Research degrees

Postgraduate research plays an important part in the Business School's academic life. Our growing community of MRes and PhD students is engaged in a wide range of research topics. You can browse their research by subject area or if you know who you are looking for, you can find them by searching on their surname. Look at details of completed theses on The Open University’s Library catalogue.

Full-time PhD students are based at the Michael Young Building in Milton Keynes where they form a lively and supportive community. Part-time PhD students are normally resident in the UK and attend regular meetings at The Open University Business School. Overseas-based students are accepted on to the part-time programme only in exceptional circumstances.

Full-time fully-funded studentships, starting 1 October every year, are advertised on the Open University Jobs website and on our Studentships page.  Applications for full time study starting 1 October 2013 is now closed.  

Entry onto our PhD programme requires a 2:1 Bachelors degree (or equivalent). Previous training in research methods would be welcomed but is not a prerequisite as training can be offered alongside the PhD.

The Open University Business School offers fully-funded full-time research studentships, currently circa £14,000 per year. Please see the Research Degrees prospectus for more details of full-time and part-time PhD study and for details of how to apply. If, after consulting our prospectus you still have unanswered questions, please contact our Research Degrees department by email.

For further general information on postgraduate study at The Open University, see the OU Research School website.