SUCCESSFUL BID FOR NEW UNDERGRADUATE PLACES

Keele has been successful in its bid to the University Modernisation Fund (HEFCE) for new entrant full-time undergraduate places in 2010/11 and investments in projects to generate efficiency savings. 

The total funding attracted is £1.2 million and provides 95 additional full-time new entrant places for 2010/11.  The full-time new entrant places are across a number of disciplines in both the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Keele Management School.  This success is particularly welcome in light of the 2010/11 recruitment cap on undergraduate intake and the high student demand for undergraduate places at Keele.

ADVISORY GROUP APPOINTMENT

Dr Angus Dawson, School of Law/RI Law, Politics and Justice, has been appointed to the UK's Health Protection Agency's Advisory Group on Ionising Radiation (AGIR) sub-group on Human Radiosensitivity. AGIR's remit is to review work on the biological and medical effects of ionising radiation relevant to human health. The particular sub-group that he will work on has a focus on evidence relating to variations in human radiosensitivity, the impact of such variations on humans, and exploring the possible ethical implications of these differences. Angus, pictured above, is involved because of his expertise in the ethical issues in public health and preventive medicine. He has a particular interest in research ethics relating to public health methodologies. He has published widely in these fields and is joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal 'Public Health Ethics'.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT AWARDS

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, presented certificates to representatives of the 68 Keele staff who have recently successfully completed a range of staff development programmes through the Centre for Professional Staff Development. These include the Institute of Leadership and Management accredited courses in team leading and leadership and management, National Vocational Qualifications in business and administration, customer service and management, and research supervisor training. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor acknowledged the commitment of the staff concerned to their own professional development.

BRITISH ACADEMY GRANT SUCCESSES

Four members of the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice have been successful in grant applications to the British Academy.
 
Dr Rosie Harding, in collaboration with Dr Elizabeth Peel, Aston University, has been awarded £7,391 for a project entitled 'Duties to Care: A socio-legal exploration of caring for people with dementia', a pilot study intended to explore carers' experiences of accessing health and social care services for people with dementia; Dr Jonathan Hughes has been awarded £7,107 to run a workshop on ethical policing. The workshop, to be held in November, will bring together key figures from the police establishment along with leading academics in applied ethics and criminology and will provide an opportunity to review current thinking in this area and to establish priorities and develop plans for future collaborative research; Dr Deirdre McKay has been awarded  £7,452 for a project titled 'Everyday Objects: the making and unmaking of Filipino crafts as art ' and  Dr Robert Ladrech was awarded £3,193 for a project called 'Social Democratic Parties and Climate Change'. It pays for support for interviews with select social democratic party MPs in Sweden, Germany, Greece, Spain and the UK and attempts to ascertain the level of concern in balancing commitments to social justice with the costs of adaptation to climate change.

NUFFIELD FOUNDATION UNDERGRADUATE SCIENCE BURSARIES

Five colleagues in the Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM) and a member of the Research Institute for Life Course Studies (LCS) have been awarded Nuffield Foundation Undergraduate Science Bursaries, which have seen a substantial increase in applications.  The awards allow 2nd year undergraduate students to work on specific projects over the summer.

April Fitzgerald-Hudson will work with Dr Brian O'Driscoll (EPSAM) on pattern formation in slowly-cooled crystal mush:  a reinvestigation of the 'Inch Scale' layering of the Stillwater Complex, Montana (USA; Claire Holland with work with Dr Jamie Pringle (EPSAM) on establishing forensic search protocols for detection of clandestine burials within coastal environments; Diane Lawrence will work with Dr Ralf Gertisser (EPSAM) on hazard assessment and numerical modelling of tephra fallout from explosive volcanic eruptions of Santorini volcano, Greece; Krista Jones will work with Dr Chris Exley (EPSAM) on the role of metals in the formation of spherulites of amyloid; Joel Radiven will work with Professor Rob Jeffries (EPSAM) on looking for the debris of terrestrial planet formation around other stars"; Sam Berens is working on a project investigating frontal strategic memory in patients with mild and moderate Parkinson's. The project is supervised by Dr Nicky Edelstyn (LCS), Dr Simon Ellis (Consultant Neurologist, UHNS) and Professor Andrew Mayes (Manchester University).

THE SOCIOPOLITICS OF BIOSECURITY

Last week the second of a series of ESRC-funded seminars on The Sociopolitics of Biosecurity was held at Keele.  Run by Dr Sarah Taylor (Biological Sciences), Professor Andrew Dobson (SPIRE) and Dr Kezia Barker (Birkbeck College, London), this seminar looked at the native/alien paradigm in the context of conservation policy.

