Welcome ....

to your March newsletter, featuring the latest news from The Open University Business School (OUBS)

Headlines

The war in Ukraine – message from our Vice-Chancellor

The Ukraine crisis continues to weigh heavily on everyone's minds. As of this week, 120,000 people in the UK had registered to offer their homes to refugees. I know that there are already some in our OU community who have signed up and many are considering doing so.

The University has looked to see how we can best support Ukrainian students, refugees and the wider humanitarian effort.

We have reached out to all current Ukrainian students and staff including those in Ukraine to offer them support. We have waived all future fees for the 15 students currently in Ukraine and hardship funds are available for further support. Twelve of the 15 students contacted have been in touch – their testimonials are heart-breaking but their intent to continue with their studies is remarkable.

We have also been in touch with our Russian and Belarusian staff and students to check on their welfare and offer pastoral support. We have reviewed our partnerships and collaborations with Russian and Belarusian academic institutions to satisfy ourselves that these are appropriate in the current situation. And we have undertaken a full review of our investment portfolio to divest funds from Russian assets and to ensure that we are fully compliant with international sanctions.

Over the next few days, as a part of our UK wide effort we will be setting up dedicated pages on OpenLearn and are exploring with the Department for Education and Home Office how this could be a useful resource in the coming days and months, in the same invaluable way that OpenLearn stepped up to the pandemic.

The University will continue to do everything possible to help. Please do continue to look out for each other and of course for yourselves.

Professor Tim Blackman, Vice-Chancellor of The Open University

Research and Learning

Wanted: Your views on open digital badging

The University has a research project – known as BEAUPEEP – exploring how open digital badges can demonstrate students’ skills to employers in addition to formal qualifications. They are digital badges because this is how they are offered to learners (as opposed to pin or paper badges) and are open because they can be shared by recipients beyond the organisation offering them, for example, on CVs or through social media to demonstrate a learner’s achievements.

We would love to hear your experiences and opinions – please complete a brief online survey and/or drop in to the second of two online focus groups (called evidence cafés) on Wednesday 6 April (between 16:00 – 19:00). If you are interested in joining for all or part of this evidence café, please contact the project team for more information (putting ‘employer’ in the email subject line) via BEAUPEEP@open.ac.uk.

EPE Project – early pregnancy endings and the workplace

CONTENT WARNING

Please proceed with caution if this research topic may be upsetting for you. Here is a list of support organisations if you are affected by any of these experiences.

OUBS is hoping to drive changes in policy and practice by leading on a new project about early pregnancy endings and the workplace. The EPE Project aims to ultimately improve organisational support for women who experience termination and/or miscarriage. This is by providing evidence-based guidance for line managers and HR professionals, as well as resources for women themselves.

Professor of People and Organisations Jo Brewis is working with three OU colleagues and academics from Aston University and the University of Essex, as well as third sector organisations working on miscarriage and termination – the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) and Abortion Rights. There is an opportunity for anyone in the UK who has experienced an early pregnancy ending while in paid employment to provide their experiences – access the survey here.

The project formed part of a conference, International Women’s Day 2022: Solidarities at Work, onTuesday 8 March – follow the link for more details.

Accelerating entrepreneurship support in universities in Kenya

Senior Lecturer in Management Dr Michael Ngoasong (pictured) has secured £85,000 funding for phase two of his international partnership project, Accelerating Entrepreneurship Support in Universities in Kenya (AESU). The project, one of the winners for the British Council-funded Innovation for African Universities (IAU) programme 2021, is piloting an approach to entrepreneurship education through a blended learning programme within a virtual start-up accelerator from January – September this year.

The partnership previously received £15,000 for phase one (October – December 2021) to design the programme. A competition was also carried out in which 12 student-led start-up businesses were selected (from 44 applications) for a six-month acceleration programme in which each will receive a package of support.

Leslie’s inaugural lecture will be out of this world

Professor of Regional Economy Leslie Budd will be exploring the recent increase in public interest in space exploration and the future of using urban and regional economics for assessing its impact. His OU inaugural lecture, From Urbanite to Astronaut: The Territorial Economics of Space, is taking place on campus in Milton Keynes on Tuesday 10 May (18:00 – 19:00) as well as being livestreamed via YouTube and our webpages.

