New OU/BBC show asks what went wrong to create Britain’s housing crisis?

Senior Lecturer in Finance at The Open University (OU) Business School, Michael Oliver, is the lead academic consultant for a new two-part OU / BBC co-production about Britain’s broken housing market.

Britain's Housing Crisis: What Went Wrong? traces the national and international movements that have resulted in a so-called housing crisis in the 2020s. With spiralling prices and record rents, it asks key figures to reveal the roots of the crisis including how did we get here and what could happen next?

Originally airing on BBC2, you can now watch both episodes on BBC iPlayer. 

The OU Connect website has extensive resources and information on topics related to this series, including exclusive interviews from government and housing market experts discussing the UK housing market including Mervyn King (pictured), who was Governor of the Bank of England for a decade.

The Met Season 4 out now

Following on from its highly successful first three series, OU / BBC co-production The Met is back with a fourth series on BBC One. It follows the work of Britain’s biggest and busiest police force as they deal with life, death, crime and its victims all across the capital.

Dr Nicky Miller, Director of Knowledge into Practice in the Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), based in the Faculty of Business & Law, was one of the academic experts consulting on this series, along with OU colleague Professor Louise Westmarland, Professor of Criminology. Dr Emma Williams, Academic Director for CPRL, who led on the research that supported development of the government’s new national operating model (NOM) for the investigation of rape and serious sexual offences which launched in July, has also been a main contributor to the programme.

Filmed over ten months, The Met follows police investigations into some of London’s most serious cases: from complex homicides to human trafficking, sexual crimes and criminal gangs as well as responding to emergency calls. Across six episodes, the series captures the challenges of policing the capital at this unprecedented time.

This series began on BBC One on Tuesday 24 October and episodes are available on BBC iPlayer. Viewers can also explore additional online resources related to the series on the OU Connect Broadcast website. These resources include additional interviews with senior officers about the challenges and future of modern policing.

Black leadership programme to launch 2024

As we celebrate and honour Black History Month, Dr Fidèle Mutwarasibo, Director of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership in the OU Business School, has revealed that the OU’s Black Leadership Empowerment Programme (BLEP) will launch as a pilot in Manchester in February 2024.

The programme, developed by the Business School, emerged in response to racial inequalities exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and highlighted in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests’ call for racial equity.

Learners will be guided to develop skills in leadership communication, influence, problem solving, and building and maintaining coalitions for change. Modules will be delivered through a blend of online and in-person learning which will be via a network of learning hubs where students will have the chance to meet and share their experiences, learning from one another and working together to produce Black leaders of the future in business and in the community.

In this video, Fidèle discusses the course which includes 150 hours of free learning on OpenLearn and two bespoke leadership programmes developed exclusively for BLEP. He said: “The programme will explore how we can be more effective in calling for change and fighting for change.”

OU researchers call for scrutiny of employment leave for early pregnancy endings

Professor Jo Brewis has co-written a new research paper revealing the inequalities in employment leave for early pregnancy endings.

The paper, was published during Baby Loss Awareness Week, found that parents facing an early end to pregnancy can be entitled to differing degrees of paid leave depending on where they live. It also says that workplace policies primarily focusing on miscarriage can lead to stigma surrounding pregnancy endings, prompting a call for a more equitable approach based on physical recovery needs.

Jo Brewis, Professor of People and Organisations in the OU’s Business School, said: “This research is significant because it is, as far as we are aware, the first to analyse the different inclusions and exclusions generated by laws in England and Wales and around the world regarding paid employment leave and the status of the foetus or baby. We call upon policymakers to carefully evaluate the implications of new proposals regarding employment leave for pregnancy endings.”

The new research paper was co-written by Professor Jo Brewis and Dr Victoria Newton, from The Open University, in collaboration with Dr Aimee Middlemiss at the University of Plymouth, Professor Ilaria Boncori at the University of Essex, and Professor Julie Davies at University College London.

The paper is based on the Early pregnancy endings and the workplace project led by Professor Jo Brewis. This project is supported by the OU’s Open Societal Challenges Programme, which aims to tackle some of the most important societal challenges of our time through impact-driven research.

Multi-million pound project to manage extremist views

The Business School’s Senior Lecturer in Strategy Despoina Filiou, and former Law School colleague, Simon Lee, are part of an international project tasked with developing new tools to manage extremism.

