A year in the life of an Open University student in the United Kingdom

One of the first questions any prospective student asks is,'Will I be able to cope intellectually?' All or most institutions of higher education in the United Kingdom require academic entry qualifications, but with the Open University (OU) there are none. However the OU has the same status as all the other publicly funded universities in the United Kingdom. It was set up in 1969 by Royal Charter and is funded by the Department of Education and Science. At present, it has three programmes of study: undergraduate, continuing education, and postgraduate. It began teaching in 1971 on the first of these programmes. The undergraduate programme is subsidized by the government. The only way to find out whether one can cope is to try, and there is nothing to lose by trying except the initial registration fee. The reason I wanted to study was to prove to myself that I could gain a degree; that I was capable of intellectual study and yet I was worried that the opposite might prove to be the case. This article is based on my experience of two foundation courses: the Arts foundation course (AlOl) and ~Living with Technology' (Tlol).