History of the OU

On 15th July 2010, former Labour councillor and economics lecturer at Glasgow University, Vince Cable MP who was, according to his autobiography (‘Free Radical – A Memoir’)  ‘one of the first generation of Open University tutors” made his ‘first attempt to set out my views on the university, and wider, HE sector and my aspirations for it’ (see here). In regard to The Open University, which he called ‘a world leader in distance learning’, the  Business Secretary in the  Department for Business, Innovation and Skills proposed that more students could be encouraged to save money by staying at home and studying for university degrees externally, along the lines of Open University courses. Read the rest of this entry »

Some quotes from The Open University Vice-Chancellor:

The year has seen continued efforts throughout the University to preserve academic standards and maintain basic services to students, in the face of declining funding levels.

I state simply that the OU is uniquely placed to meet future demand in higher education, and to maintain and develop its position as an outstanding institution of higher education and training – the leading exponent of distance teaching in the UK – well into the 21^st century and beyond.

and

Various national developments were very relevant, including the government’s policy of a switch towards science and technology in higher education, an increasing stress on the role of distance learning…and the introduction of new technologies… [The OU is] well placed  to respond effectively to these major national initiatives. Read the rest of this entry »

Today, 5 June 201o, the NHS is 62 years old and, I trust, not yet ready to be retired. This posting is about how it was an inspiration for the OU. The NHS was a policy which owed much to the 1942 Beveridge Report, a report of such significance that Jennie Lee made it the central plank of her by-election campaign of that year. She didn’t win that seat but she did win another and was returned to the Commons in 1945, along with her spouse, Nye Bevan. He was the Minister who introduced the NHS. In 1964 Jennie Lee, by then widowed, was given the task of ensuring that an idea for a university of the air became reality and she made a connection to her late husband. The PM, Harold Wilson recalled her contribution when the Cabinet and Labour Party National Executive Committee met at Chequers prior to the 1966 General Election:

At the end of the afternoon anybody was free to speak on anything. Jennie got up and made a passionate speech about the University of the Air. She said the greatest creation of the previous Labour government was Nye’s National Health Service but that now we were engaged on an operation which would make just as much difference to the country. We were all impressed. She was a tigress.

During the first few years after the OU campus in Milton Keynes was opened much of the new town was a series of rather desolate muddy building sites. Jennie arranged for the Bevan Fund to pay for a bar to be installed in Walton Hall and she hung Nye’s cap and a photo of him there. The first Vice Chancellor of the OU, Walter Perry, called this new meeting place ‘a godsend’ and said that it was the ‘focal point for much of the early discussion and planning’.

April 4, 2000. Open Eye: Celebrating the hundredth-birthday Party Touring exhibition is based on social scientist’s labour of love, collecting voices of the founding fathers of a people’s party

The work of OU Social Science research fellow Dan Weinbren forms the basis of a major new exhibition which will tour the country to celebrate the Labour Party’s hundredth birthday.

The journal ‘Open Learning’ celebrates 25 years under its current title this year. it can be accessed here. The current editor Anne Gaskell, former editors Graham Gibbs and Greville Rumble and Chair of the Editorial Board David Sewart have recorded podcasts highlighting important articles and issues over the last 25 years.  These can be heard here.

There were echoes of some of the debates about the OU which have occurred over the last half-century in a meeting in Brighton on 29th April 2010.  Debate about where HE is going based on an understanding of where it has been is welcome. To judge from the report it looks as if an understanding of the development of the OU could be of value to those debating the future of HE elsewhere.

  Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday’s degree ceremony at Milton Keynes Theatre marked the end of the summer season of cermonies across Britain and Ireland which saw 6,000 or so graduates celebrating their success. Meanwhile, today marks the anniversary of the very first degree ceremony. Read the rest of this entry »

Iain Stewart MP

Iain Stewart MP for Milton Keynes South since May 6th 2010 gave his first speech in the Commons on 17th June. Read the rest of this entry »

‘How about taking exams in the comfort of your own room?’ Asked BBC reporter Katherine Sellgren before going on to suggest that ‘New technology, boasting anti-cheating software, could soon make this a possibility’. Read the rest of this entry »