Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship

Weekly Working Hours:  37

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 Faculty of Business and Law is one of the four faculties of The Open University. It brings together two Schools – The Open University Business School and The Open University Law School – and has a strong reputation as a high-quality and innovative provider of management and legal education. Our courses and qualifications are studied by a wide range of people from all backgrounds – we are proud to promote opportunity and social justice by making higher education open to those unable to attend a more traditional campus-based university.  

Student satisfaction is a high priority, and we are determined to deliver the best outcomes for everyone studying with us. Our students return some of the highest satisfaction scores in the National Student Survey – they have ever since the NSS began. 

This is an ideal role for someone seeking to pursue a teaching and research career in the area of entrepreneurship and social enterprise. We welcome applications from recently qualified PhDs who may not yet have held substantive posts since completing their doctorate and candidates with relevant teaching and research experience and practical experience of working with entrepreneurs, social enterprise and business support. 

We are looking to appoint someone who can contribute to the development of our teaching portfolio, to add to our distinctive teaching methods and develop new competences. This will include teaching on our interdisciplinary undergraduate programmes, postgraduate and continuing education offer, as well as micro-credentials.

You will join a growing group of research active academics located across four departments and research centres with specific expertise in the field of social entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable enterprise. You will be expected to conduct your own independent research appropriate to your academic career stage, broadly aligned with the research interests of those within the Department of Public Leadership and Social Enterprise.

In addition to teaching and research you will be expected to engage with policymakers, external partners and practitioner communities to increase the public impact of our teaching and research. We welcome applicants with expert experience that can complement and expand these areas.

As part of The Open University we have a distinctive, practice-based pedagogy, delivered predominantly online. You will have the opportunity to work in teams designing and delivering innovative, high quality and challenging learning experiences for our students utilising a wide-range of media.  We therefore need to appoint someone with outstanding ability to work as part of a team, to demonstrate creativity and initiative in addition to relevant specialist knowledge.

Key Responsibilities

• Contribute to teams involved in the development, planning, delivery and updating of online teaching modules in our undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum.
• Preparation of materials suited to teaching and assessment of our curriculum.
• Contribute to the presentation of Open University modules – their monitoring, support for tutors and students.
• Tutoring at face-to-face residential schools, their online equivalents, or other programmes for student entrepreneurs.
• Undertake research and publications, scholarship and enterprise strategies that will enhance the profile of the Business School.
• Participate in external engagement events and promotion opportunities to enhance the Business School’s profile.
• Play a full part in the academic life of the Business School.

About You

The criteria required for this role are:

Essential Criteria: 

• Relevant post-graduate qualifications in a business and management related area(s)
• An established or developing research record evidenced by existing publications.
• A commitment to conducting high quality research, evidenced by current and/or planned projects.
• Evidence of the capability to structure and write teaching materials in an accurate and accessible manner suitable for distance learning.
• Experience of online teaching and virtual learning environments.
• Ability to work flexibly, collegially and the willingness to adapt and be responsive to others in an interdisciplinary context whether teaching or in the context of research.
• Ability to plan and organise your own work and meet deadlines.
• Excellent communication skills, oral, written and in a variety of contexts.
• A proven track record of working with others as a member of a team in a professional manner.
• A commitment to, and understanding of, equal opportunities and the need to support students from a wide range of backgrounds.
• The ability to travel throughout the UK and internationally.
• Willingness to work occasional evenings and weekends.

 Desirable Criteria: 

• Experience of producing online and distance learning materials.
• Contribute to income diversification to support research and teaching.
• Experience of working as or with practitioners in the entrepreneurship or social enterprise ecosystem.
• Higher Education professional accreditation or equivalent qualification.
• Experience of using ICT and VLE in teaching and learning.
• A PhD in a cognate area, completed or near completion.

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.

Working Location: It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be one day per week, but this could be more often if business needs dictate. There will also be the requirement to travel as part of the role.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews for this post are likely to be in the week commencing 19th January 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
• A personal statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the essential criteria for this role as detailed in the job description.

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.

The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength. We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.