I finished my HND in Business Management exams last October, and I can`t believe it`s already been over 3 months! I took a break over Christmas and New Year, and decided to apply to do my final year top up from April – I really need to brush up on my Japanese in the meantime because it has been suffering the last two years whilst I`ve been doing my HND, so I have been studying Japanese since January. It`s been nice to take a break and not have to worry about assignments and deadlines, but I am looking forward to getting back into things now and – finally – finishing my degree!

Application Process

I started off by emailing the program coordinator on my HND course, Fay, and she passed me to a different advisor who deals with the degree courses. I am kind of disappointed I won`t be dealing with Fay anymore because she was great and I think we chocaholics should stick together (!) but the new advisor contacted me really quickly and also seemed very nice. She advised me to complete the online application form, and said they would take it from there.

I am really hoping I don`t have to go through the process of getting references again. It was difficult the first time because I hadn`t worked in the UK for over 5 years and no-one here in Japan was able to give me a reference in English. Last time, my former manager in the UK wrote one for me, but now after more than 7 years since we worked together I don`t really feel I can ask her again! If I need an academic reference it is going to have to come from an RDI tutor anyway! If I need a work reference from someone here I am going to have to write it myself and just have my former manager sign it!!!

I completed the online application and sent it off, and within a day or so I had received an email from Angel Cheng in the Hong Kong office. This is new! I guess RDI must have opened the Hong Kong office within the last couple of years and logically I suppose it makes sense to administer the Asian applicants from Hong Kong – still feels strange to say “I live in Asia” - I really miss mushy peas, baked beans and jaffa cakes! I love Asian food too, But there is a distinct lack of baked potatoes available here. Although I do recommend the sushi….anyway I digress.

Angel has said that in order to get acceptance from the university I need to send her a copy of my CV and my HND diploma and transcripts. This is a problem because I haven`t actually received my diploma and transcripts yet (apparently Edexcel have to check all the grades and do the necessary paperwork first) but I emailed Fay again, and within minutes – a new record! – she had sent a copy of my official grades to Hong Kong, which Angel said would be acceptable. I don`t know how we all survived before the internet! So now all I have to do is write up an updated CV and send that off to Hong Kong, then wait for the response……

…..I posted my CV off last Friday having cut it down from something vaguely resembling War and Peace to something a little more digestible, so now I am waiting for the response, whatever it may be……the woman in the post office was terribly shocked to find me sending a letter to Hong Kong! She checked with me 3 times before she was happy to take it from me! She is used to me coming in every few weeks to send off HND assignments to the UK, so this was new for her, and in typical uber-efficient Japanese style she wanted to triple-check I had it right, and “Hong Kong” wasn`t by sheer coincidence a nick-name for “UK” or something!

Meanwhile, the girls in my local Starbucks asked me the other day why I am not coming in loaded down with books and a laptop anymore. I assured them I would be back in action soon, and was surprised at how pleased they seemed until they said they used to laugh at me whilst I sat at the table focused on my laptop and RDI notes with a coffee in one hand and pulling my hair out with the other! This can`t be a good sign……!

I`m in!

The response has come back from the university and I am in! Thank you University of Wales! Obviously you have never spoken to my former grade 10 Maths teacher otherwise you might not be quite so delighted to have me on the course (it was a total misunderstanding anyway and absolutely not my fault) No matter, I have the letter in black and white.

I went through another pang of “what have I done???” but again I keep reminding myself that I had the same feelings about the HND and I got through that relatively unscathed.

Other “nervous” issues

Angel also sent me details of the different modules and assessments in the course, and I noticed under a couple of the assessments that they were “organization-based” – this set me off again, because I`m not actually “organization-based” at the moment, given that I work freelance from home. Cue another email to RDI UK (which was actually unnecessary because I could have emailed RDI Hong Kong direct but old habits die hard I guess) and within a day I had a response – from Angel – allaying all my fears and sending me a detailed explanation of what exactly was expected in each module.

I really must learn to relax about these things and not be such a control freak! Everything works out in the end. So here I am, it`s March 4th 2009, I have just paid up, and I`m ready to go on my final year. What could possibly go wrong???!

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