OU pretty things

‘While other utopian visions of the Sixties have faded, The Open University remains and has grown,’ according to Yvonne Cook. Her good thumbnail history of the OU appeared in Wednesday’s Independent, in a special supplement to mark the 40th anniversary of the granting of the Open University’s Royal Charter on 23 April 1969.

Cooper quotes the author Philip Pullman, who describes the OU ‘as one of the last remnants of the impulse towards real social inclusion and betterment that underpinned the welfare state. Nothing like it could ever be created today, and so much the worse for today.’ I tend to agree. Happy birthday.