Design Your Own Degree at the University of Chester

I had Jan and Karen from the University of Chester in with me on Phil In The Morning this week, and I came out of it slightly annoyed with myself. Because I’m a graduate of the place, and I’d never heard of what they actually do.

Meet Jan and Karen

Jan Jones is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader in the Department of Marketing and Professional Development. Karen Cregan is a Senior Lecturer too and — as Jan rather gleefully pointed out on air — a bit more senior than that these days. She’s Deputy Head at Chester Business School, looking after experiential learning and the two-year master’s.

It was also Karen’s birthday, and nobody told me until the record before was fading out. No cake, no card, nothing. Sorry, Karen. I did strongly recommend a takeaway.

Turns out we’re campus siblings, too — both of us at the old Warrington campus at Padgate, back when it went by a different name.

A degree you get to build yourself

Jan’s department has been using the workplace as a source of learning for a quarter of a century. Which, as she said, sounds an awfully long time. I may have told her she sounded very old. She took it beautifully.

They run two Professional Development degrees. One is a top-up for people who already have an HND, foundation degree or DipHE and want to turn it into a full honours degree. The other is the master’s version — MA, MSc or MBA. Jan oversees the undergraduate one, Karen the postgraduate.

And this is the clever part. You negotiate your own pathway. You also negotiate your own award title.

I asked, only half joking, whether a bloke doing balloons at children’s parties could turn that into a degree. Absolutely, they said. Because underneath it there’s marketing, there’s the financial side, and there’s dealing with people — and we’re all getting worse at that last one, not better.

Karen says they’ve had everyone from the Cabinet Office through to comedians. She isn’t exaggerating, either.

Your actual job becomes your coursework

Students take projects they’re already doing at work and write them up for academic credit. Something that needs fixing, something that needs improving, cost savings that need finding.

Jan’s advice was lovely and practical: go and have a chat with your boss, because there’s often a project bubbling away in the background that you don’t know about yet.

Degrees get accused of being a waste of money and nothing to do with real life. This is the opposite. And your lecturers have had proper jobs outside of lecturing, which Karen was very clear matters. Been there, done it, got the T-shirt.

It gets you noticed

People tell their employer they’re studying, and it gets them noticed. They deliver the project, report back to the senior team, and it gets them noticed again. Jan says they’ve seen single students pick up multiple promotions while still studying.

Then there’s the other half — confidence, resilience, thinking critically. Walking into a bigger meeting knowing your project inside out and being able to stand your ground.

The first module is essentially a stock-take. Who am I, where have I come from, where do I want to be, and what have I learned already? How many of us ever do that with any structure? An external examiner recently described their work as exemplary, and I think they’ve earned the right to be pleased about it.

Is there an age limit? No.

I asked, because people assume there’s a cut-off. There isn’t. They’ve had students arrive in their sixties. Karen tells every student the same thing: never stop learning. Older students bring years of experience, younger ones often bring sharper technical skills, and everybody learns off everybody else.

I said something on air I’ll stand by. I came from a very working-class background where university simply wasn’t a thing we did. Sometimes people need permission — and a degree you shape yourself is a very different door to walk through.

How to find out more

There’s an informal online Q&A on Teams, Tuesday 18 August at 12.30pm.

• You can book a place here.

You’ll also find Jan and Karen on LinkedIn.

Lovely guests, and welcome back any time — although I’d better remember the cake!