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Welcome to in Focus Update… |
Past Issues << | Issue 267: 25 October 2011 |
Dear colleague,
We have recently set up a short-life Health and Wellbeing Commission chaired by Richard Sumray, one of our Visiting Professors, who has an extensive background in the NHS, with myself and Lord Kamlesh Patel (the VC's Strategic Adviser) as the key sponsors. The main purpose of the Commission is to engage with external stakeholders regarding the major changes in training in the health and social care system. The intention is that we can understand and use the opportunities to change present processes while offsetting risks. It would also be welcome to have ideas and contributions from within the UEL community to feed into the Commission's thinking. In particular, questions to be addressed are:
– What do the changes mean for London (specifically the east London area) and the services many of our graduates go on to work in?
– How might these changes affect UEL, positively and negatively?
– What opportunities, in teaching, research and knowledge transfer, might arise that we could capitalise on? And how might we do this?
Concise contributions would be valued. Please send them to Liz Williams via liz.williams@uel.ac.uk If there is demand, I would also be happy to organise an internal consultative seminar to discuss these points.
Professor John Joughin
Deputy Vice-Chancellor
UEL rowing scholars got the BUCS Championship season off to the best-possible start on Sunday when they won four sets of medals at the Small Boats Head in Boston, Lincolnshire. Medical physiology undergraduate Rebecca Humphreys and Erasmus student Merle Schaefer won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls, becoming the first female crew from UEL to win a BUCS rowing championship. Rebecca also won bronze in the single scull, where Merle finished 5th. On the men’s side, John Collins and David Bell won silver in the men’s double sculls, while David teamed up with Alan Sinclair to take bronze in the men’s pair. To win four medals on a busy weekend, which also incorporated the first round of British trials, was a terrific start to the season. Elsewhere, UEL cox Rhiannon Jones made her first appearance at the Head of the Charles in America, and was unlucky not to bring back a medal. Rhiannon and her Leander teammates just missed out on bronze at the largest two-day regatta in the world by a mere 0.6 seconds in the men’s senior masters coxed four.
Due to the upcoming graduation season in mid-November, the publication dates of inFocus Update will be altered slightly over the next few weeks. If you wish to submit content for inclusion in the newsletter, please email infocus@uel.ac.uk at least 48 hours prior to the publication date. The publication dates for November are:
Tuesday 1 November
Thursday 10 November
No issue w/c Monday 14 November
Tuesday 22 November (back to normal)
A documentary made by former UEL student Jez Lewis has been nominated for a prestigious documentary award. Jez’s film,
Shed Your Tears and Walk Away,
has been nominated for ‘Best documentary on a contemporary British issue’ at the Grierson Film Awards, set up in 1972 and held annually to celebrate innovative and exciting new documentaries. For the full story see bit.ly/jezlewis
On Wednesday 19 October, Catherine Downes, Director of Corporate Marketing, was a guest speaker at the Improving the Student Experience: Will the White Paper make a difference? event organised by Westminster Briefing and The House Magazine. Catherine gave a presentation on Policy into Practice: The experience for prospective students: examining recruitment at a leading HEI at the event, which was attended by delegates from universities, colleges, careers advice agencies, professional bodies, charities and representatives from regional and central government and other organisations with an interest in improving the student experience. The purpose of the event was to give delegates practical advice and examples of good practice to take back to their organisation. Catherine's presentation included information on our fees and funding web pages, open days, using social networking to communicate, internships, UEL's award nominations and achievements including the NSS results and Times Higher Award nomination for outstanding employer engagement, Transformation for Excellence and examples of some of the actions we have taken.
On 24 October, representatives from each School at Stratford Campus plus the Students’ Union planted UEL’s new urban orchard, promoting fruit growing in city spaces and continuing the work on enhancing biodiversity on campus. The freestanding orchard is located in six barrels between University House and the Clinical Education Building and comprises two apple trees, two plum trees, a pear tree and a cherry tree. UEL’s catering department also celebrated the day by putting special apple dishes on the menu. For more information on UEL’s biodiversity projects visit www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/wildlife.htm
For the latest on our activities visit the news releases section of our website www.uel.ac.uk/news
Migrant workers and camel jockeys: a look at exploitation in the Gulf: Wednesday 26 October, 3.30 – 5pm (Room 110, Duncan House)
David Keane, Lecturer, Department of Law, Middlesex University. Refreshments provided, all welcome. For further information visit www.uel.ac.uk/chrc or contact Johanna Herman on j.herman@uel.ac.uk
Somalia: education, language and the Diaspora: Thursday 27 October, 1 – 2pm (RB.G.16, Stratford Campus)
Jaffar Jama, consultant for the International Organisation for Migration, presents this study which traces the history of the Somali Diaspora from its homeland, and the events that shaped its existence. For further details email v.a.burton@uel.ac.uk
Roundtable event: Friday 28 October, 1 – 4pm (Knowledge Dock Presentation Suite, KD.2.22, Docklands Campus)
The findings from an Arts and Humanities Research Council & Economic and Social Research Council funded project entitled A meta-narrative review of conceptualisations and meanings of ‘community’ within and across research traditions will be presented at this roundtable event. In order to discuss these findings, we have invited people engaged in community research from both academic and policy fields operating in a wide spectrum of research and policy areas. For further details or to RSVP please contact g.barrow-guevara@uel.ac.uk
Talks from the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff network in association with the National Mentoring Consortium: Wednesday 2 November, 5 – 7pm (EB.G.14, Docklands Campus)
Dr Gil Robinson, Acting Associate Dean Royal Docks Business School, will be speaking on Succeeding in higher education and the creation of Black History Month, and Robin Landman OBE, Chief Executive of NBP, will be speaking on The Network of Black Professionals: tapping into the national network to enhance your successful future. The presentations will be of benefit to all staff and students.
