The Open University registers postgraduate research students at Affiliated Research Centres (ARCs). These are organisations which have entered into an agreement with the University to register students for a research degree with the Open University.
ARCs are higher educational institutions or commercial or public sector research organisations without research degree awarding powers.
Although many of the research students at ARCs are working in the life and biomolecular sciences, with over 200 PhD students in this field worldwide, research students are registered across the range of subject areas.
The ARC programme includes institutions in mainland Europe and further afield. Amongst the non-UK institutions are:
Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche 'Mario Negri' (Milan, Italy)
International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Trieste, Italy)
KEMRI - Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya
MRC Laboratories, The Gambia
Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Naples, Italy)
Stowers Institute for Medical Research (Kansas City, USA)
Telethon Institute of Genetics and Medicine (Naples, Italy)
Wellcome Trust Tropical Medicine research Programmes
The Wellcome Trust-Mahidol University (Thailand)
Vietnam Research Programme (Vietnam)
For more information about the programme: Affiliated Research Centre Programme