Enables more students to achieve their study goals

The context for the project is that 2018/19 saw notable increases in overall registrations in Wales, coupled with a slight decline in BAME proportions in Wales across the period measured (MarComms Insight Programme 2019, ‘Can we grow the OU’s appeal to Black, Asian and minority ethnic stude

Phase 1 has been completed, and an application for Phase 2 of this project has been approved in principle and is being refined in light of feedback received from the FASSTEST Coordination Group and EDI team. Details will be available soon. 

This project responds to a practical problem faced by members of the module production team on the new English MA (A893).

Following two successful small-scale pilots in 2015 and 2017 the current project evaluates the upscaled peer-to-peer mentoring scheme rolled out in the Open University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2020 - 2023.

Since March 2020 many of us have had to move to working from home using our home internet whether as Wi-Fi or data.  As well as work shifting to online, The Open University also moved all its tuition seminars online.    

A key objective of this project is to find ways of ensuring that students are on the right pathway and make the right qualification choices at the outset. This will help to improve the learning experience of students and support retention and progression.

The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) statistics indicate that the proportion of UK postgraduate (PG) students who identify as having a disability (10%) is significantly lower than that of undergraduate (UG) students (15%).

The Open University provides opportunities for flexible study, with the majority of our students opting for part time engagement (studying only one module in each academic year and completing a degree in 5-6 years).