Graduates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mesdames, Mesdemoiselles, Messieurs.
It has been a pleasure our Pro-Chancellor, Sir Bryan Nicholson and me to meet our new graduates this afternoon.
Cette troisième cérémonie de collation de grades de la Open University à Paris souligne le succès du développement européen et international de notre institution. J'exprime mes remerciements tout particuliers à mon collègue John Shipley, nommé cette année comme directeur de nos activités en Europe continentale, pour son rôle important dans la direction des ces initiatives. Son souci pour la qualité des services offerts à nos étudiants en dehors du Royaume-Uni inspire ses collègues à travers l'Europe. Cette il y a presque cinq mille étudiants de la Open University en dehors du Royaume-Uni en Europe continentale.
This event links people and institutions in interesting ways. Many graduates have come here from the United Kingdom, pleased to combine their degree ceremony with a weekend in the City of Light. There are also graduates from thirteen other European countries and representatives from our sister institutions in France and the associations that bring together the universities across Europe that are committed to serving students at a distance.
Pour moi cette cérémonie crée un moment de nostalgie personnelle, car elle me fait penser à la coincidence de deux dates il y a presque trente ans. Le 15 avril 1969, j'ai soutenu ma thèse de doctorat d'état ici à l'Université de Paris.
Back in the UK, on the 23rd of April, 1969, just one week after I had defended my doctoral thesis here in Paris, the Queen granted a Royal Charter for the creation of a new University, to be called the Open University. I confess that I was unaware of that event because that week I left Liverpool on a ship for Canada where I spent the next 21 years.
Ma formation à l'Université de Paris a eu un effet déterminant sur ma carrière au Canada, où j'ai gagné ma vie en français pendant 18 ans dans des universités québecoises et ontariennes.
But the infant Open University also had a major impact on my career. During my first academic job at the Université de Montréal I also became a part-time student. The programme required an internship and so, 26 years ago, I spent three months as a volunteer lecturer at the OU in Milton Keynes. That summer was a revelation. I felt I had seen the future of higher education and I wanted to be part of it.
Or, peu après mon retour à Montréal, le Québec a annoncé la création de la Télé-université, une nouvelle institution de formation à distance inspirée par le modèle de la Open University britannique. Je me suis empressé de me joindre à son équipe fondatrice et ma carrière a pris une nouvelle direction.
Some years later I moved to Alberta, to Athabasca University, another new distance-teaching institution inspired by the example of the British Open University. Over the following years, as I occupied a series of senior posts in Canadian universities, I came to the conclusion that the Open University had not only pioneered the development of modern distance education, but had remained its leader.
It was, therefore, a great honour to be appointed vice-chancellor of the OU in 1990.
De plus, j'étais content de revenir en Europe afin de pouvoir participer, très modestement, au grand projet de l'intégration européenne. C'est pour toutes ces raisons que la cérémonie de collation de grades de la Open University à Paris symbolise pour moi la continuité et le changement. Ma carrière a débuté dans les universités les plus anciennes de nos deux pays, Oxford et Paris.
The University of Paris, has been celebrating its eight hundreth anniversary this year. It has had a chequered history and I was a doctoral student here at the University of Paris during the exciting events of 1968 when the students brought France to a standstill. Les évènements de mai were a powerful experience but it was the more peaceful yet more significant revolution in higher education begun by the Open University that really changed my life.
Aujourd'hui, alors que la Open University compte plusieurs milliers d'étudiants dans les autres pays de l'Union Européenne, nous nous rendons compte que les traditions universitaires de nos pays présentent des différences. Entre autres, les anglais attachent beaucoup d'importance aux examens écrits, alors que les français privilégient plutôt les examens oraux.
Today's graduates have told us that an OU degree is hard work. However, most of you also told us that the Open University had been an enjoyable and worthwhile experience. Since we are in France, where oral examinations are more usual than they are in the OU, I feel I should test you with a final oral assignment as we mark this milestone in your OU study. It's like a CMA - that's a Computer Marked Assignment - and correction will be immediate.
Each question is a short quotation. I ask you to identify the source.
If you are ready for number 1 the quotation is:
"The Open University has been a wonderful success and is an inspiration to educators all over the world".
Who might have said that?
And the winner is ... number 3.
Mrs Gillian Shephard, Britain's former Secretary of State for Education and Employment and an ardent francophile, said that in a radio interview before she left office. She expressed great enthusiasm for the OU and was particularly impressed by the number of areas in which our teaching has been rated as 'excellent' under the national assessment scheme.
She was referring to the fact that in subjects as different as Earth Sciences and Music, there are now more students taking excellent-rated courses with the OU than in all the other English universities put together. In the most recent table the Open University ranks number eleven, out of 101 British universities, for the quality of its teaching.
But that was a difficult question because Madame Cresson, our European Commissioner for Youth, Education and Training, is also a great admirer of the OU and has said similar things about us herself. But let's try another question.
The quote is:
"The revolution in distance learning MBA courses has been brought about, almost single-handed, by the Open Business School, which is part of the Open University"
Which newspaper do you think published that comment?
