Exhibition: Milton Keynes and The Open University

Milton Keynes has featured in several Open University programmes and courses (now called modules) dating back to the 1970s.

In 1974 the new city was featured in a video programme for module S26- “Earth’s Physical Resources”. It was titled “Resources for a City” and in it Professor Ian Gass of the OU’s Earth Science Department examines the building materials available to the new city of Milton Keynes. He talks to David Jamieson and Michael Lukey of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation among others. A clip from the programme can be seen on this page.

In 1982 a radio edition of Open Forum featured the passive solar houses experiment in Pennyland, Milton Keynes. In 1980 two hundred homes were built with the aim to achieve high energy efficiency. The project was monitored by the OU in collaboration with Milton Keynes Development Corporation.

In 1983 The Open University returned to investigate the energy efficient houses in Pennyland and the project was featured in several programmes made for the module MDST242 “Statistics in Society”.

As well as several Open Forum programmes other Open University modules and series to feature Milton Keynes have included:

E203 “Curriculum design and development” (1976)

MST204 “Multiple integrals in mechanics” (1982)

T263 “Design processes and products” (1983)

D211 “Social problems and social welfare” (1988)

E208 “Exploring educational issues” (1989)

E326 “Managing schools: challenge and response” (1995)

T205 “Systems thinking: principles and practice” (2001)

The Silverville series – a co-production made with the BBC which aired in 2009

Materials from all of these modules and more are held in The Open University Archive.