Open Forum 24: OUSA lecture 1977

Description
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS PROGRAMME CONTAINS OUTDATED, RACIALLY OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE Sir Harold Wilson's 1977 OUSA lecture at York University where he talks about the birth of the OU and higher education... in other countries.

Subtitle Number	Time In	Time Out	Subtitle Text
1	00:00:00,000	00:00:01,000	Open Forum 24 1977 JOUZ408R
1	00:00:00,000	00:00:01,000	Open Forum 24 (1977) JOUZ408R
1	00:00:00,000	00:00:01,000	Open Forum 24 (1977) JOUZ408R
2	00:00:01,000	00:00:02,000	(Harold Wilson) There are of course a number of claimants
2	00:00:01,000	00:00:02,000	(Harold Wilson) And the main ideas were beginning to form in my own mind…
2	00:00:01,000	00:00:04,000	(Harold Wilson) I had no support whatsoever from the Ministry of Education...
3	00:00:03,000	00:00:08,000	of those who said they founded The Open University. I can only give you the facts.
3	00:00:03,000	00:00:08,000	..I consulted nobody in Britain at all, though of course it is a fact…
3	00:00:05,000	00:00:10,000	..whether departmentally or ministerially, only opposition and from the Treasury.
4	00:00:09,000	00:00:13,000	(laughter and applause)
4	00:00:09,000	00:00:10,000	..and this is the reason for the many claimants…
5	00:00:11,000	00:00:14,000	..that there were various schemes germinating in various peoples' minds...
4	00:00:11,000	00:00:16,000	And that really remained true until Ted Short, who himself had studied externally…
5	00:00:14,000	00:00:17,000	That wasn’t meant to be funny, I don’t know, (laughter)
6	00:00:15,000	00:00:17,000	..for various forms of non-full time higher education.
5	00:00:17,000	00:00:20,000	..became the Minister in 1968 but by that time we were over the hump...
6	00:00:18,000	00:00:21,000	not how I wrote it anyway.
7	00:00:18,000	00:00:20,000	There were of course already a number of things functioning…
8	00:00:21,000	00:00:25,000	..there were workers’ education movement, some local authorities and…
6	00:00:21,000	00:00:23,000	..and the thing was going ahead except for the efforts...
7	00:00:22,000	00:00:26,000	I was in fact working on the idea before I was elected leader of my party
7	00:00:23,000	00:00:26,000	..of the Chancellor every year to cancel it to save money.
9	00:00:26,000	00:00:29,000	..many other things. I was perhaps as concerned as anything with the visual side…
8	00:00:27,000	00:00:33,000	and Leader of the Opposition in February 1963. It was sparked off strangely
8	00:00:27,000	00:00:32,000	But they set up a departmental working party...
10	00:00:30,000	00:00:35,000	..I was perhaps too concerned with the concept of television and of radio.
9	00:00:33,000	00:00:34,000	..which was just about to produce a report to say that it wasn't feasible…
9	00:00:34,000	00:00:37,000	because I was interested on a number of visits to the Soviet Union,
10	00:00:35,000	00:00:37,000	.. it wouldn't work, it wasn't necessary and why have it anyway…
11	00:00:36,000	00:00:42,000	I felt the correspondence side wouldn't be all that difficult to work out.
10	00:00:38,000	00:00:42,000	after my trade agreement with them of 1947, in some of their own arrangements
11	00:00:38,000	00:00:43,000	..it would cost too much. And so at that point I wound up the working party.
11	00:00:43,000	00:00:46,000	for higher education. But I hasten to add,
12	00:00:43,000	00:00:49,000	And I hadn't got as far as thinking about what would happen…
12	00:00:44,000	00:00:49,000	(Laughter) Seem to remember something about Cromwell you know...
12	00:00:47,000	00:00:51,000	The Open University is not based on what they do.
13	00:00:50,000	00:00:53,000	..for arrangements for examining or awarding degrees.
13	00:00:50,000	00:00:54,000	..(Laughter) "You have been too long for any good you can do…
13	00:00:52,000	00:00:59,000	Indeed on my State Visit there in February 1975 I spent some time
14	00:00:55,000	00:00:56,000	..in the name of God go" - or whatever it was.
14	00:01:00,000	00:01:05,000	with Mr Kosygin telling him about the OU here, how it functioned
15	00:01:06,000	00:00:09,000	its purpose and what I thought they ought to learn from it
16	00:01:10,000	00:01:14,000	before they got left behind in the rush of other countries picking it up.
17	00:01:15,000	00:01:18,000	It was at the Bolshoi Ballet, and they have a custom there
18	00:01:19,000	00:01:23,000	if one of the top Russians is there, that between acts you go behind
19	00:01:24,000	00:01:26,000	and you have a complete meal, I mean divided
20	00:01:27,000	00:01:29,000	depending on how many intervals there are into two or three.
21	00:01:30,000	00:01:32,000	And you tend to get talking, eating and drinking
22	00:01:33,000	00:01:35,000	you go back and you get a very ironic clap
23	00:01:36,000	00:01:38,000	from the audience who've been waiting forty minutes for the next thing (laughter)