Open University accreditation

It depends on the degree; some are accredited and some are not. Your best bet is to check which degree or degrees you wish to do, check which people you're supposed to be accredited by, and check what they need.

For me, I checked the IoP accreditation pdf for university courses that were accredited.

For example, Natural Sciences BSc can be accredited by a number of organisations, depending on your scheme - even physics.

Ironically, the Mathematics and Physics BSc is NOT accredited by the IoP.

usually with some expectation as to what class of degree (e.g. they might ask for a first or 2:1).

Hi again,

I sent an email to someone at the IoP. I didn't ask for permission to paste the email, so I will just give you a summary here: accreditation doesn't impact graduate study. She said that universities only care that the degree is recognised (which, as far as I can tell, every BSc at the OU is).

Accreditation, I was informed, has greater impact on your chances at a graduate job, such as engineering.

If you type, "open university mathematics and economics bsc accredited" into Google and click on the third link down, it seems your degree is NOT accredited (scroll down the pdf).

But as Persipan (and the lady at the IoP) have pointed out, this does not seem relevant to Masters study


So in summary, the university (OU) is 'accredited' (not the right word - recognised is) when it comes to granting degrees, and it seems that you can do it and use that for a Masters. I sent another email to her, so I might be able to give you some more information when I get the reply.

Oh, and by 2:1 Persipan just meant the grade; for the OU this means 70% or over. Most places either ask for a 2:2, 2:1 or a First. Realistically, you should be looking for a minimum of a 2:1.

So what you mean to say is that accreditation would affect me if I look for a graduate job after doing masters from a university and not when applying for masters, in an internationally recognized university.

Correct me if i've gotten the wrong idea because I was going to start my BSc at Webster (Geneva -Switzerland campus) and the director told me that this private university is not accredited by the Swiss body so that I won't be able to study masters at one of the big universities such as EPFL, ETH Zurich, Geneva University.

This causes more confusion than ever. I am spending more time thinking about accreditation than actually self studying because I start a uni.

EDIT: Also what am I looking for in the PDF? I can't seem to find the accreditation section.

Type ctrl+f and put in "accred" and you'll find that it says "no".

I am in the same boat as you right now. My understanding (which at present is possibly too limited) is that accreditation will not affect you if you are going for a Masters. She also said it would play no part in going for a PhD. Now, I am interested in academia, so if what she says is true, I should not have to worry.

She also said that few jobs ask for an accredited degree. However, she then gave a few examples where they most likely will: engineering and investment banking. Given your degree, I thought the latter might be relevant to you.

An undergraduate degree is not the only way to become a chartered physicist (you can do it if you do an MPhys, for example), so in that case, accreditation wouldn't matter. But I don't know if it would be different for you, as I don't even know to which institution you need chartered status (if it even has that).

In other words, I am interested in academia, so I don't think it matters much to me. But if you are not interested in academia, I have a feeling it might be pretty important to you.

I am afraid I don't have all the answers.