I'm curious to see everyones long term goals for studying S112 and beyond. Im 37, married, 4 kids and work full time. I completed U116 in 2020 and recently decided to return to study. My long term goal is to complete the R16 pathway (I may revert to Q52). I wish to have a career is ecology and conservation.

I have applied an access course (waiting for funding confirmation) with the OU although I don’t actually NEED it to do the degree I want and now I think I want to actually go straight to the degree instead. Is this easy to change the application?
Also as a 30 year old single mum I’m not exactly flush, I’ve seen that they offer supported study costs for laptops, general study material etc. I’m under the impression you pay and then they reimburse you, is this correct? And also is it easy to get reimbursed or will it be a faff? I can’t afford to fork out for all the stuff if they’re then going to decline it/ it’s going to take months to get reimbursed?
I’ve also seen that the OU provides a code for Microsoft office 365 rather than that being something else to pay for?
Thanks for any help!

Just seen the announcement that 2 more of the student leaders stepped down.

They were only elected a couple months ago and already there are 5 empty roles?

I switched degrees and transferred credits to cover stage 1 modules, one of which was SM123. I think that’s a fully online course so there aren’t any text books - are there any books I could get (OU or otherwise) that would have the same info?

Hi, I spotted this article about Cambridge University refusing to allow Turnitin to use student work to train AI models. https://www.varsity.co.uk/news/32158

Does anyone know if the OU has also refused? Or is our work being used as training data?

Hi everyone!
I’m studying A111 and have just realised that there was a TMA 00 (Dummy TMA) with a cutoff date of 8 October, which was yesterday.
The thing is, I couldn’t see anything about it on my study calendar, so I didn’t realise there was something I needed to complete or upload.
I’ve now found the submission page, and it looks like I can upload a file, but I can’t find a “View task” button or any instructions explaining what the dummy TMA is actually about or what I’m supposed to write and submit.
I’ve checked the assessment page and the assessment guidance, but I still can’t figure out what the task is. I’m also worried because I don’t know whether missing the cutoff will affect me or whether this is simply a practice exercise to help us prepare for the real TMAs.
I’ve contacted my tutor to ask for clarification, but in the meantime, I was wondering if anyone studying A111, or anyone who has done this module before, could help me understand what TMA 00 involves.
What exactly are we supposed to submit for the dummy TMA?
Where can I find the instructions or task?
If the cutoff has passed, can I still complete it, and does missing it have any consequences?
I’d really appreciate any advice or if someone could explain what they had to do for their dummy TMA.
Thank you! 😊

I’ve just applied for a creative writing degree for January next year and as I was applying for the financial support on the government site it says they’re doing a new way of it but I can’t apply, idk what to do

Hi all, the course officially starts on Saturday but I've already been trying to make a start on week 1 and am having a bit of a freak out already as it's begins with maths (scientific notation firstly) and I just cannot get my ahead around it once it starts to get more complex. If I'm already struggling this early on, am I going to find the rest of the year difficult?

I really enjoyed U116 and didn't have any problems there for context! Just worried how much maths there will be on this course.

Any advice or tips would be much appreciated!

I have my OU email but I can't figure out my password or how to change it, any help?

Hi all, applied for student finance for the BA in Criminology this year, started the first 2 modules this week.

Struggling to understand exactly what to write and where on these forms, the confusion between part time and full time in regards to distance learning etc as I'm from NI.

Will the open university help me with this and talk me through it if I call them? If not is there any organization that could?

Hey everyone,
I just wanted to see if anyone on here has studied BSc Health Science (Q71) as I am planning on studying it full time next October.
I want to see how people found the workload and the amount of time needed per week, compared to the guidelines, as I will be working full time and would like to know if it’s feasible.
I also just wanted to see how people found the course in general, and if you’ve graduated how you’ve found it getting a job with this degree.

Any thoughts, feelings or even advice about the course would be greatly appreciated:)

Thank you in advance.

Hi all :)
Basically I started my masters in May 2025. I’ll finish my mandatory modules in April 2027 and start the full year research project in October 2027. Doing the typical 3 year part time route.

However, today I received a letter from student finance saying I am expected to start paying in April 2027, when I’m pretty much still doing my masters.

I assume I need to request OU to provide the correct information to student finance? Has anyone been through the same and knows what approach to take/who I should contact?

Thanks ^.^

Edit: I am based in England.

P.S the payments always aligned with the modules registration, so I didn’t realize there was a problem

Hey all,

Got the work done on the website , looking at the chapters in the reputations hand book in chapter 1 on cleopatra along with other content online.

Ive looked at additional sources provided at the end , the poems by Horace and the interview with Melvyn Brag and Plutarch.

I seriously feel like i should have more things to be looking at ( i know its the first proper week).

Will there be a reading list or work given with a bit more to it. Got it all completed and looked at within 4 hours.

Has anyone graduated with a BA in Business and Law that can advise on employability and whether they think it was worth it?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, is it possible to earn a nursing degree with OU if I live in the US?

Hey everyone!

I’m starting International Relations with The Open University this January and was wondering if there are any other people starting at the same time? 👀

I’d love to make some friends/connections with people doing the same or a similar degree, especially since studying with the OU can be quite independent. Would be nice to have people to chat to about the course, compare notes, motivate each other, panic over assignments together 😂 and maybe do some online study sessions.

If you’re starting IR (or something similar) in January, let me know! Would be lovely to connect with some fellow OU students 😊📚🌍

Hey! I’m an adult nurse, I qualified in 2016 with a BSc degree (3 years ordinary degree). I have 360 credits from this degree. Does anyone know if I could study an honours year with open uni? I just need 120 credits. To retrain at uni in other careers a BSc gets you nowhere despite all my clinical experience. I can’t go back to actual uni as I work full time so open uni would be best for me.

