PORTSMOUTH DEGREE CEREMONY
15 April 2000, p.m.
Vice-Chancellor's Address to the Graduates
Graduates, Guests, Colleagues:
I bring you greetings from our Chancellor, Betty Boothroyd. She would have liked to preside today but this is a busy time at Westminster for the Speaker. She sends her congratulations to the graduates and her greetings to all of you.
It has been a pleasure for Professor Floyd and me to talk to the graduates individually and to celebrate OU achievements in the South of England. This region now leads the country in the number of continuing OU students.
But we do not rest on our laurels. My colleagues are working at further increasing student retention and are taking advantage of the government’s regional agenda to expand our networks. Recently our centre at Foxcombe Hall in Oxford hosted the first meeting of Higher Education South East, a new consortium of all the higher education institutions in the large region that embraces both the OU in the South and the OU in the South East.
As the University with the most students in the region the OU is taking a leadership role in helping the South East England Development Agency harness higher education to economic development. To do so we are strengthening our links with FE colleges and schools and playing an active role in Local Learning Partnerships. We look forward to close relationships with the new Learning and Skills Councils.
The central aim of all OU staff is always to serve our students by offering excellent opportunities for learning and helpful support for study.
My colleagues at Walton Hall focus particularly on the development of our programmes and courses. Here I pay a special tribute to Professor Ann Floyd who is conducting this ceremony. Ann will step down this summer from her duties as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Curriculum and Awards. For a full decade she has guided the University with wisdom and determination through major developments in our curriculum such as the introduction of the B.Sc., Named Degrees,and many new Master’s programmes. She ensures that curricular expansion continues apace. Next month we shall launch Openings, a new series of access courses. In November we begin undergraduate Business Studies. Meanwhile we are producing many short courses for professional development and we also intend to be the major provider of the new Foundation Degree.
The core function of our OU team in the South Region, under the experienced and thoughtful leadership of Ms Sheelagh Watts, is to help students and support our associate lecturers. The graduates know that our tutors are deeply committed to their OU students. I expect there were moments for each of today’s graduates when their tutor’s encouragement was crucial.
Let's show our appreciation for Ann Floyd, Sheelagh Watts and all the OU staff who have helped and inspired you.
There will be other people you wish to thank. It is wonderful to see so many families, relatives and friends here today.
Success in the Open University depends on the tolerance and understanding of others. You all know the impact of OU study on family and social life. No doubt you are now helping your graduate rediscover real life.
Help is now at hand for redecorating the house, taming the garden and cleaning the car! Extra family outings may now be in prospect. But before you daydream about that I ask the graduates to show their thanks to you.
Please keep in touch with your University. I encourage you to join the Association of Open University Graduates and I remind you that you are automatically members of the Alumni Association - The OU LINK.
You can keep up with the OU through Open Eye - the alumni magazine. The monthly version appears in The Independent newspaper on the first Tuesday of every month. The annual edition will be posted to everyone next month. With a circulation of 350,000, it must be the world’s most widely read alumni magazine!
You should also try out the Alumni Website, where you can log your particular interests and receive regular personal email updates on new services and current events.
A key alumni event is Open Day 2000 on June 24th. Why not come along to Milton Keynes with your family? Our main campus at Walton Hall makes a nice day out. Failing that you can drop into the Virtual Open Day on the OU Website.
Many graduates told me just now that they enjoyed their OU studies. That encourages me to lead you down memory lane with one last short test. It’s like a CMA – a Computer Marked Assignment – but I will provide immediate answers:
Each question is a short quotation. You have to identify the source.
If you are ready for number 1 the quotation is:
“I yield to no one in my admiration for Open University students. It seems a great deal more difficult to do an OU degree than to be feather bedded through university like most students are.”
Who do you think said that?
1. Margaret Thatcher
2. Jeremy Paxman
3. Cherie Booth
4. Ken Livingstone
In fact it was Jeremy Paxman. Last year, when the OU won his TV quiz game, University Challenge, he complained that OU students were too good to compete against students from ordinary universities like Oxford and and Bristol. I’m delighted that a member of the OU’s University Challenge team, David Good, here with us today. You should all take Paxman’s comment as a compliment.
Let’s move on to number 2. The quote is:
“The Open University has been one of this country’s success stories, both for technical innovation in education and in the way you have opened up opportunities for learning to large numbers of people who have been able to advance their careers and enrich their lives”
That came from a letter I received last year. Who wrote it?
1. Lord David Puttnam
2. The Prime Minister
3. Richard Branson
4. Esther Rantzen
The answer is 2, the Prime Minister. Tony Blair was writing to congratulate the OU on its thirtieth birthday. Two days ago the Prime Minister came to our campus in Milton Keynes. He said that to visit the OU was “a voyage of privilege”.
Let’s move to quote number 3. It reads:
“The most systematic development of new technology for teaching and learning has taken place at the Open University”
Which newspaper made that judgement?
1. The Economist
2. The Independent
3. The Daily Mail
4. The Times
This was The Times. The explosive growth of the Internet has created enormous interest in its application to university education. With 80,000 students now online the OU could be the world’s largest academic cybercommunity. 50,000 students are taking courses that require online work and I pay tribute to the Student Association, OUSA, which supplements this by organising computer conferences for over 100 courses.
We are also helping teachers to use computers in the schools. Late last year we launched our Learning Schools Programme, an OU joint venture with the firm Research Machines. It trains teachers to use computers effectively in the classroom across a range of subjects. Already, after only four months, 50,000 teachers have joined the programme and are enthusiastic about it.
On to question 4. The quote is:
“The OU is very geared to people with disabilities. I think the OU is one of the finest institutions this country has – I can’t fault it”
What is the source of that quote?
1. The Royal National Institute for the Blind
2. SKILL – The National Bureau for Students with Disabilities
3. An OU student
4. The Minister for Higher Education
This was number 3. OU science student Dawn Rogers wrote that in the journal Arthritis News. She is one of 7,000 people with a disability studying with the OU this year. That number is a thousand up on last year and we expect another substantial increase when eligibility for the Disabled Students Allowance is extended to part-time students.
So to the final quote in this short quiz. Who might have said?
“I miss watching the Open University late at night. There is something compelling about that. It’s a great way to round off the evening”.
1. A British soldier in Kosovo
2. Bill Bryson
3. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen
4. Lord John Birt
This one is Bill Bryson, the American author and columnist, who returned to the United States and found he missed British television in general and the OU in particular.
I might add that in the final paragraph of Bill Bryson’s book Notes from a Small Island he pays tribute to the best things about Britain in the following words:
“What other nation in the world could have given us William Shakespeare, pork pies, Christopher Wren, Windsor Great Park, the Open University, Gardeners’ Question Time and the chocolate digestive biscuit? None of course”.
I congratulate you on representing what is best about the United Kingdom, I wish you every success in the future, and I thank you for studying with the Open University.