The Open University was established in 1968 to enable people to study for a best degree at home. It started its first course in 1971 with 19,580 students. Now it is Britain’s largest teaching institution, with more than 100,000 men and women taking its various courses at any given time. About 6,000 students of all ages get degrees every year. Its degrees, diplomas and other qualifications are equal to those of any other university.
Apart from the well-known degree courses there are a lot of other courses, some lasting only a few weeks, others ten or twelve months.
Courses cover a wide range of subjects – from every-day topics though traditional university disciplines – history, chemistry, electronics and so on – to the latest manufacturing techniques.
There are nearly 200 courses and in all of them (except for higher degrees) there is only one principle: they are open to everybody. You need no formal academic qualifications to enter them. You must be 18 or over, and resident of the United Kingdom. And of course, you must have the desire to learn.
The OU operates by sending its educational materials to students in their own homes or places of work. It uses not only textbooks which can be bought at bookshop or by post from the OU’s centre at the town of Milton Keynes, but also video, audio cassettes and computer programmes. Students of the OU receive their lessons and lectures in their homes by means of special TV and radio programmes, E-mail. They also work with their tutors all over the country. Students write papers on the courses and discuss them with their tutors at meetings or by correspondance.
The OU’s success os of great interest abroad and a number of countries have bough teaching materials produced at the University.