Open university generally refers to adult institutions of higher learning.
Open universities can be divided into six types: public and government-funded open universities; Public, self-financing and non-profit open universities; Private, for-profit open universities; Private, non-profit open university; General University Alliance Private Open University; There are transnational non-profit open universities.
Since the 1960s, public open universities have developed rapidly all over the world. In the next 30 years, the open education system with the public open university as the core provided high-quality open and distance education for people who could not enter the campus for various reasons, and played an important role in establishing a fair and inclusive lifelong learning society in all countries.
With the rapid development of information and communication technology and its wide application in education, distance education has entered the third generation of network education from the first generation of correspondence education and the second generation of multimedia education, which is called "modern distance education" in China.
With the development of online education, distance open education is no longer the patent of public open universities. Ordinary universities and private enterprises have also joined the ranks of distance education. Different types of open universities began to appear and develop rapidly, and the distance education market was readjusted.
Founded in 1938, ICODE is the largest and most influential international open and distance education council in the world. According to ICDE data, the Open University has long been a core member.