The OU

This earlier post has generated a few comments about the Open University.

Andrew Duffin writes:

It would - in theory - be possible to complete an OU first degree in two years, but it would be a pretty serious undertaking. Those courses are not dumbed down, and the assessment is rigorous.

Disclaimer - I have experience only of hard science OU courses. Possibly (probably) in liberal arts subjects it's quite different.

I did my first (in both senses of the word!) degree with the OU. Three of my four courses were in history and one in economics. All seemed rigorous to me. The economics tutor confessed to being an old-fashioned Keynesian but enjoyed sparring with my free market heresies. I even drew a diagram by Murray Rothbard in my final - God knows what expletives were uttered, but the marks were good. I only had to do four courses (the equivalent of two years at a conventional English university) as I had previously passed professional exams as a Company Secretary.