ABSTRACT
The tasks which the United Kingdom Open University (OU) requires of those engaged in the tuition and counselling of its students are unique in UK higher education. As the OU’s support services to students have evolved, it has had to create and continuously amend a staff development programme which not only defines the necessary competencies but also develops these competencies at a distance. Over the years, this has led to major changes in the roles of approximately 9,000 part-time tutorial and counselling staff, and these role changes have resulted in a body of staff who originally operated on an annual contract basis now being integrated into the institution’s overall human resource strategy.
