News & articles

The UK remains a nation of homeowners, with two-thirds of all dwellings belonging to the people who live in them. But as interest rates swiftly rise, there are fears that many of those households will soon find their mortgage payments unaffordable.

Vladimir Putin has formally signed a treaty annexing four Ukrainian regions into the Russian Federation. The Russian president announced, at a ceremony in Moscow’s Red Square, that the incorporation of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in the south and east of Ukraine, into Russia is the “choice of millions of people” who share a “common history” with the Russian Federation.

There can be no adult in the western world who hasn’t heard of Star Wars nor seen the out-of-this-world props and costumes from Stormtrooper uniforms to other equally ubiquitous items.

UK chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng has just launched the biggest package of tax cuts in half a century. This will involve around £45bn of reductions for people and businesses by 2027 – 50% more than anticipated before the mini-budget announcement.

More than 250 Open University staff, students, funders and partners came together in London last night (22 September 2022) to celebrate OU research.

The Open University hosted Professor John Butcher’s inaugural lecture on 13 September 2022.

New research findings have provided important new clues as to how the inner Solar System, including Earth, acquired its water and organic-rich components - the essential building blocks for all life.

The OU’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation, Professor Kevin Shakesheff, is playing a national role in accelerating the replacement of animals in research with the launch of the 2022-2024 Strategy for the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).

An OU academic has received funding to take part in research which looks at how children are affected by growing up in what are considered, disadvantaged areas.

The chance of someone being killed by space junk falling from the sky may seem ridiculously tiny. After all, nobody has yet died from such an accident, though there have been instances of injury and damage to property. But given that we are launching an increasing number of satellites, rockets and probes into space, do we need to start taking the risk more seriously?