Shortlisted for research into gender pension gap in THE Awards 2024

An OU academic has been shortlisted in this year’s Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2024 for research into the gender pension gap.

Dr Rajiv Prabhakar, Senior Lecturer in Personal Finance in The Open University's (OU) Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,  has been shortlisted in the THE Awards 2024 Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year category, which recognises the most innovative and original initiative in knowledge exchange or transfer.

 Dr Prabhakar used OU teaching materials to create an outstanding knowledge-exchange on the lack of recognition for the gender pension gap. This research makes huge steps towards addressing gender inequalities in retirement, which outstrip inequalities in pay.

Having won a Parliamentary Academic Fellowship at the House of Commons Library through a national competition, Dr Prabhakar wrote a briefing paper which records that there was no official definition of the gender pension gap.

On hearing about being shortlisted for this award, Dr Prabhakar said:

“I am thrilled to be on the shortlist for the Times Higher Education 2024 Knowledge Exchange award. I used my teaching on DB125 You and Your Money to drive a project at the UK Parliament on the gender pension gap. This is a very important issue, and my shortlisting shows national recognition of the excellence of personal finance teaching at The Open University.”

This work created a new research area within Parliament and contributed to an important national debate about the gender pension gap.

The winners will be announced and awarded on 28 November 2024 at the ICC in Birmingham.