These really are unprecedented times and my thoughts are with you, our global OU alumni family, as we all negotiate the challenges ahead.

The welfare and safety of our OU family - staff, students, alumni and partners - is our top priority at this time. I wanted to let you know that whilst most staff have, as advised by the Government, transitioned to remote working, and the University campus and other sites are now closed, The Open University remains open. Our students continue to study and registrations can be completed online for modules and qualifications starting in the 2020/21 academic year (the latest information for students can be found here).

We continue to offer our free education service, OpenLearn, which gives access to over 1,000 free online courses in a range of subjects, which you can access at any time - there really is something on there for everyone, so we hope you find them useful.

OpenLearn is a valuable free resource and we hope it can help people, families and communities in these unprecedented times. With schools and universities closing worldwide due to the coronavirus outbreak, it’s become imperative for them to move their teaching online. OpenLearn has been able to provide a range of content to help facilitate that, from the popular ‘Take your teaching online’course, to explaining open educational resources and an introduction to becoming a distance learner. It’s a great way for the University to share its expertise.

Now that staff are not working in the office it does mean that we will temporarily be unable to process postal correspondence (which is being kept safely for our return). I hope that you will understand that in these unique circumstances we have had to rapidly adapt the way we work. If you have any questions, please contact us at alumni@open.ac.uk and we will get back in touch as soon as possible. 

Remember, you are part of a worldwide community – the OU family – we will continue to update the alumni website with news and ways you can continue to be involved with the community.

In the meantime, my best wishes to you and your families.

Karen Hart
Deputy Director of Development: Alumni Engagement