ESTATES TEAM SHORTLISTED FOR PRESTIGIOUS NATIONAL AWARD

Keele's Estates team has been shotlisted for a prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership & Management Award.

The team, part of CFM, is one of six universities being considered for an award in the Outstanding Estates Initiative category. The Times Higher announced the shortlist yesterday "after much deliberation" and revealed that competition for a place in the final listing was fierce.

The submission set out the philosophy, approach, design and delivery of the onsite infrastructure for the expansion of Keele University and Science Park on a 70-acre site adjoining the existing campus. The development is a major driver of the project to become the 'Ultimate Campus University for the 21st Century' and become the UK's leading open, integrated intellectual community.

Key to this concept was to develop the estate with sustainability at its heart, with a respect for the environment and an approach that would exploit Keele University's unrivalled potential to form a unique hub for research, development and demonstration of a range of environmental and sustainable technologies.

The winners of the awards will be announced in June at a ceremony at the London Hilton Hotel in Park Lane.

AGEING GLOBALLY, ACTING LOCALLY

Keele's Centre for Social Gerontology teamed up with Manchester City Council's Joint Health Unit to organise a seminar in Manchester on the theme of 'Ageing Globally, Acting Locally'.

The event provided a showcase for five research projects that are being supported by the UK Research Councils' New Dynamics of Ageing programme. Around 70 delegates, drawn from policy, practice and the general public, engaged in a lively debate on issues linked to demographic change and its social and economic impacts in Britain and further afield.

Speakers included Professor Tom Scharf, Director of the Centre for Social Gerontology, and Dr Roger Beech, Research Institute for Life Course Studies. Tom and Roger are part of a team from Keele and Manchester City Council involved in a study of older people's engagement in community life in Manchester (see http://system.newzapp.co.uk/GLink.asp?LID=MjAyNTIzMCw5 for details). The event was held at Manchester Town Hall as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's annual Festival of Social Science.

DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND FOREIGN POLICY

A concern for aid and development should not be an 'optional extra' but an integral part of UK foreign policy, Clare Short, MP, told a substantial audience in the Westminster Theatre this week.

The former Secretary of State for International Development argued that it was in the national interest to support international development and that foreign policy should not consist of 'self interest with an added moral dimension'. Drawing on her experience at Cabinet level, Ms Short outlined the sometimes uncomfortable relationship between development policy and foreign policy. She advocated a role for Britain on the world stage that was less closely aligned with US policy and the formation of imaginative solutions to tackle issues of global warming and population displacement in developing countries.
 
After her talk she met with Keele academics and alumni and representatives of local organisations with interests in development issues.

The next speaker in the series will be Keele graduate Sir Nick Partridge, Chief Executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, on 23 March , speaking on "21st Century HIV: Sex, health, politics and a very modern virus",  followed by Judge Roger Dutton on 26 May.

U.S. CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDENTS VISIT KEELE

Fourteen undergraduate criminology and criminal justice students and two of their professors (Michael Brown and Taiping Ho) from Ball State University, in Muncie, Indiana, have spent a week at Keele. The visit was arranged by Annette Kratz, Head of CIED, in collaboration with Keele Criminology Professors Susanne Karstedt, Anne Worrall, Philip Stenning and Tim Hope, as well as Dr. Evi Girling, Undergraduate Director.

The Ball State students attended lectures on policing, prisons, the probation service and the local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership. They also spent a day visiting the Magistrates and Crown Courts in Stafford, and visited the Cheshire Police Service's headquarters in Winsford. Professor Stenning "interviewed" a magistrate (Mrs. Clare Hoy, a Keele graduate) in front of the visiting students and students in his first-year module, "Key Actors in the Criminal Justice Process", and the US students also joined Keele students in some tutorials for this module. On the social side, the U.S. visitors made trips to Chester, Manchester and Liverpool, shared an evening with Dr. Helen Wells and students from the School of Sociology and Criminology at the Sneyd Arms, and sampled some local culinary delights in various eating places.

In April, a dozen of our undergraduate criminology students will make a return visit to Ball State University, accompanied by Annette Kratz. It is hoped that this exchange will be the first of many.

SHOULD THE LAW RESPECT RELIGION?

Professor Tony Bradney, Law, this week gave the latest lecture in the University's programme of Inaugural Lectures for 2008/2009. The title of the lecture was "Should the Law Respect Religion?"

