“Open” approaches have the potential to enhance research, learning, and global knowledge sharing, and contribute to social justice. The open movement in higher education now extends beyond open access to content through a vision of transparent collaborative processes. We use an inclusive definition of Open, considering activity alongside content, and also incorporating infrastructures. We propose a high-level typology and model of Open to inform policy design and strategy delivery. Our preliminary work (2014) categorizes 12 domains of open as 3 broad types, elaborated in a relational model depicting interactions and reciprocal influences in an evolving open culture and worldview. Our emerging findings reveal important commonalities in the theoretical bases and practical benefits of the multiple open domains, supporting the case for promoting a unified policy agenda. Some guides exist for atomistic policies, but few studies have explored what a coherent holistic open strategy might look like for higher education institutions. Our goal is to fill this gap with a multi-country survey and policy analysis
