Ageing Well Public Talks Series: Learning to the top and enjoying every minute – lnma Alvarez & Lesley Boyd

Join us for the next edition in the Ageing Well Public Talks Series 2023/2024 as we hear about taking on study in later life

In this talk Inma and Lesley will explain what drives some people to embark on the ultimate study challenge – doing a doctorate – late in life. They will provide information about how mature students manage the development of their research skills during an extended period of time, and what aspects contribute to their successful completion of a doctoral degree. In preparation for the talk, you may want to watch these videos by some doctorate holders from the Open University: EdD journeys.

Join the meeting via Zoom

Join the meeting via Stadium

The speakers

Dr Inma Alvarez, Director of Postgraduate Research Studies, Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies, The Open University. Inma has a long career teaching and researching in higher education. She has a background in the performing arts and has recently been involved in research on dance interventions in care homes.

Dr Lesley Boyd, Affiliated Researcher, Open University. Lesley has just completed a fully funded PhD with the Institute of Educational Technology at the Open University. She is now 61 and enjoying looking forward to whatever her 60’s and 70’s has to offer!  Her PhD supported geographically separated practitioners in using learning technology to learn about and improve complex fragmented challenges in HE and beyond. She was runner-up in the OU Research Excellence Awards 2022 in the post-graduate student category. She graduated on the same day as her son, at Milton Keynes Theatre in March 2023

About the series

The Ageing Well Public Talk (AWPT) series explores how important it is, over our lifespan, to maintain well-balanced nutrition and hydration as well as regular physical and social activity in older age, also known as The Five Pillars of Ageing Well.

Ageing demonstrates most significantly when we reach a certain age, the usual benchmark being 65+, but ageing starts much sooner and the way ageing demonstrates when we are over 65 depends on decisions we make over our life span.

The AWPT series and related materials such as The Five Pillars of Ageing Well became the cornerstones of further engagement with the public, specifically around COVID-19 and the relating self-isolation, which are now available on the OU website and the Internet.

The overall aim of these series of interventions is to facilitate a step-change in user behaviour and support service provision. Self-management and becoming a partner in our own healthcare is an important aspect of these talks. This may have a wider impact on healthcare economies, as ageing and related co-morbidities have a substantial health and economic burden footprint.