Associate Lecturer

Teaching and Tutoring roles

People services were very welcoming and supportive throughout the recruitment process.

The Open University, established by Royal Charter on 23 April 1969, is the leading university for flexible, innovative and world-leading research in the United Kingdom and in over 100 countries worldwide. Uniquely placed to understand the needs of part-time students, combining their learning while earning, our innovative, award-winning distance teaching credentials have seen over 2 million students receive an education, otherwise denied to them at campus-based universities.

Our students study flexibly with the experts in distance learning. They’ll have a tutor, and access to lively online tutorials and student forums and all the support they'll need to succeed. You can find a General Person Specification for an AL here and a Welsh version here

Current Associate Lecturers employed by The Open University should log in to view current Internal opportunities and complete the corresponding Expression of Interest form on the General Vacancies page under the category 'Expression of Interest for Associate Lecturer FTE increases'. Please do speak with your line manager about your intentions to apply for additional teaching work. 

For a list of available vacancies by subject please visit 

The support is fantastic, the university communicated with me at every stage of the recruitment process.

• Access, Open and Cross-Curriculum Innovation
  Find out more about Access, Open and Cross-Curriculum Innovation
• Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FASS)
  Find out  more about FASS Faculty
• Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
  Find out more about our STEM Faculty
• Faculty of Business and Law (FBL)
  Find out about our Business and Law Schools
• Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS)
  Find our more about our WELS Faculty

I am thoroughly enjoying the opportunity to teach a diverse range of students across the Nations.

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• The Open University
• The Open University in Northern Ireland
• The Open University in Wales
• The Open University in Scotland

If you are looking for the link to our Talent Pool, it is temporarily removed as we are updating our systems. It will be back once our system update is complete.

The AL role

Welcome students

Initial introductory contact.

Identify students' needs

Identifying and supporting students who are academically vulnerable.

Provide correspondence tuition

Assessing students work and giving feedback.

Provide academic support

Tuition for a diverse group of students.

Provide proactive support

Supporting and encouraging TMA/EMA submission and exam preparation and attendance.

Develop students' study skills

Support students to become independent successful learners within the discipline/module.

Monitor student progress

Encourage academic engagement with the module.

Provide study related advice

Provide first point of contact, encourage peer support, refer to SST as appropriate.

Provide feedback within OU

Feedback on your experience and that of your students.

Work online

Using OU and other systems as tutors and as staff.

Develop your knowledge and practice

Feedback, reflection, review, professional/staff development.

Peer to Peer mentoring/ monitoring assessments

Collaborate with colleagues to share best practice and behaviours.

Teaching at a residential school

Support at our online or face to face residential schools.