KEELE STUDENTS
AMONG MOST SATISFIED IN THE COUNTRY
 Keele has been rated amongst the
best in the country for student satisfaction. The
University, with an overall satisfaction score of 88% in
the National Student Survey, significantly exceeds the
national satisfaction rate of 82%.
Teaching satisfaction was rated
particularly highly by students at 87% and Keele was
also well above average in Personal Development,
Academic Support and Organisation and Management.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet
Finch, said:"I am delighted that Keele has been so
highly rated by our students in the National Student
Survey. Keele is a very special place in which to study
and develop and this survey underlines our commitment to
the student experience at the University."
More students than ever responded to
the National Student Survey this year. Nearly 220,000
students completed the 2008 survey. This figure
comprises over 210,000 students studying at higher
education institutions (up from 177,000 last year) plus
over 6,000 students studying higher education at FE
colleges, which took part in the survey for the first
time. This is the fourth annual National Student
Survey. |
|
 |
|
KEELE PROFESSORS
LEAD NATIONAL EVALUATION
 Professors Alison Blenkinsopp and Steve
Chapman, School of Pharmacy, are leading the pharmacy
component of the Department of Health's national
Evaluation of Nurse and Pharmacist Independent
Prescribing (ENPIP).
Working in collaboration with Professor
Sue Latter from Southampton University's nursing
department, the team was successful in last year's
national call for proposals. The aim of the 18 month
study is to evaluate the quality, safety and costs of
nurse and pharmacist independent prescribing in order to
inform planning for current and future prescribers. They
have been awarded £138,249.
The study will maintain Keele's high
profile as a national leader in this field as Dr Pat
Black and her team in Medicines Management developed the
first course in the country to be accredited for
training of pharmacist prescribers. Keele has trained
the highest number of pharmacist independent prescribers
in the country. |
 |
JUST POLITICS, LAW
AND CRIME CONTROL?
The Research Institute for Law,
Politics and Justice held its 2nd Postgraduate Research
Students Conference 'Just Politics, Law and Crime
Control?' in the Chancellor's Building last week. The
conference was organised by Dr Luis Lobo-Guerrero and
attracted over forty participants, with 14 papers being
presented.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Ignacio
Sanchez-Cuenca, Universidad Complutense de Madrid,
presented a paper entitled 'Can Terrorism be measured?'
The conference was instrumental in offering postgraduate
researchers the opportunity to gain valuable research
dissemination and networking experience. A roundtable on
'What does it mean to think critically?' complemented
the programme and was followed by a wine reception where
members of the RI joined students for a prize ceremony.
Michelle Jaffe was awarded the prize for best
presentation and Christopher Zebrowski won the award for
best paper. |
|
|
SIX TOWNS RESIDENTIAL
EVENT AT KEELE
 Keele this week hosted its annual Six Towns
residential event. A total of 220 yr 10 students and their
teachers from Edensor, Longton High, Mitchell High, St Thomas
More, Blurton, Birches Head, Brownhills and Holden Lane
schools attended the two day event.
The students' stay was designed to allow them
to experience what both academic and social life at university
is really like. Day one saw the students participate in ice
breaking/team building, run by Barry Seaton, and campus
orienteering. The day also included sports at the leisure
centre, an evening meal and disco in the Students Union. Day
two was a packed programme of interactive academic taster
workshops – Forensics run by Victoria Hill and Amy Cowles; Dr
Iain Brassington returned from The University of Manchester to
deliver Medical Ethics sessions; Ann McGruer ran Flash Fiction
sessions and a Widening Participation senior mentor ran the
Uniaid workshops.
The programme was supported by a team of 14
Widening Participation mentors. All the students loved their
time at Keele, commenting upon the impact the event had as an
amazing life experience. |
|
|
Research
grants
Professor Rebecca Jester, Dr Paula Roberts and Mrs
Dawn Johnson from the School of Nursing and Midwifery
have successfully been awarded an Innovation Keele Award
of £10,000 for a proposal titled, 'Practice Development
Units'.
Dr Ying Yang, Research Institute for Science and
Technology in Medicine, with Dr Monte Gates, has been
awarded a BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences
Research Council) Follow-on funding Pathfinder Award of
£9,947 for a project titled "Development and
commercialization of a surgical phantom system for the
brain research, therapy and
education." |
|
Nature Neuroscience
paper
A paper co-authored by Dr Stanislaw Glazewski, School
of Life Sciences, was published this week in the on-line
edition of Nature Neuroscience. The paper, "Laminar
analysis of the role of GluR1 in experience-dependent
and synaptic depression in barrel cortex", was written
with Nicholas Wright, Neil Hardingham, Keith Phillips,
Eleftheria Pervolaraki and Kevin Fox, of Cardiff School
of Biosciences, Cardiff University.
Dr Glazewski said: "The paper shows that a specific
subtype of receptors sensitive to glutamate is involved
in the mechanism that secures brain's ability to change
its structure and function. Such an ability, as this is
commonly believed, underlies such fundamental processes
as memory formation and brain's response to trauma."
Study receives widespread media
coverage
A study into developments in the FE sector,
co-authored by Professor Roger Seifert, SEMS, has
received wide spread media coverage, ncluding an article
based on the study's findings by Peter Kingston in the
Guardian.
Keele events
The Institute of Embalmers returned to Keele this
week for their biennial conference at the
UGMS2 |
|
 |
|
