What OU Students (really really) want – and what it tells us about curriculum design

Cath Brown is President of the Open University Students Association and has been a BSc Open degree student herself (choosing mainly physics, engineering and history modules). We loved the ‘lightning talk’ that Cath gave at a recent OU Curriculum Strategy event so much, that we asked her to write it up in a blog post for us… And here it is!

Developing and modifying curriculum is all about students, isn’t it?

Typically, the planned curriculum is inhabited by a range of virtual students, with well-defined motivations and behaviours. They want a degree in X, a career in Y, to develop their skills in Z, and intend to study at this, that or the other intensity. These well-behaved and orderly creatures are ready to study as directed and want a straightforward path and clear directions given – they rarely come with anything as inconvenient as pre-formed views, likes or passions.

But in truth, we real students are much more complex beasts. For most of us, it’s not either career or interest, whatever our age – it’s a mixture of the two and that can evolve over time.

We do tend to have tastes and preferences. That means we want choice – it gives us more feeling of control and it increases motivation, and hence improves our retention and success. Of course, choice can be messy and costly, and we know it means a greater investment in advice and guidance. And yes, there are some who do want a straightforward path without having to make lots of decisions. So, by all means offer those who want one a set menu, but let the rest of us dine à la carte.

The ultimate international buffet, of course, is the OU’s ‘jewel in the crown’, the BA/BSc (Hons) Open degree – its status as the most popular OU undergraduate degree demonstrates clearly how highly choice is prized by OU students. But even those who want to study a named degree will still appreciate opportunities to specialise as they progress; to mix the culinary metaphor – even if you need us to eat up our greens at the start of our journey, at least give us a choice of desserts to look forward to as we progress.

Choice doesn’t only mean subject – it means size of study unit too. Just because increasing numbers of us want to do 120 credits a year doesn’t mean that those who’d like to do 30 credits, or just 10 credits, don’t exist. Large units of study don’t let us flex things, they don’t let us mix and match – or in more trendy terminology, smaller units enable us to personalise our curriculum.

So, where it’s possible, why not design it so that things work well together, or separated? I think coffee and cake go well together, but coffee on its own, or cake on its own, are just the thing sometimes. OK, some things can’t be broken down too far – I don’t want to eat the eggs, flour and so on in my cake separately. But let’s start from the premise of smaller units of study with larger when necessary, not vice versa. Smaller units may cost, but that sort of flexibility could pay dividends.

Timings are also a part of choice and flexibility. Yes, some may like the conventional academic year; but for others that timing is a menace. And we know statistically that those doing full-on concurrent study fare less well than those with partial or no overlap – smaller units of curriculum could give more flexibility here too.

It could also really impact retention too. It’s established that it’s harder to get us students back on board if we defer. But it’s also well-known that we have complex lives which may mean sometimes we can’t spare 18 hours a week. Letting us jettison part of our programme rather than all of it could keep us in the system and help us succeed.

I wouldn’t be doing the student body justice if I didn’t share what’s a big anxiety for many of us. So many OU students, and prospective students, are really concerned how their degree will stand up compared to conventional universities. We care about quality. We care about reputation. We care about what is in the modules we study – we want it to be the good stuff, not anything we perceive as “filler”. And while we obviously want to get good marks if we can, that doesn’t mean we like or respect things that are easy marks. We reserve the right to moan and whinge about things being hard, but we want to know we deserve our degrees. We want you to remember the words of our founder, Jennie Lee – “Nothing but the best is good enough”.

So – what is the message from the student body?

Design for Choice. Design for Flexibility. But never ever compromise the Quality.

You can find out more about Cath and her role on the Students Association w ebsite.

Why the Open degree path gives me the flexibility that I need

Kirsty is a self-employed language trainer who believes it’s never too late to learn something new. She is currently completing an open degree at the Open University and this experience, along with some of the lessons she has learned through her studies, feature in her “life as a mature student” series on her blog. As Kirsty is also blind, she is passionate about making learning accessible for all. She loves good coffee, learning languages, long walks, and golden retrievers!

I didn’t go to university along with all of my friends for personal reasons that I won’t go into here. In many ways it didn’t matter – I still got a job, then after a while a better job, and eventually I decided to set up my own business. But I still wanted to go back to the idea of studying one day. You’re never too old to learn!

