OU wins International Collaboration of the Year

Posted on 14 November 2025 • University news

A project which supported the education of adolescent girls at greatest risk of exclusion in Zimbabwe, won International Collaboration of the Year category in the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2025.  

The awards announced at Edinburgh International Conference Centre on Thursday 13 November 2025, announced the OU-led SAGE programme in Zimbabwe (Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education) as the winner from a shortlist of six in this category, which celebrates exceptional strategic partnerships between a UK or Irish university and international partners that deliver significant global impact 

The judges said: 

“The broad coalition of stakeholders that SAGE brought together to create a sustainable approach to address a shared challenge is an example of the very best aspects of international collaboration.”

The OU collaborated with Plan International, a global NGO that advances children’s rights and gender equality, with a strong focus on empowering girls. The unique combination of partners enabled the curation and mediation of a case for non-formal education.  

SAGE was subsequently commissioned by the Education Ministry to lead a national consultation on non-formal education and is being positioned as a blueprint for national expansion of non-formal education for Zimbabwe’s 1.2 million out-of-school children. 

With the research strand led by led by Professor Alison Buckler, Professor of International Education and Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD) in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, SAGE has combined pioneering OU-led research with the deep local knowledge and the national-level reach of NGO partners to design, implement and evidence a highly successful community-based, non-formal education pathway for Zimbabwe’s most marginalised girls. 

  Commenting on this win, Professor Buckler said: 

“This is – in all the best possible ways – a team award. SAGE is an incredible example of the OU’s pedagogical and research creativity and expertise working in tandem with the deep local knowledge and national-level reach of our partners. SAGE’s success – for the consortium, but also for the girls it supports – demonstrates the importance of nurturing long-term partnerships to enable genuine, life-changing learning.”

 The Times Higher Education Awards celebrate and promote the very best work taking place in higher education.  

 You may also be interested in: 

• More about the SAGE project 

• More OU research in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies 

 

Main image: OU winning team, pictured at the Times Higher Awards ceremony:

(l-r Ed Byrne, Awards host; Dr Kelly Worwood, Technical Advisor Plan International UK; Charlotte Chishava, SAGE Programme Manager, Plan International Zimbabwe; Professor Alison Buckler, The Open University; Elfreda Whitty, Programme Manager, Christian Blind Mission; Professor (emerita) Liz Chamberlain, Former OU SAGE Programme Director The Open University)

Copyright – The Open University