Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

The post-holder will work in a team that presents and produces innovative learning resources across our music curriculum, focusing on ethnomusicology and music analysis. The post-holder may also be asked to contribute to curriculum in music technology and music history at the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

We welcome applications from those with teaching and/or research experience in topics including ethnomusicology, musicology, music technology, or music theory and analysis, but would especially welcome expertise in ethnographic and analytical approaches to music.

Music staff often teach in an interdisciplinary fashion and in collaboration with colleagues across the School of Arts & Humanities. In joining Music, you would thus also be joining a dynamic and interdisciplinary school environment. You would be expected to participate in and contribute to the school’s curriculum agenda, work across traditional disciplinary boundaries, and take on teaching within subjects which may be outside of your research specialisms.

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences comprises:

• School of Arts & Humanities
• School of Social Sciences & Global Studies
• School of Psychology & Counselling
• School of Creative Industries

The Faculty is the largest and most diverse at The Open University, with some 50,000 students studying our modules with excellent completion rates and consistently outstanding student satisfaction ratings. Noted for the strength of our interdisciplinary approaches, our scholars of international standing teach and research a very wide range of topics and themes in specific subject areas, recognized as world class or internationally excellent in the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2021, and having a direct and profound influence on our undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. To find out more about the Faculty’s teaching, learning and research, please visit: http://fass.open.ac.uk/ 

The School of Arts & Humanities and the Department of Music

Music is an integral part of the School of Arts and Humanities, which consists of approximately 100 academics, including Staff Tutors, organised into five disciplines: History, Art History, English & Creative Writing, Classical Studies, and Music. In addition to offering single honours qualifications at undergraduate and postgraduate level, the School is proud of its long history of interdisciplinary teaching, epitomised by its BA Arts & Humanities, and its interdisciplinary Level 1 (first-year) modules. We also offer named degrees, including a BA in Music. The School hosts several research centres, has recorded strong performances in REF2021, and actively supports the research and scholarship of its academic staff. To find out more about the School, visit the web page: http://fass.open.ac.uk/schools/school-arts-humanities.

Key Responsibilities

The person appointed will be expected to contribute to teaching in the School, Faculty and University in the following ways:

Teaching

• Contribute to the teams developing, planning, delivering and updating high quality and successful curriculum at undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Music.

• Prepare distance learning materials suitable for the teaching and learning methodologies used by The Open University.

• Contribute to the presentation of Open University music modules. This includes: evaluating and offering feedback on proposals for MA-level projects, contributing to teaching, and setting assessments and examinations; organising and chairing seminars (some student-facing and some public-facing) on current topics or readings in musicology, ethnomusicology and popular music studies; participating in examination boards; teaching via student discussion forums; and liaising with other staff members (including tutors and student-support staff) in pursuit of excellence in teaching and the student experience.

Administration, Management and other duties

• Engage with appropriate academic leadership and administrative tasks appropriate to the role and play an active role within the Faculty, as required by the Head of School.
• Comply with Statutory Requirements, Codes of Practice, University Policies and Health and Safety arrangements.

About You

Essential Criteria

• Have a PhD (or equivalent) in ethnomusicology or a closely related subject, completed or close to completed ('close to completed' is defined as having submitted your thesis pending amendments).
• Have an honours degree in music or a closely related subject.
• Understand the kinds of projects that are feasible for an MA dissertation, and be able to evaluate and provide helpful feedback on student project proposals incorporating ethnographic and practice-led elements. This includes a good understanding of current ethics practice.
• Demonstrate a level of understanding of music notation and transcription commensurate with the role and have the ability to frame these in a global context.
• Display evidence of teaching ability, and the capability and readiness to prepare teaching materials for distance learning, and to support modules in presentation through online and face-to-face tutoring, the preparation of assessment materials, and participation in Quality Assurance and examination processes.
• Communication skills appropriate to the role, both oral and written, in a variety of contexts, including the ability to offer and receive constructive criticism.
• The ability to plan and organise work to agreed deadlines.
• The ability to work collaboratively, collegially, adaptively and responsively with others.
• The ability to undertake the role to meet the aims, ethos and values of the Open University, including the principles and practice of equality, diversity and inclusion.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of producing online and/or distance learning materials.
• Higher Education professional accreditation or equivalent qualification.
• Experience in teaching one or more of: Western music theory, music technology, historical musicology

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.

It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where you can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office some attendance in the office will be required in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be at least once per month, but this could be more often as business needs dictate.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

We expect interviews to take place between 8th and 10th July 2026.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications has been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented. If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

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

• CV
• Supporting statement of up to 1000 words clearly demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

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.