Welcome to the the June edition of the alumni enewsletter. I hope you will enjoy reading it and that you will find something of interest. It's coming up to the busiest time of the year with lots of recent graduates signing up to the Alumni Network. We hosted a successful alumni event for our AVA graduates last month which you can read about below - please keep an eye on the alumni website for information about forthcoming alumni events for different schools.
You should receive your copy of the alumni magazine 'Now and Then' over the next couple of months. If you've moved recently, please get in touch with your new address. We always want to hear from our alumni and what they are doing, so if you have any stories to share, things you want others to know about, or any suggestions or comments about the alumni network then please let us know.
Happy reading!
Emma Cale
Development and Alumni Officer
Hundreds of AVA students, their friends and families as well as key partners from the arts, industry and government, attended an exciting private view of this year’s Visual Arts Degree Show at our Docklands Campus on Thursday 31 May.
George Iacobescu CBE, CEO of Canary Wharf Group plc, joined leading art critic and curator Sacha Craddock to open the exhibition, which showcases the work of over 150 final year students from our School of Arts and Digital Industries.
The Visual Arts Degree Show - first in a series of UEL summer showcase events (which are listed below) - included work by graduating students in BA honours degree programmes including Fine Art, Graphic Design, Fashion, Textiles, Photography, Graphic Fine Art, and Digital Arts.
In his opening speech, Mr Iacobescu announced Canary Wharf Group's sponsorship of a new fund enabling selected graduating students to undertake inspirational research and study at sites of major artistic or architectural significance worldwide.
Mr Iacobescu said: “I’m extremely impressed by the work I have seen while touring this exhibition. It is clear that the University of East London well deserves its growing national and international reputation for excellence and creativity.
"I strongly believe that a society that does not take time to stop and reflect on its art, architecture and design is a society ill at ease with itself. I encourage all of you graduating students to treasure your talents and continue with your wonderful work."
Sacha Craddock, former art critic at the Guardian and currently curator of the Bloomberg Space, said: “What an amazing place! I’m madly impressed by the School of Architecture and Visual Arts here at UEL; the teaching, the facilities and the wide variety of student work. I’ve seen many an art school, and I have to say that this place has the feel of somewhere very vital and important.”
In recent years, AVA has successfully launched new programmes in architecture, digital arts and visual communications, fashion and textiles, fine art, and visual theories and research, attracting students from around the world.
The School and its students have also won numerous prestigious awards, and high-profile alumni include acclaimed film-makers Ken Russell and Peter Greenaway, ‘godfather of punk’ Ian Dury and leading contemporary artist Jake Chapman. We are highly rated for research, and Visiting Professors include Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry, Dr Jane Harris, Director of the Textile Futures Research Unit at the University of the Arts, London, and world-acclaimed sculptor Richard Wilson, FRA.
Cliff Nicholls, head of AVA, said: “This year’s showcase illustrates our strength in depth across five distinct subject areas. We are blessed with an embarrassment of riches in disciplines of historic strength, and we hope visitors enjoy the complexity and variety of the work on show.”
Forthcoming showcase events at UEL this summer include the Architecture Year End Show, Fine Art Professional Doctorate shows, and MA Fine Art and MA Digital Arts & Visual Communication shows. For details, see 'Events' below.
We have strengthened our reputation as one of London’s leading centres for teacher training after being awarded a glowing report from Ofsted for the quality of our postgraduate primary teacher training.
The report, which followed an Ofsted inspection earlier this year, highlighted UEL’s key strengths as communication, diversity and inclusivity, with excellent recruitment of minority ethnic trainees, males and mature students.
Ann Slater, Head of our School of Education, said: “This is a wonderful result that confirms our reputation for excellence in preparing teachers to educate young people, especially in the multi-ethnic and multilingual culture of urban schools.
“As well as primary teacher training, we offer highly successful secondary and post-compulsory programmes. Our teacher trainees enjoy hands-on, mutually beneficial work placements in schools throughout East London and Essex. With excellent financial bursaries available, now's a great time to come to UEL and train to be a teacher.”
We work in partnership with around 180 local schools and offer postgraduate teacher training in the 3-7 and 5-11 age ranges. 220 trainees are currently enrolled, and many local primary teachers have studied and trained at UEL.
Misbah Mann, who completed her primary teacher training here, was appointed Head-teacher of Lathom School in East Ham in 2006. Misbah said: “I chose UEL because it was my local university, easily accessible and had great resources.
"I'd already studied for my undergraduate degree there, and the teacher training programme offered the opportunity to enjoy excellent placements in local schools and greatly increase my prospects of finding a job locally. As a head-teacher, I've now got two other UEL graduates working with me at Lathom.”
