The Open University Opens

Still going strong today, The Open University, Britain’s national correspondence – TV – radio University, excited much controversy when it first opened and in 1973 awarded its first degrees. With its adult, part-time students, its freedom from formal entrance qualifications, it deliberately questioned many orthodoxies of higher education at the time. Yet the OU differed so much from other universities that few outsiders grasped quite how complex, quite how revolutionary, quite how downright infuriating the OU was, or could be.Originally published in 1974, this book gives a first-hand account of what the OU was about and what it felt like to be an OU student or lecturer. The articles in the collection – edited by Jeremy Tunstall, himself on the OU staff – include contributions from outside observers, from OU staff, and from OU students. This is an unofficial yet informed and lively account of what it felt like in 1974, and what it felt like in the early days, to be part of a project so controversial and progressive.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Jeremy Tunstall  Part I: Interim History  1. An Interim History of the Open University Brian MacArthur  Part II: Implications  2. The Economic Implications Leslie Wagner  3. The Seeds of Radical Change Willem van der Eyken  4. A View from New England Norman Birnbaum  Part III: The Students and the System  5. Admissions Policy Ray Thomas  6. The OU Student Naomi McIntosh  7. The OU in the South-West Dudley Buckingham  8. Evaluation for the OU David Hawkridge  9. Accounting for Themselves Jennifer Rogers  Part IV: Some Students  10. Welsh Hill Farmer J. Elwyn Hughes  11. Secretary Valerie Saunders  12. My Hobby Michael Gardner  13. Married Couple Stan and Dinah Penman  14. Housewife with Five Children Jill MacKean  15. Local Councillor Elizabeth Murphy  16. Music Teacher Millicent Sherwood  17. Older Student Arthur McTaggart-Short  18. Perpetual Student J. Philpott  19. Factory Worker Tom Wellman  20. Insurance Manager Jack Mainwaring  21. Remote Student Barbara Abraham  Part V: Teachers and Courses  22. Divide and Teach: The New Division of Labour Francis Castles  23. The OU Academic Graeme Salaman and Kenneth Thompson  24. Course Production at the OU: Basic Problems and Activities Brian N. Lewis  25. The Making of D100: A View from the Social Science Faculty Michael Drake  26. A View from the Science Faculty Peter J. Smith  27. A View from the Mathematics Faculty G. A. Read  28. A View from the Technology Faculty G. S. Holister  29. A View from the Educational Studies Faculty Phillip Williams  30. A View from the Arts Faculty Arthur Marwick  Part VI: The Media  31. The OU Publishing Operation Hamish MacGibbon  32. Broadcasting and Multi-Media Teaching Anthony Bates  33. New Media in the OU: An International Perspective Richard Hooper.  A Selected Bibliography.  Index.