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Welcome to our weekly in Focus update...... |
Past Issues << | Issue 58: Monday 25 June 2007
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From 1 July 2007 it will be against the law to smoke in virtually all enclosed and substantially enclosed public places and workplaces. The new law is being introduced to protect employees and the public from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke.
Disability and Dyslexia Assistant, Debbie Moseley successfully gave up smoking using our smoking cessation service. “After 5 weeks I decided to try without the patches, and haven't smoked since. I now feel much healthier and have less coughs and colds as well as having the added benefit of saving money!”
Alan Ingle, Chair of the Health and Safety Committee comments: "Last year the Corporate Management Team accepted the advice of the Health and Safety Committee that our campuses should be entirely smoke-free. We have begun consultations with our trade unions in the hope that we can move forward sensitively with the support of our community and prevent this becoming a divisive issue. I am encouraged so far by the number of smokers who accept that we need to make our campuses smoke free, in spite of any inconvenience to themselves."
As well as the obvious health problems and financial drawbacks, a staggering 114,000 people die each year due to smoking-related disease. Encouragingly, research shows banning smoking helps smokers to give up. Following Scotland’s March 2006 ban on smoking in public places an estimated 21 per cent of the nation’s smokers quit.
To book a Smoking Cessation appointment on campus ring 020 8223 7611/4440.
For more information about our Smoke Free campuses, please contact Secretary and Registrar, Alan Ingle on Email: a.ingle@uel.ac.uk
Our red Tell Us boxes for compliments, complaints and concerns are an important feedback mechanism for our students, visitors, staff and stakeholders, to let us know how well we're doing in all aspects of our provision.
Toby Grainger has worked with colleagues who manage our suggestion boxes to ensure they will be opened every two weeks. Comments will be forwarded on to the relevant managers of the areas they relate to. Suggestion box managers will prepare feedback posters once a month showing what comments they've received and what action has been taken. If no comments have been received the box managers will provide posters to indicate this - so that it is always clear that the system is live, managed and welcoming of feedback.
Toby Grainger explains: "Most large organisations spend a lot of money getting feedback from their customers and stakeholders. Our red suggestion boxes are a relatively inexpensive way of getting feedback but they enable us to make sure we are providing services that meet student, staff and stakeholder needs."
If anyone is experiencing problems maintaining the boxes contact Toby Grainger on Email: T.J.Grainger@uel.ac.uk
To find out more about the scheme and how it operates visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/chartermark/tellusboxes.htm
Our Black History Month 2007 working group is grateful for the suggestions colleagues have put forward since the report in In Focus a couple of weeks ago, calling for ideas.
If you have any ideas as to what you would like to see as part of the programme of events please continue to email the group's chair, Secretary and Registrar, Alan Ingle on a.ingle@uel.ac.uk
Meanwhile, one of the intended themes is UEL: Black History with an exhibition profiling and celebrating black and minority ethnic (BME) staff and students, over the years. The working group needs help in finding the following: contact details of former BME students who have made career progress since graduating from UEL; our own BME graduates now working at UEL; information on BME staff who were employed at NELP or PEL before we became UEL; and any old graduation or course photographs from the 70s, 80s or 90s.
If you would like to help please contact Winston Morgan, School of Health and Bioscience, on w.a.morgan@uel.ac.uk, ideally before the end of June.
For a useful link visit: http://www.100greatblackbritons.com/home.html
The Higher Education Academy and the Higher Education Funding Council for England have launched the Higher Education Volunteering Awards.
The Higher Education Volunteering Awards 2007 (formerly the Higher Education Active Community Fund Volunteering Awards) will be developed and delivered by
CRAC: The Career Development Organisation.
Eligible institutions are invited to nominate students, staff, projects and volunteering teams who have shown significant commitment to or exceptional execution of volunteering activities in the community within the 2006/07 academic year. A full list of eligible institutions, along with guidance notes and entry forms are available at:
www.heacademy.ac.uk/volunteeringawards.htm
Nominations close at midnight on 26 October 2007.
