The Open University and Urban History : A review of two new courses

Extract

The Open University has for some years run an Urban Development Course (DT 201), which Anthony Sutcliffe reviewed favourably in the 1974 Yearbook. His only regret, from an urban historian's perspective, was ‘the almost complete absence of a historical approach’ from the course. He found it depressing that ‘the relevance of urban history to contemporary urban studies is not yet apparent to the great mass of social scientists’. It is therefore good news that in 1977 the O.U. initiated Course A 322, ‘English Urban History 1500–1780’, of which most members of the Urban History Group will be aware from the publicity at Group meetings and from Peter Clark's article in the 1976 Year-book. True, it is an arts rather than a social science course, and so may not entirely meet Anthony Sutcliffe's point; but O.U. policy discourages entry requirements for courses, and A 322 is expected to be taken by social scientists as well as by arts students.