Our School of Education at Stratford is one of London's leading centres for teacher training, offering highly successful programmes for Primary, Secondary and Post-Compulsory levels. For further information, call 020 8223 2152 or visit www.uel.ac.uk/education.
Final year Fashion Design students signed off in style with a catwalk show at this year’s Graduate Fashion Week, held at Battersea Park Arena at 6.30pm on Monday 4 June.
Fourteen students, including several local residents, exhibited their final collections at the high-profile event, which showcased the very best of student fashion design from around the UK.
Lucy Jones, Subject Director for Fashion and Textiles said: "It is a great honour, challenge and opportunity for our students to show their collections at Graduate Fashion Week. This year's group are extremely talented, creative and hard-working; I have no doubt they will do us all proud and go on to achieve considerable success in their careers in fashion."
Graduate Fashion Week attracts photographers, talent scouts, journalists and buyers from all over the world.
We have excellent links in the fashion industry and are renowned as a leading university for Fashion and Textiles. In addition to the catwalk show, there was an exhibition stand at Graduate Fashion Week, displaying portfolios of final year work by students on BA (Hons) degrees in Fashion Design and Fashion Design with Marketing.
Emma Rigby (23), of Shadwell, is about to graduate from her degree in Fashion Design with Marketing. Emma said: “My final collection is made up of seven outfits, all made from organic materials and coloured with natural dyestuffs, including turmeric and camomile. I began researching the work at the start of the year, experimenting with form and function and manipulating fabric into interesting and wearable shapes.
“The degree’s been fantastic; it’s given me so many fantastic opportunities, especially my placement year at People Tree, a fair-trade fashion company in Liverpool Street. I’m now planning to travel for a year before hopefully starting up an ethical marketing consultancy with one of my fellow students.”
Hundreds of visitors travelled from Beckton, Barking and Walthamstow, Liverpool, Cardiff and Birmingham, Malaga, Rome and Berlin, and even St Lucia, Brazil and Nigeria for our biggest ever Open Day at our Docklands and Stratford campuses on Saturday 16 June.
In total, over 1,200 people attended the event, including West Ham MP Lyn Brown, who joined Newham’s Deputy Civic Ambassador Cllr Akbar Chaudhury and local councillors to talk to our staff and visitors and celebrate the launch of UEL Extra, a brand-new, flexible approach to part-time education. UEL Extra is a first for us - and for all our current and future students - in that it provides dedicated information on our diverse and exciting range of part-time and flexible learning opportunities.
Lyn Brown MP said: “It's fantastic to see so many people here today, especially because they all come from such diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. UEL is a marvelous reflection of our borough's diversity and I'm especially impressed by how many UEL graduates go on directly into employment and achieve career success."
Prospective students enjoyed guided tours of our campuses, talked to staff and students about the hundreds of degree programmes and combinations on offer, and picked up advice and guidance on all aspects of university life. We have recently expanded our part-time provision and now offer a wide range of degrees with flexible study options designed to suit individual needs.
A packed Open Day programme included welcome presentations, subject specific talks, campus and residential tours, live performances and DJs, and even a barbecue and free strawberries and cream at Stratford.
Professor Martin Everett, our Vice Chancellor said: “This is the first Open Day I’ve attended since arriving in April and I'm extremely pleased to see so many visitors braving the summer showers to find out more about the wide range of exciting opportunities on offer at UEL.
“It's been a fantastic day and we've already had a lot of positive feedback from people impressed by our excellent facilities, growing reputation for teaching and research, our uniquely diverse and multicultural learning community and most of all by our friendly staff and students!”
For more information about UEL Extra, please visit www.uel.ac.uk/extra
West Building, Lecture Theatre, Docklands Campus
Coffee will be served at 10.30, and buffet lunch will be served at 1pm after the lecture.
Places are free and all alumni are welcome to attend.
Please email alumni@uel.ac.uk to book your place.
Emeritus Professor Malcolm H.B. McDonald MA(Oxon), MSc, PhD, D.Litt. FCIM FRSA
Malcolm, until recently, was Professor of Marketing and Deputy Director Cranfield School of Management with special responsibility for E-Business. He is a graduate in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, in Business Studies from Bradford University Management Centre, and has a PhD from Cranfield University. He also has an honorary Doctorate from Bradford University. He has extensive industrial experience, including a number of years as Marketing Director of Canada Dry.
He is Chairman of six companies and spends much of his time working with the operating boards of the world’s biggest multinational companies, such as IBM, Xerox, BP and the like, in most countries in the world, including Japan, USA, Europe, South America, ASEAN and Australasia.
