Things you should know before studying at the Open University
The OU give a second chance to millions of students across the country, but watch out for these hidden traps which caught me out during my 5 years there.
1. The Open University has an inferiority complex.
The Open University has always considered itself as inferior to the usual “bricks and water” universities across the country. They’ve never admitted it out loud, of course, but their behaviour screams insecurity!
As you can see from the tables below, they have purposely risen the threshold to achieve certain grades in order to make it harder for students to get the same score at a conventional university. There is no reason for them to do this other than to boast that they are more prestigious than they actually are.
Now, there could be other reasons why to why this is so. Though fundamentally, it's only your employer’s opinion which matters. If you have two people going for a job and both applicants scored 75%, then the person with the bricks and water university degree is walking in with “distinction” across their degree and the other with a 2:1.
The Open University is supposed to be the champions of social mobility, giving people who didn't do well with their education the first time round a second chance. However, there is clearly a price to pay.
2. They change the goalposts in the second year.
Throughout school, college, and studying pretty much any course, you will usually find that there is a very fair and balanced way of grading. A certain percentage of your marking will be decided by coursework and another chunk by exams.
This is a fantastic way of grading, as coursework is, fundamentally, how you will be applying a lot of your knowledge you've learned in the working world and the exams are there to check that you have retained your knowledge.
Unfortunately, in the second academic year, the Open University turns all this on its head and has MOST of their modules on a 100% exam system. This was the fundamental killer for me studying my Economics & Mathematical Science degree.
There are numerous studies which prove that stress affects memory. If you just so happen to be someone who doesn't handle stress well, then you are immediately at a disadvantage already. In fact, it's likely that if you handled exams better then you wouldn't need the OU in the first place!
This was by far the biggest shocker for me while studying with the Open University. It completely killed all motivation for coursework and essentially made me do the bare minimum to get over the line (as I had to juggle two jobs and a 9-year-old boy at the same time).
I really feel like the OU have failed to understand their students. Now couple this with the raised exam pass marks compared with other universities in part 1 and you are in real trouble.
3. Anything other than a degree is nearly worthless.
Similar to achieving GCSE’s, A-Levels or NVQ’s on their own. If you decide to go for a “certificate of education” or a “higher education diploma” (the equivalent of studying one or two years at a degree, respectively) then your time and money are pretty much wasted.
Over the past few decades, there has been a huge rise in degrees across the country. With just under 50% of 21–35-year-olds now holding a degree, a lot of employers are starting to use the box-ticking method to filter out applicants who weren't lucky enough to achieve a degree.
As a recruitment consultant, I have seen this myself. Employers for financial services will have 30 applicants for a job role, so will often decide to thin the numbers out by clicking the“graduate only” box and cutting it down to 15.
Imagine that, without even looking at the applicant's experience or education, employers are willing to dismiss people. In theory, someone with an Arts degree would make it through for a job as a financial service job, when someone with a Higher Education Diploma in Economics would be dismissed. Staggering.
This has been happening for so long now that we have a devaluation in degrees, where jobs in the past which no longer require degrees are now required to have them as standard. Even the police will be requiring degree education to be considered in future.
My advice — Go for the full degree or go home!
The degree is the new 5 GCSE’s at C and above.
4. Graduation is a stressful mess (and a racket).
After paying thousands and thousands for that bit of paper which now lets you get a job which a decade ago didn't require a degree. You are now free to celebrate! And rightly so! Whatever my ramblings may be, it is a well hard-earned achievement to get a degree in any shape or form.
However, there was a time when the Open University would have a wide range of places to celebrate your graduation. For me, being a fenland boy, it was Ely. My auntie tossed her mortarboard into the air at Ely cathedral, one of the most beautiful places in the entire country. Unfortunately, when my sister graduated last year she was told that they no longer to graduations anywhere near her area.
The closest location? London!
Though the ceremony was fantastic it was a huge effort and an expensive journey to the centre of the capital. Some people, such as myself, who were still studying, simply couldn't afford it. Not only that, but we had to pay for entry and she had to pay to rent her mortarboard…and boy, it wasn't cheap!
You'd think to pay thousands and thousands for a few textbooks, a website, and a handful of tutoring lessons via webcam for £10,000+ would include a hat?
5. The Open University isn't as flexible as you think!
The Open University prides itself on its flexibility — and for the record, the OU is certainly more flexible than bricks and water universities…but it isn't always as it seems.
Most people join the OU with the intension of working or raising children around studying (or in my case — both!). So, though you may have a choice of numerous online lectures which you wouldn't otherwise get at a usual university, you can work between shifts and responsibilities, but the issue lies in the marking.
I found a lot of my teachers were very good at what they do but were often doing this as a second job, which meant that it would take days to get back to me. There would be situations where I would only have a Thursday morning to do my Mathematical Science modules, which means that if I was stuck on a piece of work, it would take a few days for them to get back to me. Unfortunately meaning that I would have a week until I could work on it again — Therefore losing a week of studying in that subject.
In bricks and water university, I would just walk in and “see the professor”.
This isn't a criticism of the OU but something you should certainly watch out for as it can catch you out.
Thank you for reading — I hope these tips from my experience have helped you in preparing for the Open University. I wish you the best of luck!
