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Podcast: Today In History with The Retrospectors
Episode: Opening Up University
Description: The Open University began welcoming students on 10th January 1971 - but they did not meet up for Fresher’s Week, due to this innovative institution (brainchild of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson) having been created to offer mature students the opportunity for tertiary education without stepping foot on campus.Instead, students would study for their courses via a radical combination of correspondence materials sent out in the mail (once the postal strike had subsided…), and early-morning lectures on BBC TV and radio (which they had to watch live, because nobody had a VCR).In t...