass for this final module, which will mean an overall degree classification of 2:2.

I'm well happy with that, never thought I'd have a degree and now have one at the ripe old age of 36!

Woo!

Congrats Moggy!

What made you go back to school? Was it career advancement or you just wanted to have a degree?

Cheers dude

I studied with the Open University so never really went back to school. Studied and worked a full time job at the same time, it's been a long 6 years!

I doubt I'll ever use it towards a career, I just started doing a couple of small modules out of interest for the subjects and just carried on. Once I got a few under my belt, I figured I might as well complete the damn thing.

Moggy wrote:I doubt I'll ever use it towards a career, I just started doing a couple of small modules out of interest for the subjects and just carried on. Once I got a few under my belt, I figured I might as well complete the damn thing.

This is pretty rad, and it's what I liked about the Open Uni before the fees went up -- anyone with the commitment could just show up and learn stuff. It was a very pure form of academia, and I know it was almost universally well-respected because of that.

A real shame it's been forced by funding cuts to become a bit more focused on money-making over the last couple of years. I'm sure it doesn't affect the quality of their courses, but it does raise a big barrier to entry.

FWIW Trelliz I've worked 25-35 hours a week all the way through my PhD. It's very do-able with a bit of commitment.

With that in mind I totally understand where you're coming from in terms of the sacrifices you've had to make in terms of your life to do it. I view my decision to go into PhD study as the worst, most stupidly, blindly and wilfully arrogant decision that I've ever made and if I could change one thing about my history I'd have stopped at the masters.

I just finished submitting my application for Teaching Assistant positions, really hoping I get the job because I need all those precious pennies.

Glad to see the positive attitude towards the PhD

Personally I left a pretty well paying job to become a povvo student, but I could seriously see myself having major regrets if I didn't do it at that time, at least this way if it ends up being useless I'll know rather than always wondering what if.

Karl wrote:

Moggy wrote:I doubt I'll ever use it towards a career, I just started doing a couple of small modules out of interest for the subjects and just carried on. Once I got a few under my belt, I figured I might as well complete the damn thing.

This is pretty rad, and it's what I liked about the Open Uni before the fees went up -- anyone with the commitment could just show up and learn stuff. It was a very pure form of academia, and I know it was almost universally well-respected because of that.

A real shame it's been forced by funding cuts to become a bit more focused on money-making over the last couple of years. I'm sure it doesn't affect the quality of their courses, but it does raise a big barrier to entry.

I was lucky as I started studying before Nick Clegg started murdering students. As I started in 2010, I had until 2019 to finish under the old fee structure. That meant a 60 point module (roughly the equivalent of half a normal uni year) cost £600-£700 instead of the £4000-£5000 that it costs now.

It is a shame that the Open Uni is no longer available to people who just want to learn. I certainly wouldn't have a degree of the changes had come in before I started.

Just wondering if anyone here has done a course with the Open University and what their experience was like? I'm thinking of doing Computing & IT with Design.

Mafro wrote:Just wondering if anyone here has done a course with the Open University and what their experience was like? I'm thinking of doing Computing & IT with Design.

I've just finished a degree with them and did a number of IT/Computing modules.

I enjoyed it, it's obviously a more "lonely" experience than normal uni but most courses allow you to attend face to face tutorials if you want to.

Most courses will want you to submit a number of TMAs (marked by your tutor) and will finish up with either an exam or an EMA (similar to TMA but not marked by your tutor).

What does a PhD student get paid to be a teaching assistant? My other half is faculty technical staff with a first class BA and that sounds a bit rubbish for a PhD.

Academia is strawberry floating horrible, I am so glad I went down the business route after graduating instead of the giant circle jerk that bubble is. Post structuralism. Hahahahahahahaba nope

I might do an MA in 5-10 years when I have money to throw at things but I think my industry experience by that point would be far more valuable than how many books I can not plagiarise but basically say the same or inferred things in 20,000 different words to congratulate some other academics or dead people while referring to nothing happening at any point in time. Academia is like a portal to the old world, it's less than death, it's literally backwards. I recently remembered that, despite doing well, my personal commitment originally was to prove to myself I could go through the traditional system and then get the strawberry float out and do things my own way.

TA pay is pretty horrible, the only way you can actually make a living off doing something like that is by teaching a lot of courses, otherwise you're basically living in poverty

Moggy wrote:

Mafro wrote:Just wondering if anyone here has done a course with the Open University and what their experience was like? I'm thinking of doing Computing & IT with Design.

I've just finished a degree with them and did a number of IT/Computing modules.

I enjoyed it, it's obviously a more "lonely" experience than normal uni but most courses allow you to attend face to face tutorials if you want to.

Most courses will want you to submit a number of TMAs (marked by your tutor) and will finish up with either an exam or an EMA (similar to TMA but not marked by your tutor).

How do they handle the assessments and exams and stuff?

Mafro wrote:

Moggy wrote:

Mafro wrote:Just wondering if anyone here has done a course with the Open University and what their experience was like? I'm thinking of doing Computing & IT with Design.

I've just finished a degree with them and did a number of IT/Computing modules.

I enjoyed it, it's obviously a more "lonely" experience than normal uni but most courses allow you to attend face to face tutorials if you want to.

Most courses will want you to submit a number of TMAs (marked by your tutor) and will finish up with either an exam or an EMA (similar to TMA but not marked by your tutor).

How do they handle the assessments and exams and stuff?

Depends on the type of assessment/exam. Different courses use different ones but the basic breakdown of them is:

iCMA – A computer marked test (usually multiple choice) that you do sat at home on the computer.
TMA – A tutor marked assessment – you will be given a number of questions or a subject for an essay and a deadline for completion. Your work is uploaded to the OU and your tutor picks it up from there and marks it (usually within a couple of weeks). Depending on the course itself, you could do up to around 6 of these over the course period.
EMA – An end of module assessment – similar to a TMA, you will be given questions or an essay subject and a deadline date to upload to the OU. You will only do one of these for the course and the marks will form 50% of your overall course score. These take a month or two to be marked and for the results to come back to you.
Exam – Exactly what it sounds like, you will sit an exam at a place near you chosen by the OU. Over the whole degree I did one at Bristol University and two in a hotel conference room.

The course guides on the OU site usually say what assessments there are and how many iCMA/TMA’s there are and if there is an exam or EMA at the end.

I have my graduation ceremony next week at Exeter cathedral. Not all that bothered but figured I put years of effort into this and will only have the chance of a graduation once.

In more fun news, I just bought a 3 year NUS card. Half price Spotify and money off the cinema until 2019 for me, even though I'm not a student anymore.

I'm back at uni studying to be a teacher. Now I'm starting to get a understanding of what I actually have to do this year. I've kind of realised that it's a huge ask.