There was also that feeling that some people look down on you if you don’t have anything beyond a-levels. I knew that wasn’t true – you can’t measure someone’s worth just by how many qualifications they have – but I always felt that I’d missed out somehow and wanted to give it a go.

Continue reading “Why the Open degree path gives me the flexibility that I need”

“You work where…?”

Philippa Costello is an Ambitious Futures Graduate Trainee, who has spent the last 6 months working in the Access, Open and Cross-Curricular Innovation team. On completion of her graduate scheme at the end of February 2020, Philippa will be taking up a role as Undergraduate Student Support Officer at Queen Mary University in London. In her final blog post for the team, she sums up her experience of supporting the OU’s flagship Open Programme curriculum.

Planning for the final placement of my graduate scheme was a bit of a whirlwind. Over the course of my scheme, I had had the opportunity to work in central university departments, but I was yet to find myself in a curriculum-based environment. Luckily for me, I was able to secure 6 months in the Centre for Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation.

Before I joined the team, I was vaguely aware of the provision offered by the OU, and I knew some students who had been studying towards or graduated with an ‘Open’ Degree, but I still had a lot of questions about how it worked in reality and what on earth the ‘open box module’ everyone keeps talking about was! (It’s YXM130 and YXM830, in case you were wondering.)

From the off, it was clear I had lucked out. I was quickly introduced to the whole team, set up with a mentor, and was trusted with responsibility for my projects, which included taking the lead on recruiting students to our student shadowing scheme, and supporting the team who manage our ‘Open’ Certificate, Diploma, and Degree in developing a new form of qualification [still in development]. I was even able to represent the team at an external Careers conference – you can read more about it in my last blog post!

One thing that struck me during my placement in the Centre for Access, Open and Cross-curricular Innovation was how much the whole team is committed to providing a great student experience, which is proven by their commitment to student representation through the OU Students Association, as well as how they work with colleagues across the University to offer alternative ways of interaction between students and staff, for example, the ‘Freshers’ and ‘Refreshers’ events they host on Student Hub Live. They also speak directly to students and gain feedback through social media channels, such as Twitter and Facebook.

Representing the Open Programme with placement manager Helen Cooke at the Employability Fair in November 2019

I wanted to experience working in a curriculum area as part of my professional development, and I really couldn’t have asked for a better area in terms of gaining a well-rounded Higher Education sector perspective.

A flexible curriculum, such as the one offered by our ‘Open’ qualifications is needed now more than ever. As I write, more and more universities are starting to think about how we can bridge the skills gap in our economy and solve the world’s current and future ‘big problems’ such as global warming or water security.

What we know is that the solutions to these problems will require not only disciplinary expertise, but multidisciplinary knowledge, and at the very least, they will require teams of people to be able to work effectively in an interdisciplinary way. That’s why across the sector, we have seen departments such as the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) created at the University of Warwick, as well as the founding of the London Interdisciplinary School, a new university entirely focussed on interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

Giving students such a high level of flexibility presents enormous value; our students are empowered to take control of their learning and able to self-construct a qualification that is perfect for their needs.

Luckily for us at the OU, we’ve championed this approach to learning for the past 50 years, and we are able to set an example to the rest of the sector in terms of how a student-led multidisciplinary programme can work.

As I come to the end of my graduate scheme and make my next move in the world of HE, I know I will always keep the mission of the OU and it’s first degree with me, putting students first and championing flexibility wherever I can.

The next chapter…

The blog was originally set up in 2019 to celebrate the OU’s 50th anniversary and the evolution of the OU’s multidisciplinary “Open” qualifications since the university was established in 1969. You can find out more about the Open Programme’s history in our About section.

As the Open Programme enters the next 50 years of its history, we will continue to use this site to share blogs from a wide range of contributors to demonstrate the impact that this unique approach to personalised teaching and learning has had – and continues to have – on our students and staff.

If you would like to contribute to this blog, we would love to share your journey too. Just drop us an email at open-programme@open.ac.uk.

