Peter Horrocks’ article “Why my university is not entering the TEF” (Opinion, 2 February) is typical Open University sleight of hand. He well knows that the OU’s key problem is the appalling retention and progression of its students. The university’s main problem is that it loses many of the students it recruits, and the teaching excellence framework will expose this fact explicitly.
Despite many projects over recent years at the OU aiming to improve retention, no dent has been made in the statistics, which continue to show that 55 to 60 per cent of new students finish or pass their first module. This means tens of thousands drop out each year. Tracking studies show that over seven years only 14 to 17 per cent of students who started together gain a qualification.
Many consider it immoral that the OU has a ruthless recruitment drive without any proper, structured engagement with applicants to determine if they are ready for study and to turn people away with good advice as to alternatives if it is obvious that they are not prepared.
Put bluntly, the OU is knowingly recruiting students who will fail. The OU faces a serious long-term reputational risk as the sector moves into a far more stringent and publicly accountable audit culture, and it has no strategy to succeed in the TEF world.
beanie
Via timeshighereducation.com
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