CONTENTS

About us How to get started About us Professional recognition Distance learning, but not as you know it Consider the professional and personal benefits Our MBA Alumni Association - a powerful network A brief guide to our learning portfolio Making a persuasive case for sponsorship Research capability General information about studying with the OU What we can offer you

Professional and Management Development The Professional Certificate in Management Professional Certificate in Management Public and not-for-profit version Certificate in Accounting The Professional Diploma in Management Master degrees MBA - Master of Business Administration

Becoming an OU student When to apply Entry and study requirements How much will it cost? How to pay Studying outside the UK How to apply Application form Other OU prospectuses Data protection

Becoming an OU student
in three easy steps

When to apply

In order to allow the University to allocate you a tutor and post your course materials, your registration must be complete one month before the course starts. Your completed registration agreement and payment (or commitment to pay) must be received by:

We strongly advise you to register well in advance of the closing date so that we have time to allocate you a tutor, make tutorial arrangements (where applicable) and send you course materials, including any preparatory work, in good time. We know from experience that students who register late have less time to prepare adequately and are therefore less likely to succeed.

Preparing to study

Before your course begins, you’ll be sent information about the appropriate regional or national centre and, in some cases, preparatory material. Later, you’ll receive contact details for your tutor and where tutorials will be held (if student numbers allow). You should receive your course material about two weeks before your course starts.

Entry and study requirements

For undergraduate level courses there are no formal academic requirements or selection procedures, but you should make sure that you're prepared for study at the appropriate level. There are entry requirements for other OU Business School courses and qualifications including qualifications, age and experience. See the appropriate course description for details and page 28 for entry qualifications for the Diploma and Master degree programmes. You must be aged 18 or over when your course starts. Some OU Business School courses expect you to be over 25 years old. You may not take courses that amount to more than 120 points at any one time, except for:

• the addition of up to two related stand - alone residential school courses; or
• an overlap of course presentations of no more than one month;

or both.

Examination resits, deferrals and resubmissions are included in the 120-point limit. If you want to go over this limit, please contact our Student Registration and Enquiry Service (see page 58) before the course start date for approval.

If you're studying full time at another institution, you must get written permission to study with us from the principal of that institution.

Language

All the courses in this prospectus are taught in English, and your spoken and written English must be of an adequate standard for study at this level. Our Student Registration and Enquiry Service (or outside the UK, your OU representative), will be able to give you advice if you need it, see pages 56-58.

Help and advice before you register

For information and advice call us on +44 (0)8700 100311. We also have representatives in many countries where we register students, who will help with questions you may have (see pages 56-57). We can offer advice about things such as choosing courses, preparation, study arrangements or difficulties, tutorial support and financial help.

Help and advice once you're a student

Once you're registered, if you have a question about what study support you may need, please speak to a member of staff in the appropriate regional centre (the contact details are on page 58). If you fall behind with your studies, it's very important to get in touch to see what further support might be available. It's always well worth completing your final assignment or assessment (for example, the exam).

For Welsh speakers

If you're a Welsh speaker and you'd prefer to discuss your study needs in Welsh, please contact our Cardiff centre - see page 58 for contact details.

I siaradwyr Cymraeg

Os ydych yn siarad Cymraeg a byddai'n well gennych drafod eich anghenion astudio yn Gymraeg, cysylltwch a'n canolfan yng Nghaerdydd - gweler tudalen 58 am fanylion cysylltu.

The OU Careers Advisory Service

We can help you:

• plan, develop or change your career
• complete application forms or CVs
• prepare for interviews
• look for employment nationally or locally
• consider further study or professional training.

Look at www.open.ac.uk/careers or contact our Student Registration and Enquiry Service (see page 58) for more information.

If you have a disability, medical condition or specific learning difficulty

Our system of learning, which combines expertise in distance-based teaching with a wide range of multimedia learning materials and personal support, is more accessible to many people than traditional forms of study. We make every effort to create conditions in which students are treated just on the basis of their merits, abilities and potential, and we have developed a range of extra support services to help make this possible:

• specialist information and advice to help with choosing a course
• extra study guidance materials and support throughout the course
• electronic versions and audio recordings of printed course material
• printed course materials in comb-bound format, which allows them to lie flat when opened
• transcripts of audio-visual materials
• loan of specialist equipment such as radio aids, talking calculators and adapted computers
• needs assessments and technology support provided by our Access Centre and others
• communication support and extra facilities at tutorials
• extra examination and assessment arrangements
• a wide range of extra support at residential school
• an assisted library information search service.

