Our approach

What’s it like to study health and social care with the OU?

Why go away to university, when a world-class one can come to you?

Instead of going away to study, the OU’s learning resources come to you. So, rather than sitting in a lecture theatre or classroom, you’ll learn through a mix of workbooks, course website, on-line learning, audio CDs and DVDs – even through downloads to your phone or e-book reader if that suits you. This gives you the flexibility to choose when and where to study.

You’ll have the support of a tutor or study adviser who you can contact by phone, email or through on-line tutorials. Having high quality contacts with tutors is just one aspect of OU study that students rate highly – and one of the factors which contributes to our consistently high place in nation student satisfaction surveys for the past five years.

Employability

The flexibility of OU study is key to enabling our students to work while they study and gain qualifications. This means that you can gain valuable experience of health and social care work - say in a support role and get a foot on the career ladder while you study towards a qualification to take your career further. Work experience combined with OU study is an excellent way to develop your CV and open up options in health, social work, nursing or children’s services.

Your course will include case-studies from practice and will encourage you to draw on your own experience of health and social care to reflect on the experience of service users and professionals to improve practice. If you are not already working in health and social care, your OU study in this area will give you real insight into the world of working in care.