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Welcome to in Focus Update… |
Past Issues << | Issue 270: 22 November 2011 |
Please note that strike action is due to take place on Wednesday 30 November to coincide with sector-wide strikes over Government proposals regarding public sector pensions. Deans/Directors will advise staff of any timetable changes. All staff on strike will be deducted a day's pay in accordance with UEL policy and annual leave will not be permitted on this day unless already agreed or it is for an exceptional reason. Deducted pay will be paid into a UEL student hardship fund.
Staff need to let their Dean or Director know by email if they're taking industrial action by noon on Friday 25 November, so that appropriate cover can be arranged. After the strike all staff need to confirm to their Dean or Director by email whether or not they took part in the strike by 5pm on Wednesday 7 December. If no response is received, UEL will assume that they took part in the industrial action and pay will be withheld.
For more information, please visit www.uel.ac.uk/hrservices/strikeaction.htm or contact your Dean or Director or your HR Manager.
Last week saw the completion of this year's run of UEL graduation ceremonies. To mark the occasion, we thought it appropriate to offer a few pieces of graduation-related trivia.
Graduation season 2011 saw:
Rihanna performing in The O2 in the evenings after UEL graduations
Awards presented to 17 honorary graduates including cricket legend Graham Gooch and Doctor Who star Noel Clarke (pictured)
Divided into nine graduations over six days
UEL’s many Schools and Services pitching in to make this year’s season a huge success
Architecture and the Visual Arts kicking off the season with the first ceremony taking place on Tuesday 8 November
Tickets sold totalling 8,000
International guests flocking to east London from all over the world
O2 – the new home for graduations this year
Names read on stage totalling 4,000
The Graduation Team would also like to give a massive thank you to everyone from the University’s Schools and Services who volunteered their time and help.
UEL recently held two successful Open Days, attracting 750 prospective students and 1,000 guests to the University’s campuses. Crowds were wowed at Docklands, which hosted the second of the two days on 12 November, by ‘flash mob’ performances from Dance: Urban Practice students, which can be viewed on UEL’s YouTube channel youtube.com/videouel Prospective students also had the chance to attend taster sessions led by academic staff, alongside campus tours. The Student Recruitment Marketing Team received very positive feedback from attendees following the events, and would like to thank all volunteers who helped make the days a success.
As part of the internal communications plan for UEL’s Olympic project, a student FAQs page has been added to the UEL 2012 website – www.uel.ac.uk/2012/office/student-faqs.htm These FAQs are aimed to give clarity around areas such as length of term times and which services will be open during games-time. If you work directly with students please pass on this information along with the link to the webpage. If any students have questions they can email 2012studentenquiries@uel.ac.uk and the FAQs will be updated accordingly.
The autumn wave of the International Student Barometer (ISB) was launched earlier this month. This is an online independent survey which tracks the international student journey and is independently administered by the International Graduate Insight Group (i-graduate.org ). Nearly 50,000 international students take part in the survey worldwide and we performed extremely well in the last survey. The findings of the survey are used to help UEL improve the student experience for current and future international students through the work of the International Student Experience project, chaired by Niru Williams. Your support is needed to increase participation rates so please encourage your students to fill out the survey at www.uel.ac.uk/isb Cash prizes of up to £1,000 can be won. Closing date is 9 December.
UEL second-year sports journalism student and Essex bowler Tymal Mills has been brought into the 2011-12 England Performance Programme cricket squad, following a string of lively performances for Essex and England Under-19s last season. For the full story see bit.ly/tymalmills
UEL's Centre of Excellence for Women's Entrepreneurship (CEWE) held its inaugural conference last week. Over 100 delegates heard from Baroness Wilcox, Diana Brightmore-Armour (Lloyds Banking Group) and UEL honorary degree holder Carrie Longton (Mumsnet) and took away new skills, ideas and contacts to develop their business. For more information about CEWE see www.uel.ac.uk/cewe or follow @uel_cewe on twitter.
After last issue’s announcement, inFocus is pleased to confirm that UEL’s ‘Build Your Own Prospectus’ project picked up its fourth industry excellence award at the Digital Printing Awards 2011 at the Grosvenor Square Hotel last week. The University’s collaborative partner KnowledgePoint Ltd entered the project in the ‘Digital and the Environment’ category as a sustainable print solution and against stiff opposition won the category outright. Head of Print Services, Stephen Marlow, said, “The project has been recognised not only as a print solution but also as an IT innovation, a business model and an environmental solution. So well done to all concerned – a great team effort!”