We provide these free although arrangements will differ for some services if you receive a Disabled Students’ Allowance (see page 54). Not all these facilities are available if you’re studying outside the UK. You can get information about all services for students with disabilities on our website at www.oubs.open.ac.uk disability or in our booklet Open to Your Needs, which you can get in various formats from our Student Registration and Enquiry Service.

If you register for a place on a course, we’ll ask you whether you have a disability, specific learning difficulty or medical condition that might affect your studies or examinations. If you do, we’ll send you the booklet Meeting Your Needs, which provides more detailed information about the services we offer and the nature of OU study. A facility request form is included with each booklet (and is available online). You should fill this in and return it as soon as possible so we have enough time to consider your request and get the services and facilities in place by the time you need them.

How much will it cost?

Fees are listed in the enclosed list of fees. If the list is missing from your copy of the prospectus, please visit our website www.open.ac.uk or phone +44 (0)8700 100311. The course fees vary according to where you live, depending on local tax rules and grants. You’re eligible to pay a UK course fee:

• if you will be living in the UK for the length of your course or will be temporarily or unavoidably outside the UK (for a period of no more than three years) but will still be liable for UK income tax (or a dependant of someone who lives in the UK or is liable for UK income tax)
• you must confirm that you have been living in the European Economic Area (EEA) for at least the three years before the start of the course.

Countries included in the EEA are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Although the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not in the EEA, if you live there we’ll charge you the UK fee. We’re currently reviewing this and it’s likely to change after 2006/2007.

If a course has a compulsory residential school, the full cost of tuition, board and accommodation at the school is normally included in the fee.

If you have any questions on this, please phone+44 (0)8700 100311.

It’s important to check what is and is not included in your course fee. As well as course fees, you’ll have other costs to plan for. These will vary depending on the course you choose and your personal circumstances. They may include one or more of the following.

Travel

You don’t have to go to tutorials but we strongly recommend it, particularly in your first year of study. Level 1 courses usually have tutorials in most large towns in the UK and in some major cities in agreed study areas elsewhere. For other courses, tutorials may be further away from your home. If the courses you choose have compulsory residential schools, you’ll also have to budget for travel to those. We can sometimes offer a choice, but you should be prepared to travel to any of our sites which are in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands or Belgium.

Computers and elearning

We use a lot of computing and elearning — learning activities which use information and communications technology (ICT) — in our teaching. It will certainly add to your experience of studying with us. For almost all OU Business School courses, you’ll need to have sustained access to a computer and the internet. For a few courses, occasional use of public or work-based computing facilities should be enough.

Increasingly, to be awarded a higher-education qualification, you’ll need to develop elearning skills and by 2007 this will be a requirement on most of our degree-level qualifications. By 2007 we’ll expect to communicate online with all our students.

A computer specification will be included in the detailed course description we send you when you register. It’s also available:

• on our website at www.open.ac.uk/personal-computing
• from our hotline on +44 (0)8700 100311
• from our representatives outside the UK.

Please read the detailed specification for your course. It may also be helpful to check the specifications of other courses you’re considering for future study. You’ll be responsible for any phone or other charges from your internet service provider (ISP).

Having access to a computer and the internet also means you’ll be able to take advantage of our online services — an OU email account, computer conferencing, our online library and a wide range of other online resources and support.

Other equipment

You may need a television, a video, a DVD player or an audio-cassette player. For some courses, you’ll need a scientific calculator.

Getting an academic award

Qualification codes

OU qualifications or academic awards are modular. To qualify for any of them you must ensure that the credit you’re awarded is being counted towards the award you want. Your courses won’t automatically be counted towards a qualification. If you want one you must register for it by stating its code on your application form or registration agreement, as follows:

If the qualification you are interested in is not listed here, please look at our website www.oubs.open.ac.uk or contact our Student Registration and Enquiry Service.

