fees

Due to a change in policy by the Westminster Government the OU is about to lose the substantial amount of public funding that it currently receives via the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

Fortunately the OU in Scotland receives its public funding from the Scottish Government and students in Scotland will not be subject to the trebling of fees that is about to hit undergraduate OU students in England. However, the University as a whole is losing its biggest source of income and the implications of this will be devastating and wide-ranging for us all.

The University and Colleges Union (UCU) have organised an E-petition on the HM Government website calling on the Government to reverse its policy. The Open University Students Association (OUSA) fully supports this petition and urges all OU students (past, present and future) along with their friends and family to sign this petition. If you care about your University and believe that higher education should be open to all, please follow the link below to sign the petition.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22316

OU course fees for students in Scotland

The majority of the main parliamentary parties in Scotland are making a comitment not to introduce tuition fees for full-time students should they get elected. However, they are all being very quiet on the subject of part-time students who still have to pay tuition fees.

OUSA welcomes the commitment to free full-time higher education in Scotland but wants to ensure that the needs of part-time students are not overlooked.

The Open University Students Association in Scotland is currently working on a manifesto of key requests calling for a better deal for Scotland's part-time students. Once completed this manifesto will be emailed out to all prospective parliamentary candidates. A copy of this manifesto and our requests will be posted to this site once available.

With four in ten higher education students in Scotland studying part-time, we need to make sure we are not overlooked when the new Scottish Governement takes up office.