The Open University was founded in 1969 with the aim of providing educational opportunities for adults who wish to study at home or work in their own time. Like all universities in the United Kingdom it is funded mainly from central government finance supplemented by student fees. It has the right to grant degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level. In common with all other UK universities it employs external assessors and examiners from other higher learning institutions in order to maintian standards and to ensure equivalence of qualification throughout the country. In addition, the university offers a wide range of other educational material such as single courses at degree level, specialist short courses on scientific/technological updating, general community education etc. About 120,000 people are registered (1985) as students of which approximately two thirds are engaged in obtaining an undergraduate degree. The university is ‘Open’ in that it does not insist on any formal entry qualifications and accepts students on the basis of a ‘first come first served’ principle. Approximately 50,000 applications are received each year and the number finally accepted is about 18,000. This number is determined by the grant in aid from central government. Although the nature of the student body changes with time, there tends to be a 55:45 ratio of male to females.