The cornerstone of the OU’s mission is social justice. The University is dedicated to being a world leader in the development of high quality, distance education that can be delivered at scale, providing access to and opportunities for education to all. It is the largest University in Europe and delivers learning to more than 260,000 students each year, with over 50,000 studying worldwide.
For the last two decades the OU has had a special interest in Africa, partnering with governments, international agencies, training and education providers and local people to build capacity for the continent's future. Our international development programmes are based on working in partnership with local experts, creating content which is open access, and working with governments to develop sustainable, scalable solutions in areas such as health education and teacher education. Our programmes reach hundreds of thousands and in some cases millions of professionals, in particular those working in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, and in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
