Hi,

I suppose it depends what would make you feel too old to apply for a PhD - I am doing mine purely for personal reasons and not for career reasons so I don't feel the age really matters - although there does seem to be an awful lot of Uni lecturers that are late 50's+

N

Hi

What do people think of the Open University?

A Prof there has offered to supervise my PhD.

Are they like a 'real University'. Is the same weight etc given to an OU PhD?

The company I worked for in the late 90's/early 00's used to look well upon graduates of the OU, figuring that it takes extra drive and determination to juggle the requirements of work and a PT degree by correspondence. That was a long time ago though, and it was normally undergraduate degrees that our applicants held, so not sure if that's still the case at present with research degrees. For what it is worth, I think the OU is very much a 'proper' university, and their degree is as good as any from the Russell Group (with the usual exception of Oxbridge). The only reservation I have is the lack of day to day contact of a distance learning course, but you are doing a PT course, and that's not your main priory anyway. I'd say go for it, if its a better fit than Central Lancashire (eg., the supervisor has a better reputation etc).

The Professor at the OU seems to be top notch (he even has a full page entry on wikipedia) and having seen my proposal has said he would be delighted to supervise me.

N

Late reply but I've just received an offer to start PhD in Law - how was your experience? Any tips? Any new students reading this?