The Open University

Seven ways students can have a guilt-free Christmas

23 December 2021

Studying with The Open University can be a real juggling act, particularly at Christmas time when you want to relax and enjoy time with your family or friends but still have that looming assignment on your mind. Karen Foley is an OU Lecturer and presenter on the OU’s Student Hub Live. Damon Miller is an […]

Material from asteroid Ryugu starts to give up secrets of early Solar System

21 December 2021

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University Just over a year ago, material from the Japanese Hayabusa 2 mission to Asteroid (162173) Ryugu arrived back on Earth . And this week, the first two papers reporting analysis of the material have been published in Nature Astronomy. Excitingly, they suggest we may […]

“Please continue” – did this simple phrase lead normal people to “torture” strangers?

21 December 2021

David Kaposi, Psychotherapist and Senior Lecturer in Psychology The Open University Would you electrocute an innocent stranger if you were told to do so by someone in a position of authority? This is the dilemma hundreds of US adults were presented with in Stanley Milgram’s famous and controversial “obedience to authority” experiments that ran from […]

International Migrants Day – OU research sheds light on the realities and barriers

17 December 2021

As organisations across the world mark the United Nations’ International Migrants Day (18 December) the OU shares stories by staff and students of their experiences and the lives of migrants. Earlier this year Sarah Crafter, Professor of Cultural-Developmental Psychology at The Open University won EU funding for a research project aiming to enhance the lives […]

Creative initiative for healthcare staff proves to be a winner

14 December 2021

A pilot scheme, giving NHS healthcare workers a chance to try creative writing as a potential support for wellbeing during the pandemic, has won national recognition. The programme, designed for an NHS Trust, involved writing workshops that gave participants prompts and exercises which encouraged them to be expressive about their life, work and feelings through […]

New theory about alien life subject of latest bitesize video for BBC Ideas

8 December 2021

A brand new short film is now available to view on the award-winning BBC Ideas website called Are We Thinking About Alien Life All Wrong? With the OU’s Dr Mark Fox-Powell providing academic consultancy, Professor Brian Cox explains the ‘panspermia’ theory – how alien life could spread around the Universe. This new theory, which has […]

OU Nursing graduate Kombe working in Clydebank

‘I started as a GP’s receptionist, now I’m an award-winning nurse’

8 December 2021

Before he was an award-winning nurse, Kombe Mwarandu was working as a receptionist at his local GP surgery. He shares how achieving his Adult Nursing degree from The Open University in Scotland has enabled him to achieve his career dreams and give back to his community. “Before joining The Open University I didn’t have a […]

Looks really can be deceiving, OU research finds

2 December 2021

A new hairstyle can make all the difference they say, and newly published psychology research shows that our hair could make even more of an impact than we realise. A study among nearly 400 people in the UK and China found they struggled to match faces in pictures if they were from a different race […]

Killer in the Car Park – Forensics: The Real CSI returns

1 December 2021

The programme that gives viewers unique access to the work of forensic scientists is making a return to our screens. Forensics: The Real CSI is co-produced by The Open University and the BBC and the series continues with series 2 (episode 7) Killer in the Car Park, which airs Monday December 6 at 9pm on […]

Reducing the stigma of HIV this World AIDS Day

30 November 2021

World AIDS Day on 1 December is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV. Established in 1988, ‘rocking the red ribbon’ shows support for people living with HIV and commemorates those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. Dr Tom Witney recently carried out research for The Open University to […]

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