Branched Covers of Open Manifolds

For $m=2$ and $m=3$ we prove that any connected, oriented, open manifold $M^m$ admits a simple branched covering map over ${\mathbb{R}}^m$. When $M$ has $k$ ends and $k$ is finite, the degree of the cover can be taken to be $mk$. Regardless of the number of ends, $M$ admits a branched covering map of countably infinite degree over ${\mathbb{R}}^m$. We also investigate which compact manifolds are universal bases, that is, are branch covered by all compact manifolds in the same dimension.