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Welcome to the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies

Organised as three Schools, the Faculty works across a range of disciplines including Education, Childhood and Youth, Health and Social Care, Youth Work, Social Work, Languages and Applied Linguistics, Nursing, and Sport and Fitness. We take an innovative approach to teaching and learning, developing collaborative partnerships with employers and other institutions, and engaging in cutting-edge, action-oriented and internationally recognised research.

Find out more about our Faculty

Schools


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Study with us

The Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies offers 17 undergraduate and five postgraduate degrees as well as a wide range of certificates and diplomas, across nine subject areas in the fields of health and social care, education, sport and fitness, and languages and applied linguistics. We also offer short courses in languages and international culture, and apprenticeships in the key areas of nursing, advanced clinical practice, and social work. Our qualifications are developed by practice-based experts, including teachers and health care professionals, and informed by our internationally recognised and award-winning research.

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Our research

The key focus of our research is enabling communities to realise their potential, lead healthy, fulfilling lives, create inclusive societies, and thrive in the context of global change and uncertainty. Driven by the OU’s social mission, and inspired by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, our research covers the span of life from the cradle to the grave. A key characteristic of our research is its interdisciplinary and practice-based approach. We harness the expertise and insight of our diverse research specialisms to help support change and impact policy, not just across the Four Nations, but also further afield in our global development work

Research in WELS
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Welcome to the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies

WELS news

Graphic card: Photograph of Dr Mike Courtney alongside the text "Meet the Tutors - Dr Mike Courtney, School of Languages & Applies Linguistics"

Meet the Tutors: Dr Mike Courtney

Dr Mike Courtney’s career began with a high-flying role as a commercial airline pilot. Yet academics would be where he’d earn his wings, eventually becoming an Associate Lecturer (Tutor) in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics. Discover his inspirational teaching style – an approach that recently saw him win a student-voted Tutor Award.

26th May 2023
Senior woman sitting in chair laughing with a care professional in a care setting.

New research and toolkit to provide transformative approach to care launched by OU academics

A new toolkit to provide practitioners with the information they need to implement ‘relational care’ in practice with older people in a range of care settings has been launched by Dr Manik Gopinath and Professor Mary Larkin at an event hosted at the House of Lords on 17th May, attended by 120 delegates

25th May 2023

CSGD Director – Prof Kwame Akyeampong leads new report on cost-effective approaches to improve global learning

The 13-member Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) which is co-chaired by the Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Development (CSGD) – Professor Kwame Akyeampong and Professor Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel prize-winning economist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) produced a report on Cost-effective approaches to improve global learning

18th May 2023
This image is of Grace at the NI Chief Nursing conference.

Nursing student Grace impresses at NI Chief Nursing Conference

Open University nursing student Grace McAleer, a final year student on the Northern Ireland (NI) Adult Future Nurse Pre-Registration Nursing Degree Programme, and a Senior Nursing Assistant at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, presented her work on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) at the NI Chief Nursing Conference on Thursday 4 May 2023.

11th May 2023
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