The Open University

New to the OU? Top tips from fellow students

2 February 2022

Starting a new qualification can be daunting – whether you’re new to higher education or a seasoned lifelong learner. From battling nerves to learning how to squeeze in study around the rest of your life, there’s a lot to think about. Thankfully, you have a whole community of brilliant OU students who know exactly what […]

OU wins UK Space Agency funding to grow regional space activity

2 February 2022

The Open University (OU) is one of 10 organisations to be given a boost from UK Space Agency’s (UKSA) regional funding package. The funding comes after the Government published its landmark Levelling Up White Paper, exploring how new policy interventions can improve opportunity and boost livelihoods across the country as we recover from the pandemic. […]

Local MP meets with TreeView Research Team at Milton Keynes campus

1 February 2022

Ben Everitt MP visited The Open University campus in Milton Keynes to meet with the STEM academic team behind TreeView. As MP for Milton Keynes North, the OU campus is located within Mr Everitt’s constituency and he met with academics to discuss the TreeView project in more depth last week (28 January). TreeView aims to […]

New study finds some flowers unchanged for 100 million years

31 January 2022

An international research team has discovered 100-million-year-old fossil flowers preserved in amber, showing that some flowers found living today in South Africa have remained unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs. The flowers, discovered by experts from The Open University, Qingdao University, and others, are nearly identical to those of modern Phylica species, which are […]

OU student Luke travelled the world while completing his degree

‘I got to work, study and travel the world thanks to the flexibility of the OU!”

31 January 2022

When Luke Simmons began studying with The Open University, he had a thirst for knowledge but no specific career goal. Picking up on his passion for fiction writing and travel during his Open Degree, one of his “magnificent” OU tutors suggested he use his travel experiences as inspiration for his writing, something which Luke says […]

‘I won’t let dyslexia stop me’ – the degree apprentice building a new career

28 January 2022

When Martyn Carroll left school at 16, he didn’t realise he had dyslexia and simply thought higher education wasn’t for him. He’s now proving just what he’s capable of thanks to a degree apprenticeship with The Open University and South Western Railway. It means he can finally achieve his degree dream – and apply his […]

Full moon against a dark black night sky

Moon: crashing rocket will create new crater – here’s what we should worry about

28 January 2022

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at The Open University writes for The Conversation about the impact of a new cater on the Moon. It’s not often that the sudden appearance of a new impact crater on the Moon can be predicted, but it’s going to happen on March 4, when a derelict SpaceX Falcon 9 […]

Proposed sporting categories could support inclusion and fairness, OU academic suggests

26 January 2022

In the run-up to the forthcoming Olympic Winter Games in Beijing next month, seeing athletes from across the world competing in winter sports such as bobsleigh, ice skating and downhill skiing, a newly published policy paper suggests that sporting categories might change in the future to better accommodate sporting endeavour, inclusion and fairness. The co-authored […]

Rich pickings: Revealing BBC/OU series spotlights the years following the banking crash

25 January 2022

Academics at The Open University have worked behind the scenes on a fascinating two-part series The Decade The Rich Won that hears from former insiders about the 2008 financial crash and its repercussions. On Tuesday 25 January at 9pm, this gripping BBC/OU co-production lifts the lid on what was going on; from bailing out the […]