The open university

There has been great progress with adult education in the country. For a long time university extra-mural departments have provided a great range of evening classes, in courses of varying length, often as joint ventures with the Workers’ Educational Association. Some of these classes are led by full-time extra-mural tutors, others by regular lecturers in their spare time. A recent change of policy has enabled some of these courses to end with formal examinations, and diplomas for the successful students.

The Open university developed quickly in the 1970s. It was devised to satisfy the needs of working people of any age who wish to study in their spare time for degrees. It has a centre at the new town of Milton Kenyes, between Oxford and Cambridge. Its full-time staff have produced the whole library of short course-books which anyone can buy by post or from any major bookshop. They devise courses which they present on one of the BBC’s television channels and by radio. Most course work is run by part-time tutors (many of whom are lectures at other universities ); these are scattered around the country, and meet students to discuss their work at regular intervals. There are short residential summer courses. The students are of all ages, some of them retired. They may spread their studies over several years, and choose their courses to suit their individual needs and preferences. Over 100,000 people are enrolled, in all parts of the country.

The Open University has helped greatly towards the idea of education accessible to everyone who aspires to it, at every level. For those retired people who do not want to work for diplomas or degrees there is a University of the Third Age, with about 100 centres. It has almost no formal structure except a system of communication which helps small groups to form themselves spontaneously to study. It gets no government funds, and collects small subscriptions from its participants.

Time and Education

Fashion in education change. The great rise of sociology in the 1960s soon collapsed, to be replaced by an even greater burgeoning of business studies and of training in the skills of management. Modern government policies cannot afford to neglect the role of education in developing the skills needed in the contemporary world – not only in applied sciences, but in the numeracy, at different levels, required in a world where computers have an increasing role, and also, in a quite different direction, in the ability to make effective use of language other than English.

There is no doubt that more Dutch and Scandinavian people can perform better in English than the British can in any other language. The Japanese may be less competent with foreign languages even than the British, but their mathematical skills, as well as others, have been shown to be superior.

It is partly for this reason that Mrs Thatcher’s government was rather more supportive in its attitude to the polytechnics than to the older universities. Most polytechnic students study applied science, management or business studies. Their provision for languages is in general directed to the development of practical competence, including ability to cope with the special forms of language needed for aspects of the contemporary world’s activities. There is, in general, a new emphasis on the role of education in preparing people for their future functions in the economy.

Text E

Look through the text. Speak about higher educational establishments in Great Britain.