The Open University of . . .

I generally agree with Kizmet's definition of the term "Open University". However, there are some open universities with selective admission policies, mainly in Asia. The reason is overwhelming demand in these countries, and the selection process is based on entrance exams.

But heirophant is right, many open universities "seem aimed at working adults and non-traditional age students". The mission of very most open universities includes something like "promoting greater equality of opportunity in the area of higher education". This goal even was one of the most important reasons for the foundation of "The Open University" (UK), the first of its kind.

By the way, I found an old but quite interesting article with the title: "What are open universities for?". It was published in 2008 in "Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning". In case someone is interested, it's here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/02680510802051871

 

I think AIOU is the oldest distance learning universities in Asia. I'm not a direct student, but i know some amazing people who turned their fortunes thru aIOu. What amazed me is the ratio of women and those women who had no option otherwise due to the cultural barriers and if given a chance I would take aiou as one of the top 100 universities that served humanity in terms of impact and influence.