The Association Conversation Station Open University Students Association

This episode is a celebratory look-back at our 50th anniversary year of 2022. Andy Evans (from the Association's Digital Communications team) is joined by the Association President, Margaret Greenway; Sue Goodyear, one of our Honorary Life Members; Leanne Goodall, a former volunteer for the Association; and Beth Metcalfe, the Association's Acting Chief Executive. They discuss the last 12 months, as well as some prominent Association achievements and memories, and look at what's in store for the Students Association in the future.

Hope you enjoy it!

This is a special edition of The Association Conversation Station. We're looking at Student Voice Week, and the ways it can help our students to influence decision-making at the Open University. Our host is Lou Robinson (our Vice President Engagement) and she is joined by Liz Marr (Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the OU) and our Deputy President, Gareth Jones.

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As November has marked International Men’s Day, for this latest episode, Emily Cox (from the Association’s Volunteering & Representation team) has been joined by our Deputy President, Gareth Jones, our Chair of Societies, Nigel Patterson, and our former Vice President Education, William Butler. They will tell us about how they are currently involved in the Association, their relationship with the Open University, and their experiences as an OU student.

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For this episode, our host Verity Robinson (Head of Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Student Welfare) talks about the Association's work in this area, and speaks to two members of our wonderfully diverse student community, Laura Cranstoun (Disabled Students Group) and Sristi Sengupta (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Students Group) about their experience as part of the Students Association. Ciaragh Hubert (Director of Accessibility at The OU) also joins us to talk about the University's ongoing work in the accessibility arena, and how students can access support and get involved.

The next few weeks will be big for us here as we welcome a new intake of Open University students, and welcome back our existing ones. 

As a result, we put on Freshers twice a year – a two-week programme of events, activities and chats (both face-to-face and online) to help new and returning OU students to learn more about the OU, to find out more about the Association and, most importantly of all, to connect with each other!

Our forthcoming Freshers Fortnight will take place from 10–23 October 2022.

This podcast will look at Freshers and how important it is to the life of our students. You’ll hear from Nichola Connolly (one of our student leadership team), Pete Turner (our Head of Student Community) and Tracy Thompson (Chair of the Association’s Space Society).

Hope you enjoy it!

As you might imagine, since 1972, we have built up quite a bit of archive material, so this podcast looks at the Association’s archive project. This project has enabled us to catalogue and order our wonderful content to make it a true celebration of our first 50 years!

Our host Georgia Demopoulou chats to Matthew Taylor (Digital Archivist of The Open University), Nicola Powell (the Association’s Senior Volunteering and Representation Officer) and one of our students, Patrick Johnson, who volunteered on the archive project.

Hope you enjoy it!