The Open University

World AIDS Day 2019: treatment success, but austerity bites

29 November 2019

On Sunday (1 December), we mark World AIDS Day: an opportunity to come together to support people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died. It’s also a time to take stock of how we are doing in the fight against AIDS. Dr Peter Keogh, Deputy Associate Dean Research Excellence & Senior Lecturer […]

OU technician honoured as ‘truly inspiring’ at THE Awards 2019

29 November 2019

Dr Barbara Kunz, an Analytical Laboratory Technician at The Open University has won the Outstanding Technician of the Year category at this year’s Times Higher Education Awards. Presented last night (Thursday 28 November) at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London, Dr Kunz beat off competition from seven other shortlisted universities to be […]

World Access to Higher Education Day – OU increases number of female educators in rural parts of Sierra Leone

26 November 2019

World Access to Higher Education Day (26 November) is an opportunity to highlight how HE is contributing to global inequality as much as it is addressing it. The Open University’s project in Sierra Leone GATE – Girls’ Access to Education aims to increase the number of female educators in rural parts of the country. The […]

Open University Position Statement on USS Pensions and 2019/20 Pay Award

25 November 2019

The Open University (OU) is one of more than 340 higher education and related institutions across the United Kingdom that participate in the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). With effect from Monday 25 November 2019, the University and College Union (UCU) has announced it is taking eight days of strike action. This is around two separate […]

BBC/ OU documentary wins Mind Media Award

21 November 2019

Actor, David Harewood has won a Mind Media Award for his work in David Harewood: Psychosis and Me, a co-produced documentary by the BBC and The Open University’s Broadcast and Partnerships team. The documentary, which aired in May, followed Harewood as he talked about the psychotic breakdown he had at 23 years-old. Piecing back together what […]

OU researcher develops tech set to transform political debates

20 November 2019

An OU researcher has developed a new, innovative, digital platform to harness public engagement during televised election debates. Dr Anna De Liddo, Senior Research Fellow in the OU’s Knowledge Media Institute, created the audience feedback tool in collaboration with political scientists Professor Stephen Coleman and Dr Giles Moss, and typography researcher Paul Wilson from the […]

The Open University’s children’s rights report supports book by Amnesty International UK

19 November 2019

The Open University’s Children’s Research Centre (OUCRC) has launched a report ‘informed by children’ to mark the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The findings will support a book by Amnesty International UK (AIUK) to educate and empower children and young people. Following months of studies with […]

New degree of success for Olympic gold medallist!

18 November 2019

Canoe slalom gold medallist Etienne Stott looks back on “an incredibly big journey” as he received his OU degree in Psychology on stage in Milton Keynes. Etienne began studying with The Open University around the time of his selection for the London 2012 Olympics. He juggled his studies around training for the Games, where he […]

‘The need for education throughout life is more critical now than it has ever been’

18 November 2019

Today marks 100 years since the Ministry of Reconstruction’s adult education committee published its Report on Adult Education. The Centenary Commission on Adult Education 2019 has produced a new report, A Permanent National Necessity, that argues adult education and lifelong learning must be a permanent national necessity, an inseparable aspect of citizenship. This is vital […]

Man sitting on train looking out of the window

To say the OU changed my life is an understatement

11 November 2019

OU student David Breakspear had been in the criminal justice system since he was a child. Determined to break the cycle, he began studying during his sentence and is now an active and passionate campaigner for criminal justice and social reform, using his experiences to help inspire and educate others. As one of the speakers […]

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