The official site of the Prime Minister’s Office
E-Petitions
- Petitions home
- View petitions
- Create a petition
- About e-petitions
- Step-by-Step Guide
- FAQs
- Terms and Conditions
- Privacy Policy
This petition is now closed, as its deadline has passed.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to reverse the decision to reduce the Open University's teaching funding budget by £31.6m. More details
Submitted by Ian C Dowson of None – Deadline to sign up by: 22 May 2008 – Signatures: 76
More details from petition creator
The Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, has announced that, from 2008/09, he will phase out funding for the majority of students in England and Northern Ireland who are studying for a qualification that is equivalent to, or lower than, a qualification that they already hold (e.g. graduates studying undergraduate courses; or those taking second masters degrees). HEFCE modelling indicates that over 25% of the Open Universities (OU)’s students in England and NI will become unfunded from 2008/09 and that £31.6m or 19% of teaching funding will be phased out from that year. OU modelling suggests that it could lose another £7m of our student number related widening participation and capital monies. OU Access to Learning Fund may also be threatened. This is the most radical reduction in student numbers and funding suffered by any university since at least the early 1980s. The implementation of the ELQ policy will result in a major increase in bureaucracy in checking prior qualifications, determining their equivalence and interpreting funding rules. Institutions and students in Scotland and Wales are not affected by this decision.
Current signatories
Ian C Dowson, the Petition Creator, joined by:
- Dave Kimber
- Michael Pater
- Sara Tait
- Dick King
- S King
- Philip Glover BA (Honours)
- L MacDonald
- Melvin Wagstaff
- Andrew Constantine, English Democrats
- Ian Reedie
- Vincent Theobald
- Colin G Price
- Gerry Rowley
- Nat Queen
- Colin Price
- Marilyn Francis
- b Tompson
- Valerie A. Norris
- C M DUNNE
- Richard Campbell-Howes
- Andrew Macpherson
- Jim Chrystie
- liz ramsell
- Jackie Leitch
- Margo Milne
- Michael Whitehurst
- Hazel Lavelle
- John Bailey
- Joy West
- Margaret Rees
- chris protheroe
- Roger Brown
- Shaun Ewings
- Diane Middleton
- Jane Emery
- William Hoppitt
- matthew smith
- Melanie J Wright
- Richard Brown
- David Kirkman
- Hilary Jupp
- Harvey Ward
- Jill Jones
- Helen Ashworth
- Jonathan North
- Claire Campbell
- Joy Waugh
- Simon Hodgson
- Tracey Cutler
- Bob Davies
- Alan Gregory
- Jonathan Paul Burke BEng (Hons)
- Jane George BSc (Hons)
- Emily Morwenna Dunford
- Elizabeth Ward
- Anthony Paul Sutcliffe
- catherine
- E Sanders
- Charlotte Bolton
- Jason Horton
- carole billaux
- V Woods
- Anna Maudlin
- Jane Campbell
- Kate Gambrill
- Alexandra Deller
- Brett King
- Alison Jenner
- J RICHARDS
- Tanja Lichtensteiger
- Alison Willard
- Ian Clark
- Richard Boughey
- Sharon Maddison Bsc Hons (From OU. Gvts draconian means tests priced me out of my degree at 21)
- Kate Buss
