Inaugural lectures

Professor Devendra Kodwani, Executive Dean of The Open University’s Faculty of Business and Law, introduced the OU's 50th anniversary inaugural lecture series with a lecture on lifelong learning and the role of universities, on Tuesday 28 January 2019.

In his inaugural lecture on 17 July, Professor Derek Matravers explored the dilemma of how to protect culture and heritage in war zones, while making human life a priority.

In his inaugural lecture on 26 June, Professor Richard Holti presented cases from the construction and sexual health industries on new models for organising which draw on in-house expertise and creativity.

At a time when Brexit negotiations reveal the potential confusion of assuming a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach across Europe, an OU academic described the perils of this approach worldwide.

The power of learning analytics to predict the best learning approach for students, was outlined by Bart Rienties in his inaugural lecture on Tuesday 30 January 2018.

Millions of children could fail at school due to an obsession with individual assessment, literacy skills and the right kind of behaviour, according to an OU academic.

Professor Cathy Lloyd delivered her inaugural lecture in July 2017 on Diabetes and Depression: A Tale of Three Cities, in which she highlighted the link between diabetes and psychosocial problems such as depression.

Professor Shailey Minocha’s inaugural lecture on Virtual worlds for real experiences took place on Tuesday 20 June 2017.

The demands that literature makes on readers, was addressed by Professor Richard Danson Brown in his inaugural lecture on Shall I Compare Thee? Poetry, Education, Seduction, on Tuesday 6 June 2017.

The need for judges, lawyers, law students and the general public alike, to keep an open mind in legal affairs, was highlighted by OU Professor Simon Lee in his Open University inaugural lecture on Thursday 4 May 2017.