Association of OU Graduates Research Awards 2025

Please note that:

not all PGRs qualify - see the criteria below
nominations are made by supervisors, often deciding who to nominate at a Faculty-level
PGRs cannot self-nominate (except in the case of the John Veysey bursary) but can ask their supervisor/Faculty admin about the process.

Message from Jean Hertzog - AOUG Vice-Chairman to Faculty research degrees staff

"The Association of Open University Graduates is once again offering Research Awards for OU research students this year. We are inviting you to nominate research students for any of the available Awards. Your Faculty, School or Research Centre may nominate students who meet the criteria for as many Awards as you wish, if you feel that their research sufficiently covers the subject areas. This is designed to encourage nominations of research students involved in cross-curricular research.

Awards

AOUG Trustees will therefore be very pleased to receive nominations for any of the following Awards:

AOUG Chancellor Lord Asa Briggs Award for Arts
AOUG Vice-Chancellor Sir John Daniel Award for Education and Language Studies
AOUG Vice-Chancellor Sir John Horlock Award for Science
AOUG Vice-Chancellor Lord Perry of Walton Award for Social Sciences
AOUG Baroness Lee of Asheridge Award for Mathematics, Computing and Technology
AOUG Chancellor Baroness Boothroyd Award for Citizenship, Identities and Governance
AOUG Vice-Chancellor Brenda Gourley Award for Business Studies
AOUG Vic Finkelstein Award for Health and Social Care
AOUG Will Swann Award for Innovation and Knowledge Development.

Faculties and Research Centres may wish to collaborate to discuss nominations, or to act independently, but if multiple nominations are made for the same Award the AOUG Foundation for Education Trustees will make the final selection and notify all concerned of the decisions. We realise that you may not personally have knowledge of suitable candidates and therefore we hope that you can circulate this information as widely as possible to your colleagues. The members of the Association are proud of being able to honour research students through our charity AOUG Foundation for Education and do hope that you will have suitable candidates for us to be able to present all nine Awards this year.

Criteria

Below are the 2025 criteria for a suitable nomination. You can nominate as many students as you wish that fulfil the criteria:

Is already a graduate of The Open University
Is undertaking research which will lead to the Award of a higher Open University degree.
Is not employed by The Open University for more than an average of six hours per week during their registration, although they may hold a scholarship/award.
Is in the final year of their studies (in their final year anytime from March 2025 to October 2025).

Application and ceremony

Details of nominated candidates with summaries of their research and references from their supervisor/s as to why they should deserve this recognition, should be submitted to the AOUG Office [email protected] with copy to me on [email protected] by Tuesday 3 June 2025.

However in addition this year, AOUG are able to offer a Bursary thanks to a legacy from one of our long standing members. OU Research Students may apply directly themselves for the AOUG 2025 John Veysey Bursary and do not need to be nominated by their Supervisor, although they will need their endorsement of their study. The successful applicant will receive their Bursary Award at the Research Awards Ceremony. Full details of this Bursary are also attached and we request that you circulate this information as widely as possible. Applicants have until Tuesday 3 June 2025 for us to receive all their application papers and students nominated for our Awards may also apply for the Bursary if they wish.

Successful recipients of the Research Awards will be invited to receive their Award on Friday 3 October 2025, at a special Research Awards Ceremony at noon, in front of the AOUG Executive Committee, and many OU Research Departmental staff. Supervisors will be invited to introduce the Award recipient and their research, prior to the actual presentation of their Award by an AOUG Officer. A buffet lunch will be provided and following this our Annual Foundation Lecture will take place at 2.30pm. We will be pleased to welcome Award recipients, their families and their Supervisors to the Lecture."