Posts by Richard Spencer

No military mobile bill-waiver from O2 and Virgin

Who posts the soldier to Afghanistan, then?

It is very nice of the telephone companies to freeze soldiers' bills when they (sometimes very abruptly) dissapear to distant lands, but surely the one who should pay is the Ministry of Defence?

Either a sufficient "Active Service Allowance" to cover cellphone, TV licence, speed camera tickets etc which come due, or a tedious system of claiming all nugatory expenditure in detail, but why should, for example T-Mobile pay for Britain's wars?

I can't say that during my 30 years in uniform MoD ever played fair, but that's the name of the beast!

Richard

Verity's further education

OPEN and not-OPEN!

Sadly I have found over the last few years that the OU is not OPEN to criticism of course material or assignment questions. Equally it has become clear that tutors (Associate Lecturers now) are not encourged to pass student concerns up, nor their own. If they depart from the marking scheme they appear to fear that they will probably not have their contracts renewed.

Stob latest: It was a cunning trick, says Open University

OU arrogance

Over the last four years of an OU Law Degree I met several assignment questions that contained serious faults. My experience is that the OU does NOT admit to error, but I also learned that these questions are set by committees which, being truly ultra democratic do not have a chair, so no one can rule anything in or out!