Your course will then be linked to your chosen qualification. If you decide not to register for a qualification straight away, you can still do it at any time until it’s awarded. Contact our Student Registration and Enquiry Service, give details of your courses and the qualification you want, and ask for the courses to be linked to the qualification.

Credit Transfer

If you’ve successfully completed some study at a higher education level elsewhere, we may be able to give you credit for it. You may then need fewer OU courses to achieve your chosen qualification. Further information is available on the credit transfer website www.open.ac.uk/credit-transfer

How to pay

Pay when you register

You can pay in full by credit or debit card or by cheque when you register for a course. Further details will be included in your registration pack or are available on our website.

Pay through 0USBA

The OU Student Budget Accounts Limited (0USBA) offers you two ways to pay:

Pay through OUSBA

The OU Student Budget Accounts Limited (OUSBA) offers you two ways to pay:

You can get more information about OUSBA at www.open.ac.uk/ousba or by phoning +44(0)1908 655777.

Note: you can’t use the OU Student Budget Account (OUSBA) to pay for most 10- and 15-point short courses.

Sponsorship

If the course or qualification you’ve chosen is geared towards your job or developing your career, you could ask your employer to sponsor you by paying some or all of the fees.

Refunds

We hope you don’t change your mind about studying with us — but, just in case, we do have a refund scheme. If you’re studying your first course with the OU, you may cancel your course at any point in the first third of the course and pay only half the course fee.

If you’re a continuing student or withdraw after the first third of the course, you may be entitled to a discount on the cost of a future course.

We’ll give you full details of the cancellation options before we ask you to make any commitment.

Note: courses that are 15 points or fewer in value (the value is shown in the course description) will only qualify for a discount if they are cancelled before the course start date.

Help with fees and financial support

If you’re living in the UK but have not been living in the EEA (see page 51) or Switzerland for three years or more, you’ll not be eligible for any help with fees or study costs. Financial help is not available to those living outside the UK.

If you live in England, Wales, or Northern Ireland

There are three types of financial support for students who live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Postgraduate students

There is no financial support available for postgraduate students for course fees or other course expenses.

Undergraduate students

Course fees

You can apply for a grant towards your fees for undergraduate courses (Levels 1 to 3) and, depending on certain eligibility criteria, you could get an award if you are:

• receiving certain benefits
• unemployed
• have a gross household income of below £14,970 for a full award and up to £22,000 for a partial award.

Allowances are given for a partner and dependent children. These are £2000 for a partner, £2000 for your first child and £1000 for each further child.

At current rates (which the Government will review) a full award would give you a grant of £590 towards your course fees, if you are studying 30 to 60 credit points worth of courses, and £885, if you are studying 90 or more credit points worth of courses, with course start dates from September to the following August.

You can request (or download) further details of all financial support and the relevant application forms when you register.

We also add to the funding provided by the Government so that as many students as possible can have financial support. If you would like help with your fees, contact our staff at our Student Registration and Enquiry Service and we’ll send you more information and an application form. We reassess eligibility for an award each year.

Course expenditure grant

This is for books, equipment and so on. The eligibility criteria are the same as for the course fee award and you could get up to £250.

Access to Learning Fund

The Government gives every university an Access to Learning Fund to help part-time students in financial difficulty — anyone who has higher than expected costs or who faces serious financial problems during their studies.

You can use the money for study costs, such as books, equipment, childcare and transport. But payments can be made only after you’ve started studying.

If you live in Scotland

There are three types of financial support available for students who live in Scotland and satisfy the EEA three-year rule.

Postgraduate students

There is no financial support available for postgraduate students for course fees.

Undergraduate students Course fees

You can apply to have your fees paid for undergraduate courses (Levels 1 to 3) and, depending on certain eligibility criteria, you could get an award if you are:

• receiving certain benefits
• unemployed
• have a low household income.

We also add to the money from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) so that as many people as possible can have financial awards. New students will normally receive financial help towards their course fees for up to 60 points of study in their first year of study (plus any associated residential school). Students on high cost courses, such as law, accounting or management courses, may have a financial award for only 60 points per academic year. If you’d like help with your fees, please let us know when you register and we’ll send you more information and an application form.

Student Loans

If you’re studying at undergraduate level and are on benefits or a low income (currently £13,000 for a single person), you can apply for up to six loans — one for each year of study. You’ll get £500 a year to help with study costs such as books, equipment and travel to tutorials or residential schools.

