What’s it like to be a Joint Degree student at The Open University?

Why joint degrees?

Joint honours degrees account for around 10% of all undergraduate admissions in the UK, with many students opting for combined subject pathways (Pigden & Moore, 2021). At The Open University (OU), joint degrees offer students the chance to combine different fields of study, opening up academic and professional opportunities. But what’s it actually like to be a Joint Degree student at The Open University?

This blog shares findings from a scholarship project exploring the experiences of students on the Business Management and Languages, and Law and Languages pathways. The project adopted a Collaborative Action Research (CAR) approach (Ivankova & Wingo, 2018), bringing together Associate Lecturers from the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL) and the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (LAL), alongside student collaborators offering first-hand perspectives (Cook-Sather, 2018; Cook-Sather et al., 2014).

Motivations and challenges

Using focus groups and interviews, the project explored student motivations and the challenges they face. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) highlighted several recurring themes around workload, academic identity, support, and progression which are discussed further below.

Students spoke positively about the flexibility joint degrees offer and the ability to develop a range of skills. One student reflected: ‘I feel like I’m going to be kind of a Swiss [army] knife - multi-skilled and appealing on the job market as well.’ However, this flexibility also brought complexity, particularly around managing the demands of two subjects, workload and expectations. As one student commented:

I feel that we're doing more work to switch from one [module to] another on the law side because we've only got half of what the others have, and on top of that, I don't think anybody's aware of it."

Clarity, structure, and support

Research by Pigden & Jegede (2020) similarly identifies the need for greater inter-faculty coordination. In our project, students frequently reported a lack of clear information at the start of their studies, particularly around how the two disciplines would be integrated. Many students reported feeling unprepared for the challenges of a joint degree, citing a lack of clear information on how the two subjects would be integrated and how the degree programme was structured overall. As one student noted, ‘I really had no idea how exactly it was structured when I started.’ This initial uncertainty was seen as both confusing and discouraging.

Another key theme was the disparity in academic support across the two disciplines. Students perceived significant differences in teaching approaches, assessment design, and feedback mechanisms. Several participants described a sense of imbalance, with one subject often feeling more supported than the other. This perception of structural and pedagogical misalignment aligns with existing research suggesting that joint degree students can experience lower satisfaction due to a sense of inequality compared to their single-subject peers (Weissmann, 2013).

Challenges in language continuity

Students also noted the difficulty of maintaining language skills during periods when language modules are not being studied. Many students reported that part-time study, which often alternates between subjects, may disrupt academic continuity. The breaks between modules make it harder to keep up with the content, particularly when studying a language as this requires consistent practice and engagement.  

Data analysis of programme transfers shows that many students who transferred out of joint degrees opted for single honours in Law or Business Management, potentially because of the difficulty of maintaining language proficiency. This shift may also reflect perceptions that joint degrees lack the status of traditional programmes, which are seen as conferring ‘real-graduate’ status (Weissman, 2013).

Belonging and community

A strong sense of isolation was another challenge. Joint degree students are often placed in tutor groups dominated by single-subject peers, which can hinder peer connection and belonging. As one student put it:

Or [...] that kind of little community, I think we could have built more of a connection there. And if we'd done that, [...], maybe that would motivate people to continue."

This reflects wider research on the importance of community for student retention and engagement (Briggs et al., 2012, cited in Pigden & Moore, 2021).

Careers and the future

Although joint degrees are designed to enhance employability (Pigden & Moore, 2018), many students were unclear about career routes and did not engage with career services. This may relate to a reluctance to seek help; a barrier to success identified in earlier work by Goodenow (1993, cited in Davies, 2022).

What’s next?

Joint degrees have great potential, but their success depends on the extent to which institutional structures effectively support the needs and aspirations of the students who pursue them.

In response to these findings, a number of strategic initiatives have been introduced to better support joint degree students at the OU including tailored inductions, cross-faculty guidance, language support, dedicated student communities as well as interdisciplinary sessions. These initiatives are outlined in our next blog, ‘Supporting success: Enhancing the joint degree student experience.’

Joanna Mirek-Tooth

Joanna Mirek-Tooth is a Lecturer and Student Experience Manager in the Faculty of Business and Law at The Open University. She has worked in a variety of educational settings, both as a tutor and as an academic manager, in the UK and abroad. Joanna is also an Associate Lecturer in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics and a Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE.

Olwyn O’Malley

Olwyn O’Malley is an Associate Head of School and staff tutor in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics and an associate lecturer in the Faculty of Business and Law at The Open University. She has a background in Business and Languages and is a Senior Fellow of AdvanceHE. Her career spans a range of educational settings, where she has held roles as a tutor and academic manager both in the UK and overseas. Olwyn has special interest in working across faculties to support student success.

Scholarship team members: Lluisa Astruc, Vicki Schipper, Sophie Peiffer, Anna Calvi, Sue Timmins, Valentina Lorenzon, Vince Latras

Project supported and funded by Praxis Centre for Scholarship and Innovation. Project Reference 232407 OO