The University of London is one of my favourite institutions, it’s progressive, has world class academics and research and is in a great location. It also has the most accessible and, in my mind, best external degree programme around, now rebranded international programmes, that caters for both undergraduate and postgraduate studies.

My attendance at University of London was not at one of its colleges but at the University itself. The University of London is a federal university, as is Oxford & Cambridge. Most universities are unitary, in that you apply to and are accepted by the university and go to their respective subject departments to read your discipline At a federal university you apply to and are accepted by one of the colleges of that university .You then attend that college, which is where your subject is taught and around which your social and academic life revolves. On acceptance by the college you are also accepted by the university. However it is the university, not the college, that awards your final degree. So in the case of the University of London, you apply to one of its seventeen colleges and institutions, some of which are regarded, mistakenly, as universities in their own right. These include; The London School of Economics, Kings College, UCL, Goldsmiths, London Business School, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Royal Holloway, The Royal Academy of Music, SOAS, The School of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, The Royal Veterinary College, The Royal Central School of Speech & Drama and five more. In those days, your degree, no matter which college you attended, was then awarded by The University of London. I did not apply to nor attended any one of the Colleges but I did graduate with a degree from the University of London.

The University of London has an external degree programme in various subjects. It has been running for over hundred and fifty years. In short, this means that the University itself, not the individual Colleges, runs its own degree programmes, in addition to awarding the degrees for its Colleges. However, since the University has no teaching resources, as all the teaching is done by the Colleges, the degree is not taught. It is in fact a self-study degree programme. Anyone can apply to take the degree, in any country, as there is no residency requirements, subject to having the equivalent of two passes at ‘A’ levels and English language. The University believes that there is no correlation between good ‘A’ level results (the UK’s national school leaving examinations) and gaining a degree. Which I certainly agree with. The programme was originally set up in 1858, to cater for individuals who were overseas at the time, usually as part of the then British Empire, that wanted to further their studies. To date there have been seven Nobel Prize winners who are alumni of the programme including Nelson Mandela (Statesman), Dereck Walcott (Writer), Charles Kao (Scientist) and Ronald Coase (Economist) and other notables such as Lord Frederick William Mulley, Secretary of Defence, Dr Dipu Moni, Foreign Minister of Bangladesh and Her Excellency Luisa Diogo former President of Mozambique, to name a few. Currently there are about fifty thousand students worldwide reading for a University of London degree.

As I concentrated more on the sporting and social life at school my ‘A’ level grades were not too good. My Father suggested I read Law via the University of London External Degree programme, so I enrolled. That is when I realised what a great business education is. Due to the fact that the External Degree is a self-study degree, enterprising businessmen have teamed up with academics to develop private university colleges that provide the lectures and tutorials for the programme. I enrolled into Holborn Law Tutors for mine, basically a private law school. I was surprised to find six hundred students there, all paying the £5,000 a year tuition fee, it’s more like £14,000 today. All paid up front, before term starts. You can do the maths. What a great business model!

You can get more details on the opportunities available at the University of London at www.londoninternational.ac.uk