You start repaying the loans once you’re earning £15,000 or more a year and have completed six years of study, or once you have graduated or stopped studying. Student Loans are handled by the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

Hardship funds

These are for students who are in serious financial difficulty during their studies. You can’t use the money for course fees but you can use it to help with other study and living costs, such as books, equipment, childcare and transport. Payments can be made only after you’ve started studying.

Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)

This is available only to UK students and is a grant which is not means tested (that is, does not depend on your income and won’t affect any benefits you’re receiving). It’s designed to assist with the study related costs you may incur as a direct result of your disability or specific learning difficulty. It may help fund specialist equipment (such as an adapted computer), non-medical study support (for example, a sign-language interpreter) or other related expenses.

You should apply if:

• you’re registered to study 60 credit points (and, if studying at undergraduate level, this is linked to an award that needs more than 240 points, except in Scotland)
• you have a disability, medical condition or specific learning difficulty (for example, dyslexia) which affects your ability to study.

The maximum allowances available in 2005 are:

Notes

The maximum amount for each allowance will depend on the number of credit points you’re taking.

The DSA regulations are quite complicated, so to find out if you’re eligible for these allowances (which are different depending on whether you’re studying an undergraduate or postgraduate course) and how to apply for them for study in 2005/2006, please ask staff at our Student Registration and Enquiry Service or phone the DSA Office on 01908 654136 or email DSA-Queries@open.ac.uk. If you live in Scotland, phone The Open University in Scotland on 0131 226 3851 or email Scotland@open.ac.uk

Career Development Loans (UK students only)

Career Development Loans are run by the Department for Education and Skills with four banks, to help people who wouldn’t otherwise be able to pay for vocational education or training. They are unsecured loans of between £300 and £8000 that can be used to pay for up to 80% of the fees for up to two years of study, together with all your related expenses — books, childcare, computer hire, travel expenses and any costs associated with a disability. If you’ve been out of work for three months or more, you may be able to apply for up to 100% of your course fees. You make no repayments during your course and for at least another month after it ends. During that time the Department for Education and Skills pays the interest on your loan.

As an OU student you can apply for a Career Development Loan if:

• your course is related to your job or to a career you intend to develop in the UK or elsewhere in the European Economic Area; and
• your costs aren’t being covered from another source, such as your employer or your local education authority (LEA). You won’t be eligible for a loan towards living expenses, because you’re not spending at least 21 hours a week in supervised study at a training establishment.

You must wait until you’ve applied for a place before you can apply for a Career Development Loan. If you’re studying outside the United Kingdom, you should make sure that you’re eligible for the scheme before you make an application.

To find out more

Phone Freephone 0800 585 505 between 08.00 and 22.00 (UK time), Monday to Sunday, for an information booklet, which includes an application form and details of the banks that take part, or visit the website at www.lifelonglearning.co.uk/cdl/

What else you should know

Equal opportunities

We’re committed to promoting a culture which encourages equality and diversity. We aim to be a truly inclusive organisation where individual differences are respected and valued and where everyone is able to achieve their potential.

Our commitment goes beyond simply following legislation. We expect all our members to support and promote our equal opportunity and diversity policy. We’re proud to be a multicultural community, and are determined to make sure that we continue to:

• treat everyone fairly and with dignity and respect
• provide opportunities that are open to all
• recognise that people with different backgrounds, skills, attitudes and experiences bring fresh ideas, which enrich the experience of all those who take part in the life and work of the University.

Our statements of service

These statements cover careers advice, complaints, queries and appeals against our decisions, support for disabled students, general student support and guidance, and equal opportunities. You can get copies of all of these from our Student Registration and Enquiry Service or your local regional centre.

If you have any problems with any of our services, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can put things right quickly. As a first step, you should get in touch with the area that provides the service. But if you’re not sure who to contact, your local regional centre will help.

Keeping in touch

You can have as much contact with other OU students as you want. You can meet with members of your tutorial group, during and even after your course is finished.

