Exhibition: The OU Story

In addition to new courses about computing, the 1980s saw expansion in other areas of the curriculum and in offering new qualifications. In 1983 the OU Business School opened and during the decade the first postgraduate masters degrees were introduced.

The OU Charter had stated that one of the objectives of the University shall be 'to promote the educational well-being of the community generally.' To achieve this, an Associate Student Programme had been created in 1973 offering more general skills-related courses such as PE261 Reading Development. In 1975 the University set up the Committee for Continuing Education which recommended the extension of teaching into a wider field of adult and continuing education. Following this, the Community Education Programme produced course packs, such as P911 The first years of Life and P912 The pre-school child, aimed at parents with young children. In the clip on this page the first Dean of Science, Mike Pentz, describes the importance of the continuing education courses.

In the 1980s the provision of continuing education courses was expanded. National importance was placed on distance education for those in work to update and refresh skills and train in new areas. By the end of the 1980s continuing education was making an annual contribution of over £1m to the University, including 3 long courses, 50 short courses and 137 packs.