The OppAttune project, funded by the European Commission’s Horizon Europe programme, has received £2.72m (€3.16m) to help manage the development of extremist views at home and abroad in the run-up to major political events.

OppAttune includes developing a tool designed specifically for key target audiences to enable more productive democratic debate. The plan is to have a free self-test toolkit, known as I-Attune, which will allow people to assess three key aspects – their own susceptibility to extremism; their capacity to tune into other positions; and their ability to sustain dialogue in highly polarised situations.

How smaller businesses can become net-zero influencers and enablers

Richard Blundel, Professor of Enterprise and Organisation, and Director of the Centre for Social and Sustainable Enterprise (CSSE), has written an article about how smaller businesses can become net-zero influencers and enablers.

In his article, he asks “What if all of the UK’s 48,000 hairdressing salons and barbershops started sharing water and energy-saving advice with their clients, alongside a clipper cut or a wash and blow dry?”

He said: “Recruiting smaller businesses to support the drive for net zero makes a lot of sense. More than half of the UK’s business emissions are estimated to come from its 6 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs – companies with less than 250 employees). As the authors of a recent OECD report argue, there’s “no net zero without SMEs”.

SHORT COURSE SPOTLIGHT: Understanding financial statements

Demystify financial information and develop your knowledge of financial reports and accounting concepts with this 10-hour online course.

You’ll learn how to describe general purpose financial reports and explain the terms assets, liabilities, revenue, expenses and equity. You’ll also discover the difference between a profit and a cash surplus, be able to use a balance sheet to estimate the net worth of an organisation, and explain how the three financial statements fit together and provide management information.

This course can be started at any time and you can work at your own place. You’ll acquire transferrable skills that are relevant to many organisations and you’ll receive a digital badge and certificate upon completion.

James returns to campus for exclusive donor event

James Markey, MBA student and one of the winners at this year’s prestigious Santander X Global awards, visited the OU campus in Milton Keynes to speak at OpenDoor Live, an event celebrating OpenDoor, a magazine created especially for donors and supporters.

James shared a behind-the-scenes video of his life as an entrepreneur, revealing that his bank balance was at zero in 2017. He talked about using his garage as storage space and showed his colleagues unboxing the first virtual reality simulators that were ordered from a client.

During his speech, James also spoke about his first ever business pitch at the OU’s Open Business Creators Fund, which offers grants to students setting up a business, where he won £1,000 to purchase much needed equipment.

When asked what brought him back to study his MBA with the OU, James extolled the virtues of life-long learning when he said: “My MBA is the secret of life. No one knows what they’re doing, no matter what job or position they’re in. We always need to learn, all of the time.”

A five star review for our first ever Uber-funded graduates

Business and Law students were among 11 from across the UK who became the first to receive OU degrees fully funded by Uber at a graduation ceremony in London on Friday 22 September.

Uber partnered with the OU in late 2019 to give eligible drivers, or a nominated member of their family, the opportunity to access higher education with their fees fully funded by the company.

Graduates studied a range of subjects including Business and Law, as well as Maths and Psychology, with drivers fitting in their studies around working flexibly on the Uber platform.

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Coaching Skills for Leaders and Managers

Tuesday 21 November 13:00 - 14:00

Most leadership experts agree that leaders and managers would benefit from learning more about psychology.

This webinar will introduce you to the psychology which sits behind the practice of coaching, and the reasons why coaching is effective. In the webinar, Kim Morgan, CEO of Barefoot Coaching Ltd, will share a few simple and easily applicable coaching techniques which will help you to motivate, support and lead your teams, and to develop your own range of leadership behaviours.

The power of quiet leadership: A case for a quieter approach

Tuesday 5 December 10:00 -11:00

In the Global North, leadership is often seen as a very extroverted activity, with many leadership courses promoting this idea by endeavouring to engage students in a range of extroverted activities.

But a good deal of research indicates that those who tend to the more introverted side of things can bring a great deal to leadership positions.

In this webinar Jacqueline Baxter, Professor of Public Leadership and Management at The Open University Business School, discusses what quieter approaches to leadership can bring to the table, and how to encourage introverts to take up leadership roles.