Full time or part-time?
Various personal circumstances always affect on the time you devote to your education. Remember that there is always more than one option. This article is about getting part-time or full time diploma.
If you are a high school student so far, once you get to get to higher education you will understand that you have much more control over your timetable. For many college courses, you can always switch between full time and part-time studies without any institution’s approval.
The terms full time diploma and part-time diploma have some differences. The main is in the number of units or subjects that you take in semester. Before you enroll into any type of studying, schedule all the regular commitments for the working week in a calendar — when you have your working hours (if have), and any other things you regularly do during the week. This timetable will help you to understand how many free hours a week you have for studying and to figure out whether you should or should not apply for full time diploma.
If you do not have regular basis but know that everything can change in a second, think about the option of switching your studying from full time to part time or vise versa. Remember one simple but very important idea: it is always better to transfer from full time to part-time and receive part-time instead of full time diploma than not to receive any diploma at all.
In contemporary society of technology you also have a possibility to study online in case you cannot attend the full course. As a rule, online courses are self-paced, it means that you can move your study time depending on when you have free time.
What you need to know
Before you decide on how much workload you have, check your institution’s Equivalent Full Time Diploma Study Load (EFTSL) from the website or seek for this information at students’ support centre. For instance, if students have to complete 54 units per year to get full time diploma in the end, then the EFTSL for this course is 54 units. It means that you have to take nine classes every year (if each of the subject is listed as six units).
Following the above example, you always as a part-time student may take only four to five classes a year. By this act you will still get a diploma which is equivalent to the full time diploma but the process will take twice longer to complete your degree.
What else to consider
- If you are the one who is responsible for getting your part-time or full time diploma then you need to have the right balance between your classes, work, family and social life. So here are some tips to facilitate your schedule while being on the way of getting full time diploma:
- Find out your best working hours;
- Get a full day off;
- Schedule everything;
- Never follow friends’ invitations if the schedule does not allow it.
And the last, remember that it is you who is the best judge for what you can or cannot manage.
Linda Evans is a content developer for a number of online content hubs, who shares opinion on various education subjects such as getting part-time or full time diploma and anything else related. A restless traveler of online community and an influential blogger in all things related to the education.
