In a twist in the tail of the unending student funding debates, Tesco shoppers will soon be able to buy an education with £100,000 worth of groceries.

A new initiative set to commence on 16 February will allow Tesco Clubcard holders to use loyalty points to finance an Open University (OU) degree, exchanging vouchers for four times their face value in OU course fees. Under the Tesco Clubcard points system shoppers can pay for their higher education in part or in full using the Tesco points, making a typical £4,000 OU degree equivalent to 100,000 points.

Tesco Clubcard points can be used alongside any other funding the student may be entitled to, although as with any other Clubcard commodity the OU are keen to remind applicants that the points are non-transferable and will be issued with the name shown on the Clubcard vouchers. Other rewards displayed alongside the educational option include Blockbuster rental tokens, airport parking vouchers, and magazine subscriptions. Tesco Commercial Director Richard Brasher commented that “Clubcard deals already help thousands of people achieve things they might otherwise find hard to afford and now gaining higher education qualifications is added to that list”.

The head of partnerships at Tesco Freetime, Nick McCormack, told press that “We’re delighted to be working with the Open University to offer customers the opportunity to put Tesco vouchers towards higher education.  The programme provides a great opening for customers to achieve some valuable qualifications by studying at home at their own pace without having to give up the day job.”

OU Vice-Chancellor Brenda Gourley highlighted the new scheme as “an exciting and innovative partnership that is true to the University’s founding mission – to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.  The partnership allows the University to extend our reach to new students, who have the opportunity to gain access to our courses without incurring any debt.”

This is the first time a Higher Education Institution has used the loyalty card scheme to attract applicants.  The OU said that they offer several projects intended to help students meet the cost of studying, including student budget accounts to allow for the monthly payment of course fees, and means-tested financial help. Gourley added, “We aim to make access to the University’s programmes as flexible as possible.  This extends to giving our students a number of options to meet course fees – and this new deal is now one of those options”.

Alongside undergraduate degree courses, OU also offers other courses starting from £99.  Topics covered include “life in the oceans”, “writing family history”, and “understanding children”. Over 200,000 people study with the OU each year, accounting for 35 percent of all part-time undergraduate students in the UK.

Nikki Burton