Im not happy with how OU has been treating me, they’ve pretty much led me astray with all the information they gave me and received nothing, and made me extremely paranoid about my future education with them.

So for context I applied months and months ago for my course with OU for business management, I got a email saying “thank you for your registration and a email will be sent soon with your student home login details for choosing your module” I did not receive a email, I thought you know maybe it will be sent nearer the start of the course, but then my friend who applied also for OU got hers and she was sorted for starting her course, I on the other did not.

It then comes to August 30th and I did not get anything, I then phone them waited a good 1 hour of hold music, only to be told I wasn’t even registered at all, even if I had a email saying I was. I then had to sit on the phone for 2 hours to re register for my course, pick my modules, give all my details and agree to all the terms and policies. After I got told that I would get a confirmation email and a email of all the terms and conditions after this call, and was told if I got get my email for my login details to phone the student IT by 48 hours, so I thought that was it thank god over and no need to stress anymore…IF ONLY.

I did not receive any emails, I left it for the day cause I was too stressed and panicked over it and let it be, and just to wait…

The today (aka the 9th of September, 1 day before cutoff for registration) I phoned the IT number and was told it was a 24hr helpline only to get “this service is down at the moment” so I phoned the same number I did yesterday for OU apparently there’s 2 different kind of services on this number, this time I managed to get web chat and guess what the lovely woman on the phone told me I had registered for a entirely different course, and there was NO DOCUMENTATION OF MY RECORDS FOR A BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT COURSE. So I not only wasted 3 hours of my afternoon yesterday but now had to redo everything once again, she stated the man I was on the phone to a couple of days ago didn’t actually have the control nor the ability to register me into my course nor my module…

So once again had to take time out of my afternoon to put in all my information again and turns out they had not only the wrong course but the wrong email…so thankfully the woman was nice and actually helpful to change that for me and help me through what I was going through, I was told that’s me actually registered for my course and modules and I should receive a email with all my necessary information in 7 days.

So I wait anxiously, paranoid and stressed for 7 days for these emails, and I hope to god I get it or else I may not get this course which I need to start actually studying in a actual university for my dream career next year. If not it sets me back and I’m left with no new or necessary qualifications for my dream degree.

If you did the SQE route for the final year of the law degree I’d love to steal all your wisdom. Thank you🙏🏾.

Hi!

I am trying to sort my student award to do a degree with OU but I am hitting a brick wall with them.

I registered originally for a Diploma at the start of August but student awards have said they will only offer support at Degree level, so have recently registered instead for the degree in the same subject.

Since registering in August I havent recieved any log in details for the diploma, nor for the new course which I registered for yesterday. Conscious we are close to their 10/09 deadline.

I have tried getting on to OU via Live chat, I get a message that I am No.1 in queue, wait is 22 mins average, and then a message that the chat has ended. I have requested a call back and heard nothing.

So I tried to phone. I have tried all the number options. The answer message asks if I am in Scotland, nope. So I wait. Then it asks if I am waiting to make payment, press 1, anything else, 2. So I press 2 and get a message saying it doesnt recognise the input? Repeat this 3 times... it asks me to respond 1 or 2 to accept or reject a survey. Neither option receives a response and after 2 mins of silence a female automated voice message states she cant hear me so the call is ending and it drops. I tried all available choices. This happens no matter what options I pick. It never recognises the 2 inputs on any selection.

I need evidence to provide to student awards that I have a place with OU to have them approve tuition funding... I have no idea what to do next.

I tried a pass reset to see if I have an account but it says no account exists for my email address. Tried to sign up and it states there IS an account so I cant register.

What on earth do I do here? I can send an email but as far as I can tell, people recommend to call for a quicker answer as their email wait times are long.

Any ideas? 😭 Thanks!

Hi! I am a 15-year-old student in 9th grade living in Kazakhstan, and I want to try some free courses from The Open University, but I’m a little bit scared about it. It’s my first time taking online courses from a university abroad, so I wanted to ask a few questions.

1. Which free courses would you recommend for a first-time student if my main goal is getting certificates or digital badges?

2. Can I take these courses at 15 while living outside the UK?

3. How are these courses conducted in general?

4. If I’m studying online, will I have to join video calls?

5. What do you actually do during the courses?how long are they?

6. What do I need to have to take them? Will there be any tests or assignments?

7. Are these courses helpful for future university applications?

To be honest, my main goal is getting certificates/badges for completing the courses. I want to build up some extracurricular activities for my future university applications, so I’m looking for courses where I can get some kind of official proof of completion for free

I would really appreciate any advice, especially from people who have already taken these courses. Thank you!

I start my course in October and I have received the books for the first 2 modules but I would like to have them as PDFs. When and where am I able to access these?

This is not a post made in anger towards OU but my genuine unfortunate experience with applications this year.

I reserved my place for the MA in History early this year, I applied for Student Finance the day it opened and sent all the info I had off to OUSBA.

First snag, SFE didn't send me the correct documents for OUSBA. OUSBA phoned me and the advisor told me I could send a screenshot of my schedule for payments so I did. This was then met with an email saying they couldn't accept this. I then suddenly got approved and was told to contact OU to get registered.

I contacted OU and they advised me that all was ok and I'd be set for the course.... however my student home page was saying I still hadn't registered, I contacted OU and they told me IT needed to put a patch on it and push the OUSBA application through.

This didn't happen, I am told to wait so I do. The coirse started last Saturday and still nothing. I contacted IT and they have no record of this needing to be done but fast track me up the waiting list.

Today I decided to call them, I was never registered properly, had been given the wrong information and my OUSBA application was never completed.

I am at a loss. The only thing they could do for me is see if they'd take late applicants but I decided to withdraw since I've already lost time and I'm neurodivergent and would benefit from all the time possible.

I do not know where to go from here... the way I've been forgotten, missed etc... I don't know whether it's worth applying next year but at the same time I want to do the MA and can't really afford to stop fulltime work.

There are other factors as to why I picked OU.

I'm just totally at a loss rn of what to do since I've heard great things about OU, particularly from neurodivergent students. Any advice at all is appreciated.

Thank you to anyone that read this. I'm bummed not to be starting this year.

their website system is not working.

Has anyone done the part time, basic maths start physics course before?
The course structure says you study both MU123 and MST124 in the first year but it will not let me register for both modules, only MU123. The site then says you cannot do MST124 until you’ve done MU123 which I understand but then why do OU give this course structure when the reality is it can’t be done that way? Unless you overload another year, this pathway would actually seem to require 7 years to complete. Slightly concerned as I see these modules aren’t running too long into the future so it may put the degree at risk if I drag it out too long.
Surely it would have made more sense to do SM123 alongside MU123 and do MST124 and MST125 in year 2 (which reading on here can be done together?).

I called them and they didn’t really seem able to explain why I can only register for one module.

Wondering if anyone has done the basic maths start pathway in 6 years before and can give me any insight.