Professor Bradney said: "Adherence to institutionalised religion has significantly declined in Great Britain.  Individuals sometimes retain a vague personal religiosity but in the main people do not use religious belief as a way of determining how they behave.  The dominant ethos within society is secular in tone.  However, a sizeable minority within society still have a strong belief in one faith system or another.  For them their religion is an important, perhaps the most important part of their sense of identity.  Great Britain has a centuries old tradition of making accommodations for religious belief in its legal systems.  Changing patterns in the religious landscape of Great Britain mean that these historical accommodations may no longer be appropriate." His lecture asked what the law's attitude should be towards religion in an era that is both secular and sceptical.

The final lecture in the series is on Wednesday, 13 May 2009 when Professor Mihaela Kelemen, Management, will speak on "Management, uncertainty, pragmatism: the new triumvirate".

JACK THE RIPPER: CAN FORENSICS FOIL THE FIEND?

Staff and students from Keele's School of Physical Sciences and Geography took part in the third, hugely popular CSI:Stoke day at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Hanley last weekend. The Jack the Ripper-themed event was organised in collaboration with colleagues at Staffordshire University and was attended by more than 1,200 people from the local area.

Members of the public were entertained by a drama presentation on one of the Jack the Ripper murders, staged by drama students from Haywood Engineering College, Burslem, and were then invited to try different modern forensic techniques, which were demonstrated by volunteer Forensic Science undergraduate students. Hands-on activities included examining forged documents, locating buried coins, investigating biometrics and the microscopy of hairs and fibres. The Forensic Science Service was also on hand to demonstrate fingerprinting and crime scene investigation activities.

The day was hugely successful and engaged children and adults of all ages scientifically and socially and promoted the work of Keele and Staffordshire universities, whilst further strengthening the relationship between Keele and partner organisations.

PUBLIC LECTURE AT THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

Professor Barry Godfrey and Dr David Cox, both of the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, gave a public lecture at The National Archives last week.

A packed room listened to Professor Godfrey discuss the sources that could be used to piece together the lives of criminals in the Victorian and Edwardian period (using examples from his current ESRC project). The lecture will be available as a podcast on the National Archives website in a few weeks.

RESEARCH GRANTS

Dr Divya Chari, of the Cellular and Neural Engineering group/Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, has been awarded a research grant of £14,978 by the Royal Society, UK, for a project entitled, "Magnetic nanoparticle (MNP) mediated gene transfer to oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) derived for transplantation".

Dr Richard Emes, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine, has been awarded a research grant of £6,000 by the Royal Society, UK, for a project entitled, "Molecular evolution of the mammalian synapse".

Dr Emes was also recently awarded £5,000 by the North Staffordshire Medical Institute for a project entitled "Bioinformatic analysis of fetal methylation status".

CONSULTANT TO THE SMALLEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

As an expert on prosecutorial institutions, Professor Philip Stenning's advice was last week sought out by the Legislative Draftsman of Nauru (a tiny South Pacific Island state with a population of just over 9,000 and a territory of 8.1 square miles), which has been in the news recently as one of the "tax havens" that are under pressure to be more open about the sources of the funds in their bank accounts.

Nauru is overhauling its constitution and is planning to include provision in it for a new independent Director of Public Prosecutions. Professor Stenning was invited to review the draft proposal for this, and made a number of suggestions for improvements, most of which have now been incorporated into the draft Constitutional Amendment Bill. Unfortunately, reports Professor Stenning, his brief consultation did not include a site visit.

Professor Stenning, School of Sociology and Criminology/ Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, is currently engaged in comparative research on prosecutorial institutions, and relationships between prosecutors and governments, in the UK, South Africa, Canada and Israel.

In July, he will be presenting a paper on this topic at an international conference on "Accountable Governance in Africa" being hosted by the University of Cape Town Law School. He is the recipient of a British Academy Overseas Conference Grant to attend this conference.

SERVICE OF THANKSGIVING AT KEELE

A Service of Thanksgiving was held at Keele this week in remembrance of those who have donated their bodies for medical and scientific teaching, training and research in anatomy.
 
The Service, which will be held every five years, is unrelated to the final committal or funeral service of any individual, about which relatives have been, or will be, informed separately, but, rather, is intended as an opportunity for the public-spirited actions of the donors to be acknowledged.

The service in the University Chapel was non-denominational and was attended by clergy, staff and students of the University. The Roman Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham, Rt Revd David McGough; the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch; the Registrar and Secretary, Mr Simon Morris; the Lord Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent and the Mayor of Newcastle-under-Lyme also attended.