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16 February 98
On the eve of the creation of a Scottish Parliament, the University of Dundee and the Open University are to launch a major Distance Learning course in Modern Scottish History which traces history from the Union of 1707 - when Scotland ceased to have its own parliament - to the present day.
The project, to be launched on 17 February, was developed by the department of modern history and the Institute of Education and Lifelong Learning at the University of Dundee together with the Open University in Scotland, and is the first major collaboration between the Open University and another institution.
Funded to the sum of £100k by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council through its Flexibility in Teaching and Learning Initiative, the project brings together five specially-commissioned course books featuring 28 authorities on aspects of Scottish history from universities across the UK as well as Tubingen in Germany and the National Museums of Scotland.
Professor Christopher Whatley, head of the department of modern history, says: ‘It is clear that many thousands of Scots or descendants of Scots are hungry to learn about Scottish history, to get behind the myths and to make up for the inadequacies in their earlier education. This course creates new opportunities for people who are unable, for one reason or another, to attend the variety of courses on offer at Scottish universities.
‘In terms of the production of teaching materials and making accessible the most recent research in Scottish history to a wider public, this is one of the biggest projects of its kind ever undertaken.’
'The course deliberately covers a wide range of topics including Jacobitism and politics, industrialisation, Highland history, religion and environmental history - combining academic rigour with enough subject material to provide students with a solid foundation of knowledge on modern Scotland. Student numbers have already exceeded expectations with 150 students recruited for 1998, and these figures are expected to rise as information about the course is spread more widely and as interest in Scotland’s past grows as a result of Scottish devolution.
Dr Ian Graham-Bryce, Principal of the University of Dundee and Sir John Daniel, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University will be speaking at the official launch on 17 February. It will be attended by many of the contributors, the course directorate, tutorial staff and current students.
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