Competitions

Poster competition

The Graduate School runs an annual Postgraduate Research Student Poster Competition in June which offers a unique way to engage the wider University community with your research. Researchers need to be able to convey their research ideas to a broad audience. This competition, judged by academic and academic-related staff from across the OU, provides students with the opportunity to practise these skills.

It also gives students the opportunity to meet other students from across the University and make useful contacts whilst raising their own profile. When the competition is finished the posters can be used at further networking events, conferences and displayed within schools.

We also run an online Community Choice category alongside the in-person Poster Competition so students who can’t make it onto campus can display their posters.

The Graduate School Poster Competition website including rules of entry.

See 2023's event photos.

Bake Your Research

Each November sees our very exciting Bake Your Research event, where PGRs display research-inspired baked creations either online or on campus where taste is important too! The community votes for their favourite bakes and baking-related prizes are won.

Bake Your Research has grown in popularity at the OU since its first iteration in 2018. We have seen more than 60 PGRs from STEM and the social sciences excite the wider University community in discussions about their topic through the unifying medium of baked goods. PGRs have even been invited to give talks to NHS services as a result of the social media attention their bakes received.

We see Bake Your Research as an important opportunity for PGRs to practice communicating their research to a lay audience and explaining impact. They often find it also helps explaining to friends and family what they are researching so strengthens local support networks, which are particularly important for distance students. Initially seeing it as just a fun break from writing up, participants have found that conceptualising research in cake supported deep thinking about their topic. Using such novel and creative communication methods requires different approaches to formulation and synthesis of ideas. The outcome is improved clarity of thinking which leads to improved communication in all formats.

Check out previous entries for inspiration for your own bake: