Students
A diverse range of students from all walks of life are attracted to the OU; for most modules there are no entry requirements other than the ability to study at an appropriate level, though most postgraduate modules require evidence of previous study or equivalent life experience. This fundamental open admissions policy makes undergraduate university study accessible to all.
In the 2009–10 academic year over 70% of students were in full-time or part-time employment, often working towards a first (or additional) degree or qualification to progress or change their career. Over 50,000 students are being sponsored by their employer (three out of four FTSE 100 companies have sponsored staff to take OU courses). The University is also popular with those who cannot physically attend a traditional (on-campus) university study course because they have health limitations, are working or resident overseas, in prison, serving in the armed forces, caring for family members, or are otherwise unable to attend or commit to traditional full-time or on-campus university study. Students are represented by the University's students' union, known as the Open University Students Association, usually abbreviated to OUSA.
In the 2009–2010 academic year, there were 253,075 enrolled students, plus an additional 2,273 customers who bought course materials but did not enrol on a course to receive academic credits. The majority of students in the 2009–10 academic year were aged between 25 and 44 years old, with the median age of new undergraduates being 31. Most students were from England (166,936), while 15,744 were from Scotland, 8,443 from Wales, 4,225 from Northern Ireland, and 12,127 from elsewhere in the European Union, plus others elsewhere. 61% of undergraduates were female, with even numbers among those taking postgraduate modules.
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Famous quotes containing the word students:
“I know that I will always be expected to have extra insight into black texts—especially texts by black women. A working-class Jewish woman from Brooklyn could become an expert on Shakespeare or Baudelaire, my students seemed to believe, if she mastered the language, the texts, and the critical literature. But they would not grant that a middle-class white man could ever be a trusted authority on Toni Morrison.”
—Claire Oberon Garcia, African American scholar and educator. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B2 (July 27, 1994)
“The fetish of the great university, of expensive colleges for young women, is too often simply a fetish. It is not based on a genuine desire for learning. Education today need not be sought at any great distance. It is largely compounded of two things, of a certain snobbishness on the part of parents, and of escape from home on the part of youth. And to those who must earn quickly it is often sheer waste of time. Very few colleges prepare their students for any special work.”
—Mary Roberts Rinehart (1876–1958)
“President Lowell of Harvard appealed to students ‘to prepare themselves for such services as the Governor may call upon them to render.’ Dean Greenough organized an ‘emergency committee,’ and Coach Fisher was reported by the press as having declared, ‘To hell with football if men are needed.’”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)