Being Ā£2,700 - almost an order of magnitude greater than it was - for a 60 credit course (1/2 a full time degree course) has pushed the OU out of the reach of many of those who used it - the mid-career switchers, the young employee with aspirations of improvement, the retired person wanting to enhance their life and keep on learning.
I had to rush the last few years of my OU degree to meet the āold feesā rule as I have a degree, there is no availability of student loans or maintenance, and with a family and a mortgage taking on more debt was not an option.
Successive governments have continued the slow death of this wonderful institution - Itās student numbers are down 28% in 5 years, and unless it re-invents itself as a diploma mill, I canāt see a future.
Still less than a third of the āpriceā of a yearās full-time study at a university in England, though. Thatās Ā£27,000 for a typical full-time undergraduate degree vs. Ā£5,400 via the OU.
We could certainly argue that the Ā£9,000pa fee should be reviewed, but given that baseline, I donāt really see why OU students should be charged even less than 20% of āthe going rateā. Lower fees for all would be a fair objective, but not merely making OU degrees even more of a (relative!) bargain.
Itās 60% of the Ā£9k fees, as Ā£2.7k represents a half year full time course. The realpolitik of student fees are a moot point, the OU was a benefit to the entire nation, an environment now exists where many of those who learnt with them cannot, the OU will continue its decline and the UK is poorer for it.
Ah. Okay. I misunderstood your previous statement that itās ā1/2 a full time degree courseā to mean half of the complete course, not the annual fee.
60% of the annual full-time fee sounds entirely reasonable, and I think my central point still stands (though I would say that 
) - that Iād prioritise reducing fees for all students, not preferentially OU students.
If itās remit was to provide undergraduate education to primarily post A level kids Iād agree, but the OU from its inception has been a different organisation, targeting those in mentioned above. Someone like me, who had a degree, and had a great opportunity to change career at 25, but needed a 2nd degree would be forced into massive debt, student loans and grants are not available for 2nd degrees.
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