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Greater reach

Greater reach, offering unrivalled choice, quality and flexibility to more people from all parts of society through a range of channels and learning opportunities, with the University’s core offer of qualifications and accredited learning at its centre.

The Open University has enjoyed an enviable reputation for the quality of its teaching and high student satisfaction, as well as impressive feedback from employers. This has been built up over many years, largely on the reputation of our degrees, diplomas and certificates, but increasingly from new products we have developed, often with employers, such as apprenticeships and microcredentials.

Over the next five years we will continue building a comprehensive portfolio of degrees, diplomas, certificates and accredited modules based on current and forecast demand, while developing - from the expertise we have in our core provision - new products either for established demand or to test and learn.

We believe that everyone with the motivation should be able to access university learning regardless of personal circumstances, but the way people want to learn is changing. Two trends are especially important to plan for: students changing their intensity of study for a qualification either to accelerate or spread out their learning module by module, and students wanting to study short courses that meet shorter-term needs or interests.

Both these trends are associated with other developments such as school and college leavers being attracted to the OU model because of its flexibility and affordability, lifelong learning imperatives given the ever-shortening shelf-life of knowledge and rapid economic change, and policy reform, including new technical education and short course options and a strengthened role for further education in post-18 education and funding.

The priority during the next five years will be to increase and strengthen our core undergraduate provision across the four nations, building out from this core to develop new models of study that respond to market and policy developments. As we do this, it will be important to listen closely to groups who are currently under-represented in our student body and highest qualifications outcomes to help overcome the barriers they currently encounter.

As we continue to gather insight into those needs, we will review and renew learning design, teaching methods and curriculum, staying at the forefront of advances in learning and technology, especially in how we personalise teaching and student support while growing our portfolio offer sustainably.

Over the next five years we will:

  • plan and resource our response to changes in student numbers and funding to ensure we do not compromise on quality for students or colleagues’ wellbeing and support.
  • build more qualification pathways to support and facilitate students who wish to accelerate their study by learning at a higher intensity for some or all of their time.
  • build and promote our short course offer, including tailored information, advice and guidance.
  • advocate for policy, regulatory and funding arrangements in each nation that advance our mission and goals.
  • prepare for possible policy, regulatory or funding reforms, ensuring we adapt to reform effectively while staying true to our mission.
  • pilot ‘on the ground’ initiatives to test the effectiveness of having a local OU presence where this can help achieve our mission and goals sustainably, working with local partners.
  • invest in our brand and marketing with a stronger message about our quality to drive awareness of who we are and what we offer among a wider audience of people, increasing our student numbers while diversifying our intakes.