When a mother-of-two climbed the stage at London’s The Barbican in celebration of passing her Open University degree the audience was left agog when they discovered she was there for not one degree but three.
In fact, Diana de Vega de Ceniga, 50, from Surrey, doesn’t have just three degrees, but a total of FIVE! Diana collected her first degree in her native Spain then embarked on a career in finance coming to live and work in the UK in 2002.
Her first experience of The Open University was when she studied a BA Hons in Humanities part time in 2010 and passed it in 2016, and by this time had two sons, now school age.
There then followed three more major achievements in six years: an MA in translation, then a BSc (Honours) in psychology and she followed it up with an MSc in forensic psychological studies but due to covid and lockdowns she wasn’t able to attend any degree ceremonies.
Most of those studies were carried out while raising children, holding down a job and managing the family home with her partner.
When she talked about her student journey she said:
“For a long time any study I did was about improving my skills for work. Then I discovered the OU and decided to do something for purely personal interest. It was a bit of a test to see if it worked for me.”
She laughs at the suggestion she might be a genius and simply said:
“I just caught the learning bug and studying through the OU gives you incredible flexibility!”
Her top tips for studying include:
“Planning ahead. On the OU website you have an outline of when you have to study certain topics and when you have to provide your assignments.
“Allow some flexibility because life happens! Sometimes you can account for it, but sometimes you can’t. Rigid discipline doesn’t always help, so don’t beat yourself up if your plan goes awry for a while.”
The OU has taught more than 2.3 million students worldwide and currently has over 208,000 students, of which 71% of directly registered students are in full-time or part-time employment.
