The Open University

Why there is such an enormous demand for drugs in British prisons

15 February 2017

The BBC’s Panorama documentary on HMP Northumberland recently put the problem of drug taking in prisons firmly under the spotlight. The terrible harms that psychoactive drugs create for both prisoners and prison officers were laid bare – secretly recorded footage showed prisoners overdosing on drugs, prisoners threatening an officer with a weapon, and one prison […]

Romania protests: what caused the biggest uprising since the fall of communism?

8 February 2017

Romania recently saw the largest demonstrations on its streets since the fall of communism. On February 5, more than half a million people took part in protests across the country. The marches came in response to an emergency decree passed by the recently elected PSD-ALDE government – a coalition of the PSD (Social Democratic Party) […]

Aerial view of housing estate. Image: Thinkstock

Housing White Paper: affordability problem will not change, says OU expert

7 February 2017

Lecturer in Economics, Alan Shipman, comments on the Government’s Housing White Paper, published on Tuesday 7 February 2017: Earnings have risen too slowly “The Housing White Paper pinpoints the main problem – that average house prices have risen to eight times earnings, this ratio doubling in some areas since 1997 – then addresses the wrong […]

Bercow should see and speak only as directed by MPs: New Speaker of the House of Commons needed, says OU expert

7 February 2017

Reader in Government, Richard Heffernan, argues that John Bercow has overstepped the mark with his comments on Donald Trump. Highly political and too public a speakership “First elected as a Conservative MP in 1997, being reelected as such in 2001 and 2005, John Bercow becoming Speaker in 2009, ceased being a Conservative. It has long […]

Religious literary report receives OU input in Parliament

3 February 2017

The importance of religious literacy in a post-Brexit world was the topic of an All Party Parliamentary Group debate recently, with contributions from The Open University. As the Brexit debate continued to draw heated exchanges in the Commons chamber on Tuesday 31 January, John Wolffe (Professor of Religious History and Associate Dean for Research Scholarship […]

How to avoid breaking New Year’s Resolutions – don’t make them in first place?

17 January 2017

Research has shown that the majority of British adults will break their New Year’s resolution by the second week of January. What is it about the time of year that makes us more susceptible to breaking those promises to ourselves? Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Dr Meg-John Barker, explores why we set ourselves these goals, and […]

Obama’s Iran legacy is noble, complicated – and endangered

11 January 2017

When Barack Obama became US president, his principal foreign policy was clear: to maintain the US’s global leadership role while simultaneously scaling back on the interventionist excesses of George W. Bush. And few issues pulled those priorities together as neatly as did the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme. Iranian-Western relations had nosedived during the younger […]

UK House Price Outlook: The long rise stutters, but not because of policy

30 December 2016

Lecturer in Economics, Alan Shipman, discusses the delicate balancing act the government has to perform and why a new social divide may be emerging. After another rise of more than 8% in 2016, UK house prices set for flatter – and bumpier – terrain in 2017-20. The likely levelling is mainly caused not by government […]

Poet welcomes Open University’s Human Rights Week focus

5 December 2016

In a one-off series marking Human Rights Day, OU academics focus on key elements of the historic Universal Declaration of Human Rights and explore its relevance in a 21st century light. Poet and OU Honorary Graduate Benjamin Zephaniah, a passionate supporter of human rights, introduces each theme as they lead up to Human Rights Day on 10 December. He […]

Is climate change the ‘kale smoothie’ of TV schedules?

1 December 2016

Covering climate change today in a meaningful and engaging way is increasingly challenging, reveal TV producers, in a new report by the OU’s Professor Joe Smith. He reflects that covering climate change seems akin to a kale smoothie – something which can be unappealing yet somehow fashionable and essential. Amid continuing news stories on the […]

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Category: Arts and social sciences