The Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) has published a public consultation document in relation to a proposed change in methodology for the Open University (OU) allocation.
Historically, students studying at the OU have been counted as being at an English institution, as that is where its administrative centre is. However it is now planned to split these students into the country where the national centre is (Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England). As local enrolment and qualification statistics are National Statistics, DEL needs to carry out a full public consultation before it can make a change.
The Department proposes to change the methodology in line with Higher Education Statistics Agency so that students at any of the OU’s national centres will be attributed to the country in which the campus is located.
The consultation will run for eight weeks until 2 November 2015. The consultation document is available to download from: DEL website.
