In the early days, Wolsey Hall Oxford would have been considered as a Correspondence College with all course materials being delivered by post. Nowadays, we like to think of ourselves as an Online College where students can access course materials and submit assignments from any device that connects to the internet.
At the basis of everything we do however, whether that be as a Correspondence College or Online College, Wolsey Hall Oxford has always maintained a fundamental belief in providing quality education to students all over the world since we were founded in 1894.
But one of the biggest changes over our 120-year history has been the way we actually deliver course materials to students. When Joseph William Knipe first established Wolsey Hall, everything was done via “the Penny Post”.
By the 1960s, we were sending and receiving huge volumes of mail, and had dedicated staff to sort through and open letters and prepare lessons for posting. These photographs, from our 1964 prospectus, give some sense of the scale of the operation. It’s amazing to think that these days nearly all of our materials can reach students across the globe instantly via the Internet!
As you can see from the pictures below, a lot has changed since our beginnings as a Correspondence College!
From our 1964 prospectus: “Opening part of the day’s post. Each week over 3,500 letters are received from students in over eighty countries.”From our 1964 prospectus: “A corner of the Lesson room where over 2,500 courses are stored. Here one of the staff is seen collecting a student’s lessons for dispatch.”From our 1964 prospectus: “Preparing Lessons for posting. Between 4,000 and 5,000 letters and packages are posted daily to all corners of the world.”From our 1964 prospectus: “The Post leaves Wolsey Hall. Letters and Lessons leave the College on their journey to all five continents.”
