The OU is the UK’s largest university, with over 200,000 students studying from home or work across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Its headquarters have been in Milton Keynes since it began in 1969. The University’s governing Council has agreed to initiate work on the strategic and financial case for a multi-million-pound relocation of the OU’s existing campus in suburban Milton Keynes to a new site adjacent to the central railway station.

This includes developing a proposal for a new ‘sister university’ serving students who want to study the OU’s famous online courses in person, supported by teaching on site and an exciting range of accommodation, entertainment and sport offers at the heart of the city.

Work on the business case will engage with the ideas of internal and external stakeholders, including the city council and Milton Keynes’ growing businesses and communities, about how the campus could better meet the OU’s future needs and the needs of students for future skills.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim Blackman said:

“While Walton Hall remains an option for the future, we are focusing our planning on what additional benefits a new city centre site could bring.

“A purpose-built campus at the heart of a thriving business community, within half an hour by train from London, Cambridge, Oxford and the midlands, is an opportunity to reshape our facilities and provision for the decades ahead. Students would be able to choose online study with the OU from wherever in the UK or the world they live, or study all or some of the time on campus.”

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