Arguing that ‘Three decades of Open University TV broadcasts offer a kind of family album, providing fascinating glimpses of the university’s growth and development as it learned the craft of distance teaching in full public view’ Andy Northedge has produced an analysis of a selection of the OU course materials which were broadcast on the BBC. See Three decades of Open University broadcasts: a review.
On 10th October, 2011 Michael Drake, the OU’s first Dean of Social Sciences, gave a talk in the Milton Keynes Village Hall to the Two Villages Archive Trust about on ‘The OU and me’. He employed the metaphor of industrialisation to describe the impact of the OU. This echoed a phrase that he had employed in 1972 when Michael Drake argued that the Open University was ‘the industrial revolution of higher education’ (M Drake, ‘The Open University concept’, Studies. An Irish Quarterly Review, Summer 1972, LXI no 242, p. 158). (more…)
The Society for Research into Higher Education is a UK-based international learned society concerned to advance understanding of higher education, especially through the insights, perspectives and knowledge offered by systematic research and scholarship. The Society aims to be the leading international society in the field, as to both the support and the dissemination of research.
Higher Education Close-Up is a virtual network for in-depth research into higher education. It aims to provide a forum for discussion about, and the enhancement of, this kind of research through a JISCMAIL discussion list. You can find this list at:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/HIGHER-EDUCATION-CLOSE-UP.html
The OU is one of over 800 universities with active iTunes U sites. Go here for beginner’s French for example and here for a podcast about air pollution. This technology was developed by the company that was co-founded by Steve Jobs, Apple. He died on 5th October, aged 56. Many tributes have been paid.
On 29th September in her inaugural lecture as visiting professor at The Open University Law School Cherie Booth QC described how education transformed her own life. A co-founder of her own chambers who sits as a judge she has supported the OU’s Law School since its launch (which she attended in 1997) and she praised the OU’s commitment to extending the gifts and opportunities of learning. Echoing some of the founders of the OU she suggested that ‘What makes the OU particularly special is that it is not just distinctive in this country but it has pioneered new ways of teaching across the world without compromising quality’. In her lecture she argued that law is vital in the providing equality for women throughout the world and building a better society for all. You can watch her lecture here.
Twenty years of teaching foreign languages at the Open University was marked on 29 September by an afternoon of celebrations at Walton Hall.
Following an introduction and video message from the Vice‐Chancellor of the Open University, Martin Bean, there were a few words from Pro‐Vice‐Chancellor Prof Alan Tait about ‘Languages at the Open University’ and a talk ‘ Language skills and the UK’s future growth prospects’ from Dr Adam Marshall of the British Chambers of Commerce.
Prof Marie‐Noëlle Lamy recalled ‘How it all began – the founding of the Centre for Modern Languages’. This was followed by messages from OU and external colleagues and from partners and students. Margaret Nicolson spoke about ‘The nations and regions: then and now’ and Dr Regine Hampel about ‘Research and scholarship in the Department of Languages’.
Staff from the Department of Languages then presented a few learning applications, including interactive learning on the move, technology for sharing, and technology for developing speaking skills at a distance before Dr Uwe Baumann considered ‘The next twenty years’. There followed a reception and opportunity to try out some of the technology.
30 years ago today saw the completion of the lengthy construction and fitting out of the BBC/OU Production Centre and the transfer of BBC operations from Alexandra Palace to the Walton Hall campus.
Full production of radio and television programmes for the University commenced in the Perry building from 28 September 1981. The building was officially opened by Prince Charles the following year.
The OUPC studio operation was closed in 1991 after significant restructuring.
The view that degrees should be seen in individual, economic terms was emphasised today by the production of data about graduates’ salaries six months after graduating. International consultants The Parthenon Group drew on data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency and concluded that some post-1992 institutions do just as well as or better than many Russell Group institutions on employment outcomes. Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said the analysis risked contributing to a “fast food” vision of higher education. She added that
Universities are not just graduate factories turning out a ready supply (of employees) for business – they are there to teach a diversity of academic subjects for a wide range of purposes that serve all our communities
This has echoes of Harold Wilson’s response when asked about housewife students at the OU:
I’m not at all appalled at this. They are having a chance they have never had before. I’ve never thought of the Open University as a technical college for vocational education. It doesn’t matter if their degrees never earn them a penny piece (Education & Training, December 1972)
However, since 1972 the pressures to conceptualise the university in terms of the market have grown.
The OU has a new thematic research network, Educational Futures. The Educational Futures network draws upon the university’s distinctive engagement with understanding new forms of technological engagement, digital literacies, creativity, educational dialogues, professional identity, pedagogy, international teacher education, learning in non-formal spaces and the development of new research methodologies.
An element of this network is the History of the OU Project because to understand where we’d like to go we need to assess where we’ve come from. As Arthur Marwick, 1936-2006, first Professor of History, The Open University noted on 24 November 1994 in the THES
We study history because of the desperate importance of the human past: what happened in the past… governs the world we live in today, and created the many problems which beset us … To change the world, we have first to understand it.
This project can help make connections and ensure that network bids are strengthened by reference to the long-standing traditions, assumptions and values of the OU. Longitudinal studies are possible here as they are not elsewhere because the OU has over 40 years of pedagogy including TV footage and course materials in the archives while other universities don’t even have collections of lecture notes from the past. The status and relevance of the OU has dramatically changed over the last half century but popular images, often reliant on stereotypes about kipper ties, remain. Through an understanding of the past the HOTOUP can take education forwards.
Milton Keynes council has commissioned a new war memorial to commemorate those who died in battle. There has been speculation that the memorial which is to feature pillars and at ground level, an image of a rose, might also commemorate both those killed on the local roads and according to the Milton Keynes Citizen on 22nd September, those who gained degrees at the OU. According to the local council Minutes ‘spend approval for the MK Rose Cenotaph project’ was granted by the Cabinet on 6th September. Former OU employee Councillor Sam Crooks, the Lib Dem leader felt ‘unable to support proposed expenditure’. The Cenotaph Trust is backing the idea of what is being called the MK Rose. The memorial and (if the rose-tinted conjecture is to be believed) tribute to scholars will be in Campbell Park, in Milton Keynes, (pictured) once a site proposed for the OU.
It is as old as the OU (it first took to the air in 1969) has iconic status and like the OU, it found that there was not a universal welcome in the USA. Having received a £840,000 grant in May 2011 Concorde has now been deemed worthy of a museum. Unlike the transport for an elite the OU is still on the air. Perhaps it deserves its own museum as well? There are some items on display near the archives (located in the library on theWalton Hall campus) but further suggestions as to what (or possibly who) should be the star exhibits in such a museum are welcomed.
