FROM A DOMESTIC TO AN INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION: THE OPEN UNIVERSITY,THE UNITED KINGDOM,AND EUROPE

This article describes the change of the Open University of the United Kingdom during the 1990‐1993 period from being a domestic to an international organization, with the expansion of its provision throughout the whole of the European Union and a range of other European countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland. As a case study, it raises issues about the development of universities from the unique organizations which they have been in European society to international organizations which understand their roles in business terms, and suggests that distance teaching universities, because of their industrialized nature and volume of activity, may become leading examples of this trend.