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About the Role

As an academic member of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the School of Psychology & Counselling, you will have a key role in keeping the OU in the forefront of supported distance higher education, particularly in designing and facilitating effective teaching of the School’s modules, qualifications and programmes. You will also be responsible for the selection, monitoring and staff development of part-time Associate Lecturers (ALs), who teach modules across 4 British Psychological Society (BPS) accredited undergraduate psychology qualifications, a counselling qualification, joint honours qualifications and 3 postgraduate qualifications.  For this full-time role, we are particularly interested in experience of supervising independent Year 3 research projects.

Staff Tutors are academic colleagues and are also referred to as Regional Academics in some of our Open University materials (as opposed to Central Academics who are based at the Milton Keynes campus). Staff Tutors have homeworking contracts or contracts which are based in national offices in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. Staff Tutors are appointed on academic salary scales, initially on Academic Grade 3 which is equivalent to Lecturer B. There is a promotions process, which takes place annually, whereby Staff Tutors can apply to move up to Academic Grade 4, which is the equivalent of Senior Lecturer, and beyond.

The work of Staff Tutors is broadly divided into two main categories:

• Firstly, activities based in the region/nation around line management of Associate Lecturers (the staff who deliver the teaching to our students), supporting the professional development of these colleagues, management of the delivery of tuition, eg. through timetabling, and dealing with student issues which arise, eg. where students have complex additional needs or raise complaints and appeals, working in collaboration with our Student Support Team; Staff Tutors are involved in the development and practice of policies around student retention and success, as well as supporting diversity and widening participation initiatives;

• Secondly, activities focused around the production and presentation of module material and the development of our curriculum, working as part of a module team; Staff Tutors often have particular responsibility for tuition delivery and assessment materials and may also, depending on their research expertise, write chapters and VLE materials for new modules, work as qualification leads and chair modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Staff Tutors have 22 days per year in their contract for study leave purposes (and additional research time can be requested). Study leave can be used flexibly for a variety of research and scholarship activities. There are excellent opportunities to get involved in numerous projects around teaching, learning, EDI, student support and pedagogy. Staff Tutors contribute to pedagogic scholarship and developments of theory and practice in learning and teaching.

Staff Tutors can also get involved in our Open Psychology Research Centre, which has three research strands: Culture and Social Psychology, Forensic Cognition Research Group and Psychology of Health and Wellbeing. As staff members, Staff Tutors are also eligible for fee waivers if they wish to study OU modules, including for PhD study.

Undertaking direct teaching with our students is not part of the Staff Tutor role. However, several of our Staff Tutors choose to also have a role as Associate Lecturer, on top of their Staff Tutor role. This is optional.  It usually consists of tutoring on just one module with a small fractional contract and has the added benefits of working with our diverse OU students, participating in face-to-face, online teaching and correspondence tuition and seeing module materials in action.

Key Responsibilities

The person appointed will be expected to contribute in the following ways:

• act on behalf of the School of Psychology & Counselling in the recruitment and appointment of ALs. ALs are responsible for grading and commenting on students’ written assignments and offering support and guidance for students through blended learning provision including face-to-face day schools, synchronous online tutorials, asynchronous online forums and individual correspondence, telephone and e-mail;
• provide line-management of ALs including career development and performance management, maintaining their currency of knowledge on curriculum development, student progression pathways and teaching methods, and facilitating two-way communications with the School and academics working centrally on module teams;
• organise and implement an appropriate staff development programme, i.e. to train, supervise and support the work of ALs, encompassing face-to-face, online and correspondence tuition, telephone and other electronic support methods and to monitor their feedback on students’ assignments;
• provide a link between Associate Lecturer Services, the Student Support Team and the School. This includes liaising with Associate Lecturer Services about its work with ALs when necessary, e.g. recruitment, timetabling, as well as with other academic services staff in the SST on the progress of individual students as appropriate;
• organise timetables for blended tuition, including face-to-face day schools, online tutorials, forums, and aspects of collaborative and team working required of ALs;
• contribute as an academic to the development and presentation of Psychology & Counselling curriculum in formal and informal learning opportunities and by contributing to module team work;
• contribute to scholarship or research in the School of Psychology & Counselling in areas of strength existing in the School or to developments of theory and practice in learning and teaching Psychology;
• contribute to the development and maintenance of student learning communities;
• contribute to the work of the School’s Student Support Team; be actively involved in developing and implementing policy and practice designed to support student success;
• be actively involved in developing and implementing diversity and widening participation initiatives, both for students and ALs.

About You

Essential criteria

• a postgraduate degree (or equivalent) in Psychology, or a cognate area which is clearly and specifically related to Psychology, and demonstrable knowledge of BPS core curriculum;
• ability to contribute effectively to the academic and teaching activities of the School;
• scholarship/research interests which fit with the School’s curriculum, and/or scholarship of teaching relevant to the School;
• substantial relevant recent experience of the management of teaching, and of teaching and student support (HE or equivalent);
• line management experience and ability to select, manage, motivate and provide staff development for Associate Lecturers;
• an understanding of the needs of adult, distance and independent learners, and an imaginative approach to tutoring modules for a wide range of adult students of different backgrounds;
• an understanding of issues of student access, retention, diversity and success;
• knowledge and experience of online learning environments; a keen interest in innovative forms of teaching and learning, including the development of teaching skills and providing student support in an online environment;
• excellent IT skills and willingness to use more advanced software after appropriate training;
• excellent written and oral communication skills, with a strength in academic communication;
• excellent interpersonal skills, including ability to work flexibly, independently and as part of a team;
• high degree of organisational, administrative and data management skills;
• ability to travel to undertake School work as required in Milton Keynes and other locations in the UK;
• ability to balance a portfolio of diverse work commitments, setting priorities appropriately.

Desirable criteria

• evidence of scholarship/research publication or involvement, and/or a Ph.D. qualification;
• an FE/HE teaching qualification or Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE);
• eligible for Graduate Basis for Chartered membership of the BPS;
• involvement and interest in use of social media.

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.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are likely to take place in the week commencing 1st december 2025.

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
• Supporting statement of up to 1000 words demonstrating how you meet the essential and desirable criteria.

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.