He has written forty books, including the best seller "Marketing Plans; how to prepare them; how to use them" and many of his papers have been published.
His current interests centre around the use of information technology in advanced marketing processes and global best practice key account management.
The School of Education is hosting the event to inform the development of its undergraduate and post graduate programmes and to offer its current students and Alumni the opportunity to relate their studies to real life applications, network with practitioners in relevant fields and enhance professional development.
Docklands Campus, 9.30-6.00
No fee, but we would appreciate it if participants would contribute £10 towards the cost of the African Refreshments that will be served. Nobody will be turned away because of an inability to pay
‘Business, Education, Leadership and Skills for Development: African Diaspora and Development Day (AD3)’ will continue the exploration of ways in which UK based Africans can develop themselves to enhance job prospects and development in Africa.
AD3 is returning to the University of East London (UEL) Docklands Campus for 2007. This is where, in 2000, AFFORD first pioneered the AD3 concept of bringing together Africans in the diaspora to add value to their existing contributions to Africa’s development. Since then AD3 has become an innovative fixture on the diaspora calendar.
In 2007 UEL’s School of Education is taking the AD3 concept further - bringing together its undergraduates, graduates and postgraduate students (about one third are Africans), members of diaspora groups drawn from African Voices for Africa’s Development (ADVAD), as well as Resource Persons from AFFORD’s Supporting Entrepreneurs and Enterprise Development in Africa (SEEDA) project to help define the role of the academy in supporting the diasporas’ contribution to development, to validate and energise ‘ebony towers’, to build healthy partnerships between business, education and the third sector.
It will explore how to build on on-going business, skills and education development projects such as:
You will find the event particularly useful if you are:
To register please go to http://www.uel.ac.uk/education/index.htm
For information contact:
Our Black History
With 20,000 students from over 120 countries world-wide, UEL is a global learning community. We are proud of our diversity, and more than 60% of our students and alumni are from black and ethnic minority communities. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, we are marking Black History Month 2007 later this year with a series of exhibitions and events. These will include an exhibition of our black history, and events featuring black and Asian alumni.
UEL: Black History will be an exhibition profiling and celebrating our black and minority ethnic (BME) staff and students, over the years. If you are a former BME student who has made career progress since graduating from UEL; a former BME staff member who was employed at NELP or PEL before we became UEL - we want to hear from you!
lf you have a story to tell about your time at UEL, or would like to be involved in the event this year, please email alumni@uel.ac.uk
We are holding an awards ceremony for all our 2007 international graduating students. After the ceremony, the Alumni and International Offices will be hosting a reception where our new alumni can enjoy some traditional English food, refreshments, music and a chance to spend time with friends and family.
We would like to extend this invitation to our international alumni. Would you like to come along, meet and network with new and old alumni and take part in the celebrations? We have students from all over the world attending, including, Nigeria, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Malaysia, China and Greece.
The event will begin at 4pm and finish at 7pm. Refreshments and music will be on offer as part of the celebrations.
If you are interested in attending, please contact the alumni office at alumni@uel.ac.uk
Launching the Matrix East Research Lab
Tuesday 26 June, 5pm, Business School Lecture Theatre, Docklands.
Professor Laura Mulvey, Birkbeck College, University of London.
A public lecture to mark the launch of the Matrix East Research Lab at UEL
Professor Laura Mulvey is a world-renowned film studies scholar and film-maker. Her research interests include female cinematic representation, technology and history in film and television, the aesthetics of stillness in the moving image, avant-garde and fiction, melodrama and world cinema. Her ground-breaking essay “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, written in 1973, has firmly established a new area of study, straddling women studies and film studies, and has been the start of a long debate, still affecting the discipline.
Matrix East Research Lab is a unique, cutting-edge Digital Media Arts centre which has been set up at UEL with funding from the Science Research Innovation Fund (SRIF), and generous support from Sony Broadcast, Professional and Research Lab and the London Development Agency.
Directed by Professor Haim Bresheeth, Matrix East offers advanced facilities and research support to staff, research students and digital media artists. The Lab is unique in offering the ability of producing and editing up to 36 video tracks, and presenting them as an installation in perfect synchrony on a variety of monitors and projectors. The Lab will offer the ability to present a multitude of voices, sounds, and images of multicultural London, and will be connected internationally to similar labs, such as the MARCEL project and MIT Media Arts lab, and will be able to cooperate and exchange work with partners in the UK and worldwide. A programme of Artist in Residence is now in preparation.
