Making the most of the experience: tips for mature students

Mature students lead non-traditional lives.

Balancing full-time employment, family and friend commitments, and a bevy of miscellaneous duties is difficult enough; toss in personal and professional development in the form of rigorous postgraduate diplomas and degrees? Yes, that is certainly an exceptional undertaking.

Having lived this life over four modules of the MSc in Major Programme Management, I'd like to offer a few tips to fellow and aspiring part-time students through the lens of the 4 T's of the Theory of the Temporary Organization: time, task, team, and transition.

Time: tick, tock… tick, tock…

Time? There simply isn’t enough of it.

Whether it’s a countdown end to a coffee break or the fluidity that comes with a stimulating discussion, time is the most limiting constraints. It's impossible to grant full attention and time to all the readings and analysis, lectures and socials, and all the other wonderful ‘stuff’ that makes up life.

Whether it's arriving on site a day early to avoid let lag or build in self-care time prior to intense study sessions, a psychological and physical preparedness is a must. Operating on less sleep and more caffeine than ever before may not be ideal but, without healthy balance and planning, can work in a pinch.

Task: to-dos and to-do

With to-do lists that merit calendar syncing, reminder apps, and the odd string-tied-to-your-pinky, the commitment required to get the most of a part-time program requires a significant prioritizing, delegating, and deleting of those items.

Particularly while in session, where possible (an acknowledged limitation for many), minimizing other commitments and focusing on program activities yields exponential benefits. Paradoxically, the days are long but the week just flies by. Many students are forced to fit in work commitments and meetings during their breaks; again, where possible, treating bonus free time as just that can be critical to maintaining focus.

Conducting a quick postmortem after the early sessions will offer a much better insight into how to plan and manage task lists for the long journey of your degree.

Team: the reality and the theory

We’re all accustomed to Zoom meetings, Slack chats, Teams discussions, etc., but in an academic setting where interactivity is stressed, an effective approach to hybrid learning will prove highly beneficial.

For our initial module, we benefited from a remote steering of class discussion by a particularly skilful instructor in Dr. Marc Ventresca; he facilitated participation and eased us into ‘collaboration mode’ as smoothly as any in-person academic. It was clear how a lecturer who takes the time to invest in best practices of hybrid delivery can impact the learning environment; matching that commitment from the student perspective is not only reasonable, but optimal.

Transition: next stop, TBD

Everyone is undergoing some type of transition.

Maybe it’s subtle, focusing on personal and professional growth in a broad sense. Perhaps it's dramatic, searching for whole new career opportunities and life-altering experiences.

Either way, everyone is engaged and motivated, propelling a feeling of forward movement that resonates across the group. It’s that special undercurrent that makes every interaction with colleagues similarly committed to continuous growth that much more enjoyable. It is to be embraced in both spirit and action.

Tips: a bonus ‘t’

Like any theory, there are gaps to be filled. Highlighting a few below, how else can one make the most of their part-time, mature student experience?

• Manage the IT: it’s a complicated, if not complex, web to navigate (puns intended) getting everything working smoothly. Don’t let any account or resource access issues stand in your way; reach out to IT, your department/college, and the administrative team at the earliest.
• Prioritize core readings: revisit key readings, focusing on items identified for discussion, in the days and hours beforehand. Feeling left out of group work or great debates due to lack of preparedness (fair given it may have been weeks since that first read) can be both a personal regret but also a source of disappointment, if not frustration, to colleagues.
• Speak up: it’s not lip service being paid when instructors say they will challenge you and welcome your challenges. Postgraduate programs are designed to get you questioning assumptions, biases, and applicability… the best discussions were the most heated and fueled by myriad of experiences drawn upon by mature students.
• A 'can do' mentality: Above all, stay open to all opportunities and say yes to as many as possible. Such a mind frame might be the greatest variable in the satisfaction equation. In what is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, engaging enthusiastically and genuinely might be the most rewarding tip of all.

Time, task, team, transition: take two

Everyone’s expectations and experiences will be different. As we navigate the 'new normal' of academia, it’s not hyperbole to say that the possibilities are endless but decidedly reliant on your taking ownership of them. With proper prioritization, one can take that plunge into the deep end and emerge ever more invigorated and rewarded at the end of it.

Breaking bread

Are you pursuing a supplementary course or program? How are you balancing competing demands to stay on top (or simply afloat?) of it all? What's been your biggest insight from undertaking this endeavour? After all, not all the learning comes from the course!

Cover Image by self | Second Image by Mikael Kristenson on Unsplash | Third Image by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash | Final Image by Trinity College

Note: a previous version of this article appeared on the MSc in MMPM Blog.