OU bolsters Ukraine support package

One year on since the conflict began in Ukraine, and The Open University has further expanded its raft of support for those forced to migrate to the UK as a result of the war. Several new support initiatives, which have been created in partnership with Kings College London, have been announced.

The initiatives include a new stream of scholarships for students from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus who are displaced because of the war, as well as a partnership between the OU, Kings College London and Citizens UK looking at how best to implement the government’s Homes for Ukraine visa scheme, which allows those displaced by the war to seek sanctuary in the UK.

These new measures are in addition to the previous wider package created by the OU which includes free OpenLearn resources, the launch of a free Ukrainian Language and Culture course and resources for Ukrainian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to support more accessible learning for refugees.

Workplaces more supportive for people experiencing menopause

Jo Brewis, Professor of People and Organisations at The Open University Business School, has published an article for The Conversation highlighting the progress made in UK workplaces to support those experiencing menopause and exploring what more can be done. This follows a story in The Guardian, in which Professor Brewis was quoted extensively, about the government’s rejection of proposals to provide special protection for menopause under the Equality Act (2010).

In her article she says that things have progressed considerably in the workplace, as menopause has become much more of a topic of public conversation thanks to women in the public eye including Davina McCall, Meg Matthews and Mariella Frostrup. Only 10% of organisations had support for menopausal staff in 2018, but 2022 data indicates that 30% now offer some sort of awareness raising, guidance or policy.

Jo also attended a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on menopause at the House of Commons in January, which was a roundtable discussion on menopause as experienced by people in various forms of legal detention (for example, in a police cell, on remand, or in prison post-conviction), and to scope what we need to understand better about these experiences.

Read the full article.

MBA alumna in AACSB’s 2023 Class of Influential Leaders

Zoë André-Lawson is one of 25 business school graduates selected by AACSB International (AACSB), the world’s largest business education alliance, as part of its 2023 Class of Influential Leaders. This annual initiative recognises notable alumni from AACSB-accredited business schools whose inspiring work serves as a model for the next generation of business leaders.

Based in Switzerland, Zoë is a serving member of the Business School’s Alumni Council and completed her MBA with distinction in 2015. Now a senior scientist for Johnson & Johnson (having previously worked for CERN), and an active member of the Women in Pharma communities, she is a role model for women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) through her work with various professional and civil society organisations. 

Read more here.

New PolicyWISE Director joins Business School

The new Director of PolicyWISE, the OU’s major new public policy initiative launching later this year, will be part of the Business School. Although based in the OU in Wales, Dewi Knight (pictured) will head up a small team whose academic home will be in the OU’s Faculty of Business and Law.

Having been the Policy & Public Affairs Manager for the OU in Wales earlier in his career, Dewi rejoins from the Welsh Government where he is Specialist Adviser for Education Reform.

PolicyWISE will be the UK’s first academic network to lead policy research and knowledge exchange across the four nations of the UK and Ireland, taking a deliberately comparative approach to public policy-making in post-devolution, post-Brexit UK. The OU has been awarded £1m in funding from Dangoor Education for its launch and development over four years.

BBC Two’s 'Parole' supported by OU academics

A new series on BBC Two, Parole, is the latest OU/BBC co-production to have been supported by The Faculty Of Business And Law. Academic consultants to the series Dr Neil Graffin, Senior Lecturer in Law and Dr Sophie Doherty, Lecturer in Law, are both from the OU’s Law School, sister School to OUBS.

Parole goes inside the high-stakes world of parole hearings, where prisoners’ and victims’ and/or their families’ futures hang in the balance.

Filmed over a year with Parole Boards from across England & Wales, this series tackles the fundamental questions underlying the British justice system around crime, punishment, reform, rehabilitation, repentance, and morality, and ultimately puts the viewer at the centre of the debate.

The five-part series began on 20th February on BBC Two at 9pm and will be available via BBC iPlayer after transmission.

