The Open University

The language of call centres and why it can “offend the ears”

9 February 2017

Most of us dread dealing with them, but call centres are hard to avoid as an increasingly widespread aspect of modern life. Now a new study from The Open University, published in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, has opened up the world of call centres and examined how pressurized call centre agents take short cuts to […]

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 […]

Truthiness and alternative facts: meaning is a moveable feast

31 January 2017

Sales of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four have apparently surged since Kellyanne Conway introduced the phrase “alternative facts” into public discourse. For many, the term is reminiscent of Orwell’s dystopian Newspeak, the imaginary language used by the novel’s totalitarian government to control the way the population thinks. It also allows for the doublethink of the slogans […]

Computer hacker silhouette of hooded man with binary data and network security terms. Thinkstock

Privacy perspectives: dos, don’ts, and to-dos

27 January 2017

Every time you sign up for a new website, share your latest run with your friends, or scan your loyalty card at a supermarket, you leave a record of your activity which is permanent, attached to your identity, and increasingly linked with other information to build a more complete picture of who you are and […]

Why the OU is not entering this year’s Teaching Excellence Framework

26 January 2017

The UK Government is piloting a new framework for measuring teaching excellence in universities called the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), with a view to providing students with more information about the quality of teaching and to improve standards. The Open University’s Vice-Chancellor, Peter Horrocks, explains why the OU has decided not to participate in this […]

Personal learning accounts could be a winning formula for adults

23 January 2017

The Open University led a global-wide round table event in conjunction with the the Association of Colleges recently to discuss the value of Personal Learning Accounts. The aim was to examine how these could promote a continuous learning culture among adults to the benefit of the economy and seek a way forward. The event was set […]

Open University responds to Government Green Paper on Industrial Strategy

23 January 2017

The launch of the Green Paper on Industrial Strategy by Prime Minister Theresa May today (23 January 2017) outlined plans to develop innovation and technology, which will support the delivery of a “high-skilled, competitive economy that benefits people throughout the UK.” As a Higher Education institution with over 170,000 student across the four nations, The […]

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