Our students

I was inspired to study with the OU Business School as I had gained a lot of experience from different roles that I have had in my employment, but recognised that my qualifications did not match this experience. In a competitive job market I realised that I needed to gain additional qualifications which is why I decided to study for a leadership and management degree.

The BA (Hons) Business Management degree felt like a natural step for me to take. It is hard work but enjoyable at the same time. The course is made up of numerous modules looking at different business areas and not just reading book after book. I have had to take case studies and apply them to real-life situations.

I decided to undertake the course with The Open University, my first experience of studying with the organisation, due to the outstanding service I had received when commissioning the OU and the excellent relationships I had with people within the organisation.

The Open University has a very good reputation in online methodology; gives you an international perspective; uses modern and recent case studies; and gives you an opportunity to deal with people from different countries and acquire a multi-cultural dimension of businesses.

I chose the OU Business School because of its truly international orientation and I also liked the blended learning approach which enabled me to keep up with my job and study at the same time.

I think the advice I would probably give to someone wanting to study with the OU is really to make sure that the time is there to be organised, to put the effort into studying. It’s a little bit of a struggle to balance it all but again I’d say the real advantage with the OU is the flexibility you have. 

I set up my own company and I’m sure I would have never have done that if I hadn’t done the MBA and had an idea of the challenges in different areas of the business so it gave me the courage and the confidence to go out on my own.

I had a very humble education with a handful of O Levels and A Levels. So I decided, at the age of 45, to embark on an MBA through the OU and try and engage the experience and know-how with the strategic awareness that I thought an MBA would give me.

I nominated myself but when I realised I had won, I was absolutely amazed. I heard about it at work and all of the team were excited about it as well. They said ‘you’ve had a call from The Open University and they've got some good news for you’.

One of the benefits of studying with the OU is that you can take your course books and materials anywhere you want so I was studying some of corporate finance in Lanzarote which is a much better place to study than south west London!