You’ll also automatically become a member of the Open University Students’ Association (OUSA) unless you choose to opt out. OUSA has branches throughout the UK and in some parts of Europe, which run educational and social events where you can meet other students. It’s also represented on all the OU decision-making committees. The OUSA publication OU Student is published in our free student magazine Sesame, which you’ll receive four times a year.

Studying outside the UK

Fees

If you’re not eligible to pay a UK course fee (please see page 50), your fee will be higher than the UK fees. This is because we don’t receive UK government funding for students resident outside the UK. To see how much your course will cost, please use the enclosed list of fees.

We accept payment in the currencies of all European Union countries, in Swiss francs or in US dollars, and by bank transfer. We’ll use the exchange rate which applies on the day we process your registration agreement.

Tuition

If you’re outside the UK, we can offer you tutorial support by post and possibly by phone, fax, computer conferencing or email. Whether your tutor will be able to give tuition in person will depend on the number of students in your area.

You might also be able to contact other students to organise your own informal support group. Your OU representative or regional centre can give you some idea of the tutorial arrangements you can expect, but it isn’t possible to give exact information until after the closing date, when we know how many students are registered.

Using Open Library

You will be able to use our online library service, Open Library, from outside the UK if you have access to the internet, visit www.open.ac.uk/library for further information about online resources.

Course software

Some courses include software that is either a compulsory or an optional part of how the course is taught, see www.open.ac.uk/personal-computing for more details.

This software is intended for use on computers using Microsoft Windows but is tested only on UK English versions. If you use ’localisations’ of Windows (for example, a French version), you may find that the software doesn’t perform as described in the course materials, although this isn’t a common problem. Commercial software provided for educational use may also be designed for specific Windows versions.

If you do have any problems with the software, phone our Student Computing Helpdesk on +44 (0)1908 653972 or email LTS-student-helpdesk@open.ac.uk

Residential schools

For some courses and qualifications, you may need to go to residential schools. These are usually held on the UK mainland and you’re responsible for making sure that you can get to them. Please see this prospectus or ask for further information.

Examinations

Not all of our courses have an exam, but for most of those that do there may be an exam centre in the countries listed on pages 56-57.

If your centre is a long way from you, we may be able to arrange to sit an exam closer to your home but only in exceptional cases. If we do, there’ll be an extra charge — in 2005 this is £163 for each exam, and there’ll be a small increase in this charge in 2006.

If you move to another country after registering for your course, you’ll need to ask to sit an alternative exam and pay the appropriate extra fee as well as your initial fee. If you’ve paid UK fees but want to sit an exam in a centre in an agreed study area, you’ll also be asked to pay an additional fee.

How to apply

using the forms in this prospectus

The quickest way to apply for a course is by using the website or by phone (see page 56).

You'll notice that this prospectus has two forms for you to fill in - an application form and a supplementary information form.

The application form is for anyone who wants to register on a course. (If you're acting on behalf of an organisation and want to apply for places for other people, please phone +44 (0)1908 653449 or email ñîrporate-enquiries@open.ac.uk.) When filling in the application form, you'll notice that it refers to a number of notes which are set out below.

The supplementary information form asks you for information we need to decide whether you meet the entry requirements for our Professional Diploma in Management and Master programmes.

When you have filled in the two forms, please send them both to the address on page 56.

Some of these questions will help us to trace any record we have created for you before. They also make sure that the record we create now will allow us to identify you accurately in the future.

Filling in your application form

Note 1: Your personal identifier

When you get in touch with us, we'll give you a personal identifier (for example, U1223456). If we've sent you a personalised application form, this number will be printed on it. If you've studied with us before, please quote any earlier number we've given you so that we know we have only one record for you.

Note 2: Catchment areas

If you're based outside the UK and Republic of Ireland, please see page 59 for a list of catchment areas. Catchment areas are used to allocate students to tutor groups, which are based on student numbers and can be made up of several catchment areas. It is possible that you could be allocated to a group with tutorials in another catchment area other than your own.

Note 3: Your address

If you live in the UK, please remember to complete your postcode or British Forces Post Office (BFPO) code in the space provided. If you live outside the UK, leave the postcode box empty and include the name of your country and any postcode in the address box.

The address you give us here is the one we'll use for correspondence. When you register, you can give us a second address (if you want to) which we can send bulky course materials to.

