I decided to include a post on the Open University because there may be some of you out there that might be interested.

I have never stopped studying since I went to University as a mature-age student in my late twenties, over forty years ago. This includes a Bachelor of Arts that has enough subjects to complete four degrees, A Diploma of Education, a Diploma of Theology, a Graduate Diploma in Social Sciences (Psychology), a Master of Business Administration, a Doctor of Theology ( “Can faith and doubt coexist”), and short courses too numerous to mention. Some were completed when I was young and idealistic and others when I was a skeptical old codger.

I like studying because it helps structure my reading and keeps my mind active. At my age and being near the end of my career I can study what I want and not just things I have to. These have been as esoteric as Dark Age Old English, Reading Hieroglyphics (still not good at it), Nubian Old Kingdom Forts, New Testament and Classical Greek (quite different), the History Behind Children’s Nursery Rhymes, and Early Russian and Byzantine History.

I have always been a person who has strongly believed that up to date knowledge and reading should always form the basis of your business modus operandi. Educationalists will call this “reflective practice”.

This combined with “experiential learning” has helped me through my working life and to deal with the contradictions and paradoxes one often faces in organisations. This has meant that I have always striven to keep up with the modern professional trends, and cutting edge ideas in my sphere of work.

Experiential Learning Cycle

University courses are now extremely expensive in Australia to undertake just because you want to. A couple of years ago I came across the Open University which has a large number (hundreds) of free short courses in all sorts of subjects. Other than being free the advantage is they are professionally designed courses, often run as a free course prior to being included in the normal curriculum, and have excellent notes references and course material. Also there are no time limits for completion, generally no tests or exams, and they are on subjects you want to read about not something you do because your boss or career demands.

I have just completed my second course at the Open University. The first on “Art and Life in Ancient Egypt, took me over twelve months because life just got in the way. I would just pick it up when I had time, and just left it there when I didn’t. The second, on the English Civil War, was a lot shorter and I finished it in just a few months. They are not accredited university courses but you do get a certificate of completion.

I am currently enrolled in two more:

The first is looking at the history of the Mexican Revolution through art and murals, something I know nothing about, and the second is looking at the epistemological argument for the moral equality of combatants and other arguments for and against the idea. Putting this in a modern context if it was argued that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an illegal act and therefore an illegal war are Russian soldiers carrying out an illegal act if they shoot a Ukrainian soldier. Or if both are morally equal, then they must have the same moral rights as each other. In war, this means the right to kill each other.

This may seem semantics but arguments such as these were used in the Nuremberg trials and many other war crimes cases, including a very recent civil case in Australia.

These may not be your “cup of tea”, but to mix metaphors you are likely to find something that “floats your boat”!.

And I don’t intend to start dying just yet!!!