In fact it's the Wall Street Journal. We are pleased that our Business School, which is increasingly strong here in continental Europe, is having a global impact for good. There are over one hundred Business School students here in France and thousands of managers in the emerging democracies of eastern Europe are taking our courses in translation in five local languages
As a result I have had the privilege of presenting certificates to students in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Bulgaria and Russia. It is a moving experience. There too, Open University study is changing lives for the better.
Let's move on to question 3. The quote is a headline:
"Die Open University erobert Europa"
Which means, in German, the Open University conquers Europe.
Which publication do you think made that announcment?
In fact it's the Rhineland newspaper, Die Rheinische Post, which did some research on the OU and was clearly impressed by what it found.
Today's OU graduates should feel proud to belong to a university that is recognised world-wide as the best in its field. The word 'conquered' may reflect a degree of journalistic licence, but there are now over 25,000 students taking OU courses outside the UK.
Last week I joined the students at our first summer school in Germany, held in Jena, in former East Germany and I am very proud of our association with the Friedrich Schiller University and with the city of Jena which was home to both of the towering figures in German intellectual history, Goethe and Schiller.
Aujourd'hui les nouvelles technologies joue un rôle de plus en plus important dans la vie des étudiants, comme dans la vie de notre Université toute entière. Les étudiants qui demeurent sur le continent européen ont été les pionniers dans l'utilisation des conferences télématiques. Ici en France, par example, les deux tiers de nos étudiants sont connectés à la Open University par l'Internet à partir de leurs domiciles. Chaque jour, à travers le monde, les étudiants de la Open University lisent près de 200,000 messages affichés sur les conférences télématiques, C'est un phenomène remarquable.
We are proud of our pioneering use of new technology but the OU is, above all, a people place. All OU students are aware that one group who show a great sense of duty to the mission of the Open University are our tutors and counsellors and all the full-time staff who serve students all over Europe. I think particularly today of the Associate Lecturers, who work here in France and in the other countries of continental western Europe under the leadership of John Shipley, Andrew Robinson and their colleagues in our Newcastle office. We were delighted when the Government of France made Dr Robinson a Chevalier de l'Ordre deMérite, having previously made him a Chevalier de l‘Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
May I also recognise the work of our co-ordinator here in Paris, Rosemary Pearson, and her colleague from Belgium, Richard Tufts, who is also here.
I know that all the graduates have benefited from the support and interest of our staff on many and diverse occasions. May we show our appreciation with a round of applause.
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I know there are other people to whom you, as graduates, feel grateful. It is wonderful to see family members, relatives and friends with you today. We're delighted you're here.
Success in the Open University depends on the tolerance and support of others. All with OU students in their home or circle of friends are aware of the impact of OU study on family and social life. Maybe after the last exam was written you've helped your graduate rediscover forgotten aspects of real life.
If not, has it occurred to you that help may be at hand for redecorating the house or tidying the garden! You can even contemplate a holiday when you won't find course units hidden in the suitcase. But before you think of the new possibilities I know that the graduates would like to thank those who have supported them. Let's have a round of applause for the encouragement of your families, friends, and colleagues.
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Au nom de l'Université je voudrais exprimer nos remerciements les plus sincères aux individus et aux institutions qui collaborent avec nous en France. Je pense d'abord à la plus grande institution européenne de formation à distance, le Centre National d'Enseignement à Distance de Poitiers. Je sui très content que le recteur du CNED, Monsieur Michel Moreau est avec nous aujourd’hui.
May I also mention the many colleagues in the European Distance Education Network, EDEN, and the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities, EADTU, with whom we work to promote open learning at the European level.
Enfin, je voudrais souligner l'importance que nous attachons à nos relations avec toutes les universités françaises, au sein de la Féderation Interuniversitaire d'Enseignement à Distance, qui partagent avec nous le souci de rejoindre leurs étudiants chez eux.
Qu'il me soit permis, parmi ces institutions, de dire combien nous savons gré à l'Université de Caen qui a bien voulu accueillir pour un troisième été, à son campus en Normandie, presqu'un millier étudiants de la Open University. Ces Ecoles d'été pour nos cours de langues sont très important et je suis heureux de constater que notre première Ecole D’Eté en Allemagne, qui avait lieu cet été à l’Université Friedrich Schiller à Jena a été un franc succès.
A similar happy relationship exists with the Centre International d'Etudes Pédagogiques de Sèvres which welcomes some of our teacher trainees each year.
All these links and developments express the increasingly European nature of the OU's operations. That's just one reason why I hope today's graduates will continue your links with the OU after graduation. You can do that in one way by joining the Association of Open University Graduates and by staying in touch with the OU LINK website. You can also come back for new courses as the OU's curriculum continues to expand, notably at the postgraduate level.
The OU has awarded 200,000 degrees in the last quarter century, and there are over 10,000 new graduates this year. You are a force in Europe and in the world. Please be a proud member of the global OU community and recommend the Open University to others. Word of mouth from graduates whose lives have benefited from the OU is our most effective publicity, most especially here in continental Europe.
So, may I wish you every success in the future. Thank you for studying with the Open University.
Bon succès et merci!
Thank you