Does this dilemma sound familiar? You’re working full time, but career progress hasn’t been quite what you imagined on that day when you posed for those graduation snapshots in your gown and mortarboard.

Or maybe this: You left school and started work, never bothering with tertiary studies. Now that you have been in the workforce and are older and wiser, you wish you done more to avoid being relegated to a job with few prospects for advancement.

Life, you see, can get in the way of dreams. There you are, a bit frustrated and wondering how to juggle all the conflicting demands of adult life and still manage to do something for your own betterment.

Kids, mortgage, the obligations and demands of your current job – it could be any number of factors hobbling the desire to further your qualifications, not to mention boosting career satisfaction and earnings. It would be great, you might think, to expand your mind and talents to an entirely new direction.

Well, there is a way – a road being taken by thousands of Australians who have chosen distance learning as the key to unlocking the potential benefits of a degree or post-grad qualifications.

“We know you have many priorities and commitments,” Monash University advises those contemplating off-campus studies. “That’s why we offer flexible study modes to allow you to build your study around your life.”

Hundreds to choose from

In total, Australian universities offer some 933 distance learning degrees that cover the ground from agriculture and forestry (11 available courses) to education’s 176 courses and business, with 270 offerings.

Last year, tertiary education researcher Louise Pollard completed what is the most comprehensive survey so far of distance learning’s opportunities and challenges, for students and institutions. Her primary focus was on those studying in physically remote locations, but they’re relevant to all off-campus students.

Remote students, she found, enrol predominantly as part-timers and tend to be of mature age, with 45 per cent older than 35 and a three-to-one preponderance of women. This is to be expected: Distance learning, with its flexible schedules and the option to pursue perhaps only one subject at a time, is a natural fit for someone who might be a mum with her hands otherwise full.

As for universities, they still had some work to do.

“The case studies revealed that caring and committed staff members in Australian universities have implemented initiatives that support remote students,” Ms Pollard said.

“However, these initiatives tend to be piecemeal and ad hoc, indicating that whole-of-institution approaches are needed to improve the long term and widespread participation of remote students.”

Students tend to see things in a similar light, although their feedback is laced with gratitude that their courses are online at all.

“Although it’s a four-year full-time load course, studying online has given me the flexibility to progress through as a part time and full-time student in three month blocks,” aspiring teacher Bailey told an online forum.

“All up, it will take me almost five years to complete – not bad, considering I work full time. This is a huge plus because I could never financially afford to cut work hours in order to attend uni on-campus.”

The downside, as Bailey notes, is that success demands “a huge amount of self discipline”. If you are blessed with that requisite determination, however, the advantages to be tapped are numerous.

For starters, life experience counts. As Open Universities Australia puts it, “If you have over five years of work experience, you may be eligible to start at graduate certificate level, rather than beginning with an undergraduate degree.

“You can also apply for credit for past study. Not only does undertaking a graduate certificate allow you to specialise in the areas that most interest you, it gives you an opportunity to strengthen your existing skills and apply them directly in your job at the same time.”

They require dedication and discipline, but off-campus courses offer immense flexibility. Photo: Getty

Then there is flexibility that comes with the ability to pick and choose or, if your CV needs polishing in only one respect, the opportunity to enrol in just the one relevant subject that best suits your career agenda. It’s a practical and convenient way to acquire a new skill for a far lower cost than any full-length course.

“If you find that you like it and want more,” OUA says, “you’re bound to have more confidence to pursue the full-length course than you would have initially.”

OUA lists 13 single-subject options, ranging from architecture to IT, with the cost starting at $2200.

How do students rate the courses they have taken? Here Ms Pollard’s survey offers specific insights.

“I talk every week to the lecturers so there is a link, a bit of a bond,” one of her survey’s subjects said.

“The tutorials are awesome. We do have to talk and talk to the other students and we swap phone numbers and chat.”

Another never doubted the effort was worthwhile, but lamented the practical difficulties of trying to learn from a remote location afflicted with dodgy internet connectivity.

“We only have mobile phone reception in the house yard and the phone connection was dodgy, so that meant that our internet was unreliable,” wrote one.

“To do my work, I had to get up by 3am and 4am, as by 8am the internet would not work.”

Getting up before the sun, that’s tough. Learning to live with a stalled career and and doing nothing about it, that’s much tougher.