History of the OU

In August 1976 Michael Drake asked why, in  view of the reluctance of many of the BBC staff to move to Milton Keynes, the OU could not work with ITV instead (Open House, 31 August 1976)? Despite this possibility being raised the BBC continued to be unhappy about moving the OU operations from Alexandra Palace to Milton Keynes. The argument was made that this was because this would adversely affect the relationship between the OU and the BBC. Deputy General Secretary ABS, P Leech, felt that the move

would lead to a dominance of BBC staff  by the OU, would lead to a greater involvement in the control over areas of legitimate BBC interest and that a move of this sort would lead to the BBC staff losing their identity with the Corporation (RGJ/JFW 24 April 1977 notes of a meeting of 24 March 1977)

There had been tensions betwen the BBC and the oU and this discussion occured shortly before a dispute between the BBC and the OU about The Balcony (probably Jean Genet’s play, Le Balcon which was set in a brothel). In 1977 the BBC banned this and was rebuked by the Chancellor at the Alexandra Palace degree ceremony (Open House, 24 May 1977,  OH 5 July 1977).

Should the OU be more centralized? Zvi Friedman, who joined the OU in 1970 and was later the Senior Systems Analyst, thought it should: (more…)

Launched on 8 May 1972 this publication was sent to all students (about 35,000 of them) and staff (about 5,000 people). It was designed to be a news service and the first issue carried a piece by Ray Thomas about who was using the OU and why. It was revealed that there was an interim editorial advisory group chaired by Michael Drake. Professor Drake said: ‘It must be more than a vehicle for student outrage or Walton Hall pap. It has got to be be seen to be independent’. It was predated by Open House ‘a weekly journal of news, views and information for and by the staff of the Open University’ which was launched in March 1970.

Forthcoming History of Education seminars to include contributions by Hilary Perraton and Dan Weinbren in Spring and Summer 2011. Seminars take place on  Thursdays at 5.30pm

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The final edition of the newspaper for all Social Sciences students and staff at The Open University, Society Matters, has been produced. Started in 1998 the end of Society Matters in this format signals a broader move across the OU towards electronic communication. Indeed a Society Matters Extra page of online material has been around for a few years. Assessing the impact of this trend towards greater reliance upon electronic communication and online learning will be part of The History Of The OU Project.

This weekend would have marked the 90^th birthday of Sir Kenneth Berrill, University Pro-Chancellor 1983-96, who died in April last year. Following 20 years as a university economics lecturer, Berrill was appointed chair of the University Grants Committee in 1969 and then Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury. After a brief spell in the City, during which he had taken up the Open University’s Pro-Chancellorship, he became chairman of the Securities and Investment Board, the precursor of the Financial Services Authority. (more…)

In the last week there has been extensive media coverage of the large numbers of potential students who are unable to obtain a university place following the publication of A’ level results. Prominent amongst that coverage has been David Willets statement that school leavers should consider The Open University (alongside FE colleges and apprenticeships) as an alternative. Meanwhile spokespeople for the OU have also been popping up advocating this course of action. This is likely to contribute to the trend towards younger people signing up for the OU. (more…)

The development of the OU needs to be understood within the broader development of the HE sector and that sector changed in July 2010 when the London-based BPP, which has 14 regional branches, was permitted to become a university college. (more…)

Headline spotted in the Times Educational Supplement:

Plan for extension college to become OU’s vocational feeder

This discusses a proposal for the National Extension College to become a ‘vocational partner’ for the Open University. (more…)

In ‘The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains (Norton, 2010) Nicholas Carr suggested that acquiring new tools and skills changes us because using them forms new connections in the brain. This echoes the ideas of Marshall (the media is the message) McLuhan, who once said that ‘the future of the book is the blurb’. Long before him Plato also took the view that our tools affect our thoughts.

There is plenty of evidence that the brain is adaptable. A London cab driver who knows how to get about the capital, that is has ‘the knowledge’, has a hippocampus (the part of the brain where such information is stored and used) larger than most of the rest of us. Brain scans indicate that the web strengthens our “primitive” mental functions (quick decision-making and problem-solving). Many studies (in Nature and elsewhere) have concluded that gaming leads to improvements in performance on various cognitive tasks, from visual perception to sustained attention. Bjarki Valtysson ‘Access culture: Web 2.0 and cultural participation’, International Journal of Cultural Policy, 16, 2, 2010, pp. 200 — 214, demonstrated how digital communication and new media platforms enhance cultural participation.

However, Carr argued that another aspect of this plasticity is that, given the opportunity to dip and sample, we tend to be more easily distracted and interrupted and to use the processes associated with reading less. To employ the analogy of the brain as a computer, our circuits are being reprogrammed by our gadgets. (more…)