Peter Horrocks, the outgoing BBC executive in charge of its global news operations, including the World Service, is to run the Open University.
Horrocks, director of the BBC’s World Service, is to take up his new job as Open University (OU) vice-chancellor from May.
The BBC announced in September that the former head of TV news programmes, who joined the corporation in 1981 after graduating with a double first in history from Cambridge, was leaving in the new year. He missed out on the BBC director of news and current affairs job to former Times editor James Harding last year.
During his tenure as head of global news operations, Horrocks oversaw swingeing cuts to the World Service after the unit’s budget was slashed by the government. The BBC took on responsibility for funding the global broadcaster this year as a result of the 2010 licence fee settlement.
A BBC lifer, Horrocks set up the BBC News multimedia operation and was made director of the World Service in 2009. He became director of BBC global news, since renamed the World Service Group, in 2010.
He also oversaw moves to make the World Service the BBC’s first licence fee-funded operation to take advertising and sponsorship, a change that proved contentious and prompted accusations of a “facile” rush to commercialism.
The OU said Horrocks led negotiations with government over future funding for the World Service, drove a 50% increase in revenues of BBC World News and BBC.com and successfully implemented a change programme to deliver content on all platforms, including TV and online.
Horrocks said the OU had been making “a life-changing difference to hundreds of thousands of people by providing them, through distance learning, with an education that may otherwise have been unattainable,” calling it an honour to join the organisation.
BBC director general Tony Hall wished Horrocks “every success” in his new role.
Richard Gillingwater, pro-chancellor designate of the OU and chair of the selection panel for Horrocks’ new job, said: “Peter’s impressive list of achievements, along with his clear passion for the OU made him the stand-out candidate in a very strong field for this role.
“Like the higher education sector, the BBC has had to adapt to new ways of working and funding over recent years, so Peter brings with him not only a wealth of relevant experience, but the drive, vision and intellect to lead the OU into the future.”
The OU, set up in 1969, is the largest academic institution in the UK with around 200,000 current students, including more than 15,000 overseas.
It has a close working relationship with the BBC, co-producing factual programming including Britain’s Great War, Iceland Foods and Airport Live.
