ABSTRACT
As an exemplar of widening participation (WP) in Higher Education, the Open University (OU) in the UK could be considered a trailblazer for the Higher Education sector. The grant of a Royal Charter in 1969 brought to reality the then Prime Minister's vision for a ‘University of the Air’ and the OU is now the biggest distance learning Higher Education institution in the UK, with over 2,000,000 people having studied since its inception and over 20,000 students enrolling each year. It is also unique in the UK sector in that it is completely open access – no entry qualifications are required other than for some specialist programmes of study. The basic model of supported open and distance learning has been adopted elsewhere in the world (for example, at Athabasca in Canada, the Open Universities in Denmark and Finland, and the Arab OU) but necessarily shaped by local political, social, cultural and economic exigencies.
