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Research at The Open University

You are here, ou phd funded opportunities are live for 2025 start dates.

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Opportunities to do a PhD at The Open University (OU) in 2025 have opened for applications, spanning multiple subject disciplines.

The OU Graduate School welcomes applications from candidates across a broad range of research areas .

Training future research leaders

Pooling experience and resources with other universities, research organisations and industry partners, the OU is developing the research leaders of the future.

Some examples of current partnerships are:

Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership (OOC-DTP) (Partners: University of Oxford and University of Cambridge)
The Central England NERC Training Alliance (CENTA) (Partners: University of Birmingham, University of Leicester, Loughborough University, University of Warwick, Cranfield University, British Geological Survey and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)
The Grand Union: Excellence and innovation in social science research training (GUDTP) (Partners: University of Oxford and Brunel University London)
Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Science Landscape Award (ILESLA) (Partners: University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, The Pirbright Institute, Diamond Light Source and ISIS Neutro and Muon Source)

Wide-ranging research topics

Some topics available to research because of these collaborations are around veganism; Britain in the world; dementia; technology; energy; sustainability and policing.

Apply by January 2025

As the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible learning, the OU is renowned for taught undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. What is not so widely known is that the OU offers PhDs and Professional Doctorates too, and dozens of funded studentships for 2025 have just gone live with closing dates in January 2025.

Structured training for students

The OU Graduate School encompasses a community of around 900 postgraduate research students (PGRSs) at our campus in Milton Keynes and around the globe. We offer fully funded studentships via routes that include Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) and Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), providing a structured training environment for cohorts of students.

Diverse community of research students

OU research students are supervised by academics who are leading experts and benefit from a comprehensive programme of research skills training with access to laboratories with state-of-the-art equipment .

"The Open University's diverse community of research students are the lifeblood of the university's research programme as well as helping to combat society’s most pressing societal challenges,” said Professor Clare Warren, OU Graduate School Director.

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OU PhD funded opportunities are live for 2025 start dates 4th December 2024

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During the first year, different modules and workshops will be taught. By the end of this phase, participants have written a research proposal under supervision of a field academic experts from OU. The goals of Phase I of the programme:

Learning to formulate a scientifically relevant research proposal related to one of the research topics of Management and Science (OU)
Developing academic skills and an academic attitude, necessary for conducting PhD research.

During Phase II the PhD student conducts the research and writes the dissertation.

Internal or external PhD candidates

PhD candidates can be employed full-time by the faculty, but the faculty also offers aspirant PhD candidates who are employed elsewhere the opportunity to obtain their PhD part-time. These so-called external PhD candidates are not a part of the faculty but their projects are supervised by professors of our faculty. Research questions for a PhD project should match one of the areas of interest of the research programme of the faculty.

Distance learning or part-time programme

External PhD candidates can do their PhD research as a regular external PhD student of the OUNL, in which case they do their research mainly by distance learning, of course in close collaboration with their supervisor and promotor. Once admitted as an external PhD student, they become a member of the OU Graduate School . Read more on the regular external PhD programme .

The faculty also offers the possibility to choose the part-time PhD programme in management. The part-time PhD programme combines distance learning with periodic inhouse workshops and meetings. Read more on the part-time PhD programme in management .

Onderzoek Managementwetenschappen
Onderzoeksprogramma
Part-time PhD programme
Research areas
Selection criteria
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