The Open University

PhD Pioneers

This exhibition features the stories and experiences of twelve of the OU’s first PhD graduates from 1973-79. It focusses on their video interviews which took place between April and June 2021 during the world-wide Covid pandemic.

Thumbnail	Lecturer(s)	Title	Date
		"the other amazing thing was the group of people I found myself in amongst"
		PhD Pioneers
		The Ballad Of Walton Hall
		Don Aldiss & Microscope
		Open University Andean Volcanoes Project
		Bill Morris & Globe
		Elizabeth Currie and Bill Morris Video Interview
		Professor Stephen Peake
		"we had this new world, and then we also had the old world of Oxford"
		"I think the OU is so part of my life, it's not just about my PhD"
		"you've got to become very self-reliant, or the ship will sink"
		"amazingly, I've actually still got a copy of the graduation programme"
		"all cooking had to be done on a pressure cooker which we had in the back of the Land Rover"
		"once the first graduates came out at the end of '72, the whole situation changed"
		"I… never stopped being drawn back into the fray of academic work"
		"that lonely feeling of heavy burden of responsibility"
		"he… basically told me to buy myself a plane ticket and head off to California"
		"so I was kicked out of school at 15 and went to work in a factory"
		"one thing that doing the PhD had taught me was the value of scholarship"
		"the first ten years worth of history was played out on stage"
		"the atmosphere was hurried and near-chaotic - I fitted in perfectly!"
		"there was even a Dutch/Belgian TV crew who came along at one point"
		"my interest in being an educator increased"
		"whatever it took to make the OU a success, it was all hands on deck"
		"it was a school with a mission"
		"it's become increasingly recognised, and I made a small contribution to that I think"
		"there was no sense of Higher Education at all in my family, none"
		"well, at this point I'm thinking this is Game Over"
		"in fact I was the first postgraduate student, I think, in the Faculty of Arts altogether"
		"it felt like a kind of pioneering setting… it was a Wild West"
		Jennie Lee at the first OU graduation ceremony
		First OU Graduation Ceremony
		Jeff Haywood demonstrates paper chromatography and high voltage electrophoresis
		"it was extremely odd… to find a university in the middle of the Buckinghamshire countryside"
		OU Oman Project
		Doreen Massey
		The Brain Research Group
		OU students
		The Open Forum 02 (1971) Introduction
		Introduction to PhD Pioneers exhibition
		Neil Wynn's graduation
		A Brief History of Postgraduate Research Study

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PhD Pioneers

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