Open University

I have now registered to begin my first ever course with the Open University. As of the 2nd of October I will once again be a student when I begin AA100 – The arts past and present.

The intention is for this to eventually lead to a BA (Honours) in History, although that’s a fair distance away but I have to start somewhere!

For many years I’ve thought about starting a course with the Open University, but I never really got around to it. Over the last year and a half, my interest in history as a subject has increased immensely and so I decided to look into actually obtaining a qualification in it, since I was reading so many history books anyway, why not get something more out of it?

I initially looked into doing an BA/BSc Open Degree, focusing mainly on history. I applied for a credit transfer (based on my previous degree, a BSc in Computer Systems from the University of Limerick in Ireland), and received 240 points! So all I would have had to do was one 60 point course at level 3 with the OU, and the degree would be mine.

This felt a bit like cheating, plus I wouldn’t have learned enough I thought. So I decided to go for the full qualification towards a BA in History, with the credit transfer reduced to 60 points and so here I am.

The first course I’m studying is an overall introduction to studying the humanities. Whilst I’ve studied at university before, it was not in this subject so I felt it’s a good starting point (plus it will be made compulsory for the history degress in a few years time).

The amount of study required is daunting (16 hours a week!), what with all the freelance web work I have on at the moment, plus my blog writing both for here and for PC Pro, not to mention my personal life! But I’m sure I shall manage. I’ll have to!

Time to spend some time procrastinating drawing up a detailed study timetable which I then never stick to. Aaaahh, just like school days!