Mr Mike Lucas

Biography

Mike joined The Open University Business School in 1997 as a Regional Manager based at the OU's East of England office in Cambridge. Having spent the previous 10 years teaching economics, strategy and various management topics to further, higher and adult education audiences, he was invited in 1998 to join the School’s core team for the development of its new BA (Hons) in Business Studies programme. In the subsequent 5 years he was heavily involved in the design, writing and launch of its 3 core courses.

In 2003, he took up the role of Programme Director for Undergraduate Business and Professional Development, leading the redevelopment and subsequent expansion of the programme. He oversaw the launch of the three major level 1 Open University Business School courses - An introduction to business studies (B120), Working and learning: developing effective performance at work (BU130) and Managing in the workplace (B121) (which he chaired 2003-8) - which have collectively contributed to a five-fold expansion in the Programme's student numbers since 2006. Mike led work with the RAF on the making of the School’s two Foundation Degrees and a subsequent BA (Hons) in Leadership and Management. He was also instrumental in developing collaborative courses and qualifications with the Faculties of Social Sciences (You and your money: personal finance in context (DB123) and Foundation Degree in Financial Services), Education and Language Studies (Professional communication skills for business studies (LB160)) and Maths, Computing & Technology (Foundation Degree in Business Information Technology) during this period.

Mike took up his current role in April 2008 and immediately set about refocusing the School's work on its Masters Programme. Last autumn he sponsored a number of curriculum development workshops aimed at developing a new vision of the School's MBA for audiences of global management practitioners, and since then he has been supporting the Masters Programme team in planning and initiating the launch of a new Global MBA.

Mike's interest in work- and practice-based learning has led to his involvement in several UK-based academic networks such as the Work-Based Learning Futures network. He is a Fellow of the Centre of Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) in Practice-Based Professional Learning. His involvement in workforce development and employer collaboration has led to work with a number of bodies including UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI). He is currently leading a major cross-Faculty, Open University project on employer-focused tailored learning programmes.

Research interests

Teaching and learning in business and management., staff and educational development in higher education, practice-based learning, the construction of professional identity and employer engagement.

Publications