What Employers Want

Philippa Costello is an Ambitious Futures Graduate Trainee, currently working within the Curriculum Innovation Team. She is currently studying towards a Certificate of Higher Education in Economics and Personal Finance with The Open University.

The Institute of Student Employers (ISE) is a member organisation that works to represent over 150 ‘student employers’ or ‘graduate recruiters’. They work with both employers and universities to provide support in all aspects of student recruitment.

This year, their HE conference was based around the topic of ‘What Employers Want’.

So, as someone who does not directly work as a Careers Advisor or within Employer Outreach, you may be wondering why I opted to make the trip to the London Business School (lovely catering FYI) on very cold November morning…

Well, the team who manages ‘Open’ qualifications (that includes all of the ‘Open’ qualifications, the BSc (Hons) Combined STEM degree, and the MA/MSc Open!) have been interested for some time about how we best equip students with the vocabulary to communicate to their existing or potential employers what their ‘Open’ qualification is. Most importantly, we need employers to understand why obtaining a multidisciplinary qualification – be your module choices be based on personal interest or a desire to up-skill or increase your employability prospects – is valuable in our current labour market.

Source: @IoSEorg

Dr Charlie Bell is Head of Higher Education Intelligence at Graduate Prospects, a UK sector agency which supports university careers services (and other interested parties) by providing universities with up-to-date research data on graduate issues, amongst other things.

Bell presented his research findings through dispelling myths, which was refreshing in a world of ‘fake news’ (or at least questionable news!). We’ve all heard them; ‘Everyone has a degree nowadays’, ‘All the jobs are in London’, and ‘You’ll have to go into a job that’s linked to what you’ve studied’.

However, research shows only 39.2% of the adult population (16-64 years) had a degree by the end of 2018, and of the workforce, this number still came in at under 50%. Bell prophesied that this may well get to 50% (of the workforce), at which point the narrative around ‘graduate premium’ may shift and become a ‘penalty’ for those who cannot or don’t want to obtain a higher-level qualification.

Bell also addressed the myth that ‘subject studied equals vocation’ (it doesn’t!), and of course, the most promising statistic of the talk was that 60-70% of employers are ‘degree blind’. That is, employers generally aren’t all that concerned with the subject(s) you have studied in non-vocational or very ‘general, broad roles’.

“The UK has a particularly flexible skilled jobs market…Degrees are designed to teach a wide range of skills as well as subject knowledge and employers understand that.”

The latest Institute of Student Employers student recruitment survey (2019) shows that only 14% of the employers who responded said that a specific subject degree forms part of their minimum requirement for graduate hires, and 22% state that they have no minimum entry requirements whatsoever.

Bar chart presenting minimum requirements for graduate hires

Source: ‘Inside student recruitment 2019’, Institute of Student Employers

So, what does this mean for supporting students studying multidisciplinary qualifications at the OU?

To help Open qualification students to feel confident in their interactions with employers, we have a range of resources* that students can access to help them identify the transferable skills they have gained as a result of studying across disciplines and to effectively communicate the variety and quality of what they have studied. We’ve also put together some useful information around Open degree module combinations and offered suggested career pathways.

The Careers and Employability Services also provides some valuable resources to help plan your career.

Don’t forget, if you’re a current student or former student who’s finished your studies within the last three years, you can request a one-to-one careers consultation!

*OU login required

Sharing personal reflections of 50 years of multidisciplinary curriculum

In May 2019, the Open Programme team held a special event to celebrate 50 years of multidisciplinary teaching and learning, featuring presentations from Dr Liz Marr, PVC Students, and members of the Open Programme team. Click here to view a compilation of photographs from the event.

The event was hosted by Helen Cooke, Open Board of Studies Manager and opened by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Josie Fraser, who gave the following opening address:

“Starting in 1969, when the OU first started, our BA/BSc Open degree was the only degree that you could get at The Open University and remained so for over 30 years; it wasn’t actually until 2000 that we introduced named degrees. And despite the popularity of named degrees, this unique Open qualification remains our largest degree in terms of student numbers and module choice, allowing students to construct a truly personalised qualification from a huge range of undergraduate modules across all of the faculties of the OU.

There’s something so special about that flexible study path that relates to your personal interests or your career-related skills that many, many students enjoy.”