In an effort to demonstrate that open learning can be accommodated within existing funding mechanisms in British colleges of further and higher education, this paper discusses issues concerned with determining the cost of Flexistudy and open learning delivery systems. After a review of the difficulties of estimating precisely the costs of various forms of educational provision, the next sections provide a breakdown of expenditures for a large technical college, a discussion of the calculation of teacher costs and teacher time, and an exploration of the effects of providing resources to open learning that are comparable to those provided for regular classroom instruction. Next, costs and resources are estimated for a Flexistudy course, which involves "mark and comment" services for assignments, tutorial meetings, and counseling or tutorial assistance. Concepts such as notional weekly hours (i.e., the normal duration of a weekly class); target class size (i.e., the number of students agreed to represent an acceptable enrollment in an analogue class); and class contact equivalent are used to facilitate the comparison of open learning and regular instruction. Subsequent sections focus on other factors to be considered, including initial counseling services, dropout rates, program duration, the number of active students, student staff ratio, fee levels, facilities, administrative and clerical support, learning workshops, multi-media presentations, practical work, staff development, and learning materials. The final sections point out the cost advantages of open learning systems. (HB)