Distance learning

Our Vice Chancellor has been presenting the Open University's case here during the public hearings of the Independent Review of Higher Education Funding and Student Finance.

It's worth watching for a number of reasons.

1. Firstly to see Martin Bean in action - this is one very impressive performance. The preamble is a tad dull but once he's answering questions he demonstrates his grasp of the agenda and environment and the wider political concerns.
   
2. Listen to what is said. The key part is that the OU will not sacrifice quality, so the alternative is it must cut numbers as a response to the financial constraints. We've already seen that this year with some courses being full and thus not taking more students, which is not something I remember happening for years.

The website for the HE Review is http://hereview.independent.gov.uk/hereview/ and there is a great deal more stuff available.

Part time education is 39% of the sector yet students lack the incentives that full time students have to study and to complete

The OU has 220,000 students, of which 10,000 students with disability.

We want to keep human element along with the technical element, but on our short ten-point taster courses presented over the web, the transaction costs are higher.

Yet we want to provide access to all for the sake of social justice and value. And we want to celebrate achievements of those who complete single courses, diplomas and certificates as well as those who achieve degrees

They ask the VC a question on employment and he answers that employers who're worried that their employees will get trained and leave should be more worried about employees staying and not training