I did a part-time taught history Masters course a few years ago focused around weekly afternoon taught seminars. Extra work required included preparatory reading (we had a reading list to work through each week), and writing essays and of course a lengthy dissertation. Expect to put in at least 5 hours extra on average a week. Re the PhD you'd probably be considered for application, and a computing degree can be useful to demonstrate other useful skills like databases. I'm doing a part-time history PhD now and my first degree was a BSc in Computer Science. But I studied a part-time history/classical studies degree with the OU before starting the Masters course. So I was a bit different and already had the history BA. Good luck!

As far as I remember from when I applied a few years ago the number of applicants was generally about 4 times the number of awards granted. So a 1 in 4 chance, i.e. it's a bit of a long shot. I was lucky to win an award. Good luck with your application.

It depends on discipline and university rules though. In my subject/university the rules are that a PhD thesis has to be between 80,000 and 100,000 words long, including footnotes. Much shorter ones would be automatically failed. I've written 50,000 words so far (between 4 and 5 chapters) and think I can easily reach 72,500 but there'll still be a way to go to reach the minimum acceptable level. I write concisely!

I've always been told to avoid first-person completely, and I'm humanities too. It is possible to write quite emphatically and to show the thought process without using "I".

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