UCAS - UCAS mature students: case studies

'I decided to go for it when I saw the amount of opportunities.'

Name: Jacobus V

Age: 27

Studying: HND in Business Information Technology at London South Bank University

Qualifications: School matriculation in South Africa

I left school at the age of 18 in 2001 after matriculation. I wanted to go and study A++ (a programming language) at technical university in Pretoria, but due to difficulties did not get the chance.

In the UK there came a point in my life where I decided that I needed a change in what I did, so I started looking around for places close by to go and study at and then I just went on their websites and asked for more information on what there is available to study that would work with my weekly routine. I decided to go for it when I saw the amount of opportunities to study that are available and when I realised that I was in a dead end job.

The biggest concern I had, and still have, is money worries due to the time in a week that I need to sit in class and having to meet all my deadlines. But I was fortunate enough to go self-employed in what I was doing and therefore can now work whenever I'm available - and I can get to all of my deadlines if I put in some hard work.

The other little concern I had was getting used to the unknown technologies used in the university and for the units of the course. Constant interacting with these technologies is what helped me through it.

What I would say to other people considering such a step is that the challenges are tough but very helpful if you work hard. I will recommend BIT because it is not only computing but also business- related, giving it a wide area for job opportunities.