It’s hailed as the only true all-Ireland university by its supporters – and they have a point. After all, some 8,000 students across the island, aged between 18 and 90, study at the Open University. They benefit from 400 personal tutors based North and South – “from Coleraine to Cork” – and choose their studies from a range of up to 10,000 course modules.
The Open University was established by the British government in 1969 to deliver degree courses via distance learning to large numbers of people lacking the traditional qualifications for university entrance. Since then, the organisation has pioneered innovative teaching methods and now boasts a student enrolment of over 200,000 worldwide Academics who have worked for the Open University (OU) talk of the excellence of the course material and the high standards of student support.
The university regularly achieves the highest ranking among students in the UK National Student Survey. In Northern Ireland, the OU’s student body is more diverse than in the Republic. There, some eight per cent of students are on disability allowance, some 30 per cent are on benefit and one quarter lack conventional university entrance qualifications. “The situation is not as good in the Republic because students do not get government support,” says Dr Rosemary Hamilton, director of the Open University in Ireland. In September 2004, the OU, in partnership with the Irish Congress of Trades Unions (Ictu) and the Centre for Cross Border Studies, and funded by European Social Funding, set up the Cross Border Openings Project.
This has enabled some 800 students from Northern Ireland and six border counties in the Republic to participate in free, 20-week introductory or ‘Openings’ courses. Some 10 per cent of students on these courses are immigrants, living on both sides of the border. The courses are exam-free and are designed to give students an introduction to the subject and the world of studying. They are, the OU says, ideal for learners who are new to studying or who haven’t studied for a long time. While some students go on to take OU degree programmes or enrol in other educational institutions, others have found that completion of openings courses has helped them find work. And it’s not just students who benefit from the programmes – whole families can gain, according to the OU. “The home becomes a learning environment, often bringing about a change in the atmosphere of the household and in doing so, changing the notion of learning for the next generation in the family,” says Rachel Fulcher, the OU’s development manager. “Suddenly, employability becomes something which is achievable and within reach, not just aspirational or something ‘for them, not for us.’”
The Cross Border Openings Project is a proven success, and the OU wants to extend the programme to the whole of Ireland. But to do so costs money – £1.3m (€1.64m), to be precise. This amount would cover the cost of 500 students annually over a five-year period. The OU plans to part-fund the project but needs to raise a further €323,000 per annum to make it viable. There are plenty of deep pockets in this country that could well afford to support this initiative, and our Government could also lend a hand. In the good old days of the 1980s, when Ireland had no money and Government spending was slashed left, right and centre, our leaders continued to invest in education.
That investment has served us well and fuelled the economic boom of the 1990s. Back then, at a time when Ireland was coming to grips with the notion of the knowledge society, you felt that there was a very real concern about those people who were being left behind because of a lack of education. This is still a concern today, but how can we fix it? Government support for the Open University, with its halfcentury of expertise in providing distance learning courses up to PhD level for an adult population from all walks of life (and many corners of the globe) would be a good place to start.
Yvonne Healy is a former Irish Times journalist who has returned to Ireland from the United States. Her column appears monthly in Metro Eireann
