The Open University and Jennie Lee: A Miner's Daughter's University of the Air

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The Open University's own history pages and archive document its founding and Lee's role. Credit for the idea is shared: Michael Young proposed an "Open University" in 1962, Wilson championed a "University of the Air" from 1963, and Lee, Perry and others turned it into a working institution. The Open University in Scotland gives Lee's age at election as 23; other accounts give 24.

Jennie Lee

established Jennie Lee was born in Fife in 1904; her father and grandfather were miners. She trained as a teacher and was elected for the Independent Labour Party as MP for North Lanark in 1929, the youngest member of the House of Commons at the time. In 1934 she married Aneurin Bevan, later the minister who founded the National Health Service. During the Second World War she worked at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and from 1945 she was MP for Cannock.

The University of the Air

established In 1962 the educationist Michael Young argued for an "Open University" to prepare adults for degrees. On 8 September 1963, in a pre-election speech in Glasgow, Harold Wilson proposed a "University of the Air", using television to bring higher education to people who had missed the chance. When Labour won the 1964 election, Wilson appointed Lee as the first Minister for the Arts and gave her the project. In June 1965 The Times called her "the driving force" behind it.

Making it real

established Lee chaired an advisory committee, insisted on reporting only to the prime minister, and negotiated funding directly with the Treasury. Her white paper of 1966 promised that "There can be no question of offering to students a makeshift project, inferior in quality to other universities." Walter Perry, born in Dundee, who had been Vice-Principal of Edinburgh University, was appointed founding Vice-Chancellor in 1968.

Open to all

established The Open University received its Royal Charter on 23 April 1969. Registration opened in 1970, and the first students, about 25,000, began in 1971. It required no formal qualifications for entry and taught through printed course materials, television and radio programmes broadcast by the BBC, local tutorials and residential summer schools.

Legacy

established Lee was Minister for the Arts until 1970, was made Baroness Lee of Asheridge, and died in 1988. At the first degree ceremony in 1973 she received an honorary degree and laid the foundation stone of the Jennie Lee Library at the university's headquarters in Milton Keynes. The Open University in Scotland, based in Edinburgh, serves students across Scotland.

established Within Scotland the Open University counts as a Scottish institution. Walter Humes, in his chapter of Scottish Education (5th edn, 2018), lists the Open University in Scotland among the nineteen higher education institutions represented by Universities Scotland, alongside the fifteen universities, Glasgow School of Art, the Royal Conservatoire and Scotland's Rural College. Ian Smith, in the same volume, records 14,665 Open University students in Scotland in 2015–16, part of a total of 285,450 higher education students.

established Its intake is broader than that of most universities, though not the broadest. Smith gives the share of Scottish-domiciled entrants from the 20 per cent most deprived areas in 2015–16 as 13.8 per cent for the Open University in Scotland, against 8 per cent for the ancient universities and 12.1 per cent for the universities founded in the 1960s, but below the post-1992 universities (15.3 per cent) and colleges (22.9 per cent). These are single-year figures and do not capture the older and part-time students who make up much of the Open University's intake.

• Jennie Lee's father and grandfather were both miners.
• She was the youngest member of the Commons when first elected.
• Harold Wilson first proposed the "University of the Air" in a speech in Glasgow.
• The Times called Lee "the driving force" behind the project.
• She insisted on reporting only to the prime minister.
• About 25,000 students enrolled in the first year.
• The first Vice-Chancellor, Walter Perry, was born in Dundee.
• The university's library is named after Lee.
• In 2015–16 the Open University taught 14,665 students in Scotland.

• Do not credit Lee alone with founding the Open University.
• Do not say Wilson invented the idea; Michael Young had proposed an "Open University" in 1962.
• Do not give Lee's age at election as settled; sources give 23 or 24.