NaBloPoMo Day 7 - Open University

Day 7 already and still going strong. I am very proud of myself. :-)

Today I'd like to dedicate my blog to some wonderful and helpful people that I encountered. You see, last night I received one of the regular email newsletters from the Open University. I have been studying with them since 2002 (yep... Almost a decade) and working towards a degree in Literature. I have only one course left to do.

The email that I received last night had a section about next year's course fees, which increase from £700 for a 60 point course, to £2,500. Why the price hike? It's all due to changes to the way that universities are funded. When the changes come in next September, the Open University stands to lose £90m in funding from the government. In place of the funding, they have had to increase their fees. However, unlike the current fee and loans system, from next September, part-time students will be eligible for a student loan to cover the course fees.

Of course, even the lower fee is quite an item, so money being tight I chose to postpone my final course until next year... Until I got that email I mentioned. Panic! You see, I started a degree in 1997, which I had to abandon for personal reasons so I was unsure whether I would be eligible for a loan to cover the fees for next year. At the same time, registration for my final course for this year's intake had closed, so I was facing a fee I believed I couldn't possibly pay next year on the one hand, and a course I couldn't get on to for this year on the other. Talk about being between a rock and a hard place.

The good news is that it was all stress for nothing. Raj at Student Finance for England assures me that I am eligible for the loan for next year. So hooray! However is also spoke with Lynn and Elaine at the OU, both of whom were very helpful indeed. As it happens, had I needed to, they would have placed me on the intake for this year. All three folks offered me reassurance and excellent customer service, for which I am very grateful.

So after all that, am I against the tuition fee changes? No. I believe in a free education system but that's not possible at the momeny. However, the changes will make higher education much more accessible to those from lower income backgrounds and it is fairer because those who graduate and end up earning more will pay back more while those who earn less will pay less. At the end of the day, whether you come from privilege or from a council estate is irrelevant; where you end up is what will matter. It's not a perfect system but it's an improvement.

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