The Open University transforms lives through education. It has become by far the largest university in the UK, now teaching well over 200,000 people every year. We have expanded our activities throughout Europe and our highly rated teaching materials are used by other institutions in many parts of the world. We are consistently achieving high rankings both in research and teaching quality assessments. Teaching is through the provision of specially designed, high quality materials encompassing traditional print texts, television, video, CD-ROM, internet and electronic conferencing together with first class personalised tuition, learning feedback and support. The success of the Open University is due to our outstanding staff. There are around 4,500 staff plus over 7,000 associate lecturers. Staff and potential staff are treated solely on the basis of their merits, abilities and potential, regardless of gender, colour, ethnic or national origin, age, socio-economic background, disability, religious or political beliefs, family circumstances, sexual orientation or other irrelevant distinction. We are also committed to the development of our staff to their full potential through lifelong learning, offering a range of formal and informal training and development activities to ensure that staff are able to perform their jobs to the best of their abilities and to help meet individual and university objectives. Our objective is that all staff undertake a minimum of 5 days development activity in each year. Staff development We have a strong commitment to providing training and development in and beyond your current role. This includes a thorough induction into the organisation and regular reviews of your training and development needs. The objective is that all staff should undertake at least five days development activity in each year - this may include attendance at formal courses or other learning e.g. use of self-study material. We invest substantial time a