Fiona Sheriff is the current Vice President of the Geographical Association. She will take over as President in September 2026.Fiona has previously shared her journey through the Open University on a LinkedIn post. This sort of detail will probably end up in her entry on the GA Presidents blog - which is a while off yet.
"When I started studying for my A Levels back in 2004 I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do. Not all of my friends wanted to go to university, and it wasn’t the ‘normal’ thing to do where I lived. A few things happened during my A Levels which meant I missed large chunks of tuition and really struggled catching up. This meant I finished with 2 A Levels and 2 AS levels. My best grade was Geography, and my teacher Anna was so kind and supportive along the way.
Fast forward to mid 2007 and I saw an advert for OU on the TV.
I knew I didn’t have enough UCAS points for a traditional uni route so looked up the OU, as despite my A level results, I loved learning and felt I wanted to do a degree ‘for fun’.
At the time there were no tuition fees, just course fees for each unit. As I came from a low income family I received financial support which included money to buy a laptop. I think I paid around £500 for my whole degree.
I switched and changed units a fair amount and decided that the ‘open’ route was best for me, so that I could study units which interested me - these just happened to be mostly geographically themed. I worked full time throughout the 5 years I studied for and graduated in 2013 at a lovely ceremony at the Barbican in London.
What did my OU degree teach me?
- Resilience - it isn’t easy studying and working full time! Many an essay was written in small chunks over time (sometimes at 3am!)
- To be adaptable - not everything always go to plan
- To be resourceful - looking further afield than the associated materials, which can be hard when you don’t have a tutor to catch up with in-person
- To be grateful for different education opportunities.
- That anyone can get a degree with the right support. Your A levels do not define you.
18 year old me, with her very short list of A levels results never thought she would be a teacher, head of department, a ‘go-to’ person for geography, an author, a leader of CPD, a Fellow, a consultant or the Vice-President of the Geographical Association . Without the OU I wouldn’t have my degree and my path would have looked incredibly different. There are routes to higher education qualifications, and sometimes it might seem like a degree is unobtainable. But do check out the OU. I am very grateful for my time studying with them."
This is a great reminder of the value of lifelong learning.
Many previous GA Presidents were connected with universities for most of their careers.
Current ways of studying are very different to back then.
There are also plenty of links with the Open University and the Geographical Association (and the Royal Geographical Society).
One of my first acts when joining the GA in 2008 was to travel with David Lambert to a meeting with the late Clive Barnett and the late Doreen Massey. The other person in that meeting was Professor Joe Smith - now Director of the Royal Geographical Society!
