Genghis you get my full support for your crusade.
I’m in the frustrating situation of trying to get further on in the Aero Eng world – with an ultimate view to getting into the Flight Test / Trials Engineering. After numerous rejections for FT jobs requiring minimum of HND Aero Eng / Eng Degree, I’ve come to the conclusion that an Aero Degree is the baseline qualification. For this reason I have been actively reviewing University courses and options of study.
Whilst Part time options are pretty scarce, distance-learning options for first degrees just don’t exist, the exception of course being the Open University as you so rightly mention.
I’ve looked at going down the OU route, and whilst it appears to be a high quality course (I know someone doing it), I agree that it does seem to be too general. I have heard the argument that employers do sometimes favour people with OU degrees as it shows motivation and dedication in addition to ability. But the fact is some of the core elements aren’t covered e.g. Aerodynamics etc. Whilst there is the option to add as you suggest short specialist courses to cover any shortfall, I feel that in the current climate, and with ever tightening training budgets there are going to be very few willing employers.
It is annoying to find that there are so few Universities prepared to offer flexible methods of learning, or perhaps I should be more specific and say so few Aero Eng Faculties. There are seems to be an abundance of other courses out there with very flexible approaches, and these do include other specialisations of engineering.
I can appreciate that to run a full degree course, as a distance-learning package requires more than a bundle of course notes and students completing assignments. It requires access to physical resources, practical lectures, lab work etc but these are not insurmountable problems as the OU has demonstrated for many years through multimedia support, summer schools and similar techniques.
Whilst Universities could argue that the demand for such courses would not be sufficient to counter the financial costs of offering such a programme I think it is a route that would be welcomed by a growing number of people who are avoiding direct university courses due to shear cost.
There seems to be a swell of numbers taking alternative routes to qualification via employment and part time HNC/D and then to degree when they have time and money. Additionally there are a large number of people in the Aero world, who have a wealth of experience and academic ability that would welcome a route through which they could advance. Surely this is a market ripe for picking?
RK