Query - Online Bachelor Degree in Business (UK)

Hi everyone

I am unemployed (covid) and want to study an online degree in business. I've been looking at previous posts and wondered if there is a post with economical/most assessible programs on? I'm currently on coursera going through wharton and illinois ones, thoroughly enjoying them and thought I might as well try and do it full time if I can get somewhere

Many thanks

 

Welcome! A few questions would help us direct you better:

• What country do you live in
• What budget do you have?
• Are student loans an option?
• Do you have any previous college experience/credits?
• Are you looking for a Bachelor's degree or an MBA?

Western Governors University has inexpensive Bachelor's degrees in business. $3500 per 6 months for as many courses as you can complete. You test out of material you already know. Lots of threads here on them. https://wgu.edu/

 

Hiya Dustin!

I keep coming across this site when searching via google, decided to sign up today and take the first step asking for help

• I live in the UK
• My budget is very limited, I can't put a value on it as I can only afford a few thousand. At one point I was looking at university of the people.
• I am unable to get any type of loan (I have successfully applied for financial aid on coursera & edx before)
• I have previously studied at a college and gained a customer care cert level 2, at the moment I'm completing business specialisations through coursera - business foundations, entrepreneurship, business communication and university of illinois has put their mba as seperate subjects through coursera.
• I have about 20 years of working experience, 10 at senior management level (I'm mid 40's)
• I have no degree, I've been told I need to complete a Bachelor's degree first(?). I'd love to complete an MBA, it'd be something I'd be proud of

 

If you're in the UK, that puts WGU right out. I would also not do UoPeople as the kind of accreditation it has is, unfortunately, not looked on very favorably by foreign degree evaluators. It's not necessarily considered a "real" degree even though it very much is. UoPeople is under consideration for the "right" kind of accreditation now, but it could be a while until they actually receive it.

You can get a Bachelor's degree from UMPI for $3-4k USD, though. If you have a lot of business experience, you should be able to breeze through the coursework quickly. The whole process of getting the right university credits can be a bit confusing to non-Americans but it works eventually.

COSC is another option. But it would almost certainly wind up costing a bit more than UMPI in time, effort, and money. It's not competency-based so you could go through it more slowly than UMPI, if desired. It could be even more confusing to work through than UMPI, too.

Once you have the Bachelor's degree, you might want to consider an ENEB MBA for about $250 USD - at least until you have the funds to pursue an MBA with a higher price tag.

 

Hiya Rachel83az

Many thanks

Over here if your degree hasn't come from the top tier uni's it's usually considered a "micky mouse" type. I personally think it's a license for uni's to print their own money. For me, I want to prove to myself I can do it, I can't see why I would want to transfer to a different uni (sounds confuding), I'd want to be a simple one uni person.

I don't quite understand the different degrees, I see Associate and Bachelor's, trying to work out what our equivalent's are (I think Accociate might be our A levels).

I'm embarrassed asking strangers for help, I have no experience of "real" further education apart from online courses from coursera specialisations (with peer graded honours sections) and professional sponsored ones. I did try University of the people, the system felt it as put together with string and sellotape (at the time). I'd like a self paced one, but understand if there isn't available with my shoestring budget

 

An Associate's degree is a 2-year degree. It is probably close to your A-levels but not quite.

A Bachelor's is a 4-year degree. It is essentially an Associate + 2 extra years. I think there are 3-year degrees in the UK that are equivalent.

Traditionally, in order to cut down on costs, American students will go to an inexpensive local community college to get their Associate's degree. Then they transfer to a more expensive and larger university to finish off their Bachelor's degree. Nowdays, there are other ways to get the "Associate" part of the degree done at even lower prices.

UMPI is a state university. It's a pretty good school. In order to get your degree as affordably as possible, what you would do would be to go to Study.com and take Biology 101L. Then you go to InstantCert.com and take American Government (classes like this are a requirement for many US degrees). Finally, you would go over to Sophia.org and take specific classes there. Once you had about 90 credits (just a little more than an Associate's degree), you would transfer to UMPI and take the remaining 30-40 credits with them.

