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About the Role

Staff Tutors are members of the academic staff of the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care (HWSC) based in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies (WELS).  They play a vital role in the provision of The Open University’s (OU) supported open learning model of education; contribute to the presentation of modules and qualifications and engage in research and scholarship congruent with School and Faculty strategic priorities. Staff Tutors represent The Open University on national and local strategic groups, provide academic leadership and line manage Module Tutors and Practice Tutors who provide academic and pastoral support to OU students. The post includes responsibility for working in partnership with employers to support recruitment and selection to professional programmes and for the operational management of practice learning relating to the School’s portfolio of qualifications.  Applicants should therefore, have relevant qualifications and experience. The postholder will be contractually aligned in Edinburgh and may be required to travel across Scotland and occasionally to Milton Keynes and other parts of the UK.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to the effective management of professional qualifications and work strategically with agencies, employers, and regulatory bodies to ensure compliance with external and internal regulatory requirements.
• Promote The OU’s professional programmes and other qualifications to sponsors, employers and other stakeholders.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues and partner organisations in the recruitment and selection of students for entry to the professional programmes and other qualifications.
• Provide operational support for the professional programmes and associated health and social care modules by line management of Module Tutors and Practice Tutors and ensuring the quality assurance of all learning.
• Contribute to the recruitment, management, support and staff development of Module Tutors and Practice Tutors in partnership with Associate Lecturer Services, having regard to the importance of high-quality provision.
• Organise appropriate tutorial provision and processes and undertake quality assurance of correspondence tuition, face-to-face tuition, online tuition, and practice assessment.
• Contribute to the development and presentation of distance learning modules and qualifications and advise the School on the content and teaching strategies of modules and qualifications in the light of feedback from all Associate Lecturers and students.
• In line with the Four Nations strategy of the University work with colleagues in the School and the wider Faculty to ensure awareness of the policy and legislative context. 
• Assist module and qualification teams in monitoring, grading and ensuring the quality of feedback on student assignments and practice portfolios assessed by Module Tutors and Practice Tutors.
• Develop and implement a personal research and scholarship plan congruent with the School and Faculty’s Research and Scholarship and knowledge exchange Strategy.
• Represent the School, Faculty and The OU at strategic local and relevant external committees and group, working with partners across the Independent and Statutory sector, other Universities and relevant Government.
• Undertake other duties as required.

About You

A job description with a full list of essential and desirable criteria can be found here: Staff Tutor (Scotland) JD

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

For this role, attendance on site is required at our offices in Edinburgh, approximatly twice per month. There will also be the requirement to occasionally attend Practice Tutor update sessions, outside of core working hours. We expect this to be no more than 6 times per year. 

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews will take place week commencing 12 Janaury 2026

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following document(s):

• CV
• You will be asked to answer 3 supporting questions as part of your application. Each of these answers should be no more than 200 words. 

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.