The Open University

For the love of learning – father and daughter make it a double act to degree success

29 June 2023

Joanna McLenaghan walked quite literally in her father’s footsteps when she followed dad Ian across the stage to collect identical degrees recently at a ceremony staged by The Open University. The pair signed up for an OU MSc in Maths in the same year and there followed six years of “total rivalry” to see who […]

Why the Bank of England’s interest rate hikes aren’t slowing inflation enough and what that means for mortgages

27 June 2023

Alan Shipman is a senior lecturer in economics at The Open University and here he shares his view on the mechanisms employed to slow down inflation, what the fallout means across a wide spectrum of society and why the Bank of England appears as a convenient scapegoat. Consumer price inflation stuck at 8.7% in May, defying […]

young woman standing in front of graffiti wall.

‘I’ve made life-long friends through the OU’

20 June 2023

After recently moving to the UK, Khudayja, 25, hadn’t expected that her BA (Honours) English Literature and Creative Writing degree at The Open University (OU) would introduce her to life-long friends and a huge community of fellow book lovers. “I moved to the UK from Pakistan with my family four years ago. My family are […]

Award-winning author and broadcaster is keynote speaker at OU global challenges festival

8 June 2023

Gary Younge is one of the headliners at a four-day hybrid festival staged at the OU to give voice to research into real-life global challenges and social justice to aid change. The former Guardian columnist, who is also a Professor of sociology at the University of Manchester, has made several radio and TV documentaries on […]

The Benefits of Writing Flash-Fiction for Busy Writers and Readers

8 June 2023

The OU is due to launch its forthcoming flash-fiction competition #OU50words. The multi-award-winning campaign invites those interested to write a piece of flash-fiction in no more than 50 words, in response to the university’s daily video writing prompt. To support the competition, OU academic Dr Emily Bullock shares the below content about the benefits of […]

The Art of Brevity: 5 Benefits of Writing Flash-Fiction

6 June 2023

The OU is due to launch its forthcoming flash fiction competition #OU50words. The multi-award-winning campaign invites those interested to write a piece of flash fiction in no more than 50 words, in response to the university’s daily video writing prompt. To support the competition, OU academic Dr Samuel Sargeant shares the below content about the […]

Flash Fiction: Literature’s Delinquent Offspring

6 June 2023

The OU is due to launch its forthcoming flash fiction competition #OU50words. The multi-award-winning campaign invites those interested to write a piece of flash fiction in no more than 50 words, in response to the university’s daily video writing prompt. To support the competition, OU academic Gwyneth Jones shares the content below about ‘Literature’s Delinquent […]

Award-winning 50-word flash fiction competition returns!

5 June 2023

Back by popular demand, our multi-award-winning flash fiction competition #OU50words is returning to The Open University’s social media channels. Every day for seven days (starting on Monday 12 June) we’ll be sharing a different storytelling prompt designed to inspire you to forge a 50-word, fictional footpath. We invited award-winning photographer Laura Jones from Atmospheric Images to spend […]

Lovers of detective-fiction have the chance to study Agatha Christie’s writing for free

1 June 2023

If you ever wanted to know the secrets of writing detective fiction, The Open University is staging a free short course of the work of 20th Century whodunnit queen Agatha Christie. According to Guinness World Records, Christie is the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies. Now […]

Meet the historian on the Lady Killers team

9 May 2023

While the second series of the BBC podcast “Lady Killers” continues to entertain audiences with its feminist take on 19th and early 20th Century murderesses, we spoke to the academic consultant on the series – billed as the programme’s ‘resident historian’ Professor Rosalind Crone from The Open University. Murder most horrid sells. And when you […]

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Category: Arts and social sciences