Appointment information

Where possible residential school appointments are made for two consecutive weeks to give the schools continuity and help minimise travel costs.

We will let you know as soon as we can whether you have been appointed and for which school and dates.  You may be consulted by University staff about intended appointments, but the University enters into no commitment until you have received an appointment offer and have signed and returned it to the Contracts Team at: Resourcing-Hub@open.ac.uk .

Please give your staff reference number, if you have one, in all correspondence.

New Appointees

A telephone interview will be conducted for new appointees and those who have not been appointed in recent years.

Reserve appointments

For most modules we contract reserve tutors who may be called on to teach at any host institution where the school is being presented. The most likely time for call-up is shortly before or even after the scheduled start of the school. It is therefore important to understand that if you agree to be a reserve tutor you must be prepared and available to teach at any of the places where your school is running, and on any of the dates specified in your offer of appointment.

If you have been offered an appointment as a reserve tutor your appointment offer letter will show the current reserve retainer payment which you will receive if you are not called upon. If you are later called on to teach, you will not receive the additional retainer fee but the relevant role (tutor, etc.) fee for the number of days worked. The retainer payment is withheld should you fail to return your signed contract, or be called on to teach and the University does not receive a reply or receives an unfavourable reply.

Please show on your application form whether or not you are willing to be considered for appointment as a reserve tutor.

The teaching programme

Work at the residential school will be intensive and will include some evening duties.  You will be expected to be resident on site.  As a rule, your waking day is a full one and considerable demands are made of you as an educator and as a participant in a busy academic community.

If you're appointed to an online school, you'll be required to spend some time online every day.