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The history of The OU

What other nation in the world could have given us William Shakespeare, pork pies, Christopher Wren, Windsor Great Park, The Open University, Gardeners’ Question Time and the chocolate digestive biscuit?

Bill Bryson, author and honorary graduate of The OU

In 2019, the OU marks its 50th anniversary.  Planning is well underway and details will feature here in the coming months.

You can read about our most recent projects and future plans in the OU Annual Report, and see how far we’ve come in forty nine years. Moving from the University of the Air to the University of the Cloud, the OU, is as relevant tomorrow as it was almost 50 years ago – however, our founding principles continue to drive everything that we do – to be open to people, places, methods and ideas.

The history of The OU

This is a summary of a longer article on The History of the OU website – a unique project drawing on the collective experience of OU staff and students over 40 years.