{"id":14439,"date":"2016-01-08T11:01:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-08T11:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/?p=3609"},"modified":"2016-01-08T11:01:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-08T11:01:26","slug":"back-to-uni-its-never-too-late-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2016\/01\/08\/back-to-uni-its-never-too-late-to-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to uni: it&#8217;s never too late to learn!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tFeeling too old to have a career change or go back to studying is a common phenomenon, although the phrase \u2018it\u2019s never too late\u2019 is also something we hear very frequently!\u00a0 It\u2019s understandable that the thought of going back to uni after a long study-free period can evoke anxiety, but I think this way of doing things has some significant advantages.\u00a0 Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Knowing yourself.<\/strong> The years spent working after graduating give valuable insight into your chosen field, your preferred job type and style of working, and help you develop your interests and expertise.\u00a0 Developing in this way will often lead to feeling the need to study something more specialised, or perhaps completely different from your previous qualifications.\u00a0 In my case, I studied psychology at undergrad and have developed an interest in healthy lifestyles and population-level wellbeing, which has led me to my current studies in public health.\u00a0 Had I not had several years of working and honing my interests, I wouldn\u2019t have ended up on this path which feels so right for me at the moment.\u00a0 In fact, not long ago I was convinced I wanted to be a clinical psychologist, which would have involved following a very different postgraduate study trajectory.\u00a0 It was simply the time and space to work out what I really wanted that nudged me in the right direction.\u00a0 In this sense, waiting a while to go back to uni has been very beneficial!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/files\/2015\/09\/Rancho-slider.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1739\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/files\/2015\/09\/Rancho-slider.jpg\" alt=\"Rancho-slider\" width=\"550\" height=\"340\" \/><\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A means to an end.<\/strong> Since our interests and ambitions are malleable, it\u2019s possible to decide to have a career change at any age.\u00a0 With a career change often comes the need to retrain, so going back into education is simply a necessary part of the journey to a new career.\u00a0 Seeing it as a step towards an overarching goal may make the idea of going back to uni less daunting than focussing on the challenging aspects of it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Experience and skills.<\/strong> We all develop as people over the years, and with age often comes valuable skills for successful learning.\u00a0 Over time, most of us learn new ways of dealing with stress and strategies for maintaining our general wellbeing.\u00a0 We may also become better at time management, achieving a healthy work-life balance and managing competing demands.\u00a0 These are all important characteristics of a good student, yet many people are fearful of going back into education due to lack of confidence in their own abilities.\u00a0 In reality, life experience probably makes us better equipped to do well at uni as we get older.\u00a0 For instance, over the last year I\u2019ve really gotten into mindfulness, which helps keep stress at bay and therefore I think I\u2019m coping better with the intensity of studying for a Master\u2019s than I would have done a few years ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/files\/2015\/05\/healthy-slider.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1265\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/postgraduate\/files\/2015\/05\/healthy-slider.jpg\" alt=\"healthy-slider\" width=\"550\" height=\"340\" \/><\/a>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Personal fulfilment.<\/strong> Personally, I\u2019m always striving to be challenged and feel a sense of discontentment when things are plain sailing.\u00a0 I also enjoy the process of learning and get a real sense of achievement when I\u2019ve produced a piece of work that I\u2019m pleased with (more so if I get a good grade!).\u00a0 Being a postgrad student gives me a sense of purpose and fulfilment that would otherwise be missing, and probably is missing for many people who are discouraged from going back to uni because of age.\u00a0 We should all be able to get maximum enjoyment out of life at any age, so getting back into education is something it\u2019s never too late to do.\u00a0 If you want it, do it!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>By Lauren Bishop<\/em>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Feeling too old to have a career change or go back to studying is a common phenomenon, although the phrase \u2018it\u2019s never too late\u2019 is also something we hear very frequently!\u00a0 It\u2019s understandable that the thought of going back to uni after a long study-free period can evoke anxiety, but I think this way of&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2016\/01\/08\/back-to-uni-its-never-too-late-to-learn\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about Back to uni: it&#8217;s never too late to learn!<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1444,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1658,19,1663],"tags":[1722,130,48,1996,2048,2186,2224],"class_list":["post-14439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-archive","category-featured","category-postgraduate","tag-back-to-uni","tag-bournemouth-university","tag-bu","tag-lauren-bishop","tag-masters","tag-postgraduate-study","tag-returning-to-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14439\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}