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Welcome ....
to your February newsletter, featuring the latest news from The Open University Business School (OUBS)
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One down, two to go, for triple crown reaccreditation
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We have maintained our Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) international accreditation. OUBS has been awarded with a five-year reaccreditation as AACSB formally ratified the outcome of their visit in November 2020. This is one of the three premier accrediting organisations for business schools worldwide and makes up a third of our prestigious triple accreditation status. Full story here. There will be no resting on our laurels, however, with EQUIS set for a four-day virtual visit from 13-16 April, followed by AMBA’S two-day virtual visit on 17-18 May.
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Opportunity to nominate for Alumni of the Year accolade
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The deadline for nominations for the Alumni of the Year Award is Friday 26 March – and don’t forget, you can also nominate yourself! The quest is to find an alumnus or alumna who is outstanding in their field, is making a difference or an impact on society, and is a positive ambassador for The Open University Business School. Please visit our website for further details and a nomination form before sending us your submission(s).
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Engaging employees key for Learning at Work Week Impact Awards
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OUBS is a proud supporter of Learning at Work Week, the biggest festival of workplace learning in the UK. This support is part of Executive Education’s partnership with Campaign for Learning, a national not-for-profit organisation that promotes lifelong learning. The Learning at Work Week annual awareness campaign has taken place every May since 1999 and last year was no exception. The 2020 Impact Awards saw Severn Trent and NOCN Group win our ‘Supporting Business & Organisational Goals’ Impact Awards in the Large Organisation and SME categories, respectively. Full story here.
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Reach a wide audience in our new FBL Perspectives blog
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OUBS and our sister Law School are jointly known as the Faculty of Business and Law (FBL). A new blog site has been developed to showcase the latest news, views and events of our academics, students, alumni and stakeholders – known as FBL Perspectives. ‘Alumni’ is one of the four distinct sections together with our ‘Business and Law in the time of Covid-19’ online series, a focus on our ‘Research’ and updates from our ‘PhD Students’ all featuring. Please feel free to email via FBL-Engagement if you would like to contribute in any way.
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Bjorn and Henry are now bringing you The Bottom Line
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An eight-part series of the OU/BBC collaboration The Bottom Line is now on Radio 4 with Dr Bjorn Claes (Senior Lecturer in Operations Management) and Dr Henry Lahr (Senior Lecturer in Finance) as the new OUBS academic consultants. The business conversation programme with people at the top giving insight into what matters is again presented by honorary graduate Evan Davis (pictured). Broadcast at 20:30 every Thursday and repeated on Saturdays at 17:30, the podcast is available on the Radio 4 website following transmission with more content via OpenLearn.
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In support of International Women’s Day
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With International Women’s Day on Monday 8 March, you can view some of our research and engagement work to support this worldwide movement for women’s rights here. A few examples are highlighted below.
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Sign-up for our lunchtime and evening events on 8 March
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Dr Cinzia Priola (pictured), Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies, is the OUBS representative for what promises to be a thought-provoking discussion around the role of women in research and how women at the OU are making a difference with their research today. Women in Research: Making a Difference to the Wider World on Monday 8 March (12:30 – 13:30) is being led by Professor Josie Fraser, the OU’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor – registration and more details here.
Birkbeck College academic Lynne Segal is regarded as one of the most important feminists of our time. Later that same day (18:30 – 19:30), she will be making the case for a politics of care – for care to be at the heart of all aspects of contemporary life – with some of her colleagues from the Care Collective. Presented by OUBS research cluster Gendered Organisational Practice, registration and further details on Lynne Segal: The Politics of Care here.
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Furthering the menopause in the workplace agenda
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Jo Brewis (Professor of People and Organisations) is working together with academic colleagues to further the menopause in the workplace agenda. She was the expert speaker for a recent Business Network Briefing to discuss ‘Why menopause is a workplace issue’. With mid-life women the fastest growing group in the UK workforce, there is a chance to watch again this online event which clarified why menopause is a workplace issue and what employers should do in response.
