Hi can I have some advice please. I have been offered a place to do my PhD at the Open University, but some of my friends are saying that a traditional university would be better. I understand there is more prestige at a traditional university, what would the impact be for a future career if I stayed with the Open University? Is it worth me continuing to pursue it please at a traditional brick University? Please advise, thank you.

I can only comment from doing my Masters with the OU - I found it to be very good and it certainly opened the door for me to do my PhD.

As far as I know, for PhDs with the OU, you need to be there in person some of the time just as you would with a PhD anywhere else. I would think that the important thing is to get the right supervisor for your project, regardless of whether that is with OU or a traditional university.

Hi thank you, I had an informal meeting today at Bristol and on reflection the meeting at the OU had a team of 5 supervisors with the view of 2 of them being directly supervising me. The only negative is an air of 'us and them' from the traditional places

I know what you mean about the attitude you sometimes get. I think that if your supervisors have a good publication record in your field, this will really help.

I wouldn't discount Open Uni. The key thing is having good (nice), experienced and responsive supervisors. Generally, with OU I have found they are very responsive to email because of the distance working approach. I would go with your gut feeling too.

But 5 supervisors?! Never heard of anyone have that many but it might work in your favour. They certainly won't be slacking at that rate.