Cheapest online masters - eneb the only option?

[HVzR5]

Have you explored the potential financial support? Normally people doing a Master's in the UK, depending on where they live, either get free tuition(like Scotland), or some kind of bursary and education loan. I think some of my friends got like 9000/year maintenance grants to support their Master's studies.

[IReallyNeedADegree]

Hi, 

I'm looking to migrate from the UK to Australia but the role I have requires a degree or higher level qualification to complete the Skills Assessment (despite my 10 years of experience in the job without a degree so far   )

I can't do in person around my job, and cant afford the high costs of all the online masters I've found so far. 

Is ENEB the only sub £2k Masters out there? I can't find any information as to whether this will be accepted in Australia so I've been looking for alternatives but can't seem to find any?

Do they exist or am I being ridiculous in hoping they do?  Additionally if anyone knows anything about whether the ENEB masters are accepted in Aus I'd love to know. 

Thank you!

There is UNISA and University of Johannesburg

[sarahmac]

Have you explored the potential financial support? Normally people doing a Master's in the UK, depending on where they live, either get free tuition(like Scotland), or some kind of bursary and education loan. I think some of my friends got like 9000/year maintenance grants to support their Master's studies.

This is a little off. UK students can get loans, but those have to be repaid. Plus the maintenance grants are gone. It's all loan.

The repayment rates are high because they're income linked, and for many people, it can end up being over 200 GBP a month. This matters because of how the loans are structured. If you earn more, you not only repay more but the interest rate is higher so the principal is inflated proportionally. It's called a loan, but it is effectively a graduate tax and most people never pay it off until they hit the 30-year mark, and it's canceled. It's designed that way.

Considering this person is looking for cheaper sub 2k masters, getting into a situation where they're paying over 2k a year for the next few decades is probably not optimal. They'd be better off setting the money aside for a few years, as though they were making Student Loans Company repayments, and then paying in cash.

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Strongly recommend doing some type of OTHM qual then a top-up Master. The OTHM may even be sufficient for the Australian's since they are OFQAL regulated. They're vocational-type degree equivalents, and you can often use experience to skip the level 5 or 6 if they're related to your job. Meaning you could dive straight in at the masters level 7.

Also talk to your bosses because many people in the UK get these sponsored.

Here's a list of which ones can be used to progress to which top-up uni courses, all of which are generally taught via distance learning. You'll have to check each uni for fees, but most come in under the 5k mark, and many in the 2-3k range:
https://othm.org.uk/university-progression.html

Since I don't know what your field is, here's an example:

OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Human Resource Management

Go to this page and fill in your city and country: https://othm.org.uk/listing.aspx and pick a college that offers it

Say I'm London and I pick this one: https://lcps.org.uk/course/othm-level-7-...anagement/

I do the 6 month fast track online option for 950

then apply to this: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/courses/hu...-topup-ma/

Total cost is 3200, even if my job didn't cover the OTHM qual. Which again, many will.

[bjcheung77]

Generally, that's what I would recommend, Level 7 and then a top up Masters or MBA. At the undergrad level, there are options for the Level 6 and top up Bachelors and that would be the route for people in the UK/EU as well, I would recommend this over ENEB anytime for 'better' learning unless you really are in a pickle and can't cough up the cash for it...

[HVzR5]

Have you explored the potential financial support? Normally people doing a Master's in the UK, depending on where they live, either get free tuition(like Scotland), or some kind of bursary and education loan. I think some of my friends got like 9000/year maintenance grants to support their Master's studies.

This is a little off. UK students can get loans, but those have to be repaid. Plus the maintenance grants are gone. It's all loan.

The repayment rates are high because they're income linked, and for many people, it can end up being over 200 GBP a month. This matters because of how the loans are structured. If you earn more, you not only repay more but the interest rate is higher so the principal is inflated proportionally. It's called a loan, but it is effectively a graduate tax and most people never pay it off until they hit the 30-year mark, and it's canceled. It's designed that way.

Considering this person is looking for cheaper sub 2k masters, getting into a situation where they're paying over 2k a year for the next few decades is probably not optimal. They'd be better off setting the money aside for a few years, as though they were making Student Loans Company repayments, and then paying in cash.

---

Strongly recommend doing some type of OTHM qual then a top-up Master. The OTHM may even be sufficient for the Australian's since they are OFQAL regulated. They're vocational-type degree equivalents, and you can often use experience to skip the level 5 or 6 if they're related to your job. Meaning you could dive straight in at the masters level 7.

Also talk to your bosses because many people in the UK get these sponsored.

Here's a list of which ones can be used to progress to which top-up uni courses, all of which are generally taught via distance learning. You'll have to check each uni for fees, but most come in under the 5k mark, and many in the 2-3k range:
https://othm.org.uk/university-progression.html

Since I don't know what your field is, here's an example:

OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Human Resource Management

Go to this page and fill in your city and country: https://othm.org.uk/listing.aspx and pick a college that offers it

Say I'm London and I pick this one: https://lcps.org.uk/course/othm-level-7-...anagement/

I do the 6 month fast track online option for 950

then apply to this: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/courses/hu...-topup-ma/

Total cost is 3200, even if my job didn't cover the OTHM qual. Which again, many will.

Haha it still like free money for someone from Canada, compared with our loan system or especially American's. And sad to know those maintenance grands are gone in England, hope it's different in Scotland and Wales.

BTW the level 7 diploma+degree top-up sounds like a very interesting way to enrich my degree collection. Now thinking about doing the finance and accounting one even I'm not gonna work in the field lol.

[elcastor21]

Thanks to those who offered advice, I'll look into the options suggested, much appreciated.

As far as not having a bachelors - in the UK I've already been accepted for a normal/reputable UK university based on my work experience, so doing a masters without a bachelors may be a bit more acceptable here than wherever you guys are (assuming US)? But at £10k+ a year and the salary deduction from the time taken off work, it's just not affordable. And again, I'm from the UK where salaries are very low, the same job in the US comes with a 4x salary so its not that easy to pay ££££ for a degree that wouldn't give me a salary increase to make up for it.

It's not a "trick"/loophole to get a job without having a bachelors, I already have a job/well-established career and can get any job in my field without a degree - I've never been asked about a degree once in the last almost 15yrs of my employment history, having a degree wouldn't give me any sort of salary increase/benefit. I hire people in this field without degrees, it's pretty common. The only reason I need one is to pass a particular step in the Australian visa process - and they accept a masters without a bachelors, and getting a masters in a year is a bit easier to explain than managing to do a bachelors in a year.  When it comes to the actual employer - they're not interested in me having any degree.

So, your option is taking a Level 7 UK certification and then getting a degree top-up, while possible, it will cost you around 6k GBP

For example, for an MBA: https://www.lsib.co.uk/course-details.as...rd=Diploma (1K GBP) https://www.glos.ac.uk/courses/course/mb...tion/#fees (MBA Top-Up 4k GBP)

[bjcheung77]

Depending on where you are located, the ENEB MBA/Masters combo would be your best option... If you're in a country that has evaluators providing a favorable outcome, you may have a Bachelors/Grad cert combo already. You can review the ENEB WIKI, if you're in the UK, then yes, a Level 7 and top up is another option...