Admission is free. For further information, please contact Miriam on 020 8223 2884 or m.watt@uel.ac.uk.
For further information about Matrix East, visit www.uel.ac.uk/ssmcs/research/matrix-east.htm
21st - June - 7th July 2007
Open to public:
The Architecture Year End Show takes place during London’s Architecture Week. This annual event showcases the combined works of each unit within the BSc, Diploma and Masters Programmes. This show also provides an opportunity to see work by our foundation Year 0 students.
AVA is pleased to receive sponsorship from Levitt Bernstein for the production of the show and showcase publication. Levitt Bernstein is proud to support Architecture at UEL
21st - 28 June 2007
Open to public:
Several solo shows running concurrently make up this exhibition. The Professional Doctorate in Fine Art is a practice based Research Degree programme that is unique to UEL. With its greater emphasis on practice it is more appropriate for many artists than a PhD. The highly professional standard of work on display reflects the strength of the research culture within Fine Art and the commitment of our students. This academic year seven students will complete their doctorates.
This year’s graduates include students from Taiwan, South Korea, and Greece, as well as the UK.
Date in August to be confirmed
Open to public:
MA Fine Art:
MA International Contemporary Art & Design Practice
This interdisciplinary programme is at the cutting edge of contemporary visual practice, combining a range of media within a broad cultural framework; enabling national and international students to share a common framework for ambitious projects.
These two shows reflect a variety of media and approach to contemporary practice in the creative arts.
5th - 8th July 2007
This programme provides students with professional creative design and technical skills required to work within Textiles practice at an industry level. Surface and print applications are explored across the areas of interior fabrics/wall coverings/fashion fabrics/gift wrap and mix traditional print room processes with new digital technologies.
New Designers provides the School with an opportunity to display our students’ talents to industry representatives from across the UK and beyond.
For more information about this event, please contact Nadia Shah (tel: 0208 223 2517 email: n.shah@uel.ac.uk).
The evening marked the launch of the new AVA Alumni Group – set up for all AVA graduates to give opportunities for networking, career development and socialising.
The event was well attended by alumni from across AVA from fashion to fine art and graphic design to photography. It coincided with the AVA Showcase private view.
Oliver Needs, BA Fine Art 2005, said: “It was a great art event and good to see all the tutors and artists again, everyone enjoying themselves too.”
Helen Carter, programme leader for Fashion and Marketing had fun with past students “this event was fantastic - we should have started it years ago and I really hope that it will be an on-going annual alumni event. It was fantastic to see all our ex-students in such diverse key positions within the industry, with great careers in front of them! It was a really enjoyable evening”
Alumni had the chance to catch up with each other and network as well as take a look round the exhibition. There was food and drink aplenty and the opportunity to mix with hundreds of UEL students and key partners from the arts, industry and government.
Ana Lopes (1998 BSc Anthropology, 2005 PhD Sociology) has just recently set up a new alumni group for alumni living in Portugal. A letter of introduction has just been sent out by Ana and she is planning on having the groups' first get together very soon. If you are interested in joining this group, please email alumni@uel.ac.uk
Ernie Govier, the Associate Head of the School of Psychology, will be retiring at the end of August. Over a great many years Ernie has made an outstanding contribution to Psychology at UEL and will be missed enormously. If you would like to send a message to Ernie to be included in a card please e-mail Viv Ferris: v.j.ferris@uel.ac.uk and include your name and graduation year. Please ensure that messages are received by Viv by 14th July latest.
If so you may be entitled to professional recognition from the Chartered Management Institute.
A special arrangement between UEL and the Chartered Management Institute has been set up which guarantees graduates professional recognition. This means you can capitalise on achieving your degree by applying for member status (designatory letters MCMI or ACMI depending on your qualification and management experience).
This guarantee is available to graduates of these programmes:
Postgraduate degrees (ACMI or MCMI)
MBA : DMS : Diploma in Business & Management : CMS : Certificate in Business and Management
Undergraduate degrees (ACMI)
BA (Hons) Business Studies
BA (Hons) Business Studies graduates with these specialisms: Corporate Responsibility, Entrepreneurship, Logistics & Supply Chain Mgt, Business Finance, HRM, Marketing
The Chartered Management Institute is recognised by Royal Charter as the professional body for managers in the UK.
This fast track guarantee means you don’t need to undergo any assessment process for Institute recognition, enabling the CMI to offer you a discount of at least 30% off the first year’s membership fee.