Latest report on work taking place in Policing

The Centre for Policing Research and Learning (CPRL), based in the OU’s Faculty of Business of Law, published its Annual Report 2022 this week, giving a great insight to the programme and its activities, outputs and achievements during 2022. CPRL is a partnership of more than 80 academics working collaboratively with 24 UK police agencies to create and use knowledge to improve policing for the public good.

Jean Hartley, Professor of Public Leadership in The Business School, is the Centre’s Academic Director and said: “The collaboration has lively, ambitious problem-solving research projects, education and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes, and knowledge into practice to improve policing for the good of society. The report gives some examples of our work and impact in each area in 2022."

OU awarded sum to support European sustainability project

The OU’s Social and Sustainable Enterprise (SSE) research cluster is part of a new Horizon Europe-funded €10 million project also involving 20 partners from all over the continent including universities, research centres, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The three-and-a-half-year project on the development of a European Network of Research Infrastructures for CO2 Transport and Injection (ENCASE) started in January.

Academics from the Open University Business School (OUBS) will develop and evaluate social innovation labs, processes and initiatives to integrate the research infrastructures in local communities.

Francesca Calo, Lecturer in Management in OUBS, is the principal investigator for ENCASE with the OU’s share more than €350,000. She said: “These social innovation labs will help develop co-creation initiatives involving different stakeholders including the public sector, non-profit organisations and local communities. The co-creation processes and resulting projects will focus on environmental sustainability and integrating seven research infrastructures in their local contexts.”

Research on SMEs cited in two Net Zero policy reviews

Findings from a recent study by Richard Blundel, Professor of Enterprise and Organisation at the OU, and colleagues from the Energy Saving Trust have been cited in two recent reviews.

The team’s work was featured in the Climate Change Committee’s Progress Report to Parliament and subsequently quoted in ‘Mission Zero’, the independent review of the UK’s Net Zero policy conducted by Chris Skidmore MP, which was published in January. Their study calls for a number of changes to accelerate the Net Zero transition including a stronger framework to address small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) decarbonisation and better knowledge-sharing between national, regional and local initiatives.

Mission Zero also drew on evidence that Richard collated on behalf of the Zero Emissions Enterprise (ZEE) Network, a multi-disciplinary grouping of more than 60 researchers working in this area.

Richard leads the Business School’s Social and Sustainable Enterprise (SSE) research cluster, which addresses the connections between entrepreneurial activity, innovation and the transition towards more environmentally and socially sustainable ways of doing business.

The Big Green Money Show is back!

Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden and Felicity Hannah talk to some of the world’s biggest business names about climate change and sustainability in the return of The Big Green Money Show. Academics from The Open University Business School Ali Ataullah (Professor in Finance) and Rodion Skovoroda (Senior Lecturer in Finance) have remained as the academic consultants for this OU / BBC co-production 10-part series.

The first 30-minute version is broadcast on Radio 5 Live at 05:00 on Friday mornings and is then available as a longer 45-minute version on BBC Sounds.

SAS recruit Faye makes final four

The Business School’s Alumni of the Year 2018, Faye Banks, was one of four finalists to make it to the end of the latest season of SAS: Who Dares Wins – Jungle Hell, which pushes the recruits to their physical and mental limits in the toughest challenge on television.

Although the 43-year-old mum of two from Leeds (pictured) didn’t officially pass the course, she was among the final four remaining from the initial 20 brave souls who headed to the Vietnamese jungle and made it to the last episode which aired on Tuesday (21 February). MBA alumna Faye said: “This was the most brutal environment I have ever experienced, unfamiliar surroundings, with no control over anything. I let go of everything and just embraced the experience.”

Faye grew up in a turbulent family environment, involving alcoholism and physical abuse, and was taken into care aged nine. She moved between 50 different emergency placements in the space of two years before leaving the care system aged 16. After resitting her GCSEs, Faye’s OU studies helped her become an engineer and she now works as Director of Operations at an international electronics firm.