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Reclaiming STEM-professional women’s space
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Dr Stefanie Ruel gave a high-profile talk about her research centred on STEM-professional women’s exclusion in the Canadian space industry. This was as part of the International Astronautical Federation’s Global Networking Forum (IAF GNF) Space Conversations Series on 10 February, celebrating International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021. The OUBS Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour (pictured here on a simulated surface of Mars) was a Mission Manager at the Canadian Space Agency, leading more than 10 life sciences missions into space before moving to academia. Stefanie spoke on the ‘how’ of women’s exclusion in management and executive positions in this industry and about her research, which aims to create awareness surrounding women’s systemic discriminatory experiences and to help ‘reclaim their space’ in this sector. This live event, which included a question and answer session, can be watched again here.
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The sums add up on our latest accounting course
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Professionals looking to improve their understanding of management accounting can get some help with the launch of OUBS’ latest bite-size course. Business Management: Fundamentals of Management Accounting is open for enrolment with the 10-week short course starting on Monday 29 March. Hosted on the OU’s partner platform FutureLearn, leading OUBS academics have designed this to be accessible for all levels of financial skills and confidence. It is aimed at managers, professionals and entrepreneurs – not just those with accounting responsibilities – to give a broader understanding of management accounting techniques. For more information, including how to register, here.
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It should be an easy decision to visit OpenLearn
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A new course on OpenLearn from Teaching Fellow Kevin Amor, ‘Decision trees and dealing with uncertainty’, introduces basic ideas of probability. The five-hour level three course focuses on dealing with uncertainty in a financial context and explores decision trees, a powerful decision-making technique, which can help to simplify and formulate business decisions. The OU also has home learning hubs on OpenLearn – available here – aimed at sixth form (or the equivalent – years 13 and 14, or S6) and college-age students (16+). The home learning resources for Business, and Law, related subjects are here.
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Help build the future with our three degree apprenticeships
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OUBS delivers three degree apprenticeship programmes – the Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA), Senior Leader Master’s Degree Apprenticeship (SLMDA), and the Police Constable Degree Apprenticeship (PCDA). The OU is once again England’s largest provider of degree apprenticeships (based on 2019-20 stats). It was England’s National Apprenticeship Week (it was also Apprenticeship Week Cymru/Wales) earlier this month with the official theme of ‘Build the Future’.
A case study showcases our partnership with North Yorkshire Police to collaboratively design and deliver the PCDA, and Degree Holder Entry programmes. These represent two of the three new routes into policing from 2020, introduced under the Police Education and Qualification Framework (PEQF) by the College of Policing.
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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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Have you seen the annual OpenMINDS alumni magazine?
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The 2021 edition of the OpenMINDS alumni magazine is introduced by the OU’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tim Blackman, and has a wealth of interesting news and information. See the full online version here with two pages dedicated solely to Business and Law (check out ‘FBL Focus’ on pages 10-11).
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Fiona wins a free copy of Brooker’s book
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Fiona Bristow from London is the winner of our recent book competition – she wins a copy of ‘Jump Now! Lead solution focus collaboration to accelerate sustainable results’. Author John Brooker is an OU MBA alumnus who tutored part-time for 14 years on the ‘Creativity, Innovation and Change’ module as part of the MBA programme.
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Webinar for more successful job hunting inside two hours
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The fifth in a series of free lunchtime webinars exclusively for our alumni is on Wednesday 17 March (13:00 – 14:00). ‘How to use the 2 hours job search method for successful job hunting’ is based on Steve Dalton’s book, The 2-Hour Job Search. It will show you how to work smarter (and faster) to gain first interviews, bringing organisation to what is all too often an ineffectual and frustrating process. Facilitator Sarah Jackson (pictured) is passionate about developing people and helping them reach their potential. Sarah has been an experienced career development professional and coach for the last seven years of a portfolio career. Further details on the event, the speaker and to register here.
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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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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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