Exhibition: 50 Years of the OU Students Association

The introduction of the Open BSc

Arguably one of the Association's biggest achievements concerns the part we played in the movement to introduce the Open BSc. 

From 1971, its first year of teaching, The Open University offered a single undergraduate degree, which was the Open BA. This meant that students who studied mainly science, rather than arts and humanities, would be awarded a Bachelor of Arts (BA) rather than a Bachelor of Science (BSc) as they would have received if studying at other institutions. At the time, students focusing on science were concerned that a BA in Physics for example, would be taken less seriously than a BSc, which is when the Students Association began its campaign for the University to offer an Open BSc in addition to the Open BA. 

A Working Group was set-up by the University which included two student representatives to take on the task of drawing up proposals for the classification of the new Open BSc and the consequent impact on the Open BA. When the logistics of how this would work in practice were being discussed, courses (as modules were known then) had to be classified as counting towards a BA, a BSc or in some cases, such as Maths and Computing, both. 

Nigel Patterson, who was one of the student representatives on the Working Group, argued against the suggestions that the new classification rules require that an Open BSc not include any BA courses, and vice versa for the Open BA. Nigel reasoned that it was against the spirit of an Open Degree and successfully persuaded the Working Group of this, helping to establish some of the principles of the BSc’s introduction. 

By the early 1990s the OU had introduced the Open BSc. On the morning of 9 April 1994, at the Harrogate Conference Centre, the journey to award Open University BScs was completed, as David Curtis proudly stepped on stage to be the first BSc to have his name read out by regional director Peter Smith. The Harrogate degree ceremony was followed by others all over the country, each seeing Open BScs awarded for the first time. 

If there had ever been any doubt about the decision to award a BSc in addition to the BA, the figures spoke for themselves, with 5,045 people choosing to be awarded a BSc and a staggering 4,392 of them gaining honours, compared to 6,616 graduates who opted to go for a BA with 4,421 of them achieving honours.