page_title: Open University
section_title: Notable current and former academics
hierarchical_section_title: Open University / Notable current and former academics
caption_attribution_description: Photograph of Walton Hall on the Open University's campus in Milton Keynes, UK
context_page_description: The Open University is a public research university and the largest university in the UK for undergraduate education. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off-campus; many of its courses can also be studied anywhere in the world. There are also a number of full-time postgraduate research students based on the 48-hectare university campus in Milton Keynes, where they use the OU facilities for research, as well as more than 1,000 members of academic and research staff and over 2,500 administrative, operational and support staff.
  The OU was established in 1969 and used the original television studios and editing facilities at Alexandra Palace, in north London, which had been recently vacated by the BBC. The first students enrolled in January 1971. The university administration is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, in Buckinghamshire, but has administration centres in other parts of the United Kingdom. It also has a presence in other European countries. The university awards undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as non-degree qualifications such as diplomas and certificates or continuing education units.
context_section_description: Jocelyn Bell Burnell – astronomer
  Tim Benton – art historian
  Andrew Blowers – geographer
  Neil Chalmers - zoologist
  Catherine Cooke – Russian architecture scholar
  Nigel Cross – design researcher
  Katharine Ellis – music historian
  Dimitra Fimi - Tolkien scholar
  Monica Grady – meteoricist
  Brian Goodwin – biologist
  Norman Gowar - mathematician
  Oswald Hanfling – philosopher
  Stuart Hall – social scientist
  Arthur Marwick – historian
  Doreen Massey – geographer
  Bob Moon - educationist
  John Naughton - technologist
  Oliver Penrose – mathematician
  Mike Pentz – physicist
  Colin Pillinger – planetary scientist
  Steven Rose – biologist
  Russell Stannard – physicist
  Hilary Wainwright – sociologist
  Nigel Warburton – philosopher
  Margaret Wetherell – social psychologist
  Glenn White – astronomer
  Robin Wilson – mathematician
  John Zarnecki – space scientist
caption: Walton Hall manor house, the vice-chancellor's office and the second oldest building on the OU Campus.
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