The Open University (OU) is the largest UK University, with over 250,000 students (www.open.ac.uk). Students are from the UK, Europe and beyond. The OU is open to people, places, methods and ideas and is committed to widening participation in higher education and social justice. The OU has a long tradition of working with other organisations and a proven track record in developing and maintaining research partnerships. The OU supports a vibrant research portfolio and fosters research teams who compete with top ranked institutions worldwide. External funding for research and enterprise continues to grow and is now well over £20M per annum.
The Centre for Education and Educational Technology (CREET), is a specialist research centre with a strong applied focus which helps to ensure its impact upon policy and practice. CREET’s multiple projects have included research into aspects of education and educational technology, such as language and literacies, creativity, digital technologies and teacher development. Many of these have sought to engage practitioners as co-participant researchers and have involved professional associations and other educational organisations in order to enhance strategic dissemination, enabling research to make more of an impact on national and international policy and practice.
