The Open University

PhD student’s part in the excavation of the Rutland ‘sea dragon’

10 January 2022

Open University research student, Emily Swaby was at the centre of an exciting excavation – which has unearthed the largest, most complete marine reptile skeleton ever found in Britain, at the Rutland Water Nature Reserve. She describes the uncovering of the skeleton, the fossilised remains of a 10m-long sea predator called an ichthyosaur which is […]

Meteor glowing as it enters the Earth's atmosphere

Don’t look up: several asteroids are heading towards Earth – here’s how we deal with threats in real life

7 January 2022

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences at The Open University writes for The Conversation about the new Netflix film, “Don’t Look Up” and what would happen if this happened in real life. Don’t look now – but we are currently experiencing a rash of stories about a forthcoming global catastrophe. But in a […]

Explore our world’s fascinating flora in the BBC/OU series, The Green Planet

6 January 2022

Legendary nature historian, Sir David Attenborough will offer a stunning insight into Earth’s plant life in a new series co-produced by the BBC and The Open University. The first episode of the five-part series, The Green Planet, airs on 9 January at 7.00 pm on BBC One and will be available on BBC iPlayer shortly […]

Capitol assault: the real reason Trump and the crowd almost killed US democracy

6 January 2022

Written by Dr Evangelos Ntontis, Lecturer in Social Psychology at The Open University, Stephen Reicher, Bishop Wardlaw Professor in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, Alex Haslam, Professor of Psychology and ARC Laureate Fellow, The University of Queensland and Klara Jurstakova, PhD Candidate, Canterbury Christ Church University It was the moment that could […]

Sharlene celebrates her OU degree with her family

‘I channelled my own childhood trauma into a career helping other families’

3 January 2022

Sharlene Hill grew up in a challenging environment. Many years later when she became a mum herself, she was determined to build a better future for her family. Sharlene developed an interest in adverse childhood experiences and family structures, which sent her off on a volunteering and training journey. Fast forward to now and she’s […]

The BIG SPENDERS of the January sales – academic insight

28 December 2021

If you associate money with love, freedom, power and status, then put your credit card or wallet in a ‘safe place’ in the digital or High Street New Year sales as it’s more likely you who will be a big spender. That’s according to an academic at The Open University who is a leading expert […]

Skill up for the New Year with career-focused short courses

28 December 2021

As the year draws to a close and thoughts turn inevitably to New Year’s resolutions, The Open University (OU) points the lens at career change in 2022, and invites employees and employers to consider its innovative range of short courses. Known as microcredentials, these career-focused courses are hosted on the OU’s co-owned social learning […]

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 […]

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