News Story

27th July fourth of 50th birthday celebrations of systems teaching at the OU

Friday 6 Aug 2021

The School of Engineering and Innovation takes a broad, interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach to Engineering and Innovation. We have a long history of innovation in teaching and research critical to understanding and acting in today’s technology-dependent world. Through our teaching, research and external engagement activities we aim to make a significant impact on individuals, organizations and communities that have to design, develop, build and manage complex systems involving technologies of all kinds. Technologies are becoming more and more influential in all the things we do and our academic activity is focussed on researching, designing, implementing and managing those technologies, and communicating their key concepts through our teaching programmes.

We are a large and lively School of about 75 academic staff with an extraordinarily diverse range of knowledge and skills. Our expertise ranges from materials engineering, acoustics and energy through design and systems thinking to environmental and technology management. We work closely with colleagues in other Schools within the Faculty and University on some of our projects and programmes.

We have over 12,000 undergraduate and 1,500 taught postgraduate students studying our rich array of modules (>40) and qualifications (>20). Typically, over 10% of students are from outside the UK. The vast majority are in paid employment and studying for career development reasons. We therefore have strong relationships with employers and professional bodies to ensure that our curriculum and qualifications are fit for purpose and reflect current practice. This includes an Industrial Advisory Board whose members reflect the breadth of our work.

We have annual research and knowledge exchange income of over £3M and support around 50 full-time and part-time research students .

The School is proud to have been awarded an Athena SWAN Silver Award in 2021.

View a list of current staff and research students in the School.

View a list of former PhD students in the School.