If you were restructuring student support in the OU, what would you do? I suppose that without the wider picture we can only make suggestions from our individual perspectives, but we may have one or two ideas.
The Student Support Review hopes it has covered all eventualities, but it is realistic in knowing that it has to be able to change with the times and requirements of its ever-widening student population. The Review is an enormous undertaking, with the sole aim of redefining the relationship between students and university. The OU has dedicated a huge team to the project, which has made certain recommendations.
There are also specific teams redesigning the Access to Success programmes to help students who would not normally apply to university, with a fee structure which is less complicated.
Recommendations have been made by The Student Support Review, that the Curriculum Support Teams be mapped into host locations, so student support will be curriculum-based, rather than location-based. This, it is hoped, will make communication with the relevant subject teams easier, and more effective.
There is also a vast retraining programme to enable staff to assist students in understanding their options. The registration of new students has dramatically altered for 2012/13 through new fees and funding issues. New students need to declare their aimed qualification and will now have five years in which to complete their studies.
Course choice has always been difficult but qualification-based programmes are now structured into Pathways, where study is sequenced. The university will have more control over the way in which students progress, in order to cover the requirements for that qualification. Progression can now be managed in order to help students achieve their goal. Study goals will therefore be clearer, making it easier for the university to understand the identity of individual students.
Open degrees are still available with the OU, which is the most flexible approach to study available in the U.K. Students can create their own Cert HE, Dip HE or degree if they wish and combine a range of subjects they enjoy.
It seems that the changes still allow the OU to be unique in its approach, whilst offering traditional, structured degrees. There are also clear qualification pathways to help employers develop qualification structures for their employees.
Students have already voted the OU, as one of the top three universities for student support in the U.K. We hope the new Student Support Programme will make it the world leader.
photo by: RogueSun Media's photostream, May 2012