The categories for the Higher Education Volunteering Awards are:
* Student Volunteering Award (up to 2 entries, group or individual)
* Staff Volunteering Award (up to 2 entries, group or individual)
* Outstanding Project Award (1 entry per institution or group of
institutions)
* Volunteering Team of the Year (1 entry per institution or group of institutions; entrants must have entered one of the other categories).
Over the life of the HEACF Volunteering Awards, which came to an end in 2006, thousands of individuals were nominated for projects that have touched tens of thousands of beneficiaries. The Higher Education Volunteering Awards 2007 will continue to reward and give national recognition to exemplary volunteering projects at all institutions in receipt of funding under the new Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF). The Awards' organisers hope that they will receive even more nominations this year from institutions engaging with and reinforcing links with their local communities.
If you have any queries regarding the Higher Education Volunteering Awards please do not hesitate to contact Hannah Jackson on 01223 448529 or by email at hannah.jackson@crac.org.uk.
Pictured: UEL students John Bainbridge and Bethany Summers celebrating their London Youth Millenium Volunteers 1000 Hours Plus award. John and Beth have been working as volunteers for Global Development Links, a student-run international development charity based at UEL, since January 2007. They are two of only six winners of the award since its introduction in 2000.
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Location: Docklands Campus
Date: Tuesday 26 June
Time: 10am – 2pm
The Industrial Trust are teaming up with us to host an exciting London-first event – a major information and careers fair aimed at inspiring hundreds of the city’s school pupils to help build a sustainable future.
Over four hundred pupils have already signed up to take part in a wide range of activities, view interactive working models, and learn about recycling, renewable energy and innovative construction techniques from a wide range of industry experts.
Exhibiting organisations include world leaders in recycling and several winners of Business in the Community’s ‘big tick’ environmental accolades. Exhibitors will explain how their organisations are working to make our city more sustainable, as well as offering ideas about how pupils can personally contribute.
Our lecturers and students will also introduce the pupils to relevant degrees and lead tours of innovative workshops at our Docklands Campus.
Tuesday 26 June 5pm Business School Lecture Theatre, Docklands
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
Organised by Continuum - our research centre for widening participation, this prestigious international conference is the premier networking event for everyone with an interest in: access, widening participation, lifelong learning and student success. We expect to attract around 250 delegates from both the UK and overseas. We would also like to take the opportunity to encourage our colleagues to attend this event as a platform for their work and a great networking opportunity.
Visit http://www.f-a-c-e.org.uk/conference2007.htm today to find out more.
There are still a few places remaining at the Learning and Teaching Conference to be held on our Docklands Campus, 5 July.
If you would like to book a place, please email Rosie Cook stating your name, School or Service and whether you have any dietary or other requirements. Rosie will also be able to send you the latest (draft) programme including the titles of the parallel sessions. You will be able to choose the sessions you wish to attend nearer the time, once you have registered.
The deadline for booking a place is 26 June.
For more information and to book contact Rosie at Email: r.cook@uel.ac.uk
This year's International Students Awards Ceremony will take place on Friday 6 July, at 2.30pm in the Business School Lecture Theatre, followed by an afternoon tea and a reception hosted by our Alumni Network and International Office.
If anybody would like to volunteer their help on the day, perhaps as a marshal or for registration duties please contact Nicola Quilter. Also if there are any academic staff that would like to attend and need a gown ordered, please contact Nicola with the relevant details.
We are expecting approximately 400 people on the day including guests. If anybody needs any further information please contact Nicola on Tel: 020 82232062, Email: n.quilter@uel.ac.uk
Thursday, 12 July
6.30 - 8.00 pm Reception from 6.00 pm
Docklands Campus, West Building WB.G.02
Admission: FREE
Speaker: Michael Edwards, Professor of Planning, The Bartlett School, University College London
Discussant: Massimo De Angelis, from our Business School.
