On The Development Of The Open University Of The United Kingdom

The Open University (OU), is an institute of carrying out adult higher education anddistance education. In OU, the students learn by themselves at home by listening to andwatching the teaching programs on radio and TV, get face-to-face instruction in study centersand summer schools. Subjectively, to set up OU was the politician' needs to promote theeducational and social equality by political ways. But objectively its establishment was theinevitable requirement in education of British economy and politics. Compared with thetraditional universities, the Open University is a model of making full use of the educationresources. It provides more adults with the chance of sharing the higher education, thus reallyrealizing the independent study individually. It is a great change of the educational ideas andgives the distance education legitimate status, so it is the monument of the distance educationin the world. By studying the history of the establishment and development of OU,this thesiselaborates the great significance and influence of OU,providing some helpful inspiration andreference for the adult higher education and distance education in our country.