The Opening of Higher Education

Overview & Synopsis

In a 1974 report presented to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Martin Trow laid out a framework for understanding large-scale, worldwide changes in higher education. Trow's essay also pointed to the problems that "arise out of the transition from one phase to another in a broad pattern of development of higher education, a transition--underway in every advanced society--from elite to mass higher education and subsequently to universal access" (Trow, 1974). While the shift from elite to mass higher education is well understood, Trow's prediction of the move to universal access is not. As Internet technologies began to have a significant impact on higher education, Trow extended his view of universal access to include a wide range of informal learning. One profound change that the new technologies have enabled is the emergence of the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement. "Open," or free higher education, is both a product and facilitator of universal access to education. Governments have become major supporters of OER; their aim is to increase access and degree completion while reducing costs. While technology has facilitated the growth of open education and hence is an important enabler of universal access, learners' eagerness to make use of these resources has social causes, not to mention a number of consequences.