FIRST-CLASS OPPORTUNITIES FOR OLDER LEARNERS

A new Universities UK report, Active ageing and universities, produced by Professor Chris Phillipson, of Keele, pictured, and Jim Ogg, a Fellow of the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele, was launched this week at a conference that examined how the HE sector might respond to growing demand for higher education courses from older learners.

The report, which looks at changes in social attitudes, with the post-war 'baby boom' generation enjoying the real possibility of a longer and healthier life, and many over-60s wanting to continue to contribute in the workplace and update their skills, as well as taking part in community and leisure activities, was unveiled at a national conference at Universities UK in London.

Professor Phillipson, Professor of Applied Social Studies, who was one of the key speakers at the conference on engaging older learners in education and training, outlined the report's findings. The conference was chaired by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dame Janet Finch

With the most recent university (UCAS) application figures showing a 63.4% increase in the number of mature applicants, the report highlights the ways in which universities can most effectively support the increasing numbers of older learners.

TOPICAL REVIEW ON COCHLEAR HAIR CELLS

Drs David Furness and Michael Evans, Research Institute for Science and Technology in Medicine/ Life Sciences, and Professor Carole Hackney (Sheffield University) have written a "topical review" for the Journal of Physiology about some recent exciting developments in their research field, concerning how cochlear hair cells detect sound.

One of the figures, a view of the "hair" bundle of a hair cell, taken with a scanning electron microscope at Keele, was chosen for the journal's cover. The hair bundle is the part of the hair cell that detects the mechanical energy in sound. The review focuses on how the resulting tiny displacements of the hairs are coupled to the opening of ion channels in the cell membrane, thereby generating an electrical signal that can be signalled to the brain allowing us to hear.

RESEARCHING THE LUBA SOUL - INAUGURAL LECTURE
 
Professor David Maxwell, Professor of African History, this week gave the latest lecture in the University's programme of Inaugural Lectures for 2009-2010.

The lecture, "Researching the Luba Soul:  The Production of Colonial Knowledge in Belgian Congo", examined the motivations, institutions and processes involved in colonial knowledge formation through a study of a missionary polymath, William Frederick Padwick Burton, who worked in Belgian Congo from 1915 to 1960.  It considered knowledge formation about the Luba of Katanga in relation to the practices of Belgian colonial science and the emergent discipline of Anglo-Saxon Social Anthropology. 

The other lectures in the series are:

Tuesday, 30 March, Professor Coel Hellier, Astrophysics, "Discovering new planets"; Wednesday, 12 May, Professor David Shepherd, Cultural Theory, "The Theory of Culture and the Culture of Theory".

INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRISE DAY FOR STAFFORDSHIRE PUPILS

Staffordshire Languages Group organised an International Enterprise Day in the Ball Room at Keele Hall. This event for Year 9 and 10 pupils from seven Stoke and Staffordshire schools is part of the HEFCE funded Routes into Languages programme to enthuse young people about language learning.

Six local employers, including Keele Conferences, worked with small groups to produce a short advertisement for their products or services in French or German. The results were imaginative and captivating, acted out with a good degree of enthusiasm to the whole group and a panel of judges.

The trophy was presented by Dr Annette Kratz, Head of the Centre for International Exchange and Development, to seven boys and girls from Clayton Hall Business and Language College, pictured above, who had produced an advertisement for KMF Precision Sheet Metal, based in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

INTERNATIONAL NETWORK ON CRITICAL GERONTOLOGY

Twenty-one established and career young researchers gathered at Keele for a two-day seminar exploring critical approaches to the study of ageing.

The meeting brought together international scholars from the UK, Sweden, the USA, France and Canada and was supported through funding from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. The meeting was convened by Dr Amanda Grenier, from McGill University, visiting Leverhulme Fellow in the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele.

The purpose of the meeting was to establish the basis for an international network of researchers developing new approaches to the challenges facing ageing populations.

Seminar participants discussed a number of collaborative research projects and publications arising from discussions over the two days.

ALCOHOL HANGOVER RESEARCH

Dr Richard Stephens, Research Institute for Life Course Studies, pictured below, in collaboration with Dr Joris Verster, of Utrecht University, has been awarded £4,886 by the Alcohol Education and Research Council to fund speaker travel expenses and room hire for a one-day meeting on alcohol hangover research at the Research Society on Alcoholism (RSA) 33rd Annual Scientific Meeting, in San Antonio, Texas in June.

Alcohol hangover has been a neglected part of the alcohol research scene until recently. The proposed research symposium and consensus meeting will be the first such meeting dedicated to alcohol hangover research.

Speakers from Europe and the United States will be supporting the event, a key aim of which is to provide the starting point for setting up an international working group on alcohol hangover research.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

20 February 1978 -

An arts studio is set up in the Students' Union for use by members of staff and students. An art teacher attends every Thursday evening to conduct classes in both life-drawing and still-life.