Working with us as an academic

We support our academic staff throughout their career and many spend their entire career here and benefit from the flexibility, study and research leave and research opportunities afforded by our way of working.

We were the highest ranking higher education institution in the 2010 Sunday Tmes Best Companies to Work For list for the public sector. Become part of the OU success story, working in a wide variety of academic or administrative roles in Milton Keynes or throughout the UK.

Visit our jobs page.

Research opportunities

Our academics do world-leading innovative research and development. Our research also influences global policy and enriches lives.

Our research attracts significant funding. Some sizeable grants are:

• £560,000 from the Economic and Social Research Council to explore the efficiency of medicine suppliers in Tanzania
• £472,000 from the National Environment Research Council to measure tropical wetland methane emissions
• £400,000 from the European Commission to continue researching the surveillance society
• £16m Higher Education Funding Council for England catalyst grant for MK:Smart, an OU-led consortium of local and national partners in a significant Big Data initiative

Research excellence

The Research Excellence Framework 2014 shows that research undertaken at The Open University is both world-leading and has impact in the real world.

The OU has demonstrated significant successes across its 18 submitted Units of Assessment.

Key successes are:

• OU research ranks in the top third of UK universities using the Times Higher Education Power Score
• 72% of the OU research submitted was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*)

Read more about our research.

Support for academics

Our academics benefit from the following support and facilities:

• The University has been awarded the 'HR excellence in research' badge from the European Commission in recognition of its commitment to supporting its researchers’ career, personal and professional development and management
• We are also committed to researcher career development and are signatories to the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers and our continuing professional development programme for academics and researchers is informed by the Vitae Researcher Development Framework
• We offer unrivalled expertise in distance learning and associated technologies and state-of-the-art laboratories
• We offer a wide range of online information resources
• Library Services provide dedicated research support to enable you to manage your research profile and disseminate your publications and data.