The Open University Reviews 1,220

Tutors are amazing, the modules are well organised and overall the staff is very helpful.

Very good university, there are lots of help if you needed, Very good syllubus.

The assistance and the understanding I get everytime I need it from the Open University is incredible. It makes me feel heard, supported and motivates me to continue. From the assistance on the phone to the tutors, I respect their work and their kindness, and I feel happy I study with the Open University.

The constant availability of my tutor is the main reason I manage to complete T192 successfully.
I commend the professionalism of the instructor during the lessons and the availability of learning materials.

I loved studying at Ou for 3 years! The platform is amazing, all modules easy to access and understanding. Plenty of exercises. A huge library as well.
Tutorials are my favourite as always helped me a lot. Quality of the modules are amazing! I would totally recommend studying with them.

Excellent- I've been studying with the OU since 1980 and attained a range of qualifications. High quality teaching resources which has had a positive impact on my own career in education.

I find it difficult to recommend the OU, the customer experience is poor, and the tutors are very good and kind and all, but they are clearly ran ragged. Staffing is something the OU does not seem to take seriously and overwork and standards & working conditions for staff are awful.
If you like learning in a meat processing plant as a piece of meat, the OU is a place to be (with that said all higher education is a feeder belt these days)
The interfaces are annoying to use so the first order of business is to fully learn the web interface and its nik naks- do not put that off!
As with any higher education you get out what you put in, but the overwhelming experience feels real distant.
The books and resources you are given are adequate

Just finished my first year of cyber security. The course is time-demanding if you want to complete it as a full-time schedule. But I am happy I started. 37 y old.

Almost at the end of my Law degree. The OU excel at online learning. They constantly strive to update the student learning environment and experience. Had some fab tutors. Great web module platform. Would highly recommend.

Student support and educational advisors were absolutely brilliant. Extremely kind and compassionate about my situation and supported me to make decisions thag will benefit my education and student journey. Thank you.

The course and the experience was great and worked well around my home life. I was able to access the learning at my own pace and found having set off of to study useful. I found difficulty in logging practice hours and systematic issues but these were resolved in a timely manner and my practice tutor in my second year could not help me enough, she was very supportive and visible throughout my studies.

This has been the best way for me to get my nursing degree the support is amazing. I would recommend to anyone particularly if they have a busy family life it works amazingly

Very disappointed in the lack of support from tutors, I am studying 3modules, 1 tutor is very good, the other 2 are absent.

Professional

The OU is a great way to learn, especially for adult learners

Once you are enrolled, you are just a number

The Open University spends a fortune marketing itself as flexible, inclusive and student-focused. My experience has shown the opposite.

I had a serious technical issue with an assessment that forms part of my TM257 EMA. The Cisco NetAcad CCNA2 Final Exam only showed questions up to Q19, then sent me straight to the submit/result page. The exam should have had 60 questions, but it recorded my attempt as completed with a score of 30%.

That is not a failed attempt. That is a broken assessment.

I reported the issue, provided screenshots and made clear that the EMA deadline was approaching. I later found that other students had experienced similar problems and that Cisco had acknowledged an issue at their end. Despite this, I was left chasing basic answers while an invalid score sat against my record.

As a disabled student, this has been even more stressful. What concerns me further is that other one-star reviews also raise concerns about disability support, which makes this feel less like an isolated mistake and more like a wider problem with how disabled students are supported when things go wrong.

The most frustrating part is the lack of ownership. You pay the fees, follow the process and meet the deadlines, but when the system fails, no one seems willing to take responsibility.

I have now had to raise a formal complaint just to get a serious assessment issue taken seriously.

Based on this experience, the OU’s support does not match its marketing. Once you are in the system, it feels like you are on your own.

Best decision I ever made studying mental health nursing through the OU!

Like everything else, their fees have increased & textbooks are now online. Yes I live in the 21st century but the long-term effects of sitting at a laptop screen have yet to be fully measured. Otherwise, it's a good way to gain further knowledge & credentials and the standard is very good.

Staff are mostly clueless. Tutors even more so. Tutors work parttime, and they know there is little expected from them - the feedback reflects that, which is usually a one sentence or even a single symbol feedback that amounts to nothing.

I thought it was only my subject, but I spoke to other students and this low level effort is across other subjects.

Just a bottom of the barrel poor university, and the degree isn't even soft enough to wipe yourself with. Employers know this and discard the CVs with OU on it, I know because I spoke to them.

I recently studied and completed the honours in business management achieving a first class honours degree.
The setup was fantastic, from following the weekly module content, to networking with my tutor and fellow students and attending tutorials.
A brilliant experience!
I chose the open university because it offered a different way of learning, one whereby learning could be done at distance whilst offering a closeness that doing it physically at university would have brought.
With a really young family and working full time the open university was perfect because it supported me to study and offered me the opportunity to achieve my ambitions however a lot is self driven so you really have to have the drive, energy and passion to want to see it through.
My four year course has flown by, I am really looking forward to graduating and potentially taking my studies further not before taking a break.
Matt L