Founding the Open Universities:
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Janet Jenkins
VOL. 12, No. 1/2, 295-297
Edited by Ian Mugridge, 1997 Sterling Publishers Private Limited, New Delhi, India Rs.300
Professor G. Ram Reddy was a visionary who took the most radical educational idea of the 20th century, the idea of an open university, and shaped it for India. Later, he came up with the idea of making a record of living history, the first days of some open universities. The founding Vice Chancellors were asked to write brief memoirs reflecting on their experience, and this book of 10 essays is the result. Sadly, Professor Ram Reddy died before completing his two essays, on India’s first Open University, the Andhra Pradesh Open University (APOU), and the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the national institution he founded and headed after success in his home state. The editor, Ian Mugridge, went ahead with completing the volume, Professor Ram Reddy’s daughter Jyothi and his lifelong colleague and friend Professor R. V. R. Chandrasekhara Rao compiled the essay on APOU from a draft found amongst his papers, and Lord Perry of Walton, first Vice Chancellor of the British Open University, contributed a memoir about working with Professor Ram Reddy to shape IGNOU. The result is a fine tribute to a great man.1
The essays are arranged in chronological order of the establishment of each university, spanning 23 years from the Open University (UK) in 1969 to the establishment of the Bangladesh Open University in 1992.2 The start of the UK Open University is well documented elsewhere; Walter Perry himself wrote a full account of its first five years in his 1976 book Open University. But the concise retrospective essay written for the present book is fresh and vibrant. The UK Open University is where it all began, and the account revives the excitement, creativity, and sheer hard work of those early moments.
The influence of the British Open University has been extraordinary. All authors mention that it influenced them in the early days of institution building, and several universities were directly modelled on it. But equally striking is the rapid diversification from the original formula into many different manifestations. Each open university soon developed distinctive characteristics. The book reminds us too that the idea of creating an open university spread fast, with many more than the 10 recorded here established over only a few years.
The vision and commitment of those who were the first leaders was remarkable: the dogged determination of Gottfried Liebbrandt in the Netherlands who, called before parliamentary committee, insisted that quality was non-negotiable; Otto Peters’s willingness to venture across a minefield of risk in order to establish the German Fernuniversität; and the creativity demanded to lead such a venture, described tellingly by Shamser Ali of the Bangladesh Open University. Appointed as Vice Chancellor by letter from the Ministry, he enquired what his duties might be. He was told:
“You have to do all the thinking and even tell us what we have to tell you.” It dawned on me then that I was starting with a completely new slate. (p. 154)
Each Vice Chancellor faced similar problems of planning, but national contexts differed, provoking a stimulating and diverse array of solutions. Planners at the Open Learning Institute in Canada (now Open Learning Agency) analyzed the British Open University and came up with quite a different institutional model, fit for its context. In Israel, Everyman’s University was designed to be small to suit a small population. In Hong Kong, deep-seated traditions of teaching and learning had to be overturned. In India, the challenge was to create an institution that would operate effectively and gain respect across all the states of a vast country.
Everywhere, the new universities succeeded beyond expectations. But with that success came problems. Growth was sometimes more rapid than desirable, without any models to emulate. It was difficult to win over the academic establishment. Finding and training the right staff to shape the new institutions was another challenge, and so was the need for high-level political backing. The open university initiative in India had a narrow escape from oblivion when a vindictive civil servant ordered that APOU be located in a desert. In one of the most delightful passages in the book, Professor Ram Reddy describes how he charmed the Chief Minister of the State, a former film star, into relocating it in the capital:
The mention of technologies, particularly audio and video cassettes, aroused the curiosity of the Chief Minister who, as an actor, knew the potential of such media. . . . He was greatly impressed . . . in fact he went to the extent of saying that all universities should use such technologies. . . . The Chief Minister had become an instant votary of the open university system. (pp. 115-116).
As the book is dedicated to Professor Ram Reddy, I add here a personal note. I returned from my first visit to India and IGNOU in seven years to find this book in my letter box. The contrast between today’s achievement and that tentative beginning was itself a tribute to the founder. In India now, only 15 years after APOU began, distance education has a high profile nationally. The number of students at IGNOU has grown immensely, but the academic staff are still housed in temporary office accommodation and there is no room for expansion at headquarters. Such factors make conditions of work difficult, but commitment to the basic mission of IGNOU is still strong. In a country where only 6% of the relevant age group enter higher education and where over 40% of the adult population is illiterate, distance learning has a major role to play. The University is exploring how to use new technology, for example, using video-conferences for meetings between centre and regions. The co-ordinating function of IGNOU is being strengthened in an attempt to ensure common standards nationally across all higher education at a distance. Some new initiatives, for example, the distance education programme for in-service training of primary teachers, rely on partnership arrangements. Finally, distance education for other purposes and at other levels is coming into its own in India.
This evolving practice is built on foundations laid by Professor Ram Reddy. He would have enjoyed the opportunity offered by this book to review and reflect on achievement-his own and that of others. A fitting epitaph.
Janet Jenkins
Consultancy in Distance Education
Swatchways
The Quay
Wivenhoe
Colchester CO7 9BU
United Kingdom
email: j.jenkins@sailloft.demon.co.uk
1. Sadly, Don Swift also died suddenly after completing his essay. His fascinating account of the start of the Open Learning Institute in Hong Kong provides his own lasting memorial to his contribution to distance education.
2. The 10: UK Open University; Allama Iqbal Open University, Pakistan; Fern-universität, Germany; Everyman's University, Israel; Open Learning Institute of British Columbia, Canada (now Open Learning Agency); Open Universiteit, Netherlands; Andhra Pradesh Open University, India; Indira Gandhi National Open University, India; Open Learning Institute of Hong Kong; Bangladesh