The Open University

Andy and Tania Vanburen collect their MBAs at The Barbican, London

“We started together, we studied together, we graduated together”

11 April 2019

Andy and Tania Vanburen have recently completed their MBAs with The Open University. Although they studied side by side and graduated together, their routes to an MBA were very different. Andy Vanburen left school after completing his GCSEs and joined a firm of accountants, studying one day a week for his AAT qualification. He gained […]

Making the most of your OU degree ceremony

19 March 2019

The date is booked and the graduation ceremony is looming. The hard work is done and you’re getting ready to cross the stage to cheers and applause as you pick up your degree. But what to expect?! Fear not, because we asked our Instagram alumni community for their best tips on how to make the […]

6 reasons to look forward to graduation

21 March 2018

Spring is always a good time of year – new growth, warmer weather, more colour. More importantly, it’s when our degree ceremony season starts and when students blossom into graduates and continue to grow into new lives, new careers, new opportunities or maybe even a new qualification. Last year we saw 8,000 graduates cross the […]

2017 degree ceremonies: it’s been memorable

4 December 2017

Our 2017 degree ceremony schedule drew to a close a couple of weeks ago at Gateshead, and what better note to end on than this photo of Matthew who was so happy he could fly! Matthew, a steelworker and now proud owner of a BA (Honours) in English Language and Literature, said: “When I left […]

OU graduation stories: ‘The most extraordinary moment of my life’

2 November 2017

Here we tell the incredible story of John Spence from Cardiff who has recently achieved his dream of gaining a BSc Honours degree, thanks to the OU. John has disabilities and severe dyslexia, and says he was mocked at school by his peers and told he would “amount to nothing” and “did not deserve to be […]