Nowadays the open University in Britain plays an important role in British education.
In 1963 the leader of the labor Party made a speech explaining a plan for a "university on the air"---an educational institution which would make use of television,radio and correspondence coures to to give educational opportunity to those people who for one reason or another,did not have a chance to receive further education.But at that time many people laughed at the plan.
By 1969 the plan was well advanced and by August 1970 the Open University, as it is now called,had received forty thousand application . But only twenty-four thousand could be accepted then for the four introductory courses:social sciences,arts,sciences and mathematics.Many clerks,farm workers,housewives,teachers,policemen attended the first class over the radio or on TV in January 1971. Meanwhile study centers were set up all over the country so that students could spend one week a year at one of the university's summer schools.
It is probably the cheapest and most far-reanching method to promote education.