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Welcome ....
to your November newsletter, featuring the latest news from The Open University Business School (OUBS)
Ahead of the United Nations International Volunteer Day on Saturday 5 December, we would like to say a massive THANK YOU to all our alumni who generously give their time to support each other, students and the OU mission.
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Thursday was the start of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an international campaign to challenge violence against women and girls. Initiated in 1991, this campaign runs every year from 25 November (the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to 10 December (Human Rights Day).
An OUBS-led webinar on Tuesday (30 November) evening from 19:30 will hear the views of former, current (including Labour MP Jess Phillips) and prospective UK politicians of what they can do to contribute towards a reduction in gender-based violence. The webinar will begin with a personal account from Julie Aunger who lost her daughter to a domestic homicide. The politicians will then take questions from the Chair (OUBS Policing academic Dr Anna Hopkins and OU Professor Simon Usherwood), which will be followed by an opportunity to ask your own questions to the panel relating to gender-based violence. Find out more and book now.
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OUBS has been granted a Bronze ‘departmental’ award following our recent Athena SWAN submission to Advance HE. This internationally recognised gender equality charter acts as a catalyst for change and cultural transformation for staff and students.
The University currently holds an institutional Bronze award, while OUBS is the first school outside of the OU’s STEM faculty to secure an Athena SWAN award.
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James Cullens has succeeded long-serving Maggie Miller as chair of our International Advisory Board (IAB). A founder member of the IAB, which was established in 2008, James (pictured) currently works between London and Montréal in Canada and previously has lived and worked in the former Soviet Union, Hong Kong and New Zealand. He has wide experience of higher education which includes being an OU alumnus. Read more on James, Maggie (our Alumni of the Year 2020) and the IAB here.
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The Future Leader Fund is a scholarship for the first two modules of the MBA for someone with the potential to be a future leader. Please make your work colleagues, friends and family aware that applications for 2022 are welcomed – further details here. Entries must be submitted by early January 2022, with the beneficiary announced in February and their studies due to start in May.
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The OU aims to raise £40,000 for the Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund (DVSF) through The Big Give Christmas Challenge matched funding campaign. The first £20,000 of donations made through The Big Give – which runs from midday on Tuesday (30 November) to midday on Tuesday 7 December – will be doubled at no extra cost to supporters. That means any support will have twice the impact for military heroes, helping them to rewrite their futures after medical discharge. Last year’s fundraising target was exceeded in raising £45,000 thanks to the incredible support of the #OUfamily, giving more disabled veterans the opportunity to receive scholarships and start their learning journeys with the OU. Find out more.
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The UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, better known as COP26, in Glasgow earlier this month. OUBS recognises that sustainability is of the highest importance and so please check out a webpage which showcases our sustainability-related news and events from 2021, including from the recent Scottish summit. There is also some of the School’s research activity and research projects including those of our doctoral students. The School’s actions reflect a commitment to meeting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) which were created in 2015 – from writing sustainability into our curriculum, to encouraging good practices in the workplace and at home, and by undertaking meaningful research with practical outcomes.
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The OU is part of the Soteria: Bluestone 2 project which is seeking to improve the investigation and response to rape and serious sexual offences (RASSO), bringing together leading UK academics to work alongside police officers. The research will mirror the methodology of Bluestone 1 with Avon and Somerset Police but with four new forces on board – The Metropolitan Police Service, Durham Police, West Midlands Police and South Wales Police. Our Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), led by Principal Investigator Dr Emma Williams (pictured with some of the team), will explore the relationship between the training delivered in the four forces for those involved in RASSO investigations, their developmental requirements and how these are identified, learning experiences and officer wellbeing. Read more here about the team and what they will be working on, plus a recent news article.
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The OU was a winner in the OE Global 2021 Open Education Awards for Excellence, thanks to OpenLearn’s response to the pandemic. OpenLearn was named as winner of The Open Resilience Award, introduced to recognise exemplary leadership and open educational practices implemented in the context of Covid-19. The OU’s digital learning platform helped ‘empower more than 2.7 million people to enrol and learn through free online courses…. (and that it had) cemented its parent university’s reputation as a global pioneer in distance learning and showcased its academics’ cutting-edge research’
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Microcredentials are industry-endorsed online courses designed to help learners quickly build in-demand career skills. Another recent addition to the undergraduate level Business Management suite will be starting in late March 2022, hosted on the OU’s partner platform FutureLearn.
Business Management: People Management and Leadership focuses on the key skills that allow managers to lead the workforce in ways that are inclusive, ethical, and holistic. Learners will gain in-demand skills to effectively lead, coach and mentor others. This 10-week course encourages managers to reflect on their own identity and on the biases that often shape decision-making in managing people, including recruitment and selection, so that effective leadership is achieved. The lead academic is Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies Dr Cinzia Priola.
The course is the sixth in the Business and Management suite of microcredentials, which also includes Project Management, Finance, Marketing Principles and more – the full OU offering is available here.
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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.
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MBA alumnus Keith Grinsted started the ‘Goodbye Lonely’ social enterprise at the end of 2020 after struggling with loneliness himself. This has since helped countless people, some who were close to suicide, nervous breakdown or exhaustion. Now his not-for-profit organisation is offering free group Zoom calls to anyone who is on their own this festive season. Running from the start of December to New Year’s Day, some of the calls are serious – managing loneliness – and others are more fun with brainteasers, ghost stories and even a visit from Father Christmas! Please join the Goodbye Lonely Facebook group if you would like to support others, or would like help yourself – the festive schedule is available here.
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Emily joins to lead on enhancing the OU’s brand and reputation
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An MBA alumna has been appointed as the OU’s Deputy Director of Communications, within the Marketing and Communications (MarComms) team. Emily Towers (pictured) will be responsible from January for promoting the OU’s brand and reputation across all target audiences and channels, as well as providing strategic advice to senior leaders and the board on communications and reputation management. She has held a number of senior roles within the UK Government’s communication services, most recently at the COP26 UN climate change conference. Emily said: “I’m a big fan of The Open University. I found the experience of studying for my MBA really rewarding and empowering. I am delighted to now have the opportunity to further promote the brand and reputation of the University.”
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How can politicians contribute towards reducing gender-based violence?
This webinar, co-chaired by OUBS Policing academic Dr Anna Hopkins, will hear the views of politicians on what they can do to contribute towards a reduction in gender-based violence.
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Leadership…Rebooting | The 19th International Studying Leadership Conference
Are leadership studies as relevant as they could be to the problems of our world? Does it need a reboot and if so, how drastic should this be and in which directions should we channel change?
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Key tips on CVs that win interviews and interviews that win offers
In this session, Alison Edmonds will use her vast experience of working with job searching executives to cut to the chase and explain what you need to focus on to write a CV that will get you an interview.
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The free lunchtime webinars exclusively for our alumni will continue in the New Year on Wednesday 26 January (13:00 – 14:00). Executive careers coach and entrepreneur Alison Edmonds (pictured) will explain the key areas you need to focus on to write a CV that will get you an interview. Once you have secured the interview, she will then explain how to answer competency-based and other tricky questions, before highlighting a key free resource to help you ace the interview.
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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.
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Thanks for staying connected
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Best wishes
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OUBS Alumni Engagement Team
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The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302). The Open University is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in relation to its secondary activity of credit broking.
The Open University (OU) Business School’s Stakeholder and Alumni Engagement team works with the OU’s Development Office to keep in touch with alumni, partners and supporters. Our privacy policy sets out how the OU obtains, manages, uses and protects your data and relates specifically to information held by both Offices.
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