I was a mature student in my late 20s/early 30s and it wasn't so bad. You have to get used to being skint, which is a pain after you've got used to getting a pay check, but you're surrounded by other people who are equally as potless which helps.

The hardest thing I found was to keep my motivation going all the way through it. I thought it'd be a breeze to do 8 hours of studying a day after experiencing real work but it was actually quite hard not to get distracted. For me, getting out of bed on time when I didn't really have to was a killer.