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University in need of repair

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
https://www.economist.com/britain/2018/09/15/rebuilding-british-higher-educations-most-unusual-institution



Rebuilding British higher education’s most unusual institution .


  • Moshe,


    Once again I’m grateful to you for highlighting an important  issue ,that had rather “slipped under my radar”. Some of the article was behind a paywall, but I found information elsewhere.  Obviously Sandy has a better understanding than I do, but as a former student I’m saddened to learn of this decline and frustrated once again at the poorly thought out policies that seem to have precipitated it.  We virtually threw apprenticeships in the bin, only recently fully recognising what we lost and trying to revive the model. Is the OU next?


    I found this with reference to the change “In those days, there was a very large pool of middle-aged people who had been denied tertiary education, and for whom this really was the university of the second chance. But the pool of second chancers has now largely gone the way of black and white televisions.” (The Guardian).


    My personal experience of the OU was rather different when 20 years into career and already holding an MSc (but not a bachelors), I enrolled on their MBA. I found that the flexible delivery model and AMBA accreditation attracted a wide range of participants from the UK, Republic of Ireland, Western Europe and beyond. Clearly it couldn’t compete with the more expensive, selective and “prestigious” Business Schools  for propelling graduates into highly paid management consultancy type jobs, but this certainly wasn’t a “second chance” model, it was the “best chance” for its many already well-qualified mid-career people.


    My experience was 20 years ago as higher education admissions had already expanded greatly and I paid significantly more than the fees charged at that time for an undergraduate degree at any UK university. It seems that OU admissions generally have fallen by 28% over the last five years. I also picked up  A report last month revealed that the number of part-time students in England has declined by 51 per cent from 215,900 in 2010 to 105,500 in 2015, with the OU experiencing an even bigger fall of 63 per cent.  Even if we accept that the proportion of people potentially suitable for further academic study who didn’t get it as teenagers has fallen significantly, this still seems very worrying  and might have serious negative consequences. Have we understood these consequences properly and what are we doing to redress them. Another forum thread is discussing the IET Academy, which might be considered a competitor to the OU proposition? 


  • The problem that so many training providers have is their cost.  These days you can find things out on-demand using YouTube and Stack Exchange.  The need for long training courses is slowly eroding.  A recognised training provider may give you a fancy certificate at the end, but it will cost you thousands of pounds.


    Looking on the OU web site, for someone in England, the expected tuition fees are £2928 per year for six years.  That's £17568 to get an honours degree.  I wonder how many mid-career people can justify that sort of money on top of all the hours of work in the evenings that would be required to get a degree.
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    The days that nontraditional education providers had a unique nitch are (almost) gone. Major name recognized universities offering distance learning degrees, be it on campus, sandwich or 100% by Dl.


    Also, global education providers entered the scene a long time ago. When my wife was looking for Masters in Social Work, for example, there was almost 0 option for doing it by Dl, maybe evening classes at selected universities.  Today a major top-tier university offers MSW degree 100% online, USC is one such university.

    For persons with limited funds UNISA, for example, offers undergraduate, graduate etc degree for something like 1200 BP a year. Not a prestigious but recognized degree thought in English.

    So in my humble opinion, OU faces a serious "competition" and needs to come up with a model that benefits the students, graduates and attracts them to OU.


    M.W   BEET, MCGI, CEng MBCS, MIET
  • Simon’s point is well-made!


    When I studied with the OU during the late 1990s they were just introducing on-line forums, but were still sending out audio cassette tapes and VHS videos as part of the packages of learning materials, which were probably “market leading”.  The traditional university model of that time usually involved either purchasing expensive textbooks, or dashing to the university library to borrow the recommended reading, or at least make a reservation to do so (often on short term loan).  Obviously the internet has transformed the availability of knowledge and the exchange of ideas such as in these forums.  