OU alumna is finalist in Study UK Alumni Awards Greece

Kerenza Vlastou, an OU MBA alumna, has been announced as a finalist in the Study UK Alumni Awards 2023, which celebrate the outstanding achievements of the UK’s international alumni around the world.

Kerenza, who has a BA in Leadership and Management gained in 2013, has been nominated in the Social Action category which recognises alumni who have made an exceptional contribution and commitment to creating positive social change and improving the lives of others. Areas of work include: reducing inequality, poverty and hunger, education and upskilling, and peace and justice.

The awards which will be hosted by the British Council in Greece and will take place at a ceremony in Greece on Wednesday, 15 March 2023 at 19.30 UK time, where winners will be announced. The Alumni Awards shine a light on the impact that alumni of UK higher education institutions are making in their chosen field and how this was sparked by their studies in the UK.

Read more about Kerenza at the British Council in Greece website. 

Dr Sadia Ahmed inspiring a love of lifelong learning

OU PGC graduate and Alumni Council member, Dr Sadia Ahmed, has recently contributed a blog with the Institute of Directors, one of the Business School’s professional membership organisations, in which she credits her success to her “curious mind and commitment to lifelong learning”.

Sadia, Climate Change and Environment Ventures Lead at Deloitte, is a part of the new generation of members of the Institute of Directors and CMI (Chartered Management Institute). As an experienced researcher with a demonstrated history of working at the forefront of innovation and business development and with a background in academia, Sadia is an influential and inspiring role model for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). 

In her blog, she describes how she believes translating fundamental research, technology and new ideas can help businesses deliver a more positive impact on people and the planet.

Maria Chenoweth’s new second-hand fashion store

Maria Chenoweth, CEO of sustainable clothing charity TRAID and OU MBA alumna, was recently interviewed on Channel 4 News as part of its London Fashion Week coverage and featured in The Guardian thanks to her new second-hand clothes department store. Charity.Super.Mkt is a retail space Maria masterminded alongside former Red or Dead designer Wayne Hemingway. 

The article explores the rise of second-hand fashion in the UK, with stylists working with the likes of Harry Styles championing this consumer shift.

Having worked with the Business School since 2019, Maria is also a Visiting Fellow with the Research into Employment, Empowerment and Futures (REEF) academic centre of excellence at The Open University where she is developing innovative module content on transition to a green economy. She recently presented at the REEF Climate Day at the OU’s campus in Milton Keynes where she discussed Charity.Super.Mkt as well as TRAID, a UK charity working to tackle the negative socio-environmental impacts of production, consumption and waste in the fashion industry.

Image - Maria is pictured left, with her colleague Leigh

Supporting diverse new motherhoods for work inclusion

This Webinar aims to explore how communities and policies can support the work inclusion of new motherhoods. Understanding the experiences of diverse new motherhood and how communities have taken initiatives to support them and encourage work inclusion is crucial. 

Find out more including how to register here.

Leading, engaging and building relationships with multicultural teams

How to develop and succeed in a multicultural setting can be a challenge. In this webinar, Michael Faust, an international board level leader in several top brand multinational corporations, and also coach, author and entrepreneur will give his top tips on how to thrive in an international setting. 

Register here.

Outstanding personal profiles and cover letters

Executive careers coach Alison Edmonds will demonstrate how to stand out with an outstanding personal profile and cover letter. 

Register here.

Level up your next job search with Workmaze's MBA recruitment guide

The Workmaze MBA recruitment guide is designed as a starting point for your job search. Developed to help you reduce time-consuming company research, the guide can help answer initial questions including:

• Which companies have MBA recruitment schemes?

• What are their recruitment deadlines?

• For companies that don’t have a scheme, how do they recruit ‘experienced hires’?

• Which recruitment agencies should I be contacting?

The guide lists the top 100 global companies recruiting experienced MBA calibre hires with contact information and a brief overview of how each company recruits. Workmaze keep information up-to-date by checking company websites and speaking to key HR contacts.

Explore the guide