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Five classic novels to read about Italy if you loved the BBC’s Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour of the country

Five classic novels to read about Italy if you loved the BBC’s Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour of the country

If you were thinking of jetting off to Italy this summer and laughed at the antics of this duo in the BBC programme Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour, Antonia Saunders, a research student at The Open University, has a book list you might want to explore. Since this pair traced the footsteps of romantic poet […]

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Open University academics visit Westminster to share research

Open University academics visit Westminster to share research

A team of academics from The Open University visited the Houses of Parliament recently to showcase their research to decisionmakers and fellow academics to help inform  policy development. On the guest list included Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, as well as others in academic institutions to hear about the research projects […]

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Five books to read if you loved the Agatha Christie whodunnits

Five books to read if you loved the Agatha Christie whodunnits

If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie Dr Anthony Howell, Senior Lecturer in English at The Open University, and the author of the free OpenLearn short course on the Queen of Crime has picked out five brilliant detective-fiction novels by other authors. Here’s his list. Almost fifty years after her death Agatha Christie’s books and […]

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Gaza campus protests: why understanding 1960s student demonstrations and police reaction is relevant today

Gaza campus protests: why understanding 1960s student demonstrations and police reaction is relevant today

For anybody interested in the history of the 1960s, the ongoing protests at US universities have a peculiar resonance. Dr Sinead McEneaney, Staff Tutor and Senior Lecturer in History at The Open University, tells us why. In the past weeks, riot police have entered several college campuses at the behest of administrators to break up […]

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‘Financial nutrition’ podcasts set to help transform your money outlook

Two Open University academics on a quest to urge people to indulge in daily ‘financial nutrition’ have released a podcast series to provide exactly that. Their ‘Financial Five-a-Day’ podcast is a series of interviews with financial experts, who have excelled in their field. They share their expert tips to help ignite a rethink in the […]

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Secrets, spies, and the nuclear war that was avoided

Secrets, spies, and the nuclear war that was avoided

This latest Open University/BBC co production is something you might find from the pages of a thriller novel – but it’s a portrayal of real events that depict how a Soviet double agent helped the West avoid a nuclear war with Russia in the 1980s. The three-part dramatization series Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game, […]

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500 ‘diagnostic’ assessments!? Time to reflect

Let me start with a story. Many years ago, I had a student who was struggling to get specialist support to meet his learning needs. He had dyslexia and was entitled to additional support paid for by government funding. Dyslexia was a topic skirted over in one of my degrees and so, as an Associate […]

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Michael wearing graduation gown and blue glasses, looking at the camera with a background of plant leaves.

Historian who challenged the view of Black British history is honoured

A pioneering Black historian whose research has transformed the nation’s understanding of our Black British history has been awarded an honorary degree from The Open University and confessed he is “unashamedly woke” . A delighted Michael Ohajuru made the comments as he accepted his Doctor of the University award, for all that he has accomplished, […]

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What are the EU’s new migration rules, and why did they take so long to pass?

Simon Usherwood,  Professor of Politics & International Studies in the School of Social Sciences & Global Studies at The Open University, writes for The Conversation about the EU’s new migration rules, and why they took so long to pass. The European Parliament has passed a landmark package of laws to overhaul its rules on borders […]

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19th century court case with all the hallmarks in today’s Post Office scandal

In a week when Mr Bates gave evidence at the ongoing inquiry into the post office scandal, here Rosalind Crone, Professor of History at The Open University, points to a 129-year old case that contains similar hallmarks: a grave miscarriage of justice; massive press attention and storytelling that made all the difference. Google the name […]

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