For starters, lets look at the tradition way of getting your degree – university. A university degree can take anywhere from 3 -4 years. If your are in the UK, the tuition fees can be up to 3145 pounds each year, thats 9435 for a 3 year degree! That’s not including maintenence loans, which could run over 15000!! For some people thats an investment, but others don’t want to start their career in 35 thousand pounds of debt. So what are your other options?

• Open University (UK only)/Correspondance courses. These often get a bad reputation, but if you study at the open university, not only can you get a degree or points towards a degree but if you earn under 30,000 pounds a year, you can even get some or all of your course fees paid. That PAID not a loan, plus a grant towards course costs! If you earn more, you can pay your course in installments! As long as you can do your degree in 6 years, you will be eligible, but you can do it in 3 years if you do 2 courses at once! You can get a degree in all sorts of areas, psychology, languages, english, business, law etc. And it is exactly the same as a normal degree, just without the debt! You can work full time as you study and it doesn’t require going to any university except on a few courses, for a few days. The assignments are all online, and the exam will be held as close to you as possible! You can even do an “Open Degree” which is like a normal degree, except you choose any courses from any area of study you want, and still get a degree!
• Get funded. You may or may not know that some courses are funded – especially NHS courses (UK). And I’m not just talking nursing. NHS provide some funded courses (even with prior study. That means no fees, and a grant towards costs, if you qualify! Go to the NHS website to find out more. And NHS aren’t the only ones, the armed forces, and some employers might fund your degree. Ifyou don’t ask, you’ll never now.
• Work for a couple of years first, save your money to pay for your fees, and then work part time to pay your living costs, writing on Triond for example or writing a book. It sounds like a lot of hard work, but 2-3 years of full time, hard graft before you start uni, will save endless years paying off your student debts.

It is possible to get your degree without thousands of pounds of debt, but it isn’t for everyone, it could be harder, or it could limit what degree you could do, but if you want to do it, you can!

Good luck, happy studying.