Note 4: Your phone number

If you live in the UK, please give us the full code and number of your home or work phone. If you live outside the UK, please include your international dialling code.

Note 5: Courses and start dates

Fill in the details of the course (or courses) you want to register for now, using the code (or codes) from the descriptions in this prospectus. We can't take applications for start dates later than those shown, but once you become one of our students we'll send you an invitation to apply for future courses.

When we offer you a place, we'll send you a registration agreement which you'll need to return with your payment or payment details.

In theory, you're allowed to take courses giving you up to 120 points (see page 49) in any 12-month period. That's equivalent to full-time study and, in practice, it's almost certainly too much to take on unless you're properly prepared. If you do choose courses worth more than 60 points in your first year, our staff may get in touch to make sure you're quite clear about the demands of studying at this level.

Note 6: OU Business School qualifications

OU Business School qualifications or academic awards consist of a collection of courses. In order to qualify for any of them you need to ensure that the credit you're awarded for each course you study is being counted towards the award you want. If you do have a particular qualification in mind, please fill in the relevant code from the list on page 51 or contact our Student Registration and Enquiry Service.

Qualification codes are also on our website at www.oubs.open.ac.uk

Note 7: Credit for study you've already completed

If you do want to work towards an OU qualification and you've already studied at higher-education level, you may be able to transfer some credit points from your previous study to your OU study (page 13 explains how this works). If you want more information about this, please tick the relevant box. This may take some time, so please apply well before your course start date.

Note 8: Financial help from the OU (UK students only)

We can give some UK students financial help. Page 53 explains who's eligible and will help you decide how to answer this question.

Note 9: Disability, medical condition or specific learning difficulty

We welcome all disabled students and will do our best to meet your needs. Your reply to this question won't affect whether or not we offer you a place, but it will tell us if you're likely to need extra support to make the most of your OU studies. If you answer 'Yes', we'll send you a copy of our booklet Meeting Your Needs.

Note 10: Your highest previous level of education

The information you give us here will help us to assess whether you're likely to need extra advice about your choice of course (or courses).

Note 11: Further information

If you're worried about your ability to study, tell us about it and we'll do our best to help. Some of the issues other students have raised over the years include:

• having little or no recent experience of study at higher-education level
• not being familiar with the requirements of study at higher-education level
• work problems, including shift patterns or travel away from home
• language, if English is not your first language; and
• financial or other personal difficulties.

Note 12: Returning your application form

When you've filled in the form, please send it to:

You can also register online at our website at www.oubs.open.ac.uk or by phoning our Information Line.

Your application to study

You can register on the website www.oubs.open.ac.uk, by phone on +44(0)8700 100311 or by using this form.

Please use this form to tell us which course or courses you'd like to study and then return it to The Open University, PO Box 197, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6BJ, UK. Please don't send any payment at this stage. When we receive your form, we'll hold a place for you and send you a registration agreement. To confirm your place, you must return the registration agreement to us with your payment or payment details.

Filling in

your supplementary information form

You should only fill in this form if you want to register for a place on a course or an award for which there are entry requirements (the Professional Diploma in Management and master degrees), see page 51. The form asks you for information we need in order to decide whether you're qualified to enter the programme. We'll use these questions to confirm your qualifications. Please give details of the highest appropriate qualification - which you either hold or are now studying for -that meets the entry requirements for the programme. You must send us photocopied evidence of the qualification (for example, the certificate) with this form. Please read these notes before completing it. They relate to the numbered sections in the form.

Personal details

Boxes 1- 3

We need you to repeat some of the information you have given on the application form so that we can identify the forms if they become separated.

Entry requirements

These questions will be used to confirm your qualifications. Please give details of the highest appropriate qualification - which you either hold or are studying for - that satisfies the entrance requirements for the Professional Diploma in Management or master degree.

Box 4

Qualification codes are shown on page 51.

Boxes 5a, b and ñ

Enter details of one qualification only. Other qualifications may be listed on a separate sheet. If you obtained your qualification outside the United Kingdom please give its full name in the original language, not its equivalent. If your degree is an honours degree, please say so.

