Open Universities

This chapter proposes an overview of the open university model based on more than 50 years of existence and examines its strengths with regard to inclusion of new types of learners at scale in new geographies, and with the introduction of technologies for learning, teaching, and student support. The chapter identifies innovation as the core characteristic of the open university model and suggests that open universities have widely not been able to maintain the first-mover advantage of the 1970s–1990s.