Low completion rates put OU on collision course with regulator

The Open University’s low completion rates could put it on a collision course with the English regulator, it is feared.

Figures obtained via a Freedom of Information request show that the specialist adult education provider – the UK’s largest academic institution with about 150,000 registered students – only successfully graduates just over 20 per cent of its overall intake on average.

Of students who began modules in 2013-14, 21 per cent were marked as having completed their course, 7 per cent were still studying, 22 per cent had withdrawn and 51 per cent had “lapsed”, the response showed, with similar numbers in 2012-13 and 2014-15.

It is understood that the completion rate is higher for undergraduate first-time degree students – the university’s largest population – at 33 per cent over the past four years, and 37 per cent in the most recent year.

These figures are still below the Office for Students’ recently introduced threshold that it expects providers to meet for completion of part-time undergraduate degree courses, set at 40 per cent.

The regulator has already lowered this threshold from 55 per cent and has signalled that it will take context into account when assessing whether to investigate providers performing below the benchmark. The part-time threshold for “other undergraduate” courses remains at 55 per cent.

But it raises questions over how the controversial new condition – which could see institutions stripped of their registration or subjected to other sanctions – will apply to non-traditional institutions such as the OU, according to Ormond Simpson, a consultant and former director of the university’s Centre for Educational Guidance and Student Support.

“I was, and still am, entirely committed to the OU and its ethos, and it saddens me that it may be under threat from the OfS,” he said.

Although Mr Simpson agreed that the OU had a responsibility to improve its graduation rate, which he said used to be a lot higher, its open entry policy – which allows those with no prior qualifications to take courses – and the fact that it can take students anywhere from six to 10 years to obtain a degree made the data difficult to interpret.

He also pointed out that new government guidance introduced in July states that all university course adverts should include comparable data on dropout rates, something that could again harm the OU if it appears without context.

Dave Hall, university secretary for the OU, said comparisons between the institution and other universities were “challenging” given the make-up of its student body, half of which comes from the lowest economic groups and 63 per cent of whom are first-generation students.

“Our unique model also allows, in most cases, students to pause and restart their study at any time, and this is not reflected in the student outcomes measurements,” he added.

Mr Hall said the OU “plays a critical role in social mobility in the UK” and would continue to work with the OfS to ensure that this “unique role in higher education continues to be recognised”.

Jean Arnold, director of quality at the Office for Students, said that outcomes measures were “one part of the evidence we use to regulate higher education providers” and that judgements about whether a provider was compliant were made only “after considering the context in which it is operating”.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com