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Welcome ....
to your November newsletter, featuring the latest news from The Open University Business School (OUBS)
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Some notable successes in prestigious national awards
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It’s been quite a week for the OU in university awards organised by national media outlets. There were two category wins in the Guardian University Awards 2020, announced on Wednesday (25 November). These were in Research Impact for the online citizen science platform nQuire and Widening Access and Outreach for providing 35,000 Uber drivers and their families the opportunity to study undergraduate programmes for free.
The Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2020 were held last night (Thursday). The OU may have missed out on becoming the University of the Year but Hugh McFaul from our sister Law School was ‘highly commended’ in the Most Innovative Teacher of the Year category. Hugh is a Senior Lecturer and Co-Director of the Open Justice Centre.
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Maggie deservedly wins our Alumni of the Year accolade
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Global business technology leader and CIO Maggie Miller is the OUBS Alumni of the Year Achievement Award winner for 2020. The current chair of the OUBS International Advisory Board (IAB), Maggie is now also a Practice Tutor on the Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship (SLMDA).
Maggie, who graduated in 1993, said: “I owe the OU a huge debt of gratitude for my success. Having left full-time education at 18, the OU MBA gave me the knowledge and confidence to build my career in multinational organisations in the UK and the US. Receiving this award makes me even more grateful to the incredible staff and academics of this organisation that I’m so proud to be associated with.”
Two more alumni – Astrid Bessler and Mike Redford – were also ‘highly commended’. Astrid, who completed her MBA in 2015, is now part of Ernst & Young’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services team in London to fulfil her aspiration of working on sustainable and high-impact international aid programmes. Mike, who completed his MBA in 1997, is helping the disabled and an ageing population through his role as CEO of Sweden-based AddMovement AB. The company was chosen by the EU as one of the top 10 Sustainable Mobility Start-ups in 2018 for one of its products, AddSeat.
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Rachel joins the panel for diversity and inclusion webinar
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Award-winning MBA alumna Rachel Blackburn is one of three experts who will be contributing their views and answering questions at a webinar next week. ‘How can business schools help to build more racially diverse businesses?’ is on Wednesday 2 December from 16:30 – 17:30. Rachel (pictured), whose US2U consultancy helps organisations with diversity and inclusion, will be joined by Dr Habib Naqvi MBE, Director of the NHS Race and Health Observatory, and Executive Dean of FBL and Head of OUBS Professor Devendra Kodwani who chairs the OU’s Race Equality Charter steering group. For further details and to register.
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Please back The Big Give and support our military heroes
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The OU aims to raise a life-changing £40,000 for the Disabled Veterans’ Scholarships Fund (DVSF) through The Big Give’s Christmas Challenge. Thanks to match-funding, the first £20,000 in donations from midday on Tuesday 1 December to the following Tuesday (8 December) will be doubled. This means any support will have twice the impact for military heroes wanting the opportunity to rebuild their lives through education. Last year’s fundraising target was exceeded as a fantastic £45,000 was achieved. There is more about the DVSF and how it is making a difference to veterans here.
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Nominate your Future Leader Fund candidates
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A scholarship known as the Future Leader Fund is available for the first two modules of the MBA. Please make your work colleagues, friends and family aware that 2021 applications are welcomed for those with the potential to be a Future Leader – further details here and how to apply. Entries must be submitted by early January 2021, with the beneficiary announced in February and their studies due to start in May.
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Exploring ethics and leadership in the voluntary sector
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This year has provided significant challenges for leadership within the voluntary sector. An interactive lunchtime webinar from our Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) is being led by Dr Nik Winchester, Senior Lecturer in Management and Head of PuLSE (Department for Public Leadership and Social Enterprise). ‘Ethics and Leadership in the Voluntary Sector’ on Friday 11 December (12:30 – 14:00) will explore the sometimes fraught relationship between leadership practice and ethics. For further details and to register.
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Free short course on companies and financial accounting
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Senior Lecturer in Accounting Dr Carien van Mourik has authored a new free course on the digital learning platform OpenLearn. Companies and financial accounting, adapted from the OUBS course Financial accounting in context (B293), introduces learners to the legal characteristics of limited companies and how limited companies raise finance through ordinary shares and loan capital. It also introduces the interests of company stakeholders, and looks at three different perspectives on companies and their role in society.
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Research to support workplace inclusion of migrants in Italy
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Dr Cinzia Priola is part of a €25,000 project, funded by the CRT Foundation in Torino, to investigate the experiences of migrants in the workplace in the Aosta Valley region in Italy. The 12-month project which begins in December also includes four colleagues from the University of Aosta Valley. It is one of the outcomes of a virtual visiting professorship the Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies held at this university earlier this year. For the full story.
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Wider recognition for our Covid-19 response online series
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The ‘Business and Law in the time of COVID-19’ online series is one of the innovations showcased by the Global Business School Network (GBSN) as part of its GBSN Beyond celebrations – see its Innovation Showcase Virtual Hall. Our online series launched in July to highlight the range of ongoing Covid-19-related research, scholarship and public engagement activities in the Business School and our sister Law School. Alumni contributions are welcomed - if you have any questions, please email Marcus Crawley.
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Noel plans to hit the right note before the festive break
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There is the opportunity to hear from a professional jazz musician who is also the Associate Dean for Marketing and Recruitment at Teesside University in a lunchtime webinar on Monday 14 December (12:30 – 13:30). Noel Dennis uses jazz as an alternative lens to examine strategic leadership and marketing management issues and will argue that, now more than ever, organisations should develop an improvisatory mindset. This event is being hosted by the OUBS Social and Responsible Marketing research cluster – for further details and to register.
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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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Tillmann has the perfect antidote to winter blues
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MBA alumnus Tillmann Henssler is an invited speaker for the Global Diversity and Inclusion Summit organised by AACSB, one of OUBS’ three accrediting bodies, next month. He will be discussing how business schools can build relationships with industry to promote inclusive initiatives on Wednesday 9 December (17:15 – 18:15 GMT). The other speaker for ‘Cultivating a Position at the Intersection of Academia and Industry’ will be the Dean of Delaware State University, Michael Casson. This continues a memorable few weeks for the AACSB Influential Leader 2019 as Berlin-based Tillmann works for Pfizer as a Sourcing Manager in Procurement.
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Have you checked out the networking group on LinkedIn?
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Please consider joining the OUBS Postgraduate Alumni Network group on LinkedIn if you are not already one of its 11,000 plus members.
Hervé Doan, who is Head of Quality Transport & Logistics at Airbus, has posted his own short article, together with a TED Talk video from one of his colleagues at Airbus, Christophe Debard. Aviation is one of the industries hardest hit by the global pandemic.
There are now 25 weekly podcasts from Craig Smith and The Big Picture People, all featuring an interview with a leading practitioner, consultant or thought leader. These podcasts are aimed at professionals working in employee engagement and internal communications as well as organisation development, learning and development, and HR.
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Free webinars to help take charge of your career
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All recordings are now available for the first three in a series of free lunchtime webinars exclusively for our alumni, in association with The Career Farm. Author, vibrant speaker and learning facilitator Rhian Sherrington discussed how to get more confidence and keep it in the most recent one. The first two webinars – how to take charge of your career (which introduces the Career Maximiser Programme) and how to network online to make connections – are also available if you missed them first time. The series will resume in the New Year with further webinars in February and March.
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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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Best wishes
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OUBS Alumni Engagement Team
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