The Open University has 13 nation and region centres based across the UK and Ireland. Staff in these centres are responsible for organising learner support for all OU students (18,000 of whom are studying health and social care) and for understanding and responding to local circumstance and need.
Health and social care near you
Each national or regional OU centre has a team of health and social care staff – expert in their academic field and in their area of practice. They also know the locality, the key players and service priorities, making them ideally placed to facilitate the delivery of innovative learning solutions, work with employers to support professional practice and make sure OU students receive the best possible support.
Local support in action
Emma Stevenson talking about OU study one year into her social work degree:
“... my tutor really helped me.
Although you do the physical study at home on your own, you never feel alone. You can go online and talk to your tutor and other students; my tutor group would ‘meet’ for a live online chat once a week. There’s always someone there to ask for help, and often you find you can help someone else.”
Emma’s employer, Derbyshire County Council is sponsoring her degree and supporting her. Behind the scenes, OU staff in the East Midlands regional centre (in Nottingham) work in partnership with Emma’s employer to ensure support and assessment of social work practice - they appointed Emma’s tutors, organised group tutorials at local venues and, when Emma achieves her degree, local staff in the OU hope to be there at her graduation ceremony!
An extensive expert network
Over 70 of our faculty's academic and academic-related staff are based in the region and nation centres. Between them they appoint, brief, support and manage over 1,000 Associate Lecturers (“tutors”). Faculty staff work alongside Student Services staff and administrative support teams to ensure the quality and fit of our curriculum and programme delivery. They are responsible for exploring and facilitating local learning agreements, such as employer sponsorship and in-house teaching groups, and for the academic management of our Associate Lecturers and Programme Tutors who teach our courses and awards. They work alongside their counterparts from other faculties, and as such are able to work across faculty and subject boundaries to deliver whole workforce solutions.
Local study advisers are always happy to talk to students about best study pathways, options and local support. Health and social care experts are also keen to explore opportunities to work with employers, partners or other organisations in our sectors to support professional development and make the impact on practice central to our mission.
Local learning in action
We have a long and successful track record of working with local partners, employers and sponsors to deliver award programmes of OU learning from pre-registration nursing to social work. To get a flavour of what we could do for you, visit our testimonials page to hear about the OU’s Faculty of Health & Social Care in action.