News & articles

During the Troubles, a harrowing 30-year conflict over the constitutional status of Northern Ireland, music opened up alternative ways of understanding identity.

Alan Shipman, Senior Lecturer in Economics at The Open University, explores why the US economy is continuing to grow faster and generating more new jobs than Europe.

When a student can’t submit their essay because the household’s only device is being used by three siblings for school, or because their mobile data ran out mid-lecture, they are experiencing digital poverty.

Researchers from The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology have received international recognition at the 2026 EDEN Annual Conference in Porto, with two papers shortlisted for the prestigious EDEN Best Research Paper Award and one selected as the overall winner.

The Open University has been awarded £130,000 from The Leverhulme Trust to support a major new research project, entitled: ‘Musically Stuck: immobile musicians and mobile music between Tunisia and Europe’.

As the world turns its attention to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, a major new Open University research project has secured £201,665 from the Swiss National Science Foundation to examine how football crowds, police forces and stadium authorities interact during high-profile matches and how these interactions can be managed more safely and effectively across Europe.

Researchers from The Open University, working with colleagues from University College London and Diamond Light Source, have revealed in a new paper how seemingly simple salts on the surface of the Solar System’s icy moons can provide important clues about their interior workings.

A new publication from the Commonwealth of Learning, authored by Professor Sara de Freitas and Professor Denise Whitelock at The Open University's Institute of Educational Technology, offers timely guidance on the responsible use of conversational agents in tertiary education

In their inaugural lectures on 23 June 2026, Professors Victoria Nicholas and Francesco Crea explored how the right support helps Open University students thrive, and how changes in how cells read DNA can drive cancer — and how this knowledge is opening the door to more precise treatments.

A new Open University research project, Music as Cultural Refuge, has been awarded £186,751 by the Arts & Humanities Research Council to explore how young people in Northern Ireland used music to navigate the emotional and social pressures of the Troubles.