Presentations by a range of speakers from Forest Research, Natural England, the Soil Association, CAB International and the Black Environment Network examined the language and definitions used to structure nativist concerns, the suitability of classification criteria, the underpinning science, the pragmatic justifications for nativist policies, as well as ideological assumptions and cultural motivations, including the degree to which the 'native good, aliens bad' discourse is a barrier to ethnic minority participation in environmental conservation.

The 2-day seminar concluded with a campus tour led by Dr Taylor, Robin Cross and Andy Parry - all of Keele - which demonstrated the challenge of restoring 'invaded landscapes'.

STUDENT NURSES' GLOBAL EXPERIENCES

Current and past students at the School of Nursing and Midwifery gave presentations on their recent international experiences to a packed audience. Wynne Thomas, the School's International Champion, welcomed the attendees and introduced the key speakers, including ten students who have visited Australia, New Zealand, Tanzania and Uganda, who gave accounts of their perspectives, highlighting the differences between health care systems and some of the major challenges faced when nursing abroad.

Student Nurse Lotta Karlborg, University of Gothenburg, presented her introduction to the style of nursing found in Sweden and her initial perceptions of nursing in the UK. Staff Nurse Fiona Reale followed with an insight into her recent Erasmus Exchange to Ankara University and how her experiences had beneficially impacted on her nursing career.

Dr. Annette Kratz, Centre for International Exchange and Development, talked about the collaborative projects taking place within the School of Nursing and Midwifery in relation to their external partners in Australia, Canada and Turkey. The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Rama Thirunamachandran, gave a presentation on the benefits that internationalisation had brought to Keele and thanked the speakers for an interesting and thought provoking afternoon.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PAPER

Dr Carole Thornley, Keele Management School and Research Institute for Public Policy and Management, presented a paper last week at a prestigious international conference on the sustainability and greening of the auto industry, held at the Wissenschaftcentrum in Berlin and at the Volkswagen Auto School in Wolfsburg. 

The conference, organised by GERPISA, The International Network of the Automobile, attracts industry experts and auto manufacturer representatives from around the globe, and included a site visit to the Volkswagen factory complex, where 48,000 people are employed. Her paper, written jointly with Dr Dan Coffey, of Leeds University, on the public policy, social, economic and environmental aspects of new concepts of 'mobility' leasing, attracted a high degree of interest and good feedback.

AFRICAN STUDIES AT KEELE

African Studies at Keele (ASK) held its first seminar last week, organised by postgraduates at the University. The event was attended by about 30 people, including staff, and postgraduate and undergraduate students from Keele, Manchester and Staffordshire universities.

The audience heard research papers from PhD students Zoë Groves, Reuben Loffman and Rachel Cason, who are each working on history and sociology projects based on fieldwork they conducted in Malawi and Zimbabwe, the DRC (Congo) and Niger. ASK is planning several events for the next academic year, including talks from academic staff at Keele, as well as readings and presentations from external speakers.

GOD SAVE COLLEEN

A Keele lecturer's contribution to the debased art of World Cup Songs is currently being played by the BBC at Big Screen Events around Manchester.

The song - 'God Save Colleen' - has been released under the pseudonym 'W.A.G.S' in order to protect our colleague's reputation as a contemporary novelist and singer-songwriter in a real band, but he may be able to be identified by listening to it on YouTube.

GEOLOGY SIXTH

Geology at Keele was placed 6th in Earth and Marine Sciences, and Media, Communications and Culture, 15th, in the Guardian subject leagues tables published last week.

NURSING AND MIDWIFERY STUDENT OF THE YEAR

The School of Nursing and Midwifery has launched a search for its Student of the Year.

The Schools' Placement Quality Lead, Abbie Barnes, is looking for nominations for students who have demonstrated "outstanding professional development" during their placement.

MOLECULES OUT AND ABOUT

Keele's Molecules Out and About Team recently installed a new DNA sculpture into the Trellis Walk at Trentham Gardens. The DNA sequence on display is a 73 base pair section from the chloroplast genome of Arabidopsis thaliana.

Dr Graeme Jones and new team member, Scott Sneddon, hung the DNA in time for the Trentham Gardens Festival last weekend, which is to be repeated on the 11 and 12 September.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Saturday 16 June 1984

An ICL computer printer is to be fought for by five teams of sixth-formers from three Staffordshire Schools in the finals of the Management Game for Schools and Colleges, organized by Keele's Department of Economics and Management Science.