Monday, January 16, 2006

The History .. Part 6: The MSc

Last Friday I should have handed in my first assignment for my MSc.
For the past few years I have been considering doing an MSc in Learning Disabilities. The University of Birmingham do a good taught MSc, and I quite liked the idea of being a student again, going to some lectures, getting in cheap at the cinema... and forgetting the 2am essay crises and not being able to find the one book or article to complete an assignment.
In fact, I was seriously considering starting this MSc in 2003, but Eleanor had other ideas. So, now that she is 2, and (at the moment!) sleeping through the night, I applied for the course, and in October, at last became a student at Birmingham University. (Paul has been making comments ever since about how long it took me to see the light etc. I still maintain that I have attended the best Poly and best New University... and the second best University in Oxford. I see no need to attend a red brick University as well. But hey, they offered the course I wanted!)
Now however, the University now only offers the MSc as a distance learning course. So I am in the odd position of being on a distance learning course at an institution around 2 miles away. There are texts that we have to download each week, with dire warnings not to download them early, as there may be changes and updates (I haven't noticed any yet).
I now have a student card, and have enjoyed getting my discount at the cinema. I attended freshers fair, and was immediately stopped by someone who guided me towards the 'post grad and mature students society' stall. You mean I don't look half my age? The fact that many of the other freshers were in nappies when I was first a student...
I had completed all the texts in my module, and was beginning on my assignment when I was diagnosed. The first assignment is a case study, and I had booked time out at work to do the research, and had 5 weeks in which to write it up. Which considering how last minute I normally am, is not bad. However, my last week at work was spend running around trying to sort out my caseload and other responsibilities, so I had no chance of getting the information I needed. Nor did I have any brain power to even start thinking of the assignment. So I have deferred the whole course for a year.
I am still on the computer system tho'. So I have begun downloading the information for module 2: Research Methods (excitement!!). And at any time when I am in work, I can pick up the case study again. This is when I find out that they have decided to change the whole course for next year. But still, it will give me something to do to keep me out of mischief.
I have to inform the University in August whether I intend to take up the course again in October. Which in effect, since I have done all of Module 1 except the assignment, means that in August I have to predict how well I am going to be in December. So I guess the more I can get done while I am well, the better.

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