Walton Hall

Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

Tel 0845 300 6090

general-enquiries@open.ac.uk

www.open.ac.uk

Sunday Times ranking n/a

Teaching excellence 86.7%

Student satisfaction 83.5%

Head teacher ranking 85= (70=)

Peer ranking 39 (16)

Research quality 36.3%

A/AS-level points n/a

A-levels for entry 53%

Unemployment n/a

Firsts and 2:1s 56.8%

Student/staff ratio n/a

Dropout rate n/a

World ranking 410=

Undergraduates 0 (151,385)

Postgraduates 370 (17,093)

Teaching staff 925

The original university of open access, the Open University has been doing its stuff since its first students enrolled in 1971. Harold Wilson’s vision of a university open to all was decades ahead of its time. To date, 2m have studied an OU course of one kind or another, with 600,000 completing degrees.

And the age profile of students is getting younger. For the past nine years the number of under25s taking degrees at the OU has increased, hitting 22% last year. And with the cost of a typical first degree ranging from £2,970 to £3,860, there are big savings to be had over studying along more traditional routes.

Getting a degree OU-style allows students to work full- or part-time or juggle studying with raising a family. It takes on average six years to get an honours degree, although this can be compressed to three or four.

About one in five students (about 30,000 in total last year) gets some form of financial support. The open access remit of the OU is demonstrated by the 34% of students who hold no qualifications that would be acceptable to a more conventional university.

In many respects, the internet explosion has allowed the OU to fulfil its potential as never before. The OpenLearn educational resources project has had more than 500,000 users worldwide since its launch in October last year. OpenLearn makes available thousands of hours of materials for students and teachers free of charge on www.open.ac.uk/ openlearn. Meanwhile, the OU’s own virtual learning environment is bringing academics and enrolled students closer together through exploiting electronic media to the full.

The OU is excluded from our league table only because of its unique constitution. It would be unfair to compare a university with no entry requirements with other institutions which all require grades of varying severity. However, academically, it is one of just two universities in the UK to be awarded four centres for excellence in teaching and learning.

As a measure of the OU’s standing, 75 of the FTSE 100 companies have sponsored or are sponsoring members of staff through OU qualifications.

Students are happy with their lot. More so than any other state-funded institution, bar Cambridge. Without the social, sporting and sundry other distractions thrown in elsewhere, the OU’s outstanding ratings in the first three national student surveys are truly a measure of student satisfaction with academic provision and something of which the OU is justly proud.

Rated excellent (19) Business and management; chemistry; classics and ancient history; economics; education; general engineering; geography; geology; molecular biosciences; music; organismal biosciences; philosophy; physics and astronomy; politics; psychology; social policy and administration; sociology; subjects allied to medicine; theology and religious studies.

Degree of student satisfaction: 83.5%

Politics 90.5; Biology and related Sciences 87.3; Physical Science 86.0; History and Archeology 85.6; Social Work 85.3; English-based studies 84.9; Technology 84.1; Law 83.8; Other subjects allied to Medicine 83.6; Sociology, Social Policy and Anthropology 83.5; Education studies 83.3; European Languages and Area studies 83.2; Combined 83.2; Human and Social Geography 82.8; Computer Science 82.2; Psychology 81.9; Mathematical Sciences 81.5; Mechanically-based Engineering 80.7; Business 76.4

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