The OU at 50, the UK’s largest academic institution

The Open University received its Royal Charter 50 years ago offering people from all walks of life the chance to study for a degree through distant learning empowered over 2 million people including 7,000 overseas students who have taken up courses in the hope of changing their lives.

The Open University came about under Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who said he had been working on the idea before becoming leader of the Labour Party in 1963, was set up to bring degree-level learning to people who had not had the chance to go to a traditional campus and pioneered long-distance study. The first degree ceremony was held at Alexandra Palace in London 10 years later, on 23^rd June 1973.