Professor Michael Edwards is an economist and planner working on property markets and their relationship with urban planning and development systems at UCL's Bartlett School of Planning. He has recently been active in critical debates on the London Plan and is joint chair of the King's Cross Railway Lands Group which has been active for 20 years in mediating conflicting pressures on the edge of central London.
The FOURTH ANNUAL DOCKLANDS LECTURE sets the context in which major development in the Thames Estuary is widely seen as a solution to many of the capital's region's problems.
Professor Edwards critically examines the interpretations of housing crisis offered by many current analysts and politicians including Gordon Brown.
Contrasting scenarios for the Thames Gateway are presented, and lessons are drawn from the history of urban development in the UK and internationally. The lecture draws on a chapter Professor Edwards has contributed to the forthcoming book, London's Turning: the Prospect of Thames Gateway, edited by Phil Cohen and Mike Rustin, London, Ashgate 2007.
Please RSVP to Email: leri@uel.ac.uk For more information visit: www.uel.ac.uk/londoneast
“Annual Feedback Questionnaire results and any other items you wish to discuss”
12 July 2007 1pm - until you have had your say! Room EB.G.08, The Atrium, Docklands Campus. Light refreshments provided.
Contact Naheed at Email: n.khan@uel.ac.uk if you wish to attend
Friday 14 September Docklands
A one-day conference to mark the retirement of Professor Mary Boyle and to celebrate 30 years of clinical psychology training by our School of Psychology.
De-medicalising misery examines the effects of our current understandings of distress, and explores ways to rethink them. The conference brings together psychiatrists, service users and clinical psychologists.
For more information contact Professor Mark Rapley Email: m.rapley@uel.ac.uk or Tel: 07951 908 409.
Costs: Waged £120, BPS Members £90, Students £25, Unwaged/Service User FREE. Lunch and refreshments will be provided.
David Woodhouse has provided a series of links so that we can access information and news from our Academic Board, Governing Body and Corporate Management Team.
Please see the following links:
Academic Board: http://www.uel.ac.uk/qa/committees/acaboard.htm
Board of Governors: http://www.uel.ac.uk/governors/board.htm
Good news from the CMT: http://www.uel.ac.uk/vcg/news/index.htm
To conduct a search of current funding opportunities , including all the major competitions , or to set up email alerts specific to your interests, visit www.researchresearch.com.
If you intend to submit an application for funding please contact Tim Brooks (Acting Research Funding Officer) in the Graduate School. Tim is retaining his other responsibilities within the Graduate School so the more notice you can give, the better!
Wednesday 4 July 6pm duration: approximately 1 hour.
ExCel London Royal Victoria Dock E16 1X
www.excel-london.co.uk Admission: FREE
The New London Orchestra presents Newham welcomes the world - the journey begins by Ronald Corp and Hope Massiah - a choral and orchestral performance by over 400 members of the Newham Community!
For further information, contact Tel: 020 7823 5523 or visit:http://www.nlo.co.uk/
On Saturday, 7 July, the Tour de France starts with an 8km prologue in the centre of London, which is likely to be a very big event attracting a lot of media interest. To coincide with this the Easterley Cyling Club, based in the Romford area, are running a 'come and try it' cycle race open to all, 12 years and over.
The race takes place on Tuesday 10 July starting at 7.30pm and consists of an 8km time trial, just like the prologue. The event is on a quiet, flat circuit, starting and finishing at Navestock Common. Intended as a fun event, see how you compare with the professionals in cycling time trials. FREE to enter, all you have to do is turn up and ride. Full information and advice will be given at the event.
For further information you can either contact Julia Freeman direct on j.a.freeman@uel.ac.uk or visit www.easterleycycling.org.uk.
East London Chorus perform works by Schubert and Mozart at St James Piccadilly on Saturday 7 July.
East London Chorus will also be giving a world premiere of a work by contemporary composer Brian Chapple at this concert, too.
For further information about East London Chorus visit www.eastlondonchorus.org.uk.
