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.

Hope you enjoy it.

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.

Hope you enjoy it!

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!

It’s been 50 years since the coming together of our first Student Leadership Team, known as the Central Executive Committee (or the CEC, for short), so this podcast looks at the work of the CEC, why it’s so important, and the difference it makes to our students.

Our President Sarah Jones chats to Fanni Zombor (current Vice President Engagement on the CEC), Billy Docherty (Honorary Life Member of the Association and former member of the CEC) and our very own Ellie Milnes-Smith (Volunteering and Representation Officer for the Association).

Hope you enjoy it – it's a great listen!

June is Pride Month, so we are celebrating all things Pride with this podcast, and how the Association has developed a wonderful space for the LGBTQIA+ community (particularly with its support group, OU Pride)!

Our President Sarah Jones catches up with Graham Rimmer, co-founder and first Chair of OU Pride (known at the time as PLEXUS), Alex Phennah, who is also a co-founder of OU Pride, and Lyndsay Thomson, current Chair of OU Pride. 

We hope you enjoy it – happy listening!

This is an extra episode to mark our 50th birthday (the big day was on 16 May 2022) Our President Sarah Jones catches up with Chris Roworth (our former President), Sir John Daniel (former Vice-Chancellor of The Open University) and Rob Avann (the Association Chief Executive Officer) to celebrate the achievements of the last half-century, share some funny stories, and look ahead to the future.

It's a great listen, so we hope you'll like this special birthday podcast!

In this first episode, our President Sarah Jones chats to Dan Moloney (Director of Engagement at the Association) and Rachel Garnham from The Open University about the 50-year partnership between the Association and The OU. It's a fascinating look at how we work together well, but still manage to maintain our independence from each other.