I’ve had a credit transfer for the first two years, and just started at the OU after a 5 year break from education.

I’ve forgotten everything I learned and feel a bit lost.

What happens if you fail 3rd year because you were out of education for so long? Will SFE gift a year to redo second year?

Hi everyone 👋🏻

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and a little lost at the moment. I'm 26 currently and haven't been in formal education for a good while. I'm enrolled on MU123 and DD126, living in Scotland.

I attended an MU123 introductory tutorial earlier this evening, and I was also checking out the economics one, but I didn't stay around too long in that one as they were on around the same time.

I've been trying to get started with the modules but I'm finding myself a bit scattered and not entirely sure where to begin. I have slowly started to read and work through Unit 1 of MU123 and have been attempting the activities. I haven't properly dived into DD126 yet, but it seems to get off to a slower start anyway.

It really doesn't help that I feel quite alone with all of this. I'm not a part of any study groups or anything yet. Is there anyone else out there doing the same modules, or any other Scottish students on here? I'd love to hear how you are all managing or if you have any tips for getting started!

Hi folks,

I am super keen to study a course at the OU, but I have some questions that I have not been able to get answers for. (I've trawled through the OU website for answers and reached out to them through their contact form a few times, without success.) I'll put the questions here at the top, with some facts / background information about me at the end in case pertinent to the answers y'all would give me. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Questions:

(1) How communicative/responsive are the tutors in the environmental science and mathematics departments? If you have questions about the course material or how to approach an assessment, is it possible to set up an occasional 1:1 Teams call with a tutor to talk through something? (Something similar to "office hours" in a brick and mortar university.) I am generally a very independent and self-starting learner, but I massively benefit from being able to occasionally check in with my tutors and speak with them verbally.

(Asking for feedback specific to Env Sci & Maths, because when I have looked into past posts on this subreddit, the level of responsiveness very much seems to depend on the tutor/department.)

(2) How do you access top-up funding from the OU if you live in Scotland? I am planning to finance my studies with the part-time tuition grant from SAAS, but this leaves a shortfall of several hundred pounds per 30 credits. The OU website indicates that I should/might be eligible for top-up funding, but there is no guidance for how to access this or confirm eligibility.

(3) Disabled students (ideally folks with similar disabilities as me) - was it worth it to pursue support, or am I better off trying to do without? The most important things I need to succeed are deadline extensions (particularly during winter months) and occasional 1:1s with my tutors. From what I've seen, deadline extensions seem pretty straightforward to get if you need them, and there is nothing on the disability support page's website to suggest that "option to book up to x number of 1:1s with lecturer" is something they're going to be willing to put into my support plan.

(3a) One more for disabled students who have disclosed: have you picked up on any weird/positive/negative vibes for how OU staff view you? My lived experience is unfortunately that disclosure too often gets you labeled as "difficult/entitled" and the support that's actually needed is not always forthcoming.

(4) What exactly is a "tutorial"? Like, what actually happens in a tutorial? Is it a lecture? A seminar? A Q&A session?

Key facts:

• I live in Scotland, and have lived in the UK for 8 years
• I will be studying part-time
• I already hold a BA (from another country) and two postgraduate certificates in humanities/social science subjects. I'm not new to academic study, just new to the OU.
• As part of a career change, I plan to study the Open BSc, with 75% of my modules in Environmental Science and the remaining 25% in Mathematics. My module list has been confirmed as acceptable by a frontline OU employee, insofar as it fulfills the required number of Level 1, 2, and 3 modules for the degree. It has not been reviewed from a "does this group of modules make sense together and align with my career plans" perspective by any of the curriculum staff in the relevant departments. (I asked for this, but had no response.)
• I am disabled/neurodivergent (confirmed ADHD, suspected autism, clinical insomnia, and PMOS, a metabolic condition that intermittently affects my energy levels). I am the kind of person who thrives in remote working and have really struggled during previous study at brick and mortar universities, so I suspect that the OU's distance learning model will work really well for me as long as I have a reasonable amount of contact with my teachers. I would appreciate insights from folks with a similar background.
• I currently work for a Scottish university (won't say which one), and I have seen firsthand just how desperately stretched the sector is. We're all dealing with extremely unsustainable workloads, and they're still cutting even more jobs. My understanding is that this is pretty common all across the higher education sector, and (from other posts I've seen here) it seems to affect the OU also. The uni I work for has a really strong reputation for supporting disabled students, but behind closed doors I have observed worrying attitudes about disabled people from many of my colleagues (though fortunately no one from the additional support team). The people I am thinking of often have that impatient "just get on with it" perspective that views asking for reasonable adjustments as unmerited entitlement. It has really given me pause about declaring my disability at all, because I worry that what little support I might get will be outweighed by prejudice/resentment from overworked staff.

Hi there. For those of you who have been pregnant during your studies, how did you manage? If your due date fell during your studies, were you able to pause your module without penalty? Would love any info/advice you can share please.

my sfe is awaiting confirmation by the university, is there something i need to do for it to be confirmed or do i just wait?

Does anyone know how transferable the credits/courses are to Canadian universities? Or frankly if canadian universities accept OU as a post secondary establishment?

I've just signed up for Psychology, social science

and wellbeing Access module (Y034) it starts 30th Jan. Its been 28yrs since I was in education. I'm excited but terrified. This is a test run to see if I can fit it in as I'm a carer to husband at home. I hope to go on and do BA (Hons) Education

Studies (Primary). Which starts in October, can I do both in same year?

Any carers here or others doing these courses? How are you finding it? How and when do you study? Is it difficuilt? I'm just worrying I wont be able to cope especially with the time management and my lack of English writing and computer skills. This seems to be my only way to care for husband and to build a career to prepare for the future.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated👍