Research

The OU has received the HR Excellence in Research Award from the European Commission. The Award demonstrates the OU’s commitment to improving the working conditions and career development for research staff, with the aim of improving the quantity, quality and impact of research for the benefit of UK society and the economy.

The OU is one of 11 higher education institutions and 61 other UK organisations that have been given the Award.

Professor Tim Blackman, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Scholarship and Quality, the OU said:

“The Open University is a global leader in research and innovation and is very committed to developing our research community. The HR Excellence in Research Award acknowledges this commitment and strengthens our resolve to continue to improve the quality of our research environment and the benefit of our research to society.”

David Willetts MP, Minister for Universities and Science said:

"Our world-class universities are once again leading the way. It is great news that another 11 UK universities have been awarded the HR Excellence in Research Award. It's vital that the working conditions of researchers continue to improve because world-class science and research are the key to future economic growth.

"The total number of UK institutions with this award is higher than in the whole of the rest of Europe put together, which is a great testament to the strength of our research base."

When a crime has been committed how can the police ensure that the offender is successfully selected in a line-up, especially if the witness is a young child?

Dr Catriona Harvard, a Psychology Lecturer and researcher at the OU, has spent the last five years looking at techniques for reducing the choosing bias among children between the ages of five and 15 and her findings could hold the key to reducing false identifications among child eye witnesses.

“Children as young as five can be as accurate as adults at identifying someone who has committed a crime. However, they are more likely to choose someone in a line-up, even if the offender is not there” explains Catriona.

Catriona continued: “This is often because children perceive giving an answer is more desirable than admitting the offender isn’t there. They also think that if they are being shown a line-up, then offender must be there. This has serious ramifications for false identifications and false convictions.”

Keen to find techniques to reduce this bias, Catriona conducted a number of experiments which involved participants being shown a film of a crime and then after a delay of one or two days, showing the participant a video line-up and asking them to pick out the offender.

Real life line-ups are now a thing of the past due to being expensive, inaccurate and time consuming, so Catriona used the latest identification technology in her experiments, video line-ups, which has been pioneered in the UK.

Using a very simple technique, Catriona found that the introduction of a silhouette called ‘the mystery man’ in the video line-up helped to significantly reduce false identifications rates. This provided children with the opportunity choose a person without falsely identifying anyone from the video line-up.

Commenting on her research findings Catriona said: “This is a simple technique, but I have been astounded at the significant results which reduced false identifications from 70 per cent to 30 per cent.”

The results of Catriona’s research have been well received to date and so far she has discussed her techniques with the Head of Identification at Thames Valley and Milton Keynes police. Catriona is also in the process of writing a white paper for the Southeast Eye Witness Network (SEEN) and hopes her research will be adopted by those investigating crime.

Find out more:

• Study Childhood and Youth

Professor Helen King has been awarded a prize by the Women’s Classical Caucus for the best article published in the last three years relating to their mission of 'fostering the study of gender, sexuality, feminist theory, or women’s history'.

The winning article by Professor King, Professor of Classical Studies at the OU called Galen and the widow, questions existing orthodoxy on the history of masturbation as something practised by doctors on women in the ancient world and beyond.

Professor King challenges assumptions made by Rachel Maines in her book published in 1999, The Technology of Orgasm. Maines argued that therapeutic masturbation had a very long history even before technological change enabled the development of the object at the centre of her research, the vibrator.

“I have found that Maines’ work obscures female agency,” Professor King said. “She uses a translation of Galen’s text from which female healers and midwives are absent. Galen presents women’s desire as based on expelling their ’female seed’: Maines too assumes that this is all about an orgasm modelled on the male, playing into a male fantasy of passive women waiting for men to give them pleasure.”

The Women’s Classical Caucus was founded in 1972 to foster feminist and gender-informed perspectives in the study and teaching of all aspects of ancient Mediterranean cultures and classical antiquity. Based in the USA, it works to advance the goals of equality and diversity within Classics. For further information, visit: http://wccaucus.org/

Find out more:

• Access Professor King’s paper, Galen and the Widow. Towards a history of therapeutic masturbation in ancient gynaecology
• Classical Studies at the OU