Students in Prisons and Secure Hospitals

The Virtual Campus (England and Wales only)

The Virtual Campus is a secure, web-based learning environment delivered by a partnership consisting of His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS), education providers and service suppliers. The Open University is one of those partners.

The majority of the modules we offer in our SiSE prospectus are now available through the Virtual Campus for students who reside in prisons in England and Wales.

Modules will be in the standard OU format which will only work on Hybrid systems in prison. This is the result of work which has been undertaken by HMPPS, Meganexus, XMA and the OU.

Studying through the Virtual Campus delivers significant benefits to students:

• They are able to view the materials digitally, rather than on paper, particularly beneficial when students are waiting to receive the offline versions of course materials
• It includes the audio-visual materials in their original format
• They are able to complete interactive activities such as quizzes and iCMAs online
• They are able to submit TMAs directly into the eTMA system (via the Secure Relay System and their nominated OU prison contact)
• It offers a much better study experience and one which is more aligned with general population students
• It allows students to develop familiarity with IT systems and means they will be better prepared for continuing with OU study on release

Log in details are sent to the OU contact at the prison once students are registered on modules available via the Virtual Campus and as the module start date approaches. We recommend that students do not start using their module website(s) until the module start date.

Should you have any enquiry relating to the OU Portal on the Virtual Campus, please email [email protected]

Click here for solutions to common issues

If you experience any technical problems with the Virtual Campus, please contact the Meganexus custody team for support. The OU does not own the Virtual Campus platform, and we do not have access to it.

Telephone:  0800 029 3456

E- mail: [email protected]

Access via browser

If your location does not use the Virtual Campus the OU secure server can be accessed directly using a browser. Students in prison cannot sign into the main OU website so please contact the Virtual Campus mailbox for the secure server address details. To find out if a module has a website presenting on the OU secure server please see the Module Information Sheet on the Resources page.