Benefits of Membership of the UK’s leading organisation for professional management
Your membership indicates to employers that you are serious about continuing to develop yourself as a manager and leader, and is a valuable addition to your CV. The key services are:
To join or for further information, please call the Membership Team on +44 (0)1536 207307 or apply online by 31 August 2007 at www.managers.org.uk/apply. Please quote code C2772 to benefit from this offer.
What exactly is the Programme?
This programme is for those who are interested in setting up a business or being self employed in the Arts field. The National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship, Arts Council England and the Northern Edge have joined together to offer this free programme to graduates.
A 12 month business readiness programme that begins with a three-day residential session, supported by personal and online mentoring and focused follow-up meetings. The programme begins with a residential intensive held at University of Hull, Hull on 3-5th September 2007.
This Programme is FREE – you don’t pay for the 3 day course or the 12 months of support that you will receive.
How and when to Apply? Further Information?
Deadline for applications for 2007 is 5:00pm on 15th July 2007.
To apply and for more information please visit - http://www.flyingstart-ncge.com/arts/index.php
Please also look out for...
Flying Start Programme for Women Entrepreneurs, November 2007 - expressions of interest now being taken, please visit www.flyingstart-ncge.com/women
FS General Business Programme for East Midlands Graduates, January 2008 - expressions of interest now being taken, please visit www.flyingstart-ncge.com/eastmids
FS General Business Programme for Northern Way Graduates , January 2008 - expressions of interest now being taken, please visit www.flyingstart-ncge.com/northern
For any further information please contact Stuart Wiggins - stuart.wiggins@ncge.org.uk
Deadline for applications for 2007 is 5:00pm on 15th July 2007.
Evelyn Chanda Mwila (2003, MBA International Management) currently works at Zesco, Zambia’s largest power utility Company in the Human Resources Department and is Principal Human Resources Officer - Payroll and Human Resources Information System.
She has been with Zesco for over nine years and joined as Human Resources officer and worked in several divisions of the company before pursuing her MBA at UEL. These included working in the corporate Head Office, Distribution and Customer Services and finally heading the Human Resource Department in one of the Generating Stations.
Attaining her MBA moved her forward within the company and coincided with Zesco implementing a Business Information System. Three months after her return from study she was appointed to head the Change Management Team for this project. Evelyn was later tasked to head the implementation of the Payroll and Human Resource Information System. Evelyn says “this has proved to be very challenging as this is the first ever system the company has had. We were completely manual on the personnel side but at least had an autonomous payroll system”.
Evelyn learnt many lessons from her MBA which have enable her to face challenges within the work place “they have also helped me cope with issues related to managing employees as well as those of meeting targets timely.”
Evelyn enjoyed her time at UEL and felt it a worthwhile and beneficial experience “the teaching at UEL was very different from my undergraduate which I did here at home. There was never a shortage of recommended literature. Also the style of teaching was very interactive. I also appreciated the different ways of assessment as they helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses.”
”The course content was comprehensive and beyond my expectations. It helped me appreciate the different aspects of business today especially in this very dynamic environment.
”My professional development is ever growing and I am challenged to keep abreast with issues of globalisation and how they are affecting the various environments. My experience at UEL was one I would not trade in for any other. It was a very diverse eye-opener both academically and socially.”
Recent graduate in Product Design, Andrew Millar has won a prestigious national award from the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) after coming up with a range of sustainable food utensils and packaging for use in the 2012 Olympics.
Andrew devised the project while collecting free merchandise at last year’s football World Cup in Germany, where he was spending a semester abroad as part of his degree.
His innovative designs for Olympic-themed trays, cups and eating utensils have now won an RSA Design Directions Award. As part of his prize, Andrew will spend twelve weeks this summer conducting a paid research internship in the design department at Waitrose Head Office in Bracknell.
Andrew said: “The London Olympics will be an amazing event, but will inevitably create an incredible mess unless we plan carefully in advance. Last year’s World Cup provided a model of sorts – the merchandise was free, reusable and nicely designed – but in 2012, I’d like to see a much more environmentally friendly approach.
“My degree has taught me a great deal about the tremendous potential of sustainable product design. By producing packaging and utensils from starch-based materials, we can ensure that they are both fully biodegradable and conveniently reusable. That way, people will still be able to take products home and reuse them, but environmental damage will be minimised if they don't.
“All the products I‘ve designed can be easily sourced and manufactured in East London. I’m determined to show people that we can do so much more than simply recycle - reusing and reducing materials can be equally important. Together, we can help make our city much more environmentally friendly, and ensure that London 2012 is the greenest Olympics ever!”
Andrew’s Olympic project will be displayed in an RSA Design Directions Awards Online Exhibition throughout July. To view his designs, visit www.rsadesigndirections.org.
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