Women in Engineering

WIDE: Women in Innovation, Design and Engineering

We are surrounded in all aspects of our lives by products and services that have been designed, tested and manufactured by engineers and designers. As an engineer or designer, you can shape the material world in which we live and look after it by making our products, buildings and services fairer and more sustainable. Engineering and design are highly social and collective activities. There are many different roles in engineering from designing and making products, to carrying out mathematical and technical analyses and working with customers. Currently in the UK, men are still the majority of engineers, but the situation is steadily changing, and engineering companies offer stable and flexible careers to women.

Our Open University students come to engineering with an enormous range of backgrounds and experiences. In particular our female students have many transferable skills that industry is looking for. It is already well recognised that the success of engineering and management teams correlates positively with their diversity. An engineering degree gives women a lucrative and versatile career where you can work to your strengths and be valued for who you are. Our qualifications provide the fundamental design and engineering skills and enable you to discover your passions and interests, which you can follow in specialised courses at stages 2 and 3 and through postgraduate qualifications.

The School of Engineering and Innovation espouses the Open University’s mission of being ‘open to people, places, methods, and ideas’ and its values of inclusivity, innovation, and responsiveness. The Open University has huge experience in enabling our students to start their undergraduate or postgraduate educational journey appropriately to where they are and adapt it to their changing needs.

The School is proud to hold an Athena SWAN Silver award, which shows our commitment to advancing the careers of women, both among our students and staff in accordance with the Athena SWAN Charter.

Events for Women in Innovation, Design, and Engineering in the OU

The School of Engineering and Innovation runs regular events focused on topics particularly relevant to female students in engineering and design. Many of these events are of wider interest and open to everybody in the OU Family. Recent events have included:

The National Engineering Day event for OU students, with talks from role models and module workshops

The INWED research showcase with presentations from female researchers in E&I and a panel about their experiences of being a woman researcher in Engineering and Design

The Conference for Women in Innovation, Design, and Engineering (WIDE), with talks, workshops, and activities to give our students a better sense of what it is like to be a professional engineer. The conferences started in 2016 and the majority have been face-to-face, at the OU's Walton Hall campus in Milton Keynes.

If you are interested in publishing events or want to join the team organising the annual conference, please contact STEM-EI-WIE@open.ac.uk

Women in Engineering Forum

The Women in Engineering Forum is hosted on the VLE, providing a place where students can discuss issues, share experiences, and hear about initiatives which are particularly relevant to female engineering and design students. The forum is open to all students and staff.

Women's Engineering Society

Our partnership with the Women's Engineering Society (WES) provides access to information and events. A number of free memberships are available for staff and students each year and students can also join the Open University WES affiliated student group, WES OUSS.

OpenLearn Resources

Open Learn is a free platform with activities, articles and courses from across the OU. Content particularly relevant to Women in Engineering and Design includes:

Engineering your dream career (interactive)

Join Us

Please visit our online prospectus for details of our Undergraduate and Postgraduate taught courses. The OU Career Site lists current job vacancies, with onward links to PhD Funded Studentships and Associate Lecturer roles. There are also a variety of Research Degrees opportunities available.