The Open University

£2.72m EU research funding hopes to manage extremist views

25 September 2023

An international team of academics led by The Open University has won £2.72m research funding, (€3.16m) to help people manage the development of extremist views at home and abroad in the run up to major political events. Psychologists at the Open University are working on developing tools for the project that has been funded by […]

Five star review: first ever Uber-funded graduates celebrate Open University degrees

22 September 2023

The first ever students to complete Open University (OU) degrees fully-funded by Uber are set to graduate – with the first ceremony taking place in London today Eleven students have received their results including first-class honours in law and business, with drivers completing their studies whilst working on Uber More than 1,500 drivers have enrolled […]

OU student Charlotte shares her study journey

OU validation partner granted power to award degrees from Office for Students

22 September 2023

OU validation partner, New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE), has been granted new powers to award degrees going forward. Open University Validation Partnerships (OUVP) was established in 1992 to enable The Open University (OU) to validate programmes for institutions that do not have their own degree awarding powers or that want to offer OU-validated […]

Locked up – but given the gift of a new future

19 September 2023

Open University history professor Rosalind Crone features in a new film commissioned by the Ministry of Justice showing how prisoners are being given new skills by training them for roles in the catering industry. “Served” is a 40-minute film available on YouTube that charts the progress of a team of prisoners from HM Prison Lincoln […]

New research says Britons more likely to help refugees from Ukraine rather than those from Syria or Somalia

18 September 2023

An Open University academic’s report suggests Ukrainians are considered less of a threat That Somalis and Syrians are seen as ‘culturally distant’ And that the results could also be due to skin colour and religious differences Britons are much more likely to help Ukrainian refugees over others from Syria or Somalia says a research project […]

Image shows a woman working on a laptop whilst on the phone

How to design menopause leave policies that really support women in the workplace

15 September 2023

Jo Brewis, Professor of People and Organisations at The Open University writes for The Conversation about how to design menopause leave policies that really support women in the workplace. More than 15 million women are in employment in the UK right now, which means menopause is undoubtedly a workplace issue. And while there has been enormous progress […]

New study calls for more ethical space research

14 September 2023

In a new paper, released today (14 September 2023) in Nature Astronomy, Open University (OU) researchers and their collaborators highlight ethical issues surrounding research in ‘extreme’ environments used as analogue sites to understand other planets, and how this relates to the future of space exploration. OU academics Dr Alessandra Marino, Professor Karen Olsson-Francis and Professor […]

Let the force be with you… environmentally

13 September 2023

New research from The Open University aims to promote better sustainability among makers of the film industry’s props, costume and the replica market Academics have developed a calculator tool so people in the industry can make carbon-emission comparisons about which materials and methods are the most sustainable to use Case study showed a Star Wars […]

Have we really found the first samples from beyond the Solar System? The evidence is not convincing

11 September 2023

Monica Grady is a Professor in Planetary Sciences at The Open University: Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University in the US, has published a press release claiming that some of the 700 or so spherical metallic fragments (spherules) he recovered from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Papua New […]

New report: raw deal for caregivers in Gateshead needs reform

8 September 2023

A new report published by The Open University has highlighted how the weekly Carers Allowance of £76.75 is worth just 77p per hour to a carer looking after a loved one in Gateshead for up to 100 hours a week. It reveals a list of recommendations for decision makers to ensure unpaid carers are not […]

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