ABSTRACT
In many countries, two forces are operating to cause the university to seek to open its doors to a new kind of student. The first is demographic. The second force promoting awareness of new clienteles is a growing antipathy to the elitist image of the university, and to the concept that education should be essentially completed by one’s early twenties. An example of an attempt to “open up” the conventional university to new types of students is Vincennes University. If the open university is the innovation that has aroused most interest, surely the response to a growing audience of learners is securely in second place. In the United States, many universities seem to be seeking a broader role primarily in adult education, rather than through adoption of the open university concept. The modern university dates from the Imperial University of Napoleon, and as M. S. Archer points out, Napoleon was explicitly creating an instrument of government.
