Teaching distance learners in Wales

Open University students and staff in Wales often have to cover large distances to achieve face‐to‐face contact. To provide accessible tuition and counselling on an equitable basis is recognised as a difficulty in the differential provision of resources compared with a compact and densely populated region such as London. However, as disparities grow and budgets shrink, historical tolerance cannot be taken for granted. Heddwyn Richards, Senior Counsellor in the Open University in Wales, provides an analysis of the tutorial problems of student distribution and geography in a low population region.