Open University Degree Reviews 42

I'd give Zero if I could! My husband David spent £10,000 on a degree and never got his certificate. Now he needs it and for the past month has been contacting them to get a scanned copy - hardly a complex request!! My husband was told the Administration teams have back logs as half the staff are working at home but cant help and so those working in office are behind on processing!! A month for a certificate we paid for is a joke!

Waste of time and very RACIST SPECIAL TONY FROM LBS-LAW.
I've requested numerous times to change my tutor, result - NOTHING.

I WILL NOT RECOMMEND.

Hi Folks
as Hannah says, this review page is not for the Open University based in Milton Keynes, UK, it is for an online American company, called OpenUniversityDegree, at openuniversitydegree.com

However, since many people seem to land here looking for a review on the OU, I can confirm that in my experience, in general tutors really aren't very interested in you. One exception: Sidney Silversmith, a really excellent tutor on the stats course.
For the most part, I found printed material to be excellent, and multimedia material to be pretty good.

Horrible and worst services .

Unsure as to why they have disabled their reviews in Google. Probably fearing the truth be told.
Please do not waste your money on them.
They will be happy to get the payment for services not used and harass a sick person.
They will use legal terms to instigate fear in you so you will not pursue what is rightfully yours. I am truly disappointed as that money would mean a lot to us especially in the current financial condition.

Honestly, I have never dealt with such pompous arrogant and downright rude people in my life!
You are made to feel like an inadequate, stupid ignorant person by bumbling tutors.
My tutor kept telling me to buy the Telegraph, and listen to "a better radio program".
to be honest I think I was too "common" and did not speak with the proverbial "bull in the mouth" as I'm from Scotland.
I am in the position that I know successful business people, who have made their millions without any higher education or university degree.
I've sent an email to my tutor telling him to stick his boring course where the sun doesn't shine, it will save him any more confusion telephoning me whilst I'm on holiday looking for a TMA that I wasn't due to submit....???
You know if this review puts one person off from studying with this useless crowd and stops the heartache and uselessness they may be left feeling, after trying to study with this lot then I'm glad I have helped. Be kind to yourself and save yourself the humiliation.
I feel a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders!
Thank you Open University for making me realize I'm worth so much more than studying with you ever made me feel!

It's basically a con. Once your locked in you can't get out, especially if you're on a student loan. If you do it part time, it's six years and it's all self motivated. Imagine starting school and just being given all the textbooks for the next six years and been left to it. The materials are great if you can sit and read for 20 hours a week. The tutors are poor IMO. The spend half a tutorial having IT issues and waffling. The whole thing is shiny on the outside but a rusted heap of junk on the inside.

Its next to impossible to get a high grade, your averages need be over 80%. If your happy with a 2:2 or a third, you can plod through it. I can't quit because I'm financially committed through my tax contribution. I'm in my fifth year.

In short avoid it, just avoid it.

I have studied with OU since 2009. I finally managed to get a third class degree which should have been a 2nd or 1st class under normal conditions. I was forced out of the uni courses and banned for 3 years from studying because I cancelled some modules. I had very few tutors who were excellent in supporting and encouring me in my studies. Majority of the tutors are extremely arrogant and you can't address them with criticism. They have an attitude of I know-it-all and you are treated as if you are some lowly worm! I have been accused by one of my tutors of being pro-colonialism, when I just wrote a short story about British colonial history! I had once challenged my tutor's marking and it was deferred to another tutor. That tutor off course supported his colleague and for the end of module project, I was failed badly and was not given any chance to resit. This was clearly a punitive measure from module administrators.
There is little support and feedback from tutors. The marking is sometimes exteremly harsh. It makes you think whether your IQ is on the low side. The harsh marking and unavailibility of the tutor for discussing the mark, makes you feel abandoned, side-lined and disrespected. You are not taken serious by the OU tutors.
I feel that the type of the teaching at OU belongs to the Victorian Age, with strict teacher-dominated approach. The student is almost gagged and mulled. You can't contribute much to the teaching project, it is an old-style one way of teaching. The tutors back each other's mistake instead of giving you right when you are right. It is a corrupted system, in which the tutors care more about pocketing money than serving student's interests. OU is what i call an institution that does not allow the majority of its students to progress and get their desired academic degree, diploma, certificate etc but a punitive institution a la Victorian, which tries to punish you, make it impossible for you to progress and render your academic skills useless, and finally force you out of the study without achieving anything useful or academic.
I wasted so much time with them in the last 10 years. However I had not much of choice, as online learning was still limited that time. Nowadays with many universities and academic institutions, there are more choices. OU has not achieved its original goal of enabling online learners to achieve a sound academic degree.
Don't waste your time with OU, do your research and study elsewhere where you are seen by the university staff as a respectable student and an asset to be invested in!

