* The OU offered 235 residential schools for students on undergraduate degree-level courses in 1999
* 22,310 students attended these schools
* About 25,000 students are studying at the OU at any one time; of these, 5,000 are doing an MBA.
* The OU employs 6,917 associate lecturers
* Not every course has a compulsory residential school OU BUSINESS SCHOOL FACTS
n 162 residential schools with 12,000 students a year
* Network of 850 tutors in the UK and Europe
* Central OUBS academic staff and tutors attend
* Tutors selected centrally on a rotational basis
* Amount of tutor contact outside of residentials depends on the course and needs of individual students
* Teaching through regular face-to-face tutorials, plus phone, email and computer conferencing
* There are more than 7,500 holders of OU MBAs
* MBA course completion rate is 95 per cent
* Since 1983, more than 150,000 managers have taken courses at certificate, diploma and MBA level