BIRMINGHAM DEGREE CEREMONY
1 April 2000, p.m.
Vice-Chancellor's Address to the Graduates
Madam Chancellor:
I know that you would want me to begin by saying how much you and I have enjoyed meeting the graduates this afternoon in this wonderful Symphony Hall. And I know that the graduates, and everyone here today, would want me to say how pleased we are that you are our Chancellor and how privileged the people of the United Kingdom are that you are the Speaker of the House of Commons in this period of great constitutional change.
May we all express our appreciation to Madam Chancellor and Madam Speaker?
It has been heart-warming to talk to you individually. Most of you said that an OU degree is hard work but you seemed to enjoy it. That encourages me to give you a final test before we release you from OU study. It's like a CMA - that's a Computer Marked Assignment – with immediate correction.
Each question is a short quotation. You have to identify the source.
If you are ready for number 1 the quotation 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. Jeremy Paxman
4. Esther Rantzen
The answer is 2, the Prime Minister. Tony Blair was writing to congratulate the OU on its thirtieth birthday. But don’t worry if you got the answer wrong, the other names I mentioned have all said complimentary things about the OU. After Open University students won the TV quiz University Challenge last year Jeremy Paxman complained that they were too good compete with students from ordinary universities!
On to quote number 2. 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 from home the OU may be the largest academic cybercommunity. There are 50,000 students taking courses that require online work and the Student Association, OUSA, supplements this with computer conferences for 145 courses. I pay tribute to OUSA’s work, which contributes to the tens of thousands of electronic messages that OU students exchange every day.
On to my question 3. 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 disabilities studying with the OU this year. That number is a thousand up on last year and we expect the number to rise again 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 of Notes from a Small Island, after he returned to the United States and found he missed British television in general and the OU in particular.
That’s the end of my little quiz. Don’t worry if you didn’t score very well. Praise for the OU and its students comes from many sources, including some you might not expect.
There are other people here today who deserve praise. It’s wonderful that so many of your family members, relatives and friends are here today. Success in the Open University depends on the tolerance and support of others. All of you who have had OU students in your home or your circle of friends are aware of the impact of OU study on family and social life. I expect you are helping your graduate rediscover forgotten aspects of real life.
Help is now at hand for mowing the lawn and cleaning the car! Extra family outings are now possible. But before you daydream about that I ask the graduates to express their thanks to you.
I know that you will also wish to show your appreciation of the many members of the OU staff who have helped you, directly or indirectly, over your years of study. You will have benefited from the support of a number of our associate lecturers. They are sincerely committed to our mission and crucial to the success of many of our students.
At our Regional Centre here in Birmingham a dedicated team under the leadership of Dr Gerry Hancock gives effective and personal service to both students and associate lecturers. They are also deeply involved in a range of economic development projects in the City and region. All of us at the OU look for ways to help the community surmount the crisis at Rover.
I know that the graduates feel indebted to all the OU people who have supported them, especially when they were discouraged. Let's show our appreciation for their work.
At present the OU is engaged in a particularly exciting set of new developments. I have already mentioned our role as the leading e-university.
We continue to contribute to quality teaching in the schools. At the end of last year we launched our Learning Schools Programme, a joint venture between the OU and the firm Research Machines that trains teachers to use computers effectively in the classroom across a range of subjects. Already, after only four months, 45,000 teachers have joined the programme and are giving us excellent feedback.
Having mentioned our work in teacher training I must say how pleased I am that we have honoured Dr Charlie Reed this afternoon. Staff of the OU and the California State University system have worked together very successfully to bring some of the OU’s methods of teacher training to California.
That experience was very helpful in the creation of the United States Open University, which is offering its first courses this year – a new university for a new millennium – and I welcome some of the USOU staff here today.
We are constantly seeking ways to use new technologies for the benefit of students. At the moment, for example, we are just completing our first DVD-ROM. This will contain the learning material for the course S103 Discovering Science. It includes all the printed texts, fully searchable; the television programmes; and all the learning software that is now distributed to students on 10 CD-ROMs. When DVD-ROM technology spreads into the home we shall be ready.
Altogether the OU is an extraordinarily vibrant academic community at the centre of an expanding international network.
This is your academic community and there are a number of ways that you can keep in touch with it. I encourage you to join the Association of Open University Graduates and remind you that you are all automatically members of the Alumni Association - The OU LINK.
You can find out more through Open Eye the alumni magazine - the monthly version appears in The Independent newspaper on the First Tuesday of every month. The second annual edition will be posted to everyone in May this year. With a circulation of 350,000 it must be the most widely read alumni magazine in the world!
The Alumni website is worth visiting. You can register your interest and receive personal monthly updates by email of all new services and current events.
The major alumni event for this year is the Alumni weekend around Open Day 2000 on June 24th. I hope that many of you will be able to come along to Walton Hall with your families. Otherwise you can, for the first time, visit the Virtual Open Day on the OU Website.
Earlier I gave you a quote from Bill Bryson. In the final paragraph of his 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”.
The Chancellor and I wish you all success as graduates and thank you for being part of this very special University.