Between 2008 and 2015, I was working as a human rights lawyer in various refugee detention centres in Greece. Due to the fact that the Greek state was not providing any legal aid for detained asylum seekers the burden of the provision of free legal aid was on very few NGOs.
OU academic Victoria Canning’s recently published book Gendered Harm and Structural Violence in the British Asylum System draws together analyses of policy with domestic and international legislation relating to refugee status and torture, alongside the lived experience of women seeking asylum.
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.
In February’s theme, “Open To Places”, I would like to highlight a hidden place that most people do not tend to see or speak about in their everyday lives: A British immigration detention centre.
The OU is just starting its ‘Year of Mygration’ 2018, highlighting the ways in which the university is open not only to places, people and methods, but also the ways in which these are all implicated in mobility and migration.
As we come towards the end of our month of contributions on being ‘Open to People’, it is time to reflect on the Open University’s consistent highlighting of migration’s underlying issues.
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.
This month’s (April 2025) research image of the month is from Dr Dan Taylor. Dan told us all about his vibrant research and how it is reflected in this colourful research image of the month picture.