Crew who fly while studying: the distance degree on layovers, the exams around the roster, and whether it is worth it
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#1 I said in another thread that a distance degree on layovers is why I have the ground job I have now, and I got questions, so here it is properly. This is for the crew who are wondering whether to study while flying.
What I did
A part time business degree over four years, mostly through a UK distance university, while flying long haul leisure. Modules with online lectures, assignments with deadlines, exams twice a year at a centre.
How it fit
Layovers are the gift. A 24 hour Cancún has six hours of empty time after sleep. I wrote most of my assignments in hotel rooms in the Caribbean. The flight itself is not study time, the aircraft rest breaks are not study time, but the hotel room at 3pm local with nothing to do is the best study environment I have had.
What did not fit
The exams. A fixed date at a fixed centre and a roster that arrives two weeks out. I used leave for every exam, booked a year ahead, and twice had a roster change that nearly took an exam and I had to beg. Begging worked once. The other time I sat the exam in a different country at a British Council centre, which the university allowed, because I was on a layover there.
The group projects, which need people at the same time, and which I did at 2am body time from a hotel in Mexico more than once.
What it cost
Money, obviously, though less than a full time degree. Layovers, in the sense that the beach was sometimes replaced by an assignment. Some sleep. And a specific loneliness on the good layovers when the crew went out and I stayed in with a laptop.
What it gave
The ground job I have. The confidence to apply for it. A brain that was doing something other than the trolley for four years, which was its own kind of sanity in the going phases. And a degree finished at 38 that I did not have at 18.
For crew considering it
Pick a course with flexible exam arrangements and ask that question before enrolling. Tell your base manager, they can sometimes protect a date. Study on layovers, not at home. And do not do it in your first year, the first year is its own degree.
Who else has done it or is doing it?
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#2 Qatar, doing a part time masters in the same way. The layover hotel room is the study room. The exam problem is exactly as you describe and I use leave for every one. Two years in, two to go.
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#3 Dublin, did a diploma in the same pattern, and the 'not in your first year' rule is the one I would underline. I tried in month three and dropped it. Started again in year two and finished it.
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#4 Applying, and this thread has reframed the job for me: not a pause on education, a way to fund it. Thank you.
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#6 Ex Emirates, and I did an online qualification in my last two years that got me the job I left for. The specific loneliness on the good layovers is real and worth it.
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#7 Reserve, and the unpredictability makes the exam problem worse for us. What has worked: courses with online proctored exams you can take within a window. They exist now. Ask for them.