Facts and figures

The Open University in facts and figures

Since the OU's launch in 1969 more than 1.6 million people worldwide have achieved their learning goals by studying with us.

more than 260,000 students

close to 7,000 tutors

more than 1,200 full-time academic staff 

more than 3,500 support and administrative staff

The UK university that is also European and worldwide

Open University students are not just in the UK. Most courses are available throughout Europe and some are available worldwide directly from the OU. Many more courses are available through our partnerships and accredited institutions. There are currently:

around 3,500 students in the Republic of Ireland

around 9,000 students elsewhere in Europe

around 7,500 outside the European Union

around 46,000 students on OU-validated programmes

OU outside the UK

Who are the OU’s students?

Our students come from the widest possible range of backgrounds

• We have students who are in their teens, including some Year 12 and 13 school students who are studying OU courses alongside A-levels. We have students in their 90s - and all ages in between.
• The average age of new undergraduate OU students is 32.

We are the largest provider of higher education for people with disabilities

• More than 12,000 people with disabilities study with us each year.

We are opening up opportunities for lower-income groups 

• In 2009/10 around 61,000 students received some kind of financial support.

Our open admissions policy helps thousands of people who failed to achieve their potential earlier in life

• Up to 44 per cent of our UK student population starts undergraduate study without the entry qualifications they would need at a conventional university.

Thousands of people, who might not have been able to study because of work or family commitments, are able to study part-time with us

• Around 70 per cent of our students remain in work while studying.

The Open University for employers

Many of our students get help from their employers with their fees. Currently the OU engages with more than 30,000 organisations and their subsidiaries, in the UK and worldwide. These include private sector large and SMEs, public sector such as schools, local authorities and the NHS, and the community and voluntary sector. The Open University for employers

What are our students studying?

In 2009/10 our students included approximately:

• 18,000 studying at access level
• 14,000 studying for taught postgraduate qualifications
• 1,300 research students

Funding facts

Our total income in 2009/10 was £421 million, made up mainly of government grants, student fees and research funding.

Financial highlights from the academic year 2009/10 appear in the annual report.

The OU is a fast-changing organisation and that applies to our statistics too. The facts and figures quoted here are a snapshot taken from our academic year 2009/10. Facts and figures for 2010/2011 are awaiting publication.

Facts & figures 2009/10

Download Facts and figures 2009/10

Download Facts and figures for Scotland 2009/10

Some things you may not know about The Open University

• The Open University took its first 24,000 students in 1971. Since then, more than 1.6 million people have taken an OU course: alumni relations
• 75% of FTSE 100 companies have sponsored their staff to study with the OU: The OU at work
• The OU offers a choice from around 570 courses
• Each year 400,000 packs of academic learning materials are sent out to students from our distribution centre
• The Archers, Brookside, Ever Decreasing Circles, Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart have all had OU students written into their plots
• One of actress Julie Walters' first major film roles was portraying an OU student opposite Michael Caine in Educating Rita
• The OU is the largest provider of law graduates in the UK
• The OU is one of a handful of universities to have won University Challenge twice, in 1985 and 1999
• Among well-known names who have tutored for the OU are former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, actress Glenda Jackson and broadcaster Anna Ford 
• In 2011 the OU held 24 degree ceremonies in 15 different locations including Dublin, Glasgow, London and Versailles. You can view a video from the 2010 Versailles degree ceremony below.