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The University’s central headquarters is at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, and it has 13 regional and national centres located in other parts of the United Kingdom. Walton Hall accommodates the central academic staff, the educational technologists and the administrative and operational centre of the University.
Registered research students are attached to an academic department housed within one or more of the University faculties.
The teams supporting research across the whole institution are listed below:
The Research Degrees Office is the main point of contact for research degree students. You can contact this office on +44 (0)1908 654882 or email research-degrees-office@open.ac.uk.
The Research Grants and Contracts Team provides expertise and support for the development and submission of research grants and contracts.
The Innovation and Enterprise Team supports the OU’s growing portfolio of ‘third mission’ activities and the management of intellectual property growing out of research.
The Policy, Governance and Information Team has responsibility for managing our liaison and consultation with external policy bodies on matters relating to research and enterprise. It also manages the ethical conduct of research at The Open University.
The Research Career Development Team is responsible for providing the framework for researchers at all stages of their career life cycle.
The research degree programme is administered by the Research Degrees Office.
Decisions about the admission, registration and progress of individual students are taken on the basis of recommendations from supervisors. The Associate Dean Research (or equivalent) is accountable for the progress of postgraduate students in their faculty. Policy for the programme is formulated by the University’s Research Degrees Committee, which makes recommendations to the Senate through the Research Committee. The Research Degrees Committee includes representatives of the University’s faculties and research degree students (one full-time and one part-time).
