Exhibition: The Open Programme

The BA/BSc (Hons) Open degree (and its predecessors) have awarded approximately 362,000 Open degrees in total and of these about 252,000 were awarded without Honours and 110,000 have been awarded with Honours. It is the flexibility of the University’s approach to personalised curriculum which has continued to enable the OU to create new, innovative qualifications in response to demand from students and a changing external environment.

The BSc (Hons) Combined STEM degree was introduced in response to the relaxation of ELQ (Equivalent or Lower Qualification) funding which allows students to apply for a loan to study a second degree in a STEM-related subject. The degree was launched in October 2017 and, in addition to being able to choose modules from the Faculty of STEM, eligible modules are also offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (e.g. psychology) and the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (e.g. sport and fitness).

In October 2018, the MA/MSc Open qualification also joined the Open Programme suite of qualifications with a multidisciplinary offering that allows students the opportunity to pursue both career-driven and academic routes at postgraduate level. Similar to the undergraduate BA/BSc (Hons) Open degree, the MA/MSc Open allows students to ‘personalise’ their learning to suit both their individual interests and career aspirations and provides them with an opportunity to improve their employment and career prospects, strengthen existing careers, change the direction of career, explore and develop one or more subject areas outside of their current professional path, or to move across a discipline or field. As far as we are aware, it is the only postgraduate level qualification that permits this amount of flexibility within the UK higher education sector, thereby demonstrating the OU’s continued commitment to developing innovative qualifications that lead the way in offering choice and flexibility for students.