Following our team's dramatic and magnificent win in last month's 10th Rotary Dragon Boat Festival, the UEL Dragons are racing again on Thursday 12 July. With a 4pm start from the London Regatta Centre the racing boats will go right past our Docklands Campus.
Practice sessions are planned on Wednesday evenings 4 and 11 July for 6pm, at the London Regatta Centre.
We need at least fifteen people so if you're interested in taking part as a rower or a supporter please get in touch with Karen O'Connor Email: infocus@uel.ac.uk
London Bikeathon takes place this year on 15 July.
Jan Bernet is encouraging more people to join our London Bikeathon UEL team, which currently stands at ten.
To read about our 2005 team's exploits see:
http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/latest_news/stories/bikeathon.htm
More information can be found at:
http://www.londonbikeathon.co.uk/en/1/londonbikeathon.html
If you'd like to take part or sponsor our team contact Jan Bernet on Email: j.bernet@uel.ac.uk
There are also volunteering opportunities with London Bikeathon as well, and further details can be found in the link below:
http://www.londonbikeathon.co.uk/media/images/LB_VLTR_PSTR_A4_4382.pdf
Brush up your IT skills and get an internationally recognised qualification online. Contact Greg Price, Organisational Development Manager on ext 4361 or email g.price@uel.ac.uk
http://www.uel.ac.uk/staff-development/documents/ForthcomingStaffDevelopmentCourses-May-July2007.doc
The Centre on Human Rights in Conflict held a seminar on Business and Human Rights in Conflict on Thursday, the 14 June.
This seminar sought to explore the role of the private sector in situations of armed conflict. The economic dimension of intrastate armed conflicts has gained unprecedented academic and policy attention in recent years. Many of today’s conflicts have close links with the exploitation of, and trade in, natural resources, with the revenues generated from such trade exercising significant influence over their character and duration.
Companies, particularly multinational enterprises, are key actors in the exploitation and trade of natural resources in conflict zones and therefore could play an important role in both the perpetuation and the resolution of conflicts. The seminar explored specific case studies, legal responses and policy, advocacy and business responses.
The main objective of this seminar was to bring together the different perspectives of those working on the relationship between private sector activities and human rights, in particular the impact of business activities in conflict zones. This seminar sought to contribute to a cross-sector dialogue and to identify areas for research and policy collaboration in this field.
The participants included academics from various Universities, including: UEL; Robert Gordon University of Aberdeen; University of Reading; Queen Mary, University of London; University of Sheffield; University of Essex; Oxford University; King’s College London and Syracuse University (New York). The seminar was also attended by NGO representatives from Amnesty International UK; Global Witness; International Alert and War on Wan;; business organisations, such as International Business Leaders Forum and governmental bodies, such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
The complete list of participants, their links and presentations, as well as a final report on the seminar are available on the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict website: www.uel.ac.uk/chrc.
For any further information in relation to this seminar or the work of the Centre on business and human rights in conflict zones please contact Dr. Olga Martin-Ortega or Johanna Herman.
Business Studies pupils from Forest Gate Community School got a taste of running a real-life company when they visited the our Docklands Campus for a special Stratford City development day earlier this month.
Twenty-five Year 10 pupils attended the event, working with our students to improve their practical business skills in the morning before taking part in the afternoon's Location, location, location business plan contest, judged by a panel of experts.
In teams of five, the pupils prepared and delivered business presentations that outlined reasons for each of their allocated companies to relocate to Stratford City.
The event was organised by Margot Richardson from our Education and Community Partnership team in collaboration with Paul Cannons, Stratford City Education Development Officer, and supported by Westfield Group, the main developer of Stratford City, and Knowledge Dock's enterprise support and development service.
For the full story visit: http://www.uel.ac.uk/news/press_releases/releases/stratfordcity.htm
For a round-up of events see www.uel.ac.uk/events.
If you would like items included in In Focus Update please send them to me by Wednesday of the preceding week at infocus@uel.ac.uk
Please print off a copy of In Focus Update for those of your colleagues who may not have easy access to email.
© 2006
