John Butcher
With: Open University
Role: Associate Director
John rejoined the Open University in 2012 as academic lead on the Access Programme and to head the Access Observatory, a widening participation research centre. Prior to that he held leadership roles in learning & teaching at three traditional universities, beginning his HE career in teacher education at the OU.
Preparing Unconfident Adults to Access STEM Degrees
In the second of our series on widening participation, Dr John Butcher at the Open University reflects on the benefits of the ‘Preparatory Programme', aimed at supporting mature students succeed in STEM courses.
A toolkit to encourage more ambitious access agreements
Universities can do much more to target resources at widening the participation of adult learners, a research report funded and published by the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) suggests. Dr John Butcher of the Open University outlines some ways universities are attracting adult learners and introduces a toolkit developed by OFFA that can encourage more of these initiatives.
