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Business and Law in the time of COVID-19

The current pandemic has brought both threats and opportunities, overturning economic and social norms but also pointing towards new ways of doing things. In the OU’s Business and Law Schools, our response has been: what can we learn?

This series of reflections on the pandemic highlights how management and legal insights from research and scholarship can help us consider and interpret the current context. How can business and the institutions that support it respond to the challenges, adapt and hopefully look forward to a post-pandemic world?

The impact of Covid-19 on staff in UK higher education

A research project, funded internally by The Open University, explored how the pandemic impacted academic and professional staff in higher education throughout the UK.

2nd September 2022

Self-employment: what is it, why do it and how has the pandemic affected it?

Professor Elizabeth Daniel discusses the lasting legacy of the pandemic on self-employment and homeworking, the ‘passionpreneur’ and describes how mental load is affecting self-employed women.

28th January 2022
A photo of a woman crouched down and covering her face on the floor

Domestic homicides remain stable during lockdown but still an enduring problem says new report commissioned by police

Domestic homicides remain an ‘entrenched and enduring problem’ despite figures remaining relatively stable during lockdown, a new report drawing on research by an OU academic and commissioned by police has found.

26th August 2021

Innovation adopted during COVID-19 is now “business as usual” according to OU research

The Leading school learning through COVID-19 and beyond project, led by Dr Jacqueline Baxter, together with Dr Katharine Jewitt and University of Reading colleague Professor Alan Floyd, are investigating online learning and strategic planning through, and post, lockdown in English secondary schools.

21st July 2021
Wedding rings

Impact of COVID-19 on weddings reinforces need for marriage law reforms, experts say

Coronavirus disruption to weddings has highlighted the complexity and antiquity of marriage law and reinforced the need for reform, a new study shows.

16th June 2021
image of outside building with lots of windows

OUBS academic to present at OU’s Covid-19 research seminar

OU-funded projects which have aimed to improve and support aspects of online learning and education during the pandemic are being showcased on Thursday 27 May.

20th May 2021
Illustration of cartoon person looking out of a large oval window at a tall building

Resetting trust in work

The pandemic cast a spotlight on much-hyped corporate purpose statements. In the glare of scrutiny, when the chips were down, organisations saw an uncomfortable question come to the fore: were they living up to the ideals they espoused? Some clearly weren’t.

6th May 2021
Illustration of cartoon person cutting off the 'in' of inequality with a sword

Resetting equality in work

Since the beginning of the first lockdown, what has become painfully, obviously, clear was that while we might all be in the same storm, we are in very different boats – and some have sprung a leak.

31st March 2021

The value of small and local charities …. in a big crisis

The Centre for Voluntary Sector Leadership (CVSL) is part of a research team, funded by the Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, which has launched The Value of Small in a Big Crisis report. 

5th March 2021
Image of Dr Jamie Woodcock

OUBS expert speaks to House of Lords Covid-19 Committee’s inquiry

Dr Jamie Woodcock made several recommendations when he was invited to give oral evidence at the House of Lords Covid-19 Committee inquiry. 

2nd March 2021

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PhD Studentships

The Open University Business and Law Schools also invite applications for a number of full-time funded PhD studentships beginning 1 February 2021 on ‘Responding to COVID-19 and the Climate Emergency’.