Leslie is an economist who is internationally known for his work on regional and urban economics in the context of global issues, the digital economy, the socioeconomic impacts of BREXIT and evaluating the socioeconomic benefits of space exploration. Director of the OU’s Space Exploration and Analysis Research (SPEAR) research cluster, he is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Brexit Studies, Birmingham City University.

Alumni

We are immensely proud of our alumni community and this space is an opportunity to share some of your news, a personal achievement or a promotion, so please get in touch.

Sweet times for The Apprentice winner Harpreet

You may have seen that the winner of BBC’s The Apprentice is OUBS alumna Harpreet Kaur who graduated in Leadership and Management in 2013. The 30-year-old bagged herself a cool £250,000 investment from Lord Alan Sugar by eclipsing 15 other hopefuls in the latest series which finished last Thursday (24 March).

Born in Birmingham, Harpreet’s family moved to Yorkshire where they ran a corner store. She was a bank branch manager at HSBC at the tender age of 22 while undertaking her OU degree. Harpreet now runs her own dessert parlour business Oh So Yum! (previously known as Barni’s Desserts) with her sister Gurvinder with stores in Huddersfield and Leeds and has also launched an online deliveries website.

Have you seen the OpenMINDS 2022 annual alumni magazine?

Our Alumni of the Year 2021 David Monk is among those featured on the front cover of the OU’s annual magazine for alumni, OpenMINDS 2022. David appears on the ‘FBL Focus’ double page spread (pages 10-11) as well, while Law alumnus and Windrush campaigner Anthony Brown is also on the front cover and inside (pages 16-17). You can update your contact details here if you did not receive this magazine in February.

Mark Fenton-O’Creevy, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, will be the Faculty of Business and Law’s representative as one of the speakers for an OpenMINDS Live online event on Wednesday 27 April.

Events

Careers webinar - Develop your personal brand canvas to maximise your career

Personal branding and professional innovation expert Luigi Centenaro will introduce you to the Personal Brand Canvas in this lunchtime careers webinar.

Careers webinar - How to Take Control of Your International Career Trajectory by Being Smarter, Faster, and Better than Everyone Else: 3 Distinctions That Nobody Gets Right

Global career coach Peter Hill discusses three critical distinctions that, when understood and actioned upon, will help you reach your full potential in this careers webinar.

From Urbanite to Astronaut: The Territorial Economics of Space

The inaugural lecture of Leslie Budd, Professor of Regional Economy, will be exploring the recent increase in public interest in space exploration and the future of using urban and regional economics for assessing its impact.

Stay informed of upcoming OUBS events here

Careers

Develop your personal brand canvas to maximise your career

This is followed by personal branding and professional innovation expert Luigi Centenaro (pictured) introducing you to the Personal Brand Canvas on Wednesday 6 April (13:00 – 14:00).

Downloaded by thousands around the world, this easy-to-use visual framework is designed to help people understand why they are special and how to let others know it! You will be able to perform a quality check of your current career goal and learn how to quickly design, understand and improve your professional image to make a ‘big name’ for yourself.

Take control of your international career trajectory

Are you looking to gain international experience? Do you already have a global career and want to lay the foundation for your next job search? The careers webinar for May is an early evening event on Thursday 5 May which is taking place from 18:00 – 19:00 (GMT).

Global career coach Peter Hill (pictured), who has lived and worked internationally himself for 17 years, has more than 20 years’ experience supporting thousands of business professionals representing more than 140 countries. He has identified three critical distinctions that, when understood and actioned upon, will help you realise your full potential.

If you were crazy busy, here’s what you missed…

You may have been too busy (!) to catch our latest careers webinar but don’t worry as there’s still an opportunity to catch it. Leadership coach and speaker Zena Everett shares practical tips to help you handle those crazy busy days in ‘Crazy busy: How to work less hours and be successful’.

Alumni Services

We have a range of exclusive offers for our OUBS alumni. Click the buttons to find out more. Remember, you can access our career webinar recordings on our website along with a whole range of online careers articles.

Thanks for staying connected, take care

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