KMi welcomes the visitors from the ZOU today with a short tour hosted by Dr. Peter Scott of the Centre for New Media. The Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) received its Charter from the Zimbabwean Government in March 1999. It took over an existing programme of distance teaching from the Centre for Distance Education (CDE) at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and has since embarked on a programme of expansion. Currently ZOU has approximately 6000 students, registered mainly on undergraduate and professional development courses in education, accountancy and agriculture. It runs a network of study centres covering all regions of the country. Apart from its association with the OU through the MDASA programme (see below), ZOU is involved in international partnerships with the University of South Africa (UNISA), the University of Southern Queensland, and others. Our visitors were with us for the best part of a week reviewing all aspects of the UK Open University.