On page 28 we list the qualifications recognised for admission to the Diploma and Master programmes. Some of them may also entitle you to transferred credit that will exempt you from Stage 1 of a master degree. The list is not exhaustive and if you have a qualification that does not appear here you're advised to apply with full details. The Programme Board for the OU Business School master degrees is responsible for judging whether applicants' qualifications and experience meet the requirements for admission to the programme.

Boxes 6a and b

Please complete these questions in full, unless your qualification was awarded by the OU or the CNAA. If your qualification was awarded by the CNAA, enter CNAA followed by the name of the institution at which you studied (e.g. CNAA - Bristol Polytechnic) and leave the rest blank. If you have a professional qualification, please give the name and address of the awarding body.

Box 7

Give details of the main subjects studied as part of your entry qualification, including an estimated percentage of study e.g. Business Studies 60%, French 40%.

Boxes 8a and b

You may already have studied master courses without registering for a specific master degree qualification. If so please give the course codes here so we can add them to your award record.

Box 9

If your formal qualifications don't meet the normal entry requirements for the programme, the Programme Board needs more detailed information with which to assess your suitability, so it's important to complete this question as fully as possible.

You must give:

• evidence of your ability to study at postgraduate level. You could mention, for example, any relevant courses you have taken, positions of responsibility or any publications or research work in which you have been engaged. If you don't possess the normal qualifications, you need to persuade the Programme Board that you'll be able to cope with your studies
• details of management posts you have held and relevant experience
• any additional academic or professional qualifications you have not mentioned elsewhere.

Entry requirements

Supplementary Information Form for the Professional Diploma in Management and master degrees

Other OU prospectuses

This prospectus is one of a series describing our programmes of study. If you'd like any of those listed below and you're living in the EU or Switzerland, please:

• phone 01908 653231 (from the UK) or +44 1908 653231 (from outside the UK)
• visit our website at www.open.ac.uk/courses
• email general-enquiries@open.ac.uk
• tick the appropriate box and return this page to:
  The Student Registration and Enquiry Service, The Open University, Freepost, PO Box 625, Milton Keynes, MK7 6YG, United Kingdom.

If you have impaired sight, we can provide the undergraduate catalogue and prospectus on audio cassette. Please ask the Student Registration and Enquiry Service for details.

Data protection

We create a record in your name when you contact us. We then add information to that record as you give it to us, including during registration. The data controller for your personal information is The Open University.

Under the Data Protection Act 1998, you're entitled to see a copy of any personal information we hold about you. If you want this information, please write (saying what information you'd like) to the Data Protection Coordinator, The Open University, PO Box 497, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AT. You'll need to pay a fee.of £8.

We may use the personal information you give us:

• to deal with your enquiry or application and to provide you with appropriate services, including sending you further information
• for research and to help us plan and improve our services. We may contact you ourselves or ask outside research agencies to do it for us.

When you register, we'll send you more details about how we process and use your personal information.

Meanwhile, if you don't want to receive any further information from us, or take part in any research, please let us know by:

Recording phone calls

We may record our phone calls with you to make sure that we've carried out your instructions correctly and to help us improve our services through staff training.

Freedom of information

Our publication scheme gives a general right of public access to many types of information. You can find it at www.open.ac.uk/foi

You have a general right of access to non-personal information we hold that is not in our publication scheme. Please contact the Freedom of Information Office, The Open University, PO Box 497, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AT or email Freedom-of lnformation@open.ac.uk for more details.

You can get information on the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from the Department of Constitutional Affairs, Freedom of Information and Data Protection Division at www.dca.gov.uk/foi and the Information Commissioner at www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk

Open access: other ways to read this publication

The OU is open to everyone. If you have any difficulty reading this, you might find it easier to visit our website at www.open.ac.uk

If you'd like this publication electronically, please phone +44 (0)1908 653231 or email us at general-enquiries@open.ac.uk (quoting 'Alternative format' in the subject box). Other formats may also be available.

If you have any comments or suggestions on how we can improve access, please email communications@open.ac.uk

While we've done everything possible to make sure the information in this publication is accurate, it may change due to regulations or policy or because of financial or other changes.

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Photography on front cover and pages 3, 5,10,11,14, 21, 25, 42, 44, 46, 59 and 63 courtesy of Getty Images.

Photography on pages 8,13, 49, 54 and 60 courtesy of Karen Parker.

Copyright c 2005 The Open University