The OU’s Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology comprises the Faculty of Wellbeing Education and Language Studies and the Institute of Educational Technology. Its vibrant Research Environment was scored 100% 4* and its research was ranked 2nd in the UK for ‘Research Power’ in REF 2014 with 80% of Impact at 3*/4*. CREET is home to the UK’s only Regius Professor in Open Education and the OU's largest group of postgraduate research students. It offers a compact and cohesive research community with many opportunities for interdisciplinary, collaborative and participatory research.
This concentration of research strength in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) links to research expertise in the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and the Learning and New Technologies Research Group (LNRTG) at Oxford's Department of Education, creating opportunities for co-supervision and shared student-run events.
The +3 route is for students with a Master’s degree that meets the 2015 ESRC Training Guidelines. The +4 pathway is for applicants who require further training in research methods. Both are available for full-time and part-time students.
Further information about PhDs at The Open University can be found here.
The Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) projct builds on a network of universities, institutions and individuals from across the entire continent. TESSA has developed Open Educational Resources in four languages to support school-based teacher education and professional training. TESSA has been awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education and the WISE award at the World Innovation Summit for Education. Successor projects, such as TESS-India and English in Action are also dedicated to the effective educational use of digital technologies in developing countries.
In the UK, CREET hassupplied research, pedagogy and policy expertise to the BookTrust in a Knowledge Transfer Partnership aimed at helping that organisation capitalise on the potentials of digital technology.
LNTRG projects are also run in partnership with non-academic partners, including the Kenyan Ministry of Health and AMREF. These and other projects offer opportunities for both short and long-term research assistantships.
