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Blogs

Blogs

Carrie on Being a Student

From dogsbody to doctorate, self-confessed education addict Carrie Walton knows pretty much everything there is to know about being a student and how to squeeze in a full time job, social life and spot of volunteering too. Here she bares all - the highs and the lows - of life as an OU student and poses the questions you've all been wanting to ask.

Society Matters

Society matters to the OU community, so our Society Matters blog is where you’ll find commentary, opinions, the occasional rant, and some lively illustrations, on the issues, personalities and politics that form the fabric of the world we live in - and that affect us all. The blog's edited by Dick Skellington, previously a programme manager in the social sciences faculty.

The UniCyclist

Steven Primrose-Smith calls himself The UniCyclist as he pedals 31,000 kilometres around 50 European cities while studying for two OU degrees and with little more than a solar-powered laptop and a tent. This blog charts the highs and lows of being a student on the move, the challenge of navigating Europe on a bike, and his meets and greets with fellow OU students along the way.

Carrie on being a student

A letter to my 23-year-old self...

Dear Caz, Hi, how’s it going? So, you’re 23 eh. I remember those days, if only vaguely. In nine years’ time you’ll be me. I haven’t turned out to be quite the person you...

On doing a second degree...

7th February 2004 is when it all began. That was the date my very first module with the OU started. It was DD100 – An Introduction to the Social Sciences which was a 60 point level 1 course...

Running and the OU

So by now you should all have a good idea about how impulsive I can be. I rarely spend time to fully think things over and usually just jump right in at the deep end before figuring out if I can swim...

Society Matters

Europe undermined by Teutonic virtue, not Hellenic vice

Germans digging deep hole and Greeks holding bucket

It’s unfair to blame Europe’s crisis on lazy Greeks, argues Alan Shipman. Industrious Germans are equally to blame. Rightly concerned that a crisis in the Eurozone could stifle any...

The H-word

Meg Barker asks: should we open our minds to all emotional states, not just happiness, in order to have fulfilled lives? On Tuesday (22 May) the magazine DIVA and the mental health...

Gay marriage and what really matters

Cartoon shows Cameron on a wobbly bicycle

Dr Donna Smith is dismayed by the Government’s vacillation over gay marriage in the face of mid-term electoral blues. When the Coalition Government announced it would hold a consultation...

The UniCyclist

Cycling, farming and the laws of pasta

If you go right back to the early days of this blog, you might remember a tale about Ken, a man I met while walking in the mountains of southern Spain who, with a miniscule income - something like...

An evening in Parma

There are times in life when it has its ups and downs. And then there are the times when you get trapped in a lift and you have neither. I was taking my left pannier, and my heavier right pannier,...

Philosophy beach party for one

Last night I hosted an evening beach party. Admittedly not many people came. Actually, it was just me, sat on an Italian beach with a picnic of bread, cheese and salami, and a bottle of red wine but...

Blog of the week!

Old Girl at Uni

A mature OU student in her 40s blogs about feeling “very old in this world, surrounded by people in their 20s, but it really is the best time of my life.”

It’s Psychosomatic

Mental health and performing arts volunteer Ailsa offers an insight into her hopes of one day becoming a clinical psychologist, while having been “diagnosed with OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) when I was six-years-old.”

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