educational reform: the open university

Question 1

Harold Wilson was later to say he most wanted to be remembered for?

Answer 1

the creation of the open university

Question 2

why did wilson want to be most remembered for open university?

Answer 2

it combined his enthusiasm for:
-equal opportunities in education
-modernisation
-‘white heat of technology’ by attempting to offer high quality degree-level learning in arts + sciences to people = never had the opportunity to attend campus universities

Question 3

in march 1963, a labour party study group proposed experiment on radio + television to be called?

Answer 3

‘university of the air’

Question 4

following his election success in 1964, who did wilson appoint to consider the project?

Answer 4

Jennie Lee= and it was her commitment that saw it through

Question 5

when and where was the open university’s headquarters established?

Answer 5

in september 1969, in Milton keynes

Question 6

By the middle of 1970, what happened?

Answer 6

there had been enough applications for the first students to begin their studies in January 1971
-> it became a rapid success

Question 7

what did the university use?

Answer 7

radio and television in innovative forms of distance learning
-recruited largely part-time students with totally different social profile from traditional students

Question 8

who did it attract?

Answer 8

mature women + the disadvantaged
-helped raise the esteem of those previously regarded themselves as educational failures

Question 9

by 1980, the open university had how many students?

Answer 9

70,000 students + awarding more degrees than oxford and Cambridge combined