ARC/E1
GRADUATE SCHOOL
Affiliated Research Centre Enquiry
The ARC Enquiry form (ARC/E1) is a means for The Open University to make an initial assessment of your organisation against basic criteria. It is not an application form and does not imply an undertaking on either side to proceed to application stage.
1Organization details
Name of organization: / ......Website: / ......
Name of contact for correspondence: / ......
Address for correspondence: / ......
......
......
Position: / ......
Email: / ......
Telephone: / ......
2Mission and strategic Plan
The OU welcomes enquiries from organisations whose mission and objectives are compatible with our own. The information supplied should be from recently published documents, for example, annual reports. Please indicate what document is provided, attach the document or provide a weblink, and give information about its intended audience, eg grant awarding body, funding body, shareholders, etc.
3Funding arrangements
Please provide details of the funding arrangements for your organisation. This should include information about the source of any baseline or regular funding, including regular income from external funding bodies.
Please provide details about any research grants held, either as an organization or by individual members of staff.
4Legal status
Please provide information about the legal status of your organization (i.e company limited by guarantee, charitable institution) and confirm that the organization is able to enter into a contract with The Open University on its own account.
If an application to become an ARC is made and is successful, the organization will be required to enter into a legal agreement with The Open University. It is important, therefore, even at the enquiry stage, that The Open University is aware of the legal status of any organization seeking ARC status and receives confirmation that a legal agreement can be entered into.
5Scope of the proposed research degree programme
Please indicate in which academic area(s) you propose to offer research degrees.
The Open University is committed to building a research community which includes students in ARCs and therefore needs to ensure that enquirers would plan to admit students in research areas which can be supported by the University and are compatible with its research strategy.
Please provide an estimate of student numbers in each area. If applicable this should include information about the expected growth in student numbers.
6Research degree supervision
Please provide numbers of all academic / research staff by grade and indicate the number of research active staff who may be involved in the supervision of research students in each academic area.
It is important that there are members of staff with the necessary expertise both in research and in supervising research to provide support and supervision to students. Organizations can only be considered for ARC status if high quality research achievement is occurring and students can be provided with support for learning about research.
7Management structure
Please provide details of your management structure to show who would be managing the research students’ administration, relationship with The Open University and governance of the programme. Please send this as a separate chart, with any narrative below.
8Facilities and equipment
Please provide details of the facilities and equipment that would be available to research students at your organization. Where facilities and equipment are available through formal agreements with other organizations this should be indicated.
8Further information
Does your organization have, or has it had in the past, arrangements for the registration of research degree students with another research degree awarding body?
YES / NO
If yes please provide details including:
- name of degree awarding body
- address of degree awarding body
- date of start, and where relevant end, of the relationship
- if applicable, reason for the relationship ending
- reason for seeking a research degree relationship with The Open University.
The Open University may contact the appropriate authorities at other degree awarding bodies to seek information about the operation of these arrangements.
Please send your completed form, together with any attachments, to
Page 1 of 3