If you stick with JUST UMPI and no outside credit at all, you're looking at paying $7000USD or more for your degree. Costs would be even higher at other American schools.

 

An associate degree is equivalent to an HND (higher national diploma) in the U.K. The associate, like the HND, generally takes 2 years to complete. In the UK, you only need 1 year of further study to complete a bachelor's (top-up program) after completing an HND.

My favorite uni in the UK is Portsmouth. The distance learning programs at Ports are very affordable.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think there are any MBA programs that meet your "few thousand" budget and don't require a bachelors. If there were, they are likely "Mickey Mouse" degrees I would avoid.

Your best bet is to wait until University of the People gets proper accreditation.

Alternatively, you can consider other qualifications such as the undergraduate diplomas from Oxbridge:

https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/
https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate-certificates-and-diplomas

 

What's about the University of London's London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Bachelor of Science in Business and Management? I am sure you can get a student loan in the UK.
URL: https://london.ac.uk/courses/business-and-management

 

Is there something wrong with Open University? They're cheaper than all the competency-based programs in the U.S.

 

Hi sanantone

The OU used to be cheaper, but several years ago, they changed direction and are not so comparable, I have a friend who works in admissions and it's become a sausage factory now. He said the OU no longer really care for their students and just want the money. Shame really as it was my first go-to

 

Thankyou for the information - very helpful

I will have a look at those sites today, I remember study.com from years back, didn't realise they are still going.

 

Actually, at least for American degrees, self-paced is pretty much the only option for you. UMPI's competency-based approach means that you are allowed to complete courses as fast or as slow as you want and you just pay the term fee (works out to about $700USD/month).

COSC isn't exactly self-paced but most of the courses that you would need to take (from places like Study.com) are. If you ran out of funds and needed to pause your degree, you could do so with little consequence besides maybe COSC changing requirements and you having to retake a couple of courses that are no longer accepted.

 

Thankyou, I tried to understand the Diploma system and gave up, we seem to enjoy making adding complexity over here.

I will have a look at Portsmouth uni today; I've seen quite a few positive reviews on their system, I think they are one of the first uni's to grab online learning

 

Thankyou Rachel83az

I will have a search on that

 

Considering your situation and that you have plenty of work experience I would seriously consider the Eneb/Isabel Master/MBA even though it's not a Bachelor.

You might also take a lot at Apsley Business school. They have several state-recognised european awarding partners, are rather cheap (the exact price depends on which partner university will award the degree I suppose) and afaik it is possible to do it 100 % online and of course they have Bachelors too.

 

Hello!

Maybe it could be a good thing if you do first a Level 5 online course (like from ATHE or OTHM), which would cost about GBP 1000. Then, you can take this certificate and do a TopUp Bachelor with an university which accepts such qualifications for an advanced entry to the 3rd year. There are universities who do this and charge less than 4000 GBP.

So, you could get your UK degree from a reputable institution for 5000 GBP. If this is interesting, do some recherche, ask me our maybe both.

Best regards,
Mac Juli

 

Thankyou Mac Juli

I'm already having a look, never heard of both qualifications, that looks an interesting way of doing things

 

Hello!


A good starting point for further recherche could be https://www.onlinebusinessschool.com/university-pathways/. Regarding the prices of these institution, they are quite (but not absurdly) high.


Best regards,
Mac Juli

 

Hi everyone

I think I've made a decision with all your help - I will use UofP with saylor.org.

Reason being, I previously had an account with a scholarship, but I had to give it up as my life took a downward turn (I was made homeless). I've re-applied, hopefully I will be allowed to return. I can then complete the Bachelor with the upgrade path of an MBA (my final goal!). I will use saylor.org either as additional learning experience before starting, if I can afford it, I will also use the ProtorU service to get the credits.