Building on our uniqueness as a university for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The Open University is unique in being a trusted partner and leading provider of higher education in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as having many students in the Republic of Ireland. Although we will continue to welcome students studying in countries around the world, our priority over the next five years will be to strengthen our role in the four nations. This is especially necessary to enable us to focus on ensuring that policy changes expected during this period do not undermine the University’s mission but advance it. Longer term, we expect to develop and increase our international role alongside a greater focus on our postgraduate offer.

Scale is one of the University’s major strengths. But while there are many things that are best done in the same way at scale, we must be ‘four nations by design’, testing all we do for how it benefits each nation. We need to be more proactive exchanging lessons and good practice, sharing that learning with governments and other stakeholders such as colleges and employers. While we normally offer a consistent, high-quality curriculum to all students and learners regardless of their location, there are times when we need to tailor our offer to accommodate different student and partner needs. By doing so, we will achieve even greater societal impact and benefits for our students and learners.

In this strategy, we are making a new commitment to use our presence, experience and expertise in the four nations to greater benefit for all nations. This will be done both to improve how the OU itself works - by for example following the most progressive standards or regulations University-wide when this is possible - and secondly to improve tertiary education and other policy-making generally in the four nations, working with governments and other partners.