Open Eye: Climbing the qualifications ladder

Simon Newton looks at some of this month's highlights

The Three Degrees is not just the girl group who were favourites of Prince Charles a few years ago. The term also describes the ladder of qualifications in higher education - BA, MA, PhD. With 30 per cent of school leavers now studying for a university qualification, a higher degree may provide that critical edge in the market-place.

In The Three Degrees, an OU advice programme at 7.35am on 29 January, the undergraduate degree is projected as one where arguments are presented and the student is invited to agree or disagree and make a case. At Master level, the students have to develop the argument themselves and locate the key sources of information while wrestling with both theory and technique. As a tutor remarks, "Master level study provides intellectual stretching and a sense of exploration."

This programme looks at the different options available such as the `conversion' Master degree taken by a student whose first degree was in sociology but is now studying for an MSc in Information Systems and Technology with a professional interest in how technology is used in organisations. A taught Master's can develop a more intimate knowledge of a subject and introduce the student to research skills.

Piano teacher Sunethra Goonewarden used her first degree from the OU to gain access to a part-time MPhil (a staging post to a PhD) at Brunel University studying Counselling for Visually Impaired People. A PhD is research-based and concerns independent scholarship and an original contribution to knowledge. Sue Coomber, a former fork-lift truck driver and lab technician, is now a full-time PhD student with the OU researching into the bio-physics of muscle. She warns of the need for long-term commitment and enthusiasm for the subject chosen for successful independent study across a number of years.

The students interviewed in The Three Degrees show the huge variety of subject areas students pursue for a PhD. Martin Treacy, an OU graduate, is now attempting to synthesise Eastern and Western approaches to personal growth while Graham Jagger researches the life of Joseph Moxon, a 17th- century globe maker and mathematician.

Financial support is rarely easy. With OU studentships scarce, students look to research councils, educational foundations and their own resources. But the intellectual rewards can be great. Graham Jagger speaks of his PhD as "formalised inquisitiveness" bringing together both life experience and academic qualification - a very OU phenomenon.

Digital Planet is a series of three programmes which looks at how communication technology is changing the world. The series is at 7pm on Mondays on BBC2, rather than in the early hours of the Learning Zone - so you can watch it "live", instead of on tape.

Cyberwar, broadcast earlier this week, looked at the war of the future: the launch pad no longer a runway, but a computer; the attacker no longer a combat pilot, but a hacker. As societies become increasingly reliant on communication and control systems a new threat has emerged - what happens if those systems are attacked electronically? Surprisingly, military leaders and companies are looking towards a 2500-year-old Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, for inspiration.

Next week's programme, Cybertalk, looks at individual communication. For thousands of years we have stopped to talk - on street corners or across garden fences. Where we talk and who we talk to defines our community and who we are within it. From the wired world of an on-line suburban street to the connected classrooms of the Western Isles, the digital age is shifting the boundaries of our communities and changing the people we are (11 January).

In the final programme in the series, Cybersouls, we meet Stelarc, a performance artist who is re-thinking what it is to be human, as he surrenders control of his body to the Internet. When we can talk across continents and live in virtual realities, might we eventually become one with technology - cybersouls emerging from human bodies which are no longer needed? Or could the machines themselves take over? It sounds like the stuff of science fiction but it may be frighteningly close to reality. (18 January).

Further information can be found on Ceefax page 628 or at www.open.ac.uk/digitalplanet.