A UEL project led by Dr Ameer Al-Nemrat and Associate Dean of School for Architecture, Computing and Engineering, Professor Hamid Jahankhani, has won a Good Practice Award from the European Commission. For the full story see bit.ly/EUaward
The Chartered Institute of Marketing is holding its Marketing and the 2012 Games conference at Docklands Campus next Tuesday 29 November at 6pm. A limited number of free places for staff and students are available. If you would like to attend please email a.j.kelly@uel.ac.uk For more information see bit.ly/cimconference
On 2 November the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience were proud to host a public lecture by the eminent scientist Professor Roderick Flower FRS (second left), a professor in pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute, St Bart’s School of Medicine and Dentistry. Professor Flower gave an inspirational lecture entitled Pharmacology 2.0, in which he discussed the role that pharmacology had played in shaping today’s society and the healthcare system. In addition, Professor Flower gave useful advice to students on developing a successful career in bioscience, while also spending time with academic researchers from the School’s Medicines Research Group and Infection and Immunity Research Group.
For the latest on our activities visit the news releases section of our website www.uel.ac.uk/news
Sport Forum: Wednesday 23 November, 12 noon – 2pm (RB.2.12, Stratford Campus)
This forum will give you the opportunity to pass on your ideas, find out how you can get involved and discuss how UEL can ensure it delivers its target of being the best university in London for sport by 2015. The latest progress made by the Programme Board for Sport will also be discussed. Lunch provided. Please RSVP to c.e.anderson@uel.ac.uk
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
Joint Union Meetings: Thursday 24 November, 1 – 2pm (EB.3.16, Docklands Campus, and CC.1.18, Stratford Campus)
Joint Union Meetings planned to discuss and promote the National Day of Action taking place on 30 November.
Work with communities, children and young people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Friday 25 November, 3 – 5pm (ED.2.04, Stratford Campus)
Nader Abu Amsha and Mai Jarrar from East Jerusalem YMCA will discuss their approaches to work with communities, children and young people in the West Bank and the challenges faced in delivering these essential services. Please RSVP to Veronica Burtonvia v.a.burton@uel.ac.uk or for more details contact Paul Adams via p.adams@uel.ac.uk
Improving health in Newham – research seminar series: Tuesday 29 November, 4.15 – 5.30pm (Classroom 3, Education Centre, Newham University Hospital NHS Trust)
Dr Noble will be presenting how the many known risk factors for type 2 diabetes can be combined in statistical models to produce risk scores for estimating future risk of developing diabetes. He will also present and discuss preliminary results. For further details or to RSVP contact Sadna Ullah on Sadna.Ullah@newhamhealth.nhs.uk or 020 7363 9037.
Communities and health: reflections on community development and lay involvement in public health: Friday 9 December, 1 – 2pm (EB.3.16, Docklands Campus)
Speaking at the seminar will be Sarah Frost, Learning Network Development Manager on the Altogether Better Programme at Yorkshire and Humber Public Health Observatory, and Jane South, Director of the Centre for Health Promotion Research at Leeds Metropolitan University. For further details email g.phillips@uel.ac.uk
Hereditary spastic paraparesis: from pathophysiology to rehabilitation: Wednesday 14 December, 6pm (AE.1.01, Stratford Campus)
Professor Jon Marsden will be presenting this public lecture. To attend, please email May Nahar at m.nahar@uel.ac.uk
See Events Calendar for a full listing: www.uel.ac.uk/marketing/support/eventscalendar.htm
Sport Makers
On Monday 5 December UEL students and staff are invited to take part in a Sport Maker workshop in association with Pro-Active East London. Taking place from 5 – 7.30pm in ED.4.02 in the Cass Building on Stratford Campus, this is your chance to help deliver the official London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games sporting legacy, Places People Play, by helping more people play more sport.
To attend the Sport Makers workshop pre-register at sportmakers.co.uk and select the UEL workshop.
