Science courses may soon disappear at the UK’s highly-respected Open University (OU). The country’s largest institution for distance-learning, which is celebrating its fortieth birthday this year, supports around 150,000 undergraduate and 30,000 postgraduate students.

According to Times Higher Education (THE), a briefing paper from the science department says the OU is considering “scrapping its named science degrees and offering just one undergraduate course, a BSc in ‘Natural Science’.” This degree would also require fewer modules; and residential fieldwork schools might also be scrapped (perhaps to be replaced with IT-based practical work).

The paper says the cuts are needed because the OU is receiving a 10% cut in its teaching funds, following the government’s September 2007 announcement that it would cut funding for students studying for a qualification equivalent to, or lower than, a qualification they had already achieved. It warns of further teaching cuts in 2010, as the government looks to cut public spending.

OU dean of science, Phil Potts, said no decision had been made yet. “There is absolutely no suggestion of dumbing down or losing rigour,” he added.

But angry OU geoscience student Kate Allen tells THE that “prospective students are likely to vote with their feet and deny the OU further income as a result of this, to the point at which science degrees in general could become financially unviable.”