Open Uni or maybe Birmingham Uni.

The discussion forum on the Find-MBA.com website is good for questions about all post graduate business degrees, not just MBAs. Mods - sorry if this post contravenes site rules just remove it.

You really need to be registered as a full time student in order to get things like rail discounts. If only part time you wouldn't qualify for this.

Jane 360 - If you want to do it - go ahead!

As pm133 pointed out its only £5 per month

Assuming your salary stays the same until age 67, the most you would pay back is £1140, then presumably in retirement your income would fall below the threshold, and you would pay nothing. Balance then gets written off after 30 years.

£1140 for a masters AND doctorate seems cheap to me.

Rossall -

I would try asking on the Find-MBA.com discussion board as despite the name you will probably get a more nuanced response as it is aimed at PG BUSINESS students

PS - I'm a UK qualified accountant and part time academic.

Hi Chaotic. Thanks for the response. I work full time in quite a demanding job at the moment, as well as studying part time. In a year or twos time I envisage being in a position to cut down my hours at work a fair bit.

Edit: is it possible to rescue the situation with a really good dissertation?

Apologies for hi-jacking this thread slightly. If your masters grade is depressed from having too many late submission penalties do you think that a university would consider the fact that you scored better in the assignments than your degree classification indicates? I'm wanting to do a self funded Phd but might find myself in the position of only getting a "pass" at masters level for that reason. My work/life balance will improve so I should be better able to meet deadlines going forwards.

A couple of the clearing banks still do career development loans, where no repayments are made until your course ends.

Terry. Good to hear from you. I'm also an accountant and was thinking of doing a Phd. I'm later in career though, and as my academic study is rather a long time ago I chose to do a masters first, thinking that this would help me firm up things like that. Sorry this does not answer your question though! I was also told that although I might get Phd offers with just a BSc and a professional qualification, it would be easier with a masters.

Treeoflife - I think the point is if you have a prof qualification you already have the technical knowledge, but not the experience of research or academic writing, which is where doing the dissertation might help.

bewidered - good point about accreditation - a lot of the former polys aren't accredited with Equis /aecsb AMBA

Thanks

There are a few business school masters degrees which give substantial credit for prior professional quals and experience. I'm thinking business quals here, like accounting, marketing etc. It's mostly the newer universities which offer these courses (note: I'm not having a go at them).

The net result is if you have experience and professional qualifications you can do a part time masters in one year by studying a research methods module and doing a dissertation.

The question is, can this cut down masters be a proper preparation for doing a Phd later. How will it appear to admissions tutors/prospective supervisors? What if you do a really good dissertation?

Much more nuanced discussions about the efficacy of different business schools on the find-mba discussion fora,. Ask over there, despite it not being about an MBA. Apologies if I have broken any rules by referring to another site.

Much better to do it now than in another 10 years when you are really p***ed off.

Just make sure that you've worked out how any funding loans etc will be enough to see you through.

Does your old university provide a level of subscription membership whereby you pay a fee for a library card with borrowing rights etc? Some do. Alternatively a nearby university library might.

If you use a quantitative methodology in your masters dissertation, would this pose a problem in pursuing a Phd with a qualitative based research proposal (both research projects are in the field of financial management). Also would you consider approaching a supervisor in your research area who has published lots using different methodology to that you envisage using.