Welcome to the Open University's Faculty of Health & Social Care. We aim to transform lives through excellent health and social care education and research. Our staff are at the leading edge of practice-focused curriculum, research and teaching developments; working with partners right across the sector. Please use this website to find out more about our work, and the study and research opportunities we offer – but if there's anything else you want to know, or if you want to talk to a member of staff, we'd be delighted to hear from you.
Jeremy Roche
Dean of the Faculty of Health & Social Care
Our curriculum is designed to enable students to stay ahead in their chosen field, to tackle its key challenges and to enhance their career and personal development. Keeping at the forefront means developing courses in partnership. The Faculty's long-established emphasis on working across professional boundaries and focusing on the user, patient or client ensures that our curriculum is particularly relevant to current priorities. All our courses draw on the experience of practising professionals, service users and carers and on the latest research. We're working increasingly in partnership with key professional bodies, service providers and other universities to keep our courses at the cutting edge and to deliver them in the most convenient ways (see Business to business).
The Faculty employs about 240 academic, administrative, secretarial and clerical staff in Milton Keynes and the nations and regions across the UK; grouped around three main teaching programme areas (see Departments).
Regional Faculty staff provide extensive national coverage; nurturing local partnerships and managing over 700 part-time associate lecturers who support out students locally (see Local contacts).
Nine professors provide leadership to a thriving research community focused on aspects of the life course, life challenges and innovative participative methodologies (see Research).