Waste of time and money.
Very poorly written materials.
No support
There's no audio/visual learning options. Everything is written even when they try to teach you how to use a certain software.
I cannot describe how bad I feel for joining.
It's been 3 years. I managed to get very good marks but I feel like I haven't learned anything since the modules are all over the place.
Good luck if you decide to join.

Don't bother. It took me six years and a lot of time and money to obtain my BSc (Hons), but none of my employers took that into account. Complete and utter waste of time and money,

I had the worst experience last year with the Open University I had a unfit for purpose tutor who verbally told me she underscored me for an assignment my sister was present at the time when she said it and the tutor told me she would re-mark it and give me the right score, but she denied even saying it. My exams were not given back to me in the specified time limit so I could therefore not re-take my exam again either. The whole year was a shambles. I even got the student services representative whom recalled I phoned in the specified time limit to get this assignment re-marked to the correct mark because I kept telling them the tutor keeps forgetting to remark it. I would not recommend this institution to any one I paid for my course in full and I lost £950 for the module. They do not budge on anything they think they are right all the time but they are not, they try and get more money out of you by failing you, which is a sad joke. I was so upset I only had 60 credits left to actually get my degree if they had passed me I could of therefore come out with a degree.

ABSOLUTELY HORRENDOUS TREATMENT.

COMPLETED 120 UNIVERSITY CREDIT MODULES IN 9 MONTHS, WHICH THEY SAID "IS NOT ADVISABLE" BUT NO DIFFERENT THAN A RESIDENTIAL DEGREE.
COMPLETED EVERYTHING ON TIME ONLY TO DISCOVER THE FINAL TWO MODULES WERE FAILED WITHOUT ANY EXPLANATION.
FILED A COMPLAINT AND THEY REFUSED TO BUDGE.
TOOK ALL THE TUTOR MARKED ASSIGNMENTS AND END OF MODULE ASSIGNMENTS TO AN EXTERNAL UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR FROM THE SAME FIELD. PAID HIM TO REGRADE EVERYTHING AND DISCOVERED A 45% DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OPEN UNIVERSITY GRADES AND THE EXTERNAL UNIVERSITY GRADES.
FILED ANOTHER COMPLAINT AND NEVER RECEIVED A RESPONSE.
TURNED OUT TO BE POLITICAL DISCRIMINATION BY THE UNIVERSITY DUE TO THE INDEPENDENT RESEARCH I HAD DONE ON CLIMATE CHANGE.

I NOW HAVE A TOTAL OF 480 BRITISH UNIVERSITY CREDITS AND NO DEGREE, DESPITE IT ONLY REQUIRING 360!!!!!

NO INTEGRITY IN THEIR GRADING OF STUDENTS WORK OR THE QUALITY AND STANDARDS THAT A UNIVERSITY SHOULD UPHOLD.

WITH THE DIFFICULTIES THAT A REMOTE LEARNING DEGREE COMES WITH I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS UNIVERSITY TO ANY PROSPECTING STUDENT.
ALL THE WINDOW DRESSING OF "WE CARE FOR STUDENTS" "WE HAVE HIGH STANDARDS", "TOP QUALITY EDUCATION" IS JUST FALSE ADVERTISING TO TICK THE CHECK BOXES OF SAYING THE RIGHT THINGS WITHOUT ANY QUANTIFIABLE FOLLOW THROUGH.

THIS IS NOT A UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION BUT OR INDOCTRINATION. COMPLETE SCAM.

I can only assume there is considerable cost-cutting. I joined the Open University in order to do a degree, but also to make contact with students with similar interests. Unfortunately, my nearest tutorials are 70 miles away. The alternative is online tutorials (audio) and they are a bit of a hit and miss.
I will finish my degree in May 2020, but now considering bricks and mortar for my MA.

Unfortunately I cannot get answers to my questions from the support team. All they do - just send the links to the website. I need answers to my specific questions, it's not covered on the website. I've read it several times already. If the Open university reads this review, please assign to me smb, who can help with the Psychology Bachelor's program and give additional info on the program.

