The Open University is a world leader in modern distance learning, the pioneer of teaching and learning methods which enable people to achieve their career and life goals studying at times and in places to suit them.
In 2013, 3,900 young people were permanently excluded from secondary schools in England. The most common reason for these children to be removed from the mainstream school system was persistent disruptive…
Landing a spacecraft on a celestial body, whether it be the moon, Mars or a comet, is not easy. The European Space Agency found out the hard way in 2003 when its robot Beagle2, which was supposed to send…
As a headline, “No gas leak on the International Space Station” ranks alongside recent news stories, such as “Mild earthquake in North Texas – no damage reported” and “No-one hurt in bedroom fire”. But…
Pretty much all of us work with computers these days. The problem with computers is that while they can complete complex calculations and recall distant details, they’re terrible at sensing how you’re…
A recent US survey commissioned by the children’s books publisher Scholastic found that 65% of 6-11 year olds prefer to read print books even when e-books are available on tablets. In the UK, a National…
After three deranged men murdered 17 people in Paris over the course of three days, millions took to the streets to express solidarity with the victims’ families and friends, intolerance of hatred and…
It has been widely reported that NHS accident and emergency departments are facing a crisis. Demand for A&E services appears to be soaring at the same time as austerity measures continue to bite. This…
The Twittersphere is abuzz about the news on Monday that ISIS or their affiliates are suspected of hacking and compromising the US Central Command’s official Twitter account. As of Monday afternoon in…
The problems currently crippling the NHS and social care are not happening in a vacuum. The A&E crisis and the critical lack of beds are related to politicians’ love for large-scale, rapid and untested…
With somewhere in the region of 1.3 billion users, Facebook is the largest ever internet social engagement phenomenon. With so many people interconnected through the site, information can speedily propagate…
Rugby players are starting to glance enviously at the other football’s English Premier League, which is heading for its first £1 billion transfer season with prices for top players rising towards £100m…
Whether Bond can be black or not is a debate that has rumbled on past the pre-Christmas Sony hack revelations that Idris Elba was proposed as the next Bond. Kanye West waded in just before the new year…
A parliamentary bill proposing that the UK allocate 0.7% of its GDP for international aid has led to the usual criticism levelled against international aid: that in times of austerity, the country can’t…
There is no doubt that 2014 was a fantastic year for planetary sciences – the high points were the successful landing of Philae on comet 67P, the discovery of methane by the Curiosity rover on Mars and…
Looking back, 2014 was not a good year for keeping things safe under digital lock and key. If a score was being kept, it might seem that the cybercriminals are in the lead, despite the valiant efforts…
While the full picture has yet to emerge, it appears that the reason for the loss of Air Asia flight QZ8501 is different from the losses of MH370 and MH17 earlier this year. MH17 was clearly a man-made…
Stunned, open-mouthed, horrified. How else to describe the events in Glasgow three days before Christmas as a council refuse lorry ran out of control in George Square in the heart of the city? It mounted…
Just a couple of years ago, driverless cars were viewed as little more than a geekish techno-fantasy. But the entry of tech behemoth Google has produced an autonomous car that is now very close to entering…
From their inception, austerity policies have been promoted as necessary for economic recovery. Throughout Europe, the demand to cut spending and deficits is presented not as a choice but a requirement…
By backing a new Charter for Budget Responsibility, the main political parties in Britain want to persuade you that they’re legally obliged to balance the books within three years. Fortunately, it’s not…