Faculty of Mathematics, Computing and

Technology

Faculty Vision

The Faculty’s vision is to be the UK university provider of choice for high quality teaching and research in

Technology, Engineering and Mathematics that is

• immediately relevant in professional contexts • related to policy frameworks

thus equipping learners, employers and funders with the capabilities they require to meet tomorrow’s challenges.

Faculty Vision

At the heart of the Faculty’s capability to deliver its vision lies a commitment to interdisciplinarity that builds on specialist academic expertise grounded in outward looking, sustainable academic communities that engage fully with teaching, research and other scholarship and that maintain strong links with professional bodies and communities of practitioners

Strategic Themes

Students and Employers

Knowledge Employability

Transition to higher level skills

Service led education

Lead (S)TEM teaching+ res

Six overarching aims for MCT

1. Put the student experience first

2. Demonstrate employability through modules, qualifications, pathways

and programmes and through referencing professional frameworks

3. Focus knowledge generation, transformation and communication

through recognizable and measurable outcomes

4. Engage with all stakeholders within and across sectors as an

educational service provider – matching service to developing

requirements – and deliver service-led education through the

application of research, scholarship and practice-based learning

5. Lead as a major national and international player in STEM+ (STEM

and associated policy contexts) across research, teaching and

enterprise

6. Develop methods and service models to meet specialist employer

and employee needs

MCT Departments• Mathematics & Statistics Department: main interests for both teaching and

research are currently Statistics, Mathematics Education, Mathematical Physics, Combinatorics, Analysis and the History of Mathematics

• Department of Design, Development, Environment & Materials presents awards in design, the environment, development studies, and engineering and contributes to a wide variety of OU courses.DDEM hosts the ESRC Centre for Social and Economic Research on Innovation in Genomics, the Open Energy and Sustainability Research Initiative, and the George Rzevski Complexity Laboratory

• Department of Communication & Systems: main interests for both teaching and research currently lie in the areas of ICT, Web Technologies, Technology Management, Systems, Integrated Waste Systems, Sustainability and Technology for Teaching. It also teaches vendor qualifications – Microsoft, Cisco and Linux

• The Computing Department’s main interests for both teaching and research currently lie in the areas of mobile and pervasive computing, software engineering, human-centered systems, intelligent systems, and computational linguistics.The Department hosts the University’s Computing Research Centre

Issues Addressed

Societal Understanding

TEM Knowledge

Professional Skills

Digital Society

EnvironmentalSustainability

Responding to external drivers

• STEM agenda highlighted by governments nationally and internationally

– Digital Society– Sustainable development– Creativity and innovation– Globalization and international development

Key characteristics

• Top class distance technical education

• A strong research base (RAE excellence + high impact scholarship)

• Effective deployment of discipline assets

• An interdisciplinary approach

‘A strong, agile, interdisciplinary, outward facing faculty with a life changing offering to a diverse student population, where the strength and agility is derived from a shared common vision of the future.’

MCT shape and size

• OU total number of students 270,143– Undergraduate 252,043– Postgraduate 18,100

• MCT total number of students ~ 54,800 – Undergraduate 49,518– Postgraduate 5,322– Research 180 (full-time & part-time)

09/10 data

MCT undergraduate student numbers

• Mathematics and statistics ~ 16,000• Computing and ICT ~ 19,000• Technology ~ 9,000• Engineering ~ 4,000• Environment ~ 3,000

MCT undergraduate profiles

• Mathematics and statistics– Growth area, teaches students from many disciplines across the university– Supports in-service teacher development

• Computing and ICT Supports both specialists and digitally literate professionals

– Innovation through introduction of vendor qualifications . The OU is the fastest growing CISCO academy in the UK. We also present Linux and Microsoft curriculum.

• Technology – Increasingly focusing the environment (sustainability) and low carbon futures– Systems thinking

• Engineering – Alignment with Design and Innovation offerings to support creativity and

innovation.– Growth area, following recent success in accreditation by professional bodies

• Environment– .Environmental policy and decision making , sustainability and low carbon

futures

TU 100 My Digital Life

Introduction to the how and why of the digital world• the ownership of data • how the World Wide Web works • the privacy and security of personal data • online identity in virtual worlds • how online businesses survive (or not)

TU100 My Digital Life

• My digital life is not just something you will study; it is a community you will join.