For more information contact a.zurita@uel.ac.uk
The tournament scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday 23 November, has unfortunately been cancelled. If you are in need of further information please contact Claire Smith on 07950 142405 or email tryasport365@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
The Environment Team is currently interviewing a batch of very enthusiastic students after an incredibly successful volunteer recruitment drive. The students have been recruited to help with Green Impact, the competition to find UEL's greenest department. In fact, we currently have more students keen and excited to support staff teams in Green Impact than we have teams for them to support! If your department, School, office or corridor has not signed up yet, get inspiration from the first Green Impact newsletter, see how easy it is for you to take part and get greening: www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/greenimpact.htm
Thanks to all who came along to the Waste Management seminars on Monday 21 November. The sessions at Docklands and Stratford, delivered by Katherine Sherwin of Revise Ltd, were a resounding success and generated productive discussion. The workshops provided valuable insights into sustainable waste management and how it applies directly to UEL staff – from complying with legislation and striving for sustainable good practice, to contributing to UEL’s new Waste Strategy currently being drafted. Presentation slides can be found online at www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/events.htm For more information on the new Waste Strategy please contact Toby Jones, Waste Projects Officer, at t.x.jones@uel.ac.uk
Internal audits are being carried out this week as part of UEL's drive to have our Environmental Management System (EMS) certified to ISO14001 standards. The internal audits this week are looking at key activities which may have an environmental impact and identify best practice and areas for improvement ahead of the external audits next month. Please take this time to notify the Environment Team of any areas of campus where you notice items of waste which are not stored or managed properly. You can read more about our EMS at www.uel.ac.uk/greenthing/ems.htm
…that Newham was given two out of seven possible points in a recent Good Food for London ranking of boroughs' work on promoting healthy and sustainable food? Have a look at how other London boroughs compare and see which ones are leading on issues such as Fairtrade and food waste: sustainweb.org/londonfoodlink/good_food_for_london
The ReDS team provide administrative and development support to all research and knowledge exchange projects across UEL. Please contact us on 020 8223 7776 or email reds@uel.ac.uk if you would like to discuss any opportunities. Do let us know as soon as possible if you’re developing a proposal – thank you!
Highlights
Department of Health Study to Review & Update the Relative Need Formulae (RNF) for Adult Social Care The RNF are used to ensure an equitable distribution of resources for adult social care between Councils in England. The two formulae, for younger adults & for older people, take account of differences in population numbers, needs, resources and input costs (wages) between areas. Grant of around £700,000 for 2 years. Closes 05-Jan-12
Ministry of Education, Culture & Science (OCW) via NWO Innovational Research Incentives Scheme Veni To enable researchers who have completed their doctorates no more than 3 years previously to develop their ideas over a three year period. Women are particularly encouraged to submit proposals. Grant of up to €250,000 for 3 years. Closes 05-Jan-12
Leakey Foundation (US) Research Grants The Foundation funds research related specifically to human origins. Priority is commonly given to exploratory phases of promising new research. Advanced doctoral students (advanced to candidacy) & established scientists are eligible. No citizenship restrictions. All applications must be in English. Grant of $3,000 - £13,500, up to $22,000. Closes 05-Jan-12.
John Carter Brown Library (US) Library Fellowships (short-term & long-term) Scholars whose work is centered on the colonial history of the Americas, north & south, including all aspects of European, African, & Native American involvement are eligible. Short-term $2,100 a month stipend. Long-term $4,200 a month stipend. Fellowship; Short-term 2-4 months. Long-term 5-10 months. Closes 03-Jan-12.
Lord Dowding Fund for Humane Research Project Grants To support better methods of scientific & medical research for testing products & curing disease which replace the use of animals, & to promote & assist any research for the purpose of showing that animal research is harmful or unnecessary to humanity. Up to £75,000 Grant for up to 1 year. Closes 01-Jan-12
Conservation, Food & Health Foundation (US), Project Grants Supports projects demonstrating strong local leadership & promote professional development in conservation, agricultural, & health sciences; develop capacity of local organizations; & address a particular problem in the field. Areas of interest: conservation, food, & health. Prefers to address under-funded issues & geographic areas. Grant average $17,000, but up to $25,000. Closes 01-Jan-12.
Leverhulme & Royal Society Africa Award To assist in strengthening the research & training capacity in research institutions in Ghana & Tanzania through the transfer of specific skills. Up to £60,000/yr inc up to £10,000/yr for a PhD Student Bursary. Grant for up to 3 years. Closes 08-Feb-12.
British Academy International Partnership & Mobility Scheme To support development of partnerships between UK scholars & scholars in Africa, Latin America & the Caribbean, Middle East, South Asia, & East Asia. Cover any branch of humanities & social sciences & are intended to focus on collaborative research on a specific theme of mutual interest. Up to £10,000/yr Grant for up to 3 years. Closes 08-Feb-12.
AHRC & BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinkers 2012 Up to sixty successful applicants will have a chance to develop their programme-making ideas with experienced BBC producers at a series of dedicated workshops & of these up to ten will become Radio 3's resident New Generation Thinkers. A unique opportunity to develop programmes for BBC Radio 3 & a chance to regularly appear on air. Closes 07-Dec-11
The full spreadsheet of opportunities is available from a secure page on the ReDS website – login with your UEL username and password at www.uel.ac.uk/secure/reds/current-opportunities/index.htm Current external funding opportunities and other announcements also go out on the ReDS Twitter feed – twitter.com/UEL_ReDS
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
