News

The Open University’s Director in Ireland, John D’Arcy, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s 2020 Birthday Honours for his services to Education and the Arts.

John has been The Open University’s National Director for Ireland since 2010, running its Belfast and Dublin offices. He is also a member of the University’s Council and Senate. In recent years, he has also worked as interim Director for The Open University in both Scotland and Wales.

The Open University is pleased to announce the provision of 250 places on a range of online courses for those across Northern Ireland who have been furloughed or made redundant as a result of COVID-19.  Fully funded by the Department for the Economy, the places will provide participants the opportunity to secure a qualification which will enable them to be considered for roles in cybersecurity, business management, technology and environment and more.

The Open University are offering places across several postgraduate level courses including:

Organisations from Northern Ireland are estimated to have spent over £30 million¹ on temporary staffing to bridge skills gaps over the last year, despite 18 per cent making redundancies to cut costs in the wake of COVID-19.

In a further attempt to create quick fixes to the fallout from the pandemic, over half of employers from Northern Ireland (56%) report that their organisation’s survival is dependent on their ability to manage costs, according to The Open University Business Barometer.

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The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (Ireland) recently held their first ever Creative Writing Competition and were delighted to announce the winners at a virtual prize giving ceremony held on 30 June, 2020.

The event was chaired by coordinator Dr Jennifer Shepherd (Department of English and Creative Writing), who thanked students for their enthusiastic support of the event, including participation in the writing master-classes offered in the run-up to the contest deadline.

UK organisations anticipate that it will take 18 months to fully recover from the disruption of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent social distancing measures, with small businesses leading the way back to “normal”.

A survey of business leaders and managers by The Open University has found that SMEs expect to recover to their pre-COVID status in 15 months, with larger organisations trailing behind by a further 6 months¹.

11-year-old Tiernán Eviston from County Meath has been using his time in lockdown very wisely. Tiernán hasn’t stopped learning and has already completed 11 online courses from The Open University’s free learning site OpenLearn ranging from ‘An introduction to sustainable energy’ to ‘Square roots and powers’.

The Open University’s campaign to mark its 50th birthday has been announced as a winner in the Chartered Institute of Public Relations 2020 excellence awards.

The Open University’s campaign, #OU50, took the title in the Education category, beating off stiff competition from universities, including Swansea University, University College London, and University of Oxford to win this prestigious award.

SMEs are currently facing unprecedented challenges; it has never been more difficult to run a local business and more support is needed than ever before to help them through these tough times. The world-leading and flexible online learning institution, The Open University, has partnered with Invest Northern Ireland to provide local SMEs with free training and the learning resources they need to re-power their businesses.