KEELE FIRST IN INDIA

The University has hosted a visit from Dr Moses Satralkar, Curriculum Coordinator for the Indus Training and Research Institute (ITARI), Bangalore, India. This was the latest stage in work to develop programmes of Initial Teacher Education in collaboration with the Indus International Schools in Bangalore, Hyderbad and Delhi. 

It is intended that a Post and Professional Graduate Certificate in International Education will be available for trainee teachers in the schools.  The University's Teacher Education team, led by Pro Vice-Chancellor, Kevin Mattinson, will also be delivering staff development for wider groups of teachers who are linked to the Indus Schools.

The initiative is part of the University's Internationalisation agenda and is already bearing fruit, with a number of students from the schools applying to Keele for their undergraduate study. Once the PGCE is introduced, further stages of development will include an MA in Education and a programme of research.

Keele University will be the first institution to offer full-time Initial Teacher Education in the country and there is every opportunity to expand the University's influence in this area.

The picture shows, left to right:  Andy Connell, PGCE Director, Kevin Mattinson, Rama Thirunamachandran, Deputy Vice-Chancellor,  Dr Moses Satralkar, ITARI, Professor David Shepherd, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Dr Anand Pandyan, School of Health and Rehabilitation.

KEELE KEY FUND TELETHON 2010

The 2010 Keele Key Fund telephone campaign was launched this week. Twenty-six Keele students - all but one new to the role – trained last weekend to become callers for this year's telethon.

Now in its fourth year, the telethon runs for three weeks in November and enables students to strengthen the links between alumni and Keele, to share information about opportunities and events for alumni and to invite contributions to the Keele Key Fund. The Key Fund, which has already made grants of over £90k to more than 40 projects, offers a way for alumni and others to make a real difference to students and to the University. Each team member brings unique skills and personal attributes to the role but the main requirement is that they have a genuine passion for Keele – and the ability to communicate it.

ANNIVERSARY KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Professor David Amigoni, English and Research Institute for Humanities, gave the opening keynote address at a conference last weekend to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of George Eliot's novel 'The Mill on the Floss', hosted by the Institute of English Studies at the School of Advanced Studies, London. He spoke on the novel's relationship to evolutionary science, past and present. Other speakers included Kathryn Hughes, the broadcaster, Guardian journalist and biographer of Eliot; Barbara Hardy, one of the most influential Eliot critics; and Alain Jumeau (Paris-Sorbonne), Eliot's principal French translator.

On the previous day Professor Amigoni, pictured, presented a paper on late Darwin, Francis Galton and the heritability of the faculty of vision at an event entitled 'Eyetopia' at King's College, London - one of a sequence of events in the College's 'Shows of London' series of colloquia and seminars. Last month, he gave the closing keynote address at a conference on 'Aesthetics and Psychology in the Nineteenth Century' at the Institute of English Studies, IAS, London.

MAGISTRACY IN THE 21st CENTURY – PRESTIGIOUS FUNDING FOR KEELE

The Magistrate, which is read by around 30,000 magistrates in England and Wales, has reported that the Magistrates' Association has commissioned Keele to deliver a seminar series, which will cover a variety of topics addressing the theme of the role of the magistracy in the 21st century.

Members of the judiciary, academics and policy makers will discuss the place of short term custody; current theories of preventing re-offending and the part that the courts can play; and the meaning of local justice. A report, along with key recommendations, will be issued and discussed at a conference to be held later in 2011. Professor Barry Godfrey, pictured above, will organise the three seminars, with the help of Dr Mary Corcoran and Dr Helen Wells. The same team, from The Research Institute for Social Sciences, will supervise a doctoral student funded by the prestigious Magistrates' Association Fellowship from January 2011.

MASTERS IN PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT

The School of Public Policy and Professional Practice hosted a public lecture this week, delivered by Professor Patricia Higham, Chair of Nottinghamshire Community Health. The lecture, about the challenges of leading professionals in public service organisations in the 21st Century, formed part of an event to launch the new Masters in Professional Leadership and Management (MPLM), with associated Post Qualifying (PQ) Awards in Social Work Leadership and Management (higher specialist and advanced).

These add an inter-professional programme to the School of Public Policy and Professional Practice programmes aimed at post-graduate, post-qualification professional education. The MPLM will focus on developing professionals in leading and managing in multi-agency settings and will involve mutual and shared learning among professionals from public services, in particular, social work, education and health.
 
Professor Higham endorsed the aims of the MPLM as timely and appropriately crafted to meet contemporary demand. The MPLM and PQ Awards have been developed in collaboration with stakeholders including the School's service users and carers consultation group.

For more information please contact:
e: c.nicholls@educ.keele.ac.uk  t: 01782733193  f: 01782 734069

FUTURE-PRO NETWORKING EVENT

The Careers Service, in collaboration with Finest and Future/Finest, held a unique evening networking event and buffet for students in the Keele Management Centre last week.

Students from a variety of degree disciplines heard presentations on graduate skills and opportunities in North Staffordshire from successful professionals, and young professionals, representing companies such as Wardell Armstrong, Baker Tilly, Knights LLP and AdGifts OnLine.  The students then spent time networking with professionals from areas including accountancy, environmental consultancy, law and banking.  The students, in smart business dress, were hardly distinguishable from the guests, and impressed by making the most of the opportunity to find out more about specific roles, employers and career skills, as well as making valuable contacts for their future careers.

RESEARCH GRANTS

Professor Nye Evans, Research Institute for the Environment, Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics (EPSAM), pictured, has received a grant of £31,295 from Diamond Light Source Ltd for a project titled "Formation of the first minerals".

The award part-funds a three-year postgraduate studentship for Sarah Day, a Keele Astrophysics-Geology graduate.

Dr Theocharis Kyriacou, EPSAM, with Dr Charles Day, has been awarded £28,000 by the NHS Stoke-on-Trent for a three year project for the development of new models of how data from primary care can be used to better target and efficiently deploy the increasingly limited resources available for secondary health care in the region.