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Working with us as an academic

We support our academic staff throughout their career and many spend their entire career here and benefit from the flexibility, study and research leave and research opportunities afforded by our way of working.

We were the highest ranking higher education institution in the 2010 Sunday Tmes Best Companies to Work For list for the public sector. Become part of the OU success story, working in a wide variety of academic or administrative roles in Milton Keynes or throughout the UK.

Visit our jobs page.

Research opportunities

Our academics do world-leading innovative research and development. Our research also influences global policy and enriches lives.

Our research attracts significant funding. Some sizeable grants are:

  • £560,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council to explore the efficiency of medicine suppliers in Tanzania
  • £472,000 from the National Environment Research Council to measure tropical wetland methane emissions
  • £400,000 from the European Commission to continue researching the surveillance society
  • £16m Higher Education Funding Council for England catalyst grant for MK:Smart, an OU-led consortium of local and national partners in a significant Big Data initiative

Research excellence

The Research Excellence Framework 2014 shows that research undertaken at The Open University is both world-leading and has impact in the real world.

The OU has demonstrated significant successes across its 18 submitted Units of Assessment.

Key successes are:

  • OU research ranks in the top third of UK universities using the Times Higher Education Power Score
  • 72% of the OU research submitted was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*)

Read more about our research.

Support for academics

Our academics benefit from the following support and facilities: