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Message in a bottle

How do you get your assignments to your tutor when you don’t even have access to a postal service, let alone email?

As Ritchie Wood walks across the stage at the Open University’s graduation ceremony in his hometown of Cardiff, he’ll be enjoying a double celebration of his 68th birthday and a first class honours degree.

Ritchie’s BA is a tribute to his determination to achieve his new qualification against considerable odds.

As he explains: “I’m a qualified engineer and spent the first three years of study living in a remote part of Libya with no mailing facilities.

“I would try to complete my assignment in time for colleagues who were due to be go on leave to post it for me. My assignments were sent from many far-flung places including Russia and Bulgaria.

“Luckily for me, my work colleagues, like the OU, never let me down”.

His first class honours degree is not the end of Ritchie’s academic journey. He says: “I’ve now retired as an engineer and OU course has given me a real lift in life.

“I’ve enjoyed the experience so much that I’m about to start a master’s degree at Birmingham University.”

This article was created: 21 July 2006.
This article was last edited: 13 November 2006.

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