Pharmacology 2.0: Wednesday 2 November, 6pm (AE.1.01 Stratford Campus)
World renowned pharmacologist Professor Roderick Flower FRS will be presenting a public lecture entitled Pharmacology 2.0, followed by a drinks reception. To attend please email May Nahar at m.nahar@uel.ac.uk by 31 October.
Gender-based violence in war and the question of accountability: the case of Bosnia: Wednesday 9 November, 3.30 – 5pm (Room 110, Duncan House)
Maja Korac, Reader, School of Law and Social Sciences, and Olga Martin-Ortega, Senior Research Fellow, Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, School of Law and Social Sciences (UEL). Chair: Johanna Herman, Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, UEL. For further information visit www.uel.ac.uk/chrc or contact Johanna Herman on j.herman@uel.ac.uk
The Centre of Excellence for Women Entrepreneurship (CEWE) conference: Thursday 17 November, 9am – 4.30pm (Honourable Artillery Company, Moorgate)
Registration is now open for the CEWE Conference and networking session. The event will bring together women entrepreneurs and their supporters to share knowledge, experiences and challenges. This is an excellent opportunity to develop your networks! Please see www.uel.ac.uk/cewe/conference.htm for more information and to book now.
The human-rights compliance of UK anti-terrorism legislation in the light of domestic and international case law: Wednesday 23 November, 3.30 – 5pm (Room 110, Duncan House)
Carmen Draghici, Lecturer, School of Law, City University. For further information visit www.uel.ac.uk/chrc or contact Johanna Herman on j.herman@uel.ac.uk
See Events Calendar for a full listing: www.uel.ac.uk/marketing/support/eventscalendar.htm
Spotlight on staffKrys Gunton, Administrator, School of Health, Sports and Bioscience
"This academic year I was really pleased to see that netball had been added to the sports schedule on offer to staff at UEL. It's also a bonus that the training takes place opposite my office at Sarah Bonnell School on Water Lane, and for this semester is free due to funding from England Netball.
"Netball is an excellent team sport for both men and women (not just for the ladies, chaps) and is really helping with my fitness as well as my skills for the game itself. There’s lots to be learnt but our coach, Claire, has always got loads of different fun ways to help us learn new things and develop our current skills. I'm looking forward to seeing more of you play at 5.30pm, every Wednesday at Sarah Bonnell School!"
For further information on the Back to Netball sessions contact Claire at c.e.smith@uel.ac.uk
Welcome to the Green Thing, a regular section full of information on environmental projects, tips and ideas for staff at UEL. Visit our website www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/uel_greenthing or get in touch at greenthing@uel.ac.uk We’d love to hear from you!
Environment Team, Facilities
UEL’s wormery is now operational under the careful stewardship of the Environment Team. Located in the herb garden at Stratford, the worms are fed on scraps kindly saved by the staff of The Green eatery. The wormery is a stack of connected trays, with holes for the worms to move the food down the levels and digest it. Wormeries are excellent systems for converting food and plant material into rich compost and nutritious, organic fertiliser – which will be used on the vegetable beds at Stratford and Docklands. If you would like to help feed the worms by saving food scraps or tea bags from your office, email Toby: t.x.jones@uel.ac.uk
During Fairtrade Fortnight 2011, UEL students, organised by the Students' Union, joined people in Fairtrade towns, universities, schools and faith groups across the country in decorating over 130,000 individual pieces of Fairtrade cotton bunting with messages to the UK Government and European Parliament demanding an end to unfair cotton subsidies. On World Fairtrade Day (14 May 2011), the Fairtrade Foundation hung a world-record-breaking total of 3.4 kilometres (2.1 miles) of this bunting around Battersea Park in London to highlight their campaign demanding trade justice for West African cotton farmers. For more information about the campaign, visit the Fairtrade Foundation’s website: fairtrade.org.uk/get_involved/campaigns/campaigns/the_great_cotton_stitchup
We’d like to send out an official apology for a misleading link in last week’s inFocus. We got a little too excited writing about the elephants, and got the link for the actual substance of the article wrong. The waste report for September, with facts and figures about UEL’s recycling and waste can be found at www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/wastereport.htm Thanks to those who kindly pointed out the mistake to us.
… that this week is Energy Saving Week? Visit the Energy Saving Trust’s website for useful daily tips and information to help reduce your energy bills at home: energysavingtrust.org.uk/Take-action/Energy-Saving-Week-2011
Please send comments or contributions for in Focus Update to: infocus@uel.ac.uk
To contribute a UEL news item please supply a headline (c. 10 words), short paragraph (c. 50-100 words) with a call to action (email / web link or phone) together with a photo.
To contribute a UEL event please supply a headline (c. 10 words), date, time, location, short description, with call to action (email / web link or phone)
© 2011
