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Michael Gumbrell

Kind of a 5 year plan

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Edited by Michael Gumbrell, Friday, 27 Oct 2023, 19:26

I have been thinking about my final phase/ last 9 years of my working life.

It is going to do my Psychology conversion masters of the next 14/16 months. That will also get me registered with the British Psychological Council. During that time i will continue to deliver cognative behavioural therapy interventions, we call them brief suites of intervention, to people with community sentances. That will take me up to applying to do the dual KUF/MOJ role.

As part of the HMPPS academic insights programme, one of my collegues presented her doctorial thesis on teaching philosophy and ethics to people in long term custody in prison.

As a OU philosophy student, i have always been interested in theories about self identity and the social contract.

So i thought, once i have done the accredited masters, i will put forward a doctorial propsal to the Probation service that involves the creation of an intervention for people on community sentances that focuses on CBT intervention focused on self identity and it's relationship with the social contract, and if that is approved do the viability study and development of a specific intervention based on that.

That would tie up a great deal of my study, into a toolkit that would remain in use, long after i retire and i could retire with a PHD. Since pensions are calculated on the average salary of your last 5 years of service, it makes sense to me to aspire to maximise by qualification level and pay band for those last 5 years.

This might be very pretentious on my part or a reasonable doctorial thesis proposal. 

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Michael Gumbrell

2nd offer

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Winchester, through UCAS finally got back to me.

I have a conditional offer from them for a MA Liberal Arts.

I think i will be going to Portsmouth, but at least i have a plan b now.

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Michael Gumbrell

Virtual open event at Portsmouth Uni

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I have just completed the virtual open day at Portsmouth Uni.

Had a zoom chat with the two module leaders for MSc Economic Crime.

What a fantastic opportunity.

I have already accepted my conditional offer from Portsmouth, and that is 100% my best choice now,

Sorry Winchester.

All i have to do now is make sure i secure my P.P.E 2:1 classification

Really hyped about my progression to Masters study.


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Michael Gumbrell

rambling man

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So i am on stand by tonight, giving my the luxury of a little time to do a rambling blog post.

Firstly, i am very proud of Son #1, he is on for a first with his degree, BA(hons) Politics and International Relations. He has his offer to do his masters in International relations, so all things being equal, he should get at least a 2:1 and go into the masters course. so that makes me proud, well done him. I think he is lucky, when my dad died, he left the kids the money to go to University, so there is enough to cover son #1's masters fee's, because he is continuing at Portsmouth, so he gets a discount on the masters. I wonder if he knows how lucky he is that he can graduate with a Masters degree and no student debt, although it is always a two sided coin, he could have got an apprenticeship after A levels and have had the £35,000 as a deposit for a flat or something. Looking at the data for incomes for people with Masters degree's, i hope he will fit into a good graduate programme somewhere with the option to have a good wage going forward, so who knows, it is a game of two halves. It looks like Portsmouth Uni are planning to restart graduate ceremonies, his will be in July hopefully. Followed by another one next July, with any luck.

I am still waiting for Winchester to get back to me with an offer, i have confirmed my offer with Portsmouth, so grades willing that is now my plan A, both applications ae held up whilst i wait for Student Services at the OU to give both universities my academic references. According to the website, they aim to reply within ten days, so they are not outisde that window yet. My friend Tony, who got a Masters in procurement from Manchester Uni when we were young, wrote a lovely personal reference for me, so that is appreciated.

I am now up to date with DD309, i feel so much more comfortable now with what remains and my final project. I decided my research question with be based aorund game theory and assurance cooperation games, comparing cheap talking players to third party moderators and which provide the best untility (outcomes). Game theory is a subject i find very interesting (so much more than the vast lumps of neo classical theory in DD309) sp hopefully that fact that i find my research question interesting will help me get a good mark. It is quite liberating, having had several occasions when the TMA question was really something part of the course i had no interest in and so had to drag the essay out of the very bottom of my brain. so it is nice to have the chance to do somehting i am actually interested in.

I am still feeling the same way about the OU i have for a while now, 'lets just get this done and be done with it' i did have a look at the OU Masters programme, nothing really suitable for me. Also, having looked at quite a few graduate scheme's i have noticed that a couple of the bigger name financial firms do not list the OU as acceptable institutions for their programmes. So if i get a masters from Portsmouth, then that will be less of  problem. It is weird, i have eleven weeks remaining witht he OU, after 6 years and 4 months, i am really on the final eleven week stretch.

So reflecting on the journey, it has been fun, it has been not fun, it has been interesting at points, it has been dull in points. I feel it has been worthwhile, when i started i thought i would be satisfied with the BA degree. that has changed, now i feel like i should carry on, and get the MSc degree. I have recently started to doubt how much of an achievement the BA(hons) Politics,Philosophy and Economics qualification will be, i am sure other people would feel prouder than i will, however i think it might be linked to the isolating nature of the OU study. I have not had a tutorial face to face for over a year now, and i miss that. I think that by slogging away on my own, on the lap top that i am starting to lose the feeling of connection to value of achieveing the qualification. It is an up and down thing, i guess i am not the only student that goes through the journey. I imagine this feeling is shared by others about to graduate their qualification. I think i have also lost the context of how long six and a half years really is. Studying has become habit, habit become routine, routine becomes tedium and that is where i am at now. I am glad i claimed by Diploma of higher education last year, that gave me a little push along, i also think i should have left DD316, the Politics module until the last, and got this Economics module out of the way first, the most important thing is that i binned the Philosophy at level 3, that was a good choice, and doing Economics last was a bad choice.

Spring is here, my potatoes are planted, Covid seems to be far more under control than it was, half of all UK adults are now vaccinated, so as the seasons change so does my academic season. Bighter days are ahead, warmer and hopefully more content on all counts.

i was aiming for 1000 words.... did not nail it, tailed off at 953....

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Michael Gumbrell

Conditional offer

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Well Portsmouth University got back to me first

So i have a conditional offer to study MSc economic crime at Portsmouth.

I can get the 2 references, just need to achieve a 2:1 degree.

Still waiting for Winchester to get back to me.

Anyway at  least i have one offer on the scoreboard.

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Michael Gumbrell

What comes after BA(hons) P.P.E

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As i have mentioned before i wanted to go to Winchester next, as a part time student and do a Master of arts in Liberal arts. I have done that UCAS application and submitted it.

However Portsmouth University now offer part time online masters degree's.

So with my 20 years experience as a casino manager, i did quite a fair amount of money laundering training and due diligence checks on customers, so i also applied to Portsmouth University to do a 2 year, part time, online MSc in Economic Crime. The course looks very interesting.

How employable a 56 year old with a MSc in Economic Crime would be, i am not sure. But i can but try and find out. Portsmouth do not accept UCAS applications for courses, so i have applied direct to them.

So now i am sitting and waiting to see if Winchester or Portsmouth will give me an conditional offer, i do hope so.

In other news, Son #1 is in for a first at Portsmouth with his Politics and International relations degree , and he already has his conditional offer to continue at Portsmouth to a masters in International Relations.  So that is good news.


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Michael Gumbrell

Do i double down

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Well, i have been thinking about this long and hard.

None of the OU masters programs would suit my degree study.

I live on the South Coast in Hampshire.

The University of Winchester does a part time (2 years) masters degree in Modern Liberal Arts.... it is tempting, another 10k in student loans, but i would be 56 when i finished it, so l would never pay back the full loan.

I am definitely thinking about doubling down and applying for it, in a couple of years, when i get this degree finished

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