The Open University 开放大学

Forty-one years ago, The Open University was formed. And today, it's been voted one of Britain's top universities.

“I think one of the stunning things about the OU is the way in which we use very high quality traditional texts in our teaching, but we guide students through them and our approach is distance learning and multi-media. And I think for those who haven't studied for a long time, who lack those skills, our emphasis has always been on developing those skills and taking people through it.” Professor Kathryn Woodward from the Open University says.

How the OU works is that you sign up for a course but you do the work in your own time. That means unlike other universities you don't go into classes. So it relies on technology. The Open University has an enormous virtual learning network of students, probably one of the largest virtual networks of any university in the world actually, and it's a very lively community of people. They've got support groups, chatrooms, they have seminars, they have clubs and societies, they have peer to peer mentoring. So when you talk about keeping in touch, all these new technologies have given us terrific ways of being in touch with each other and in the process helping each other.

It's definitely an alternative or different way of studying. And also the affordability of the Open University will be a real attraction for young

people in the near future, because conventional university is getting more expensive and comparatively the Open University can be amazingly affordable.

虽然英国开放大学的排名还是比不上牛津和剑桥，但是它能为学生提供费用不

高而且学习方式灵活的独特优势。看来也是值得我们考虑的一个选择。

Glossary

distance learning 远程学习

alternative 非传统的

conventional 传统的

approach 方式，方法

affordable 经济上可承担的

virtual learning network 虚拟学习网络

comparatively 相比之下

seminar 研讨会

peer 同龄人

mentor 辅导

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