The Open University (OU), an advanced multimedia instructional system, was established by the British government to provide university and professional education to those with the ability to continue their education by study in their own time, and particularly to those who could not otherwise obtain education at a university. This overview describes the purposes and methods of the OU in its introduction, and then concentrates on individual aspects of the university in subsequent sections. The first section describes the responsibilities and philosophy of the vice chancellor of the OU and provides some details about the students and administration. A chapter on television and radio discusses the OU's fairly extensive use of these media for instructional purposes, providing information on expenses, broadcasting schedules, and how students and faculty use these media. The objectives of the OU are defined in the next section, and then a section on course production in conjunction with the specified objectives is presented. The OU's study centers, library facilities, summer sessions, testing procedures, and costs are discussed in the next few sections, and a chapter on OU's students concludes the report. (SH)