Distance Learning-Britain-Open U & benifits of Imperial College MSc discussed...

College age interest in DL is growing in Britain, according to this Guardian article, and "More opportunities are opening up all the time." For a variety of reasons but without any marketing, "The Open University has seen a sharp increase in younger students...in the past few years. In the mid-1990s, just one in 20 of its students was under the age of 25. Now the figure has risen to more than one in 10...."

http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1335495,00.html
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Paul Smith, Wye [campus]'s deputy director of distance learning [at Imperial College says:]
"Most students are expected to have a good honours degree or the equivalent from another country, but there is some discretion...." "If someone's an executive director but doesn't have a degree, we can make an exception."

Vicki Bain, a British citizen who grew up in South Africa and now lives in Brussels, completed an MSc in environmental management with Wye last year, and gained a distinction. She embarked on the course with the aim of getting her career back on track, she explains, and achieved exactly what she set out to do.

"I had always wanted to work in environmental biology, but I had moved into the lottery business and worked in it for seven or eight years. I just wanted to get back on to the path I had originally chosen. I started with a one-year certificate course followed by a postgraduate diploma and then, over a third year, a masters.

"I started job-hunting in January this year and in February I found a position as an environmental consultant. It still amazes me - I was prepared to start at the bottom, but my degree helped me to walk into the position I'd always wanted. It was expensive, but it was worth it. Having had such a good experience made me realise it wasn't as difficult as it sounded."