ABSTRACT
Since World War II, Britain's higher education landscape had not changed much. Although higher education had expanded, the number and type of colleges and universities had by and large remained the same. Apart from the Colleges of Advanced Technology (CATs), which were established in 1956 but were actually based on existing technical colleges, the only new foundation was Keele. In the 1960s things changed tremendously. Seven new universities were founded, 30 polytechnics were created, and the Open University was given its charter in 1969 and offered degree courses via distance education. The most important novelty of the Open University was without doubt that it opened higher education at degree level to thousands of students who had formerly been denied access to higher education. Although it questioned many established beliefs about university education, the notion of the Open University as a second chance university and its focus on adult students and students without traditional qualifications indirectly supported the traditional university system.
