The famous Buchanan Galleries steps were already filling up when I arrived at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall earlier today. All around me were smart suits and striking dresses, new haircuts and millimetre-perfect makeup. Even if you had no idea what was going on, you’d know that it was all part of something important.
But if you really didn’t know what had drawn this crowd, the sight of a traditional academic gown would have given it away in the end. Walking up the steps, I quickly got the feeling that this was going to feel different from other graduations I’ve attended, including my own – but then this is a different kind of university: most courses have no entry requirements, and the programmes are completed using a flexible, distance-learning model. It is, of course, the Open University (OU), an institution that, for more than fifty years, has helped to open up access for people who would not otherwise have been able to participate in higher education .
As the director said during her speech, the graduates in the room today had achieved something remarkable, “often against considerable odds.” Pretty much anyone who obtains a degree will have had to overcome challenges to do it, but that experience is absolutely fundamental to the work of the OU. It is, arguably, its whole reason for being.
During the ceremony I sat on my own, all the way up the back, looking down at a room full of people who had been told, explicitly or implicitly, that university is not for the l.