Please help - trying to go back to school and completely lost

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone could help me. I'm 33 and obviously I have graduated from high school looong time ago. I have a rather stable career at the moment but I really want to go back to college and get a bachelor to begin with. It would have to be done online since I will have to work full time at the same time.
I have high school diploma with the equivalent of 4 A-Levels (I graduated in Poland). At the moment I live in UK but I'm moving to Canada for at least a year in 2 months. My Canadian visa conditions don't allow me to study there therefore I'd like to find UK based University that offers distance learning (Open University couldn't offer me anything since I'll be based in Canada). I had a look at US Universities but couldn't find anything that offers online bachelor degrees - I found maybe two but they were ridiculously expensive!

Second thing. I am interested in gender studies and sexuality, something that's always been of interest to me. From the research that I've done gender studies and sexuality seem to be offered with regards to Masters degree. I would initially like to get bachelor and perhaps continue afterwards. Does anyone have any idea at what I should go for?

I know it's a lot of general questions but considering the fact that my last encounter with education was over 10 years ago in Eastern Europe I find the amount of online information a bit overwhelming. Thank you!!

 

What do you intend to do with your degree? Is it for a career change or something else? This is an important consideration because a degree in gender studies and sexuality isn't something that is highly sought after on the job market.

 

The good thing about Excelsior College is they offer a Bachelor of Arts or Science in Liberal Arts. Perhaps one can design a "concentration" in gender studies and/or just take those type of courses from other accredited colleges and transfer them in. Excelsior College also grants credits to those who pass approved foreign language exams. In addition, there are many other sources of credits available to those who desire to "challenge out". One can download a study guide and purchase a used textbook from amazon.com, pay a fee and challenge the course!

Another school to consider for general education coursework is Clovis Community College. I have a friend from Scandinavia(resides in USA) who finished an Associates degree in general studies from Clovis Community College online for about $5000 and is transferring to Excelsior College to finish a Bachelors degree. The U.S. system of education is a little different than Europe with the High School Diploma (12 years) or GED, followed by an undergraduate either a Bachelors degree or an Associates (2 year) followed by a Bachelors degree then a Master and Doctorate (graduate degrees). I am not familiar with entrance requirements for students outside of USA.

Good luck!

 

Not neccesarily for a career change, more for myself as I have always been interested in feminism. To be fair I have no idea how I could use that degree at the moment career wise. Forensic psychology is another subject that deeply interests me but it became almost a cliche to study it because of certain tv shows It's also rather widely available from what I've seen, I'm thinking about it as well.

 

Thanks Steve, I had a look at the program of bachelor of arts in sociology you have posted and it definitely looks like something I would be very interested in. I will of course contact them but in the meantime can I ask something since I don't really get the whole credit thing, it says "Total 120 sem. hours", does semester hour = credit?

 

Actually, a semester hour means 1 hour of lecture a week in a 16 week term or 2 hours of lecture a week in an 8 week term. Study time is up to the student! I've taken courses that needed no study and others that needed so much study there wasn't enough hours in the week! The program you mentioned looks great by the way at $224 an hour so roughly a $30k program.

 

You might want to look at completing an undergraduate degree in sociology, humanities, social science, or psychology. Charter Oak State College and Thomas Edison State College let you design your own area of study in the Individualized Studies program and Learner Designed Area of Study, respectively. However, I think it's better to have a degree in a traditional major that everyone will recognize. You can save a lot of time and money with the Big 3 (Charter Oak, Thomas Edison, and Excelsior) by testing out of courses. A social science or psychology degree would be the easiest to test out of, especially at TESC. Some cheap but more traditional colleges with online programs are Peru State College, Fort Hays State University, and Chadron State College.