• You’ll build your programming skills through problem-solving using the specially designed language – Sense

• Sense is intended to give you the skills to design programs in any language.

• The SenseBoard has been designed to work with Sense and give you a few of the features of a research laboratory in something that sits in the palm of your hand.

MCT postgraduate student numbers

• Computing and ICT ~ 2,000

• Environment ~ 1,500

• Technology ~ 1,300

• Mathematics and statistics ~ 1,000

• Engineering ~ 250

MCT postgraduate profiles• Computing and ICT

– OU offering is being re-shaped to respond to strong competition from private providers. New CISCO offering is performing well.

• Environment – Environmental Decision Making and Development Management

curricula have international relevance and reach• Technology .

– A new Systems Thinking curriculum is developing a solid market.– Technology Management integrates with Computing & ICT and OUBS

offerings• Mathematics and statistics

– A significant and stable proportion of the UK market, .• Engineering

– Professional recognition routes available to OU and other grads through Integrated M Eng programme.

Changing UK environment

• More than 70% of OU students are in employment whilst studying

• Many study for work related reasons

• Changes in UK funding emphasise importance of part time study

Integrating work based learning

• Foundation Degrees– 240 Credit Points– Vocationally relevant– Integrate Work Based Learning and formal study– Progression to Hons degrees– Computing and IT Practice– Engineering– Materials Fabrication and Engineering

MCT employability in the curriculum

• Promotion of a practice based curriculum that has relevance in the workplace and adds value for both student and employer

• Working with employers to specify curriculum

• Incorporating relevant industry recognised qualifications, e.g. CISCO, Microsoft

Developing new models of delivery to support

employability• IT-PDP

– Working with the Sector Skills Council, E-skills– Brokering curriculum across the sector, not for one employer– Major employers are key stakeholders in the project through the

employer board– Delivered through a business to business model– Innovative features, separating content from assessment to

allow for inclusion of employer training– Assessment is portfolio based and all content is assessed. No

credit rating of employer provision is needed.

Working with the Nuclear Skills Industry

• A PG qualification for the Nuclear Skills industry, created with funding from the North West Development Agency

• Developed in collaboration with the National Skills Academy – Nuclear with a board of employers

• Delivery is mix of employer training and OU provision – piloted Nov 2010

Opportunities for employer led curriculum

• Both these examples show the faculty working with umbrella organisations to broker sector wide curriculum

• The partner organisation will take some responsibility for marketing and the partnership may last beyond the curriculum development

• This model of working with industry is important for employer led activity in MCT

6 main areas:• Art and Design• Computing• Development Studies• Maths (Pure and Applied)• Materials• Statistics

Research Centres hosted by or involving Faculty staff• Computing Research Centre • Innovation, Knowledge & Development Research Centre • INNOGEN (ESRC funded)

MCT Research

MCT Research

The University’s Design group – spanning areas from design thinking, to sustainability and complexity - ranks third in the UK out of a field of 72

The University’s Design group – spanning areas from design thinking, to sustainability and complexity - ranks third in the UK out of a field of 72

The Centre for Research in Computing at the OU has jumped into the top 20, just below York, Bristol and Bath.’

The Centre for Research in Computing at the OU has jumped into the top 20, just below York, Bristol and Bath.’

Another strategic success is the placing of Development Studies at equal 4th with Bath University; the work of this group underpins our programme of activities in Africa.

Another strategic success is the placing of Development Studies at equal 4th with Bath University; the work of this group underpins our programme of activities in Africa.

• MCT’s research portfolio engages with some of the major issues facing the world today.

• It achieved international excellence in RAE 2008.

Areas for Development

• Engineering- increasing visibility

• Specification and launching of the new Sustainability curriculum

• Development of the Design and Innovation degree

• Launching the refreshed postgraduate Computing and ICT curriculum