The Open University

Nicola officially ‘collects’ her Open University degree – 31 years after earning it

14 April 2023

Thirty-one years after passing her Open University degree, former Weymouth schoolgirl Nicola Willis-Jones finally ‘officially’ graduated at an OU degree ceremony. After living in three different countries, now settled in America, the 61-year-old hadn’t made time to ‘collect’ on her hard-earned work. But that all changed recently when she climbed the stage at the Milton […]

Space scientists investigate whether life could exist inside Jupiter’s moons

11 April 2023

UK scientists and engineers, including from The Open University (OU) are taking part in a mission that’s about to set off to study Jupiter, our largest planet, and investigate whether some of its icy moons are home to conditions that could support life. Funded by the UK Space Agency, the UK leads on one of […]

OU academic chosen out of hundreds for a broadcast project

5 April 2023

An OU academic has won one of the nation’s ten coveted places as a “New Generation Thinker” to bring fresh thinking to a range of topics on the world around us. The project is run by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and BBC Radio 3, and Dr Dan taylor, Lecturer in Social and […]

Podcasts from The Open University give a fresh perspective on the Good Friday Agreement

5 April 2023

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, The Open University in Ireland is launching a new 4-part podcast series exploring the impact the agreement has had on society beyond just politics. ‘A Peace of Us’ is hosted by Jordan Kenny, the Dromore-born BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat presenter and includes voices from […]

What to know about tax-free savings before the 5 April ISA deadline

31 March 2023

If you want to know about tax-free individual-savings account and why you may need to take one out now – see what Jonquil Lowe, senior lecturer in economics and personal finance at The Open University, has to say. The window for making the most of your savings this tax year is closing. As the final […]

At chocolate time, we’ve discovered what the brands that score best on child labour and the environment have in common

29 March 2023

What distinguishes a company that makes “good” chocolate (chocolate untainted by child labour, modern slavery, deforestation and the overuse of agrichemicals) from one that merely makes chocolate? Our annual Chocolate Scorecard investigation, which is a collaboration between Be Slavery Free, Macquarie University, The University of Wollongong and the Open University, suggests it might be a mission that goes beyond making food and […]

New study finds water on the Moon is stored in ‘beads of glass’

27 March 2023

Glass beads formed from the cooling of melted material ejected by and found strewn across the Moon could store substantial quantities of water, according to a study supported by OU academic, Professor Mahesh Anand. These findings, published in Nature Geoscience, were a result of analyses of samples from China’s Chang’e-5 mission (one of the lander […]

Four ways the UK economy is being hampered by the private sector

27 March 2023

Alan Shipman is a senior lecturer in economics at The Open University. Here he talks about ways the private sector is hampering today’s UK economy and points to four ways it is doing so. The UK government has decided to go ahead with a rise in corporation tax in April 2023. The move is a […]

How world sport got into a mess over trans athletes – and how it can get out of it

23 March 2023

Jon Pike, The Open University World sport has been convulsed over the past few months – indeed years – by questions about trans athletes, especially trans women, competing in their acquired gender. Most recently, World Athletics announced its “preferred option” of a reduced 2.5nmol testosterone limit for trans women to compete, with a final decision […]

The OU and The Arab Open University celebrate twenty years of partnership

23 March 2023

The Open University (the OU) hosted the (pandemic-delayed) bi-annual partnership conference with The Arab Open University (the AOU) at the OU’s campus in Milton Keynes, which coincides with twenty years of this valued educational partnership. At the two-day summit, senior leaders discussed further ways to strengthen their partnership through innovation in teaching, curriculum development and […]

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