If the dropout rate is 87% with 100,000 enrollees, but if a university is 90% with 5,000 enrollees, the Open University still wins. And then you take into account the number of people who enroll for OU who enrolled because of the lower barrier to entry vs their level of commitment.
As an OU graduate (late 90s), my first thought was that a lot of people just try the OU, others just like to take some classes without sticking to a program and with no intention of getting a degree...
> the cost for an equivalent course for a resident of England is £2,786
The OU used to be about giving a chance to education to everybody. This is sad...
To be fair OU courses are eligible for student loans in the same way going to university is, but the price tag certainly put me off when I was looking into doing some courses recently.
I completed an OU Maths degree three years ago (at 49), I'm not surprised the rate is high, there were a lot of people who started it without any idea of how much or what sort of work was entailed, I remember one student in the first tutorial asked if we would be learning Excel.
It does sadden me to see them struggling with the new fees, I'm not sure I would have done it at the current rates. I certainly wouldn't have taken a loan for it.
If that dropout rate is the fraction of people who take at least one OU course but don't get an OU degree, it seems kinda misleading; some people may take OU courses with no intention of getting a degree.
(I followed the THES link but didn't find anything about the OU dropout rate at the other end of it.)
I can only speak for myself but I would not have been self-disciplined enough to complete the courses that I did during my undergraduate CS degree.
The added bonus was the degree allowed me to emigrate fairly easily.
[1] - https://www.timeshighereducation.com/letters/the-open-univer...