A very unique experience, I love the fact that I’m able to travel the world whilst enrolled in uni. This was not common knowledge when I was in secondary education so very glad that I was made aware of this uni through TikTok.

The open university gives a lot of flexibility compared to most “on campus” universities in the UK. This gives those the opportunity to study and progress in their interested subject who may not have a lot of time due to their busy lives or personal circumstances.

I studied with Curtin University via Open Universities – whilst I enjoyed my time in this degree, I believe the relationship between Curtin University and Open Universities has some room to improve regarding student experience. Information between each institution was not carried through enough, leaving some confusion as a student regarding issues such as degree requirements, study periods, primary contact etc. A review of student experience and ease of user experience should be conducted.

Before I started at the Open University I considered taking an Access Course or studying for A levels. It was many years since I had left school and I went to a Secondary Modern School where no 0′ levels were taken. I passed some CSE’s. I decided to join the Open University because I liked the different subjects that I could study under A100 – a lot of which I hadn’t studied before, English and History being my favourite subjects. After studying A100 I found that I loved Art History as well and took some further courses on that subject. The first year was quite hard – we had a residential week away and I was very pregnant at the time!
After the first year I took various courses, English Literature Novels which was the course which led me to start with the Open University. I did Art History and History Courses. For my final year I did family history which I really enjoyed and which led to me taking an Advanced Diploma in Local History with Cambridge University and that led on to my taking a Masters Degree in the same subject, also at Cambridge University.

It was quite hard studying with a full time job and two young children, with which my husband helped enormously. It was quite a struggle financially but it was all worthwhile. At the start of my study I was a typist and at the end I was able to become an adjudicator with my company which was a big step up in profession. It was good to meet other students but it would have been nice to be able to become more involved with that side of things. The hardest thing about studying with the Open University was that every TMA counts and you never get to do a practice essay!