Lifelong Learning: “University of the Air” White Paper

Debate between Richard Baker and Robin Swann

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Westminster Hall

[Robin Swann (South Antrim) (UUP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Desmond. I thank and congratulate the hon. Member for Southport (Patrick Hurley) on securing this debate. I should also declare that I am a graduate and alumnus of the Open University, so I recognise many of those of its attributes that he mentioned. Unfortunately, I did not take the same speedy course that he did; in fact, it took me eight years to obtain my Bachelor of Science (Open), doing a 30-point level 1 to a 60-point level 3, with the odd 10-point thrown in in between—former graduates will know exactly what I am talking about.

The hon. Member talked about the changes we have seen in the Open University. I started when everything was tutor-marked assessments, which meant you had to post them to my tutor, and I finished when everything had to be submitted over the internet. There was always that panic when you pushed the send button at five minutes to midnight, hoping that your internet stayed connected until the tutor had received your full assignment. However, I do not go back to the times when members were setting video cassette recorders to record lectures on BBC Two at 2 am, as was necessary then.

The hon. Member talked about the Open University giving students the ability to learn while they were working. It also instilled deep-seated personal management skills, because students had to meet deadlines, while maintaining a work-life balance and family interaction. It is right that we recognise that on this 60th anniversary of the “University of the Air”. But we should also recognise the other things the Open University has done with regard to learning and education, including the “Green Planet” TV series, an environmental series co-produced with the BBC and narrated at that stage by Sir David Attenborough.

In terms of the opportunities offered by the Open University, I think everybody in the Chamber will recognise that there are four Northern Ireland MPs here today—that is four out of 11 or, as one of my maths courses taught me, 0.3636 recurring, as the decimalisation of the representation here from Northern Ireland. The hon. Member for Southport talked about the value of the regions, and the Open University is greatly recognised and valued in Northern Ireland, because of its ability to deliver courses across the regions and across abilities as well.

[Richard Baker (Glenrothes and Mid Fife) (Lab)]

In Scotland, we are very proud that Jennie Lee, the architect of the Open University, came from Lochgelly, which is in my constituency. The hon. Gentleman rightly touched on the importance of the devolved Administrations working with the Open University to create higher education opportunities for people who would not normally have them. In Scotland, 30% of students at the Open University have a disability support need. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that that is just one reason why it is important that the devolved Administrations, like the Westminster Government, work closely with the Open University to ensure that it can play its full role in lifelong learning?

[Robin Swann]

I fully support the Member’s contribution. In fact, one in five Northern Ireland students is registered as having a disability. So the Open University opens up not just geographical and regional abilities but all abilities to lifelong learning.

Other Members have spoken about Jennie Lee, but I would like to diverge at this point and to take the opportunity to pay tribute to another individual, John D’Arcy, who was the director of the Open University in Ireland. John served 16 years in that post and just recently retired. I was working with him and through him, and his promotion of the Open University was testament to how we were able to produce it and forward it in Northern Ireland. It was very much his skill, his interaction and his time there that shaped the Open University as a public service. He did that with ambition and innovation and, above all, by always keeping people at the centre of it. We were grateful to John for all he brought to the university and that role.

One of John’s phrases was that the Open University in Northern Ireland was one of its best kept secrets, because the Open University was in fact the third university in Northern Ireland. It was during that time—I suppose from being a graduate of it—that I recognised that ability, and we were able, when I was Health Minister, to bring the Open University together with career progression and skill shortages and to marry the two up. At that point, we had 65 Open University undergraduate nursing places; currently, more than one third of Open University students in Northern Ireland are studying science, technology, engineering and maths subjects, and nearly 600 are training as nurses. One thing that was done was to allow people working as carers, but who did not have the opportunity to go to university to become nurses, to train in their workplace. What that did was bring a loyalty to many of the hospitals and wards, because people were being built up in the place they worked in and with the people they worked with. That was then able to be expanded into social work. The Open University was working with trusts and with our Department as well.

It is right and timely that we contribute to this debate, because now is the time to invest in high-quality, flexible higher education. I also see a call there for the Northern Ireland Executive to introduce more flexible financial support for part-time students and to progress a higher education funding review to reform the higher education funding model. In that way, they can properly support lifelong learning at a time when Northern Ireland needs to grow skills, improve productivity and widen opportunity, and we can realise the full potential of the Open University and those who have not had the opportunity, as the hon. Member for Southport indicated, to access third-level education, which many employers are now looking for. It is with great pleasure that I support this motion.