Research at The Open University

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Faculties and institutes

The Open University is home to a thriving and broadly based research community centred around our faculties and institutes. All are conducting research that has been recognised as world-leading or internationally excellent.

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Faculties and institutes

The University has a flourishing tradition of research across academic boundaries, which is supported by our Open Societal Challenges themes, as well as other interdisciplinary and inter-faculty research activities. For example, Citizenship and Governance, Technology Enhanced Learning, International Development, Health and Wellbeing and Space.

Faculties of The Open University

Arts and Social Sciences

Conducts world leading and internationally excellent research which spans the Arts, and research in Social Sciences which engages with today’s most significant social issues.

Wellbeing, Education, and Language Studies

Engages with practitioners, policy-makers, service users and the wider academy to create a research powerhouse that impacts radically on practices, policies and public debates, in the UK and globally.

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

Strategic research areas in the Faculty include Space; Data Science; Technology Enhanced Learning; Stress Engineering and Smart Cities. It is one of Europe’s premier research centres for space science.

The Open University Business School

The School’s research mission is to undertake user-focused research in the fields of business, management, and accounting and finance so that it provides a strong evidence base to inform practice.

The Open University Law School

Our law academics publish, broadcast and act as consultants on a wide range of legal themes. They conduct research of the highest calibre, and offer exciting research opportunities for full-time and part-time postgraduate research students.

Institutes of The Open University

Institute of Educational Technology (IET)

IET research is at the core of the OU’s continuing success in teaching and supporting hundreds of thousands of students studying at a distance, and has had significant impact on open education worldwide.

Knowledge Media Institute (KMi)

KMi conducts pioneering research into the generation, understanding and sharing of knowledge in different media. It encompasses innovative and ground-breaking technological developments affecting education today and keeps the OU at the forefront of ‘blue skies’ research development in these areas.