News & articles

Open University research into the benefits of creative writing to support the wellbeing of staff working in busy hospital wards has led to the creation of a hospital Writer’s Nook.

At the 80th United Nations General Assembly in late September 2025, Dr Alexandra Okada from The Open University, presented groundbreaking research on education in crisis. Speaking at "From the Margins to the Centre: Transforming Education Systems Where It Matters Most," she challenged a fundamental assumption, that children affected by conflict, displacement, and climate emergencies need only academic recovery.

The Women and Equalities Select Committee has recently published its final report on female entrepreneurship, calling for urgent action to tackle deep-rooted gender inequalities in business funding, mentorship and enterprise support.

At UNESCO's Digital Learning Week (2 - 5 September 2025), Dr Alexandra Okada, Associate Professor in Global Education and Digital Transformation at The Open University, introduced upSkill.Map, a self-assessment framework helping researchers develop beyond disciplinary boundaries.

A team of researchers from The Open University has been appointed to lead a new national project mapping Scotland’s Fair Access landscape, following a competitive selection process by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and The Robertson Trust.

The Open University celebrates at The Open Education Awards for Excellence as Dr Alexandra Okada is shortlisted in the Leadership category (Open Researcher), and CONNECT's CARE-KNOW-DO pedagogical model wins in the Open Pedagogy category.

This month’s research image of the month (October 2025) captures Dr Angeliki Lymberopoulou’s research, which explores how Byzantine paintings and icons reveal cultural exchange, social identity, and religious ‘policing’.

In academia, the open access movement has often been framed as the answer to making research more inclusive and equitable. By removing paywalls, it offers the promise of greater accessibility to knowledge.

Open University researchers have joined forces with industry to develop a model to make it possible to provide personalised treatments for cancer.

US president Donald Trump’s claim that pregnant women should avoid paracetamol – a statement that is both harmful and not backed by the science – fits into a long and damaging tradition of blaming parents, especially mothers, for autism.