#OUGradSch25

A green lawn with people sitting out on a sunny day. A stately home in the background.

A green lawn with people sitting out on a sunny day. A cafeteria in the background.

A crowd of around 70 people standing in the foyer of a library, looking up and smiling.

A crowd of around 70 people standing in the foyer of a library, looking up and smiling. A gold tree made of Open University Shields is on the wall.

We're excited to welcome our Oct #OUGradSch25 PhD cohort to campus today! We can’t wait to hear about their research journeys.
On Fri, we’ll also welcome Professional Doctorate students.
Also welcome to the first PhD by Distance Learning cohort!
@oulibrary.bsky.social @openuniversity.bsky.social

Black and white pen image of a world surrounded by little faces interspersed with exclamation marks in triangles and a net. Other symbols surround: a CND symbol, a surveillance camera, a computer and a phone.

Finally, we welcome Karishma Raghupati joining Computing and Communications in the Faculty of STEM,
‘Investigating the Impact of Learner Behaviour on the Outcomes of Security Awareness Training Programs among Adult Population in Work-Based Settings.’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of the Africa continent labelled ‘The Quest for a United and Borderless Africa’.

Welcome to Sethunyiwe Oitsile, joining the School of Social Sciences and Global Studies to work on a PhD called
‘Navigating Economic Integration in the Southern African Customs Union: An Analytical Study’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a stick figure with question marks above their head at a building labelled ‘School’. A dotted line links to a happier stick figure with ‘!!??’ above their head at a building labelled ‘University’. A dotted line links to a happier stick figure with ‘!!!???’ above their head next to a mug labelled ‘Beer’. A dotted line links to a series of linked tanks labelled ‘Brewing’. A dotted line drinks to a happy stick figure with ‘!!!!!?’ above their head with some graphs/charts labelled ‘Computers’ and ‘Data. A dotted line links to house with solar panels on it and a little unit labelled ‘Raspberry Pi’ inside. A dotted line links to a happy figure with ‘!!!’ above their head looking at connected tanks labelled ‘Fountain’. A final dotted line links to the words ‘What if?’.

The route to his Engineering and Innovation PhD in ‘Hydroelectric power generation’ took Jon Kirby via university and brewing beer #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a computer with mouse and keyboard. On the screen there are pie charts and graphs and the words ‘Strategy’ and ‘Problem solving’ above. A figure below has two boxes coming out of their head: one with question marks, the other with scrawling shapes labelled ‘clueless’.

Welcome to the School of Computing and Communications, Mercy Williams! Mercy's project is ‘Business analytics as organisational problem solving’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a row of houses with the sun shining above. 6 stick figures stand in front with smiles and their arms up. A thin rectangle sits underneath them and then a large question mark.

Love this image from Rebecca Stockman, starting her PhD in Engineering and Innovation on '‘The role of communities in affordable housing provision’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a racing track surrounded by people and a rectangle indicating 2 exits. Text reads ‘164,000 people all trying to leave Silverstone at the same time’ with an unhappy face.

Hello Kevin Amor starting a PhD in Engineering and Innovation in the Faculty of STEM with a project on ‘Applications of Agent-Based Modelling to Traffic Systems’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a person behind bars labelled ‘Prison No Hope’ with a road leading away labelled ‘way to prison education’ with a person on it holding a degree certificate saying ‘Graduation 2:1’. Then a road leading away labelled ‘way home’ going to a family group.

Hello @sarahb-r.bsky.social joining the School of Social Sciences and Global Studies with her research project: ‘Is prison education in England and Wales fit for the purpose of gaining employment?’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of an open book labelled ‘Strategy’. Lots of images and text and a magnifying glass picking out the word ‘Climate ?’.

Welcome to Neville Kent joining the Business School with a research project entitled ‘Textual Analysis in Finance and Accounting’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a robot with a light bulb above them and the text ‘AI can help people!’

A positive message from Fateme Filome, joining the Business School @openuniversity.bsky.social with her research project 'Innovation and Organisational Change in the advent of Artificial Intelligence’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image entitled ‘Always dream big’. ‘From Sialkot to the United Kingdom’. A star with ‘we did it abu’ inside it with an arrow pointing to a stick figure ‘Abu (grandpa)’ saying ‘my little lawyer’. On the right-hand side, a stick figure of a girl labelled ‘Little Arwa’ and an arrow labelled (Pakistan) pointing to a sad stick figure with different boxes around her labelled ‘CSS’, ‘Bio’, ‘Physics’, ‘STEM’ and ‘Math’. Then an arrow labelled with a plane and ‘UK’ pointing to a stick figure labelled ‘Brunel Uni, London, LLB’. An arrow then goes to a happy stick figure labelled ‘WvW Uni, Wolverhampton, LLM’ and then an arrow goes to another happy stick figure labelled ‘OU University, Milton Keynes (PhD)’

Hello to Arwa Bukhtiar joining the Law School @openuniversity.bsky.social with a research project entitled ‘Justice in the Digital Age: A Comparative Analysis of Gender-Responsive Legal Approaches to Combat Technology-Facilitated Violence Against Women & Girls in the EU, UK & Australia’ #OUGradSch25

Black and white pen image of a mountain range at night with moon and stars in the sky. A tent is pitched with a small campfire.

Welcome to Faye Davies joining Physical Sciences in the Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics @openuniversity.bsky.social. Her project is entitled: ‘Comets under the microscope: fundamental geochemistry in the outer reaches of the early solar system’ #OUGradSch25

A man stands in front of a powerpoint presentation with some people sitting in the audience.

A woman stands in front of a powerpoint presentation. A jumble of words appear on the screen saying 'excited' 'anxious' 'ok' and other words.

A restaurant with people sitting at tables talking.

A restaurant with people sitting at tables talking.

At start of Feb, we welcomed 23 new PG research students to the @openuniversity.bsky.social. As traditional we welcomed them by inviting them to draw images of their research inspiration, posted here tagged #OUGradSch25.

@geologyclare.bsky.social @oulibrary.bsky.social @pacespaceou.bsky.social