Exams exams exams

It's exam results time again and, while some teenagers will inevitably celebrate results that reach or go beyond their expectations, others will be wondering 'what next'. I received my Open University result a couple of weeks ago, achieveing a very satisfactory grade 2 pass with 77%. This keeps me on track for an upper second class honours degree or... if I can get a distinction in my final year, I might even manage a first class.

When I was a 'proper' student, back in the late nineties, I was miserable. I'm not fond of students in general so I hated being one myself. I didn't enjoy the lifestyle or the atmosphere and, at the time, didn't really 'get' the whole study thing. The great thing about the OU is that I can study whatever I want. I've chosen a named degree that has certain requirements, rather than the Open degree, which can be made up of almost any subjects you want. However, even on a named degree there is still loads of fleixibility, which has allowed me to tailor my study to my own interests. I can also study when I want - I do most of my work at the weekend rather than during the week, while other people have more time in the week while kids are at school etc. Plus I can continue to work full time throughout my degree. I have a greater sense of personal achievement from study with the OU than I ever found at college or uni because I've done it on my own.

And so, to those teenagers wondering what next after getting their results, I say this: Don't forget the OU. Take time, think about what you enjoy, get a job or go travelling, discover yourself and when you're done and you understand more about the world and your place in it, if it's the path you want to walk, the OU will be there waiting for you. 'Bad' exam results are not the end of the world. It's much more important to enjoy and experience life than it is sit in a classroom (or lecture hall) for the next three years.

The Open University celebrates it's 40th anniversary this year. What follows is a poem written by Matt Harvey, to commemorate the occasion. I don't know about anyone else, but this sums up my feelings perfectly.

OU, we owe you
everybody wants to know you
even those who used to doubt you
can’t speak well enough about you
they say: your founders were fearless
your students are tireless
your tutors are peerless
your media wireless

you’re the College of the Air
your reception’s everywhere

a twinkle in J C Stobart’s eye
that Michael Young could not let lie
that Jennie Lee tenaciously
made manifest reality
they’d an inkling lower income
doesn’t lead to slower thinking
so now some of us are inching
by degrees towards degrees

the never-quite-made-it or told-they-were stupid
the started-but-faded or sidetracked-by-cupid
the just-need-encouragement, gluttons-for-nourishment
the people whose talent was far too well-hidden
the told-that-we-couldn’t-or-shouldn’t-so-didn’t
the course-interrupted, the quite-frankly-corrupted
deep knowledge questers, bereft empty-nesters,
bright-eyed early-risers, complete self-surprisers

…who now all have fuller foreheads
a more complex frontal cortex

for nourishing our neurons
OU, we owe you

in time that’s borrowed, bought and stolen
schedules staggered, bent and swollen
time that’s snatched & time that’s smuggled
every minute of it juggled
we give up bingo, daytime telly
computer games and social drinking
to read Bronte Proust and Shelley
stay at home and do binge-thinking
every sacrifice worth making
now we’re swapping sleep for waking
waking up to our potential
to explore worlds once forbidden us
– it’s why on the residential
things can get a bit libidinous –

for being so inspiring
that you get our neurons firing
and spontaneously re-wiring
OU, we owe you

the wide-eyed wonder-graduate
the famished hunger-graduate…
jotting reading and absorbing
finding empty hours and tables
sending subtle signs to strangers
‘don’t disturb me I am dangerous
I have got a little learning…’

…and it’s not just about earning
though yes, we’re more employable
but when we go out on the pull
we talk a better class of bull
and if we’re not successful
we are much more philosophical

for nourishing our neurons
buffing up our self-assurance
and for being so inspiring
that you get our neurons firing
and spontaneously re-wiring
OU, we owe you

and OU here’s hoping
you always stay Open
for your enterprise is noble
and expanded frontal lobal
may your outreach programme snowball
from Chernobyl down to Yeovil
from Shanghai to Sampford Peverell
may your future now be global
and may some of your post-graduates
win prizes that are Nobel
if a university could get an honorary degree
you wouldn’t get one
– you’d get several

OU, BSc, BA Hons, Phd
we raise a half-full glass to you
from every social class to you
say ‘may the gods look after you’
and
OU, we owe you