Undergraduate astronomy courses?

To do it properly, you should probably give 2 years to get all 120 points and get the most out of it. You shouldn't need longer then that. You could easily get most of the courses done in the first year, allowing you to start one of the UCLan Level 2 courses in the second year while finishing off the LJMU courses. On the UCLAN site, on the documentation for the Diploma (level 2 qualification) it says you can use upto 160 points from another institution towards their Diploma, so it covers the 120 from LJMU. There is one level 1 course at UCLAN, Energy, Matter & Universe, that you have to do as a prerequisite for some of their later courses, but this is okay, as for the diploma you can do 5 level 2 and an extra level 1 course.

I don't what to seem too down on UCLAN, it is very good, the learning materials are very high quality and enjoyable. I have 60 points worth of level one courses that I will transfer over to LJMU to finish of the Level 1 cert, but that is more because it suits me at the moment, I like the courses they offer, the staggered start also lets me start the courses at different times, and pay for them over the year instead of all up front.
I would even suggest doing 5 of the short level 1 courses at LJMU (because they are interesting and cheaper) to give you 60 points, while also doing some of the uclan level 1 course and then transferring LJMU course points over to UCLAN. The transfer between LJMU and UCLAN is easy, they actually have a joint marketing site ( www.astronomy.ac.uk ) along with Manchester, but manchester don't run their courses any more, so they all know each other's courses.

artyfarty: Don't let the end of course exams throw you off, they are multiple choice, on a certain day you download the exam as a document, and you send it back by a certain time.

Thanks NPC for the detailed info on the courses, if I spend my money I want to be sure it's well spent. The LJMU seems a bit too good to be true, the courses seems bit more hands on which is good (for me anyway) but I can't help but feel I'm missing something here.

Any ideas why there is such a big price difference in price, I'm worried that the course material is not as good or that maybe the student to student or student to supervisor is not as good as that provided in UCLAN. Anyone got any info on these questions?

Ok, I'm been devils advocate here so please dont beat me with a stick when I ask this,
Why considering these courses at all?, what's the aim and what do you hope to do after it ?
It's a fair bit of money just to further your astro knowledge, surely a good set of books would do the same or do you see related employment/work at the end of the tunnel?

Dave_Lillis wrote:

Ok, I'm been devils advocate here so please dont beat me with a stick when I ask this,
Why considering these courses at all?, what's the aim and what do you hope to do after it ?
It's a fair bit of money just to further your astro knowledge, surely a good set of books would do the same or do you see related employment/work at the end of the tunnel?

If it is for personal interest/satisfaction then go for it. As Dave mentioned, if one is looking to get employment in Astronomy out of it then think again (except maybe public education, journalism etc...). Full time astronomy / physics courses have a strong maths element which is quite difficult. These courses may or may not qualify for entry to full time postgraduate studies which is where the real research begins. Its worth asking.

It's a fair question Dave so no need to cower..
I'm sure each person that does any kind of distance education
will have their own reasons, goals etc.
Personally, I don't think it's a huge amount to spend.
Also the time you need to put in looks small
each week and very doable.
In terms of length of the overall course
(6 years or so) again, I don't think it's a long time
and six years go by pretty quickly!
I'm in my house six years this month and I can
Remember the day I moved in like it was yesterday!

As for buying some books...
I personally can't see how it's the same.

Finally and I believe the crux of the question
For you and I think what your really asking is
"Why do it in the first place as you won't get a job out of it!"

The field of professional astronomy is viciously competitive
even for phd graduates.
Both LJMU & UCLAN make no bones about telling you this.

Dave_Lillis wrote:

Ok, I'm been devils advocate here so please dont beat me with a stick when I ask this,
Why considering these courses at all?, what's the aim and what do you hope to do after it ?
It's a fair bit of money just to further your astro knowledge, surely a good set of books would do the same or do you see related employment/work at the end of the tunnel?

Don't worry Dave I can't find my hurley. Personally I've paid more then the course fees on one of my scopes and with recent weather/work etc. I hardly get to use it, so I don't think it's an unreasonable price considering the amount of time you will get out of astronomy for your money.

As for the idea of self learning by buying a few books; whom among us has said something along the lines of "This year I will try to do more ..... and learn more about ...." and then next year said the exact same things except this time you REALLY mean it Having some form of official structure and independent review of your progress will certainly help you to focus and achieve your goals for learning and having some form of officially recognised award at the end of it is a bonus. All of my college education has been done as a mature student via distance learning and if you have a course you are interested in with good support from fellow students and facility undergoing any course can be very rewarding, hard work too, but very rewarding on a personal level. I finished my MSc via distance learning (actually on the subject of distance learning :laugh:) three years ago and I've been trying to find another course for a while, now I just need to decide which college to go with.