Fred Mulder

We are sad to report that Professor Fred Mulder passed away at the weekend. Fred was the founder of the GO-GN network. He came up with the idea, and worked tirelessly to seek funding and get it established. He believed passionately in open education, and also in the power of research to support that mission. He wanted to improve the quality of experience for PhD researchers in this area, and particularly to generate a global, inclusive perspective.

The GO-GN was initially located with the OU Netherlands, but when Fred retired from his position there, he sought out the Open University UK OER Hub team as the best possible home for the project. He and Robert Schuwer were incredibly generous with their time and support in transitioning the project to us, and ensuring we remained true to its principles, whilst allowing us to develop aspects as we saw fit.

The team often met him at conferences and Hewlett grantee meetings. He was always a pleasure to spend time with, and unstinting in his support of open education as a global, social good. It was a privilege to name our GO-GN Awards after him, and I know this meant a lot to him. We send our sympathy to all his family, friends and students. We will miss him terribly and we all owe him a great debt.