Finally contacted the university by phone and got through to administration. The woman who spoke to me from Milton Keynes was excellent, agreed that the university was too reliant on email and internet/web advice and spoke to me for over 30 mins. In that time I claimed my Open degree, agreed that maybe I didn't need further points for my needs, and that the advice that I was given over e-mails from another department was totally incorrect. Lesson to be learned for all concerned is that more often than not it is still best to speak one to one with a human being! Hierarchy at the university may take note! Thankyou to the lady from administration!

This review page is not for the Open University based in Milton Keynes, it is for an online American company.

For the past 7 years I have been a student with the Open University. Having achieved an HND in my profession as a Technical Quality Operator in Broadcast Engineering at a Brick University way back in 1997. I wanted to further progress in my field and have always desired to get a Degree.
The Tutors are very helpful - Even advised leading to a diagnostic test for dyslexia. I have had learning difficulties since I was a child and being made aware of procedures to help me has helped greatly. I am a student who has studied Mathematics ,Computing and IT Modules leading to an Open Degree by the end of this year. The Open Degree is so flexible and O.U degrees are second to none; as I have had to work very hard to get where I am today. You have to put in the time and the Open University Staff and tutors will try to help you all they can. I would totally Recommend to Open University to anyone!

I studied with the open university for about 8 years and obtained a degree through them. I found many of the couses to be good value for money and well structured, although this was a few years ago when a 30 point course cost about 330 pounds. However I found that there was little support when choosing the correct courses, this can end up costly if you decide to switch your degree at a later date. I found that the final module for the degree which I was studying for, was at a far lower standard than the previous level 1 -3 modules, almost an after thought by the Open Univeersity to finish the degree. I do feel that I have gained a lot from studying with the OU, I don’t know what other universities are like, so I can’t make a comparison. I think that the Open University is a great institution that could be even better with a bit more focus on getting their students the degrees that they are studying for and less focus on trying to keep their students studying with them for as long as possible.

Ok, so I started my degree with OU a couple of years ago. The materials and online services OU provide are of good quality.

However, the issues start to appear once you are asked to complete your tasks and assignments. The tasks are of very poor quality and I'm shocked that they get away with it. Commonly your first assignment consists of 1.000 words, yep 1.000 words. This is, they ask you to read a whole book but usually they only expect you to use one of the sections of the book to answer the TMA questions. This is once you are at level 1 or 2, the word counting at the entry level is even smaller.

Because the assignments are so small you feel like you are not getting the service you are paying for. The word counting is clearly designed to make tutors life easier. If you think you can get away with it by putting extra information on the appendix, forget it! Tutors will take points off, even if you show that you clearly understood the subject. Most of OU tutors are unqualified, ask a question and its unlikely you will get the answer.

My advice? AVOID IT! I have asked to withdraw from my course today and I couldn't be happier, what a waste of time and money. My plan now is to look for a better university.

No live tutorials available until half way through the course on my final module - hugely affected my overall result.
Tutor allocation is a roulette - you either get someone great, or someone who doesn't have a clue. I had more clueless tutors than good, who were amazingly unqualified to teach at 3rd Year University Level. Again, this affected my overall result.
Finally, having been awarded my degree (which should have been a first had I had a competent tutor and actual tutorials at the start of the course on my last module), I made it onto a Masters course. Oh, but I have to defer for a year because the OU will not send me my certificate until mid October. So my life is now on hold for a year. I am lucky that I didn't hand my notice into my job...

I really regret not shopping around for other distance learning options. There are some brilliant ones, which I found after paying for the OU.

To be honest I was expecting the "Educating Rita" experience. Once they take your money you are left to manage your own study. There is no help offered and you have to learn to be confrontational to get any additional help.

If you are looking for a first or a good 2.1 or an adequate 2.2 you will struggle. If you are already a genius and able to get As through your previous life at school or FE then go to a red-brick uni.

This University is suffering from government cut-backs and poor organisation.

It is barely fit for purpose if you are an average student hoping for good hands on from your tutors. the tutorials are very wishy- washy. The books are good and informative but there is no support throughout the term. little feedback until your 6-7 essays are assessed.

So be careful! The degrees cost a lot of money and you need a good pass if you want to be a teacher or do a masters elsewhere.

I have had previous experience at FE colleges in Herts and at oxford so I really cant believe that the OU is so poor. It promotes its world class by stuffing Milton Keynes with worthwhile researchers but you as a student will find this closed to you.

Phone them up and see how slick the sales team is - and then ask them why the vice-chancellor refuses to share students' results within the governments uni scheme.