    As “a learning provider” it could be argued that the OU has no more right to exist than any other.  Understandably there are those willing to campaign for it both for sentimental and political reasons   https://www.suttontrust.com/newsarchive/decline-part-time-mature-students/


    I have no affiliation with the Sutton Trust and no sentimental attachment to the OU, but I have argued in these forums that Engineering and Technology is potentially very well-placed to play a leading role in enabling “social mobility” and “life-long learning”. Society has begun to take for granted most of our achievements, as our predecessors already did awe.    

    “Educationalists” overvalue the acquisition of knowledge, relative to “vocationalists” (like me) who are more interested in “application” to create skills and productivity. The engineering profession has allowed itself to be dominated by educationalists, who like to ration access and obsess about relative status. The proposition of The International Engineering Alliance for example, becomes irrelevant to most people over the age of 22, who at that time may have 50 years in the workplace ahead of them.


    Perhaps the best way forward for the OU is to become a preferred partner of major employers and a national service to small and medium enterprises with a strong vocational focus, blending significant elements of work-based learning? The market for “recreational degrees” amongst older people, clearly won’t stand the price hikes and arguably doesn’t deserve significant public subsidy.   

  • oops! duplicate post
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member

    OU AND FUTURELEARN SEEK FUNDING TO EXPAND ONLINE COURSE AND MOOC OFFERINGS



    By Henry Kronk


    October 02, 2018


    The Open University, currently the U.K.’s largest institution of higher education, is making a play to capture a bigger slice of the online distance learning pie. As reported by the Financial Times, the public university has hired IBIS Capital with the goal of raising £40 million (with an additional £10 million committed by OU) to boost its MOOC platform, FutureLearn.

    https://news.elearninginside.com/ou-and-futurelearn-seek-funding-to-expand-online-course-and-mooc-offerings/


     



    FutureLearn Follows a Model Closer to edX or Coursera



    With a range of free and paid courses and partnerships with over 150 institutions of higher ed around the world, FutureLearn has aligned their model closer to Coursera and edX. While we haven’t heard much from the former lately besides their continuing expansion of offerings, edX reported strong growth and ambitious goals at their annual conference last spring.



     


  • Thanks for posting Moshe, a couple of interesting articles.


    This statement took me rather by surprise in the first article

    OU was founded in 1969 by the U.K. Labour Party. Pegged as an affordable, accessible avenue to higher education, the institution is now the country’s largest and educates nearly one-third (31%) of the U.K.’s university-going individuals under 25.


    The institution was formed by a “government” not a political party. “The largest university in Europe with 173,927 students”... “fees about two thirds the cost of an equivalent qualification offered at a campus-based university”… “34% of new OU undergraduates are under 25” (source OU website). Whilst I haven’t taken the time to research the numbers further, for the OU to have nearly one-third of undergraduates under 25, seems unlikely to me?


    In the second article I came across a new term that elicited a wry smile “Nanodegree”. However, I won’t comment in case I am held to have committed a “Microaggression” against someonewink



  • Roy Bowdler:
     34% of new OU undergraduates are under 25” (source OU website)

     




    So it says http://www.open.ac.uk/about/main/strategy-and-policies/facts-and-figures 


    I'd heard this from other sources too...apparently, due to tuition fees, the demographic has changed out of all recognition in the last few years.

  • Hi Andy, we are both quite literally "on the same page" (of the OU website), but 34% of their undergraduate students being under 25, doesn't add up to one-third of UK undergraduate students under 25 which the article claims - or does it? Perhaps a case for Radio 4's "more or less"?
  • Former Community Member
    0 Former Community Member
    Roy,

    I think the Nano-Degree concept or the MicroMasters, MasterTrak certificates all appear to be rebranded multi-course certificates, graduate certificates, postgraduate certificates etc.

    Some are academic credit eligible with up to 25% of a masters degree at participating university, or 9  credits out of 36 credits in the typical US Masters degree program.

    In recent years there is a demand for specialized credentials that can lead to employment.

    in the US I heard this term a few years ago from a company called UDACITY. They formed partnerships with Google, Amazon, IBM etc

    There is a demand for 100% online credential with real-world projects that are Industry-designed, reviewed by experts and good for the portfolio.

    For some people, it's a career jumpstart or switches in career or aid etc.