Open University
The Open University, widely regarded as the premier institution of lifelong/distance high-quality learning, was created in 1967-69 with the aim of bringing higher education to the large proportion of UK citizens who would otherwise have been unable to apply for a higher degree programme (because of lack of opportunity, or lack of qualifications). The OU became an overwhelming success within a few years, to the point where there are over 200,000 currently-enrolled students taking one of 450 courses, and over 3,000,000 people throughout the UK and Europe have now studied with the OU in one form or another since it began. Bilateral arrangements are in place for delivery of computing educational materials in Asian countries such as Singapore and Malaysia. The OU maintains a highly regarded research base at its central headquarters in Milton Keynes, an hour north of London, and an hour from Oxford and Cambridge.
Key personnel:
Professor Bashar Nuseibeh is Chair of Computing at The Open University (OU) and a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and the National Institute of Informatics, Japan. He is Director of Research of the Computing Department at the OU. Previously he was a Reader at Imperial College and Head of its Software Engineering Laboratory. His research interests are in software requirements engineering and design, software process modelling and technology, and technology transfer. He has published over 100 refereed papers and consulted widely with industry, working with organisations such as NASA, NATS (UK), Texas Instruments, and Philips Research Labs. He has also served as Principal or Co-Investigator on a number of research projects, including the EU projects PROMOTER I/II, MOBIlearn, LeGE-WG, and E-LeGI, and UK EPSRC projects such as VOILA, VOICI, SecPol, MISE, and PASS. Bashar is Editor-in-Chief of the Automated Software Engineering Journal, member of the Editorial Board of five journals including the RE Journal and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, and is Chair of IFIP Working Group 2.9 (RE) and Vice Chair of IFIP TC2 (Software: Theory and Practice). He received a 2002 Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding international research achievements, a "Most Influential Paper" award at the 2003 International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), and a Senior Research Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Leverhulme Trust (2005-2007). Bashar holds an MSc and PhD in Software Engineering from Imperial College.
