International Studies student Halima Younis, 26, has been studying with The Open University since completing her A Levels. After making the big decision to choose distance learning – and to prove her doubters wrong – she’s never looked back.
She now wants to show that there’s not only one route to success and that you don’t have to put your life on hold to pursue higher education.
“After school, I didn’t want to stop working,” says Halima, who runs a business providing care services to the community. “I didn’t want to move away or be in financial debt. It was a huge pressure on my shoulders.”
After a friend suggested she could study flexibly through The Open University, Halima found the solution she was looking for. The only problem was convincing her mum it was the right choice.
“There wasn’t that much she knew about the OU, so she was against it. She hadn’t looked into it and wasn’t something that was considered ‘normal’. I was 17 at the time, so it was unheard of.
“I feel like loads of people from Asian families would be in a similar situation. Our parents have this expectation that we have to do amazingly well. I don’t know why, but it’s so common. I feel like there’s so much pressure to be amazing.”
Proving herself through distance learning
Thankfully, Halima’s dad was more supportive from the start and gave her the encouragement to enrol for an International Studies degree.
“The moment I told him about the OU he was like, ‘go for it’,” she says. “My dad’s very business orientated, and I believe I take that after him and my mum’s very educationally motivated. So I feel like I’m the perfect child for them.”
After seeing Halima’s hard work pay off as she passes each module, her mum has now come around – and couldn’t be prouder:
“She’s really happy that I’m happy and I’m content. I’ve not had to sacrifice anything for my education. She liked the fact that I was able to work and there’s no financial burden on her. I’ve not had to sacrifice a course just to keep my career, I was able to do everything that I’ve wanted.
“I’ve been able to mould my studies around my real life which I feel has helped me and it’s made me a lot more confident than perhaps what I would have been if I went to a brick university.”
Support every step of the way
Halima says that having the support of her family cheering her on has been essential. She often completes assignments in the living room surrounded by her family and ever-watchful Coco the cat.
“Having my family and my pets around me makes me realise how far I’ve come. They are just like my happy place and I don’t think I would have made it this far had it not been for them.
“When they’re sitting around me, it motivates me a lot because they’ve helped me get to where I am. I know my mum was so against the OU, but now that she’s seen how it makes me feel, she’d never want me to quit studying and that’s the same with my dad too. But they know not to make excessive noise around me!”
Halima also knows she can reach out to her OU tutors and fellow students whenever she needs extra support:
“With the OU, you’re not alone. It might seem like you’re sitting at your desk at home, but there’s a whole lot of people that are in the same situation that you could easily meet up with.
“If you ask a question online, you’ll have a whole load of classmates that will be able to help you. Or what I would do if I was struggling with my TMA (tutor marked assignment) is I would email my tutor who would arrange to call me and guide me and help me.
“Coming out of sixth form, I thought ‘oh, the teachers are going to shout at me’, or there’ll be consequences, but there really isn’t. As long as you talk very openly with your tutors, they accommodate your needs very well.”
Achieving her ambitions in study and business
Looking ahead, Halima wants to keep growing her business and continue boosting her skills:
“The OU has showed me education never stops. I have plans of doing a PhD, I’d like to do a master’s, but there’s no set time, there’s no end to my studying. I would like to see myself going further in the field of International Studies because I really do enjoy it.
“I feel like there are all these doors open and I just need to choose one to walk through.”
Now that Halima has proven distance learning is the right choice for her – she hopes her story can help raise awareness that it’s a viable option at any age:
“I want people to understand that education, especially for people that come from different backgrounds, can be obtained in various ways. You don’t have to sacrifice certain things in your life to get it.
“I’ve been able to travel. I got married. Like major life events haven’t been hindered because of my education, which I feel they would have if I had gone to a brick university. I would have just been solely focused on education and not learning wider life skills, which I feel I’ve grasped a lot earlier than other people my age.
“I know that there are so many people that have the same struggles that perhaps I went through and they still struggle, and it’s nice that to show them that they’re not alone and that as long as they want to achieve something, they could really get there. And studying is one way of achieving their dreams and it’s really nice being a part of that.”
Introducing a new photo series of OU students
Halima is one of four students featured in a brand-new partnership between The Open University and Alamy, which aims to increase authentic representation of Black and Asian distance learning students. Find out more about this campaign here
