Welcome to the latest edition of the alumni newsletter. This month saw the biggest results day of the year with more than 87,000 students receiving around 110,000 module results. As you know, this day is the culmination of months, sometimes years, of hard work and perseverance. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating our current students and welcoming the newest members of the alumni community. I’m sure many of you still remember the sense of pride, relief and happiness you felt when you received your final results.

As one of our OU alumni shared, “It is more than just results. It is a testimony to the hard work, dedication, and commitment you devoted to your OU course and the considerable sacrifices along the way.”

This issue contains some wonderful news, including the results of the latest National Student Survey where I’m delighted to share that The Open University continues to exceed sector performance in teaching satisfaction. You can also find out more about the success of the Giving Day - an amazing £170,000 was raised to allow even more students to begin their OU studies with a scholarship through the Open Futures Fund.

Together with ways to keep learning, our latest alumni stories and an update on the OU on screen, I hope you'll enjoy this latest edition of OpenMinds e-News.

Best wishes

Emily Rowland-Portch

Alumni Engagement Manager

The Open University

Giving Day Success!

On 4-5 July, our amazing OU family came together to celebrate Giving Day 2024. An incredible £170,000 was raised for the Open Futures Fund, providing essential scholarships to help people transform their lives through learning.

As the donations came in, we were blown away by the generosity and kindness of more than 1,500 donors across the 36 hours.

With so many people struggling to access the education they deserve, that support has never been more important, providing hope and possibility for OU students.

We are also delighted to report that many of our generous donors participated in the first ever OU Big Quiz. The quiz, a thank you for Giving Day donors, was available for a week and included questions from the OU's very own academics. If you missed out, don't worry, the quiz will return in July 2025!

ExoMars TGO finds frost on Mars

Water-based frost has been detected at the top of the Olympus Mons volcanoes on Mars – the largest volcanoes in the Solar System. The water frost was detected by the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) camera and the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) spectrometer instruments aboard the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). Open University scientists from the School of Physical Sciences are deeply involved in both these instruments, co-leading the NOMAD instrument and supporting operations for the CaSSIS camera.

The OU continues to exceed - National Student Survey 2024

The results of the National Student Survey (NSS) 2024, commissioned by the Office for Students (OfS) have been published, with The Open University receiving scores higher than the sector average for teaching, organisation and management, assessment and feedback, and learning resources.

The OU has continued to perform particularly well for its teaching and learning offer, with over 90% of students naming courses ‘intellectually stimulating’ and responding positively on how teaching staff explain content. In all four nations, the OU has surpassed last year’s results and even ranked number one for overall student satisfaction in Scotland and Northern Ireland and number two in Wales.

OU competition awards £60k in grants to small businesses

The OU has awarded 18 aspiring business owners a total of £60,000 to support the next generation of student entrepreneurs. 

350 people registered for this year's Open Business Creators Fund competition that has been co-funded by Santander Universities, the Higher Education Innovation Fund and the Welsh Regional Innovation Fund. 

Ten ways to master your money

Open University economist and Senior Lecturer Jonquil Lowe is something of a financial guru. She specialises in personal finance and is one of the authors behind the free OpenLearn course Managing My Money.

Scam interceptors returns

A new series of BBC/OU co-production, Scam Interceptors, began in June and the team, along with presenters Rav Wilding and Nick Stapleton, returned to hunt down the scammers plaguing the lives of everyday people.

OU academics Dr Dhouha Kbaier and Dr Ian Kennedy have contributed to the series.

Image copyright: BBC Studies

‘Linford’ – new OU/BBC documentary

A brand new OU/BBC documentary aired on Wednesday 24^th July, looking back at the extraordinary career of one of Britain’s most successful athletes, Linford Christie. Linford delves into the life of the man who was once the most feted athlete in Britain until his career closed with a scandal that shocked the nation.

Changing your mind and the relevance of ‘confirmation bias’

An Open University academic is behind a short film on the BBC’s Morning Live programme that featured a fascinating experiment before the General Election on ‘changing your mind’.

Dr Jim Turner, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Psychology at the OU, is one of a team of OU academics who has inspired one of six short films made in a partnership between OU and the BBC.

This film features a concept known as “confirmation bias” to see how easy people find it to change their mind.

We would love to know what inspired you to become a student. Did you have any extraordinary moments while studying? Has completing your qualification changed your life or helped you discover a new self-confidence?

We want to hear from all OU alumni of different ages and experiences, identities and backgrounds, diverse ethnicities and cultures, abilities and disabilities, mental and physical health conditions and intersectionalities.

Please get in touch and share your story with the rest of the OU community.

Explore the World of Crime Fiction

Crime fiction is the best-selling literary genre in Great Britain and other European countries. People’s reasons for reading, watching and listening to crime stories are many and varied. Maybe you like the puzzle element, testing your wits against those of the detective, or you could enjoy trying to understand the motives of the criminal. Perhaps you’re interested in learning about what behaviour is considered criminal in different societies and periods, or you might just want to be reassured by stories in which crime doesn’t pay. 

There are so many ways to explore the world of crime fiction through OpenLearn. 

Discover your creative potential

Interested in writing stories, poems, songs or scripts? Exploring media's impact on society? Perhaps photography or learning to tell a story with video editing?

Don’t miss out on exploring your passion with a short course. Registration closes 5 September.

Diary of a new life Peer

In 2024, Carmen Smith became the youngest person ever to be appointed as a life peer in the House of Lords, as Baroness Smith of Llanfaes. Here, she recounts what being nominated and then taking up her seat was like. What did the process involve? Who did she meet along the way? And what does she hope to accomplish as a member of the House of Lords?

Visit the University's campus for an historical tour!

Every year around September, Heritage Open Days events are held throughout England. This year’s events will be held between the 6th and 15th September.

Following a successful first run last year, the Open University Archive will be holding events again this year – including displays of archive material in the Library Atrium and Archive Research Room and historical tours of the Walton Hall campus. These events will be held during the afternoons of the 11th, 12th and 13th September.

Careers and Employability Services at The Open University

If you're a new member of the OU's Alumni Association, did you know the OU Careers and Employability Services are here to help you explore your options, plan and work towards your career or personal goals and support you with searching and applying for opportunities? Support is available for up to three years after you graduate.

If you completed your studies with us over three years ago, we still have lots of information that can be accessed without an OU student login. You can get help with your CV and preparing for job interviews, find out the range of careers your degree can lead you to or even increase your career confidence.

If you don’t follow us on social media, please do! Just click on the icons below and join our online conversations. Your contributions help inspire the next generation of OU students and spur current students on to get to that well-deserved graduation day.

Have you visited your alumni website recently? If not, why not have a look today? Here you will find information on events, downloadable versions of all of our fantastic magazines and ways to keep in touch.

Here's a reminder of your PI number if you would like to register: 

Time to treat yourself?

Our OU Students Association Shop has a range of OU merchandise for you to enjoy and proudly own as one of our alumni, from clothing, accessories, home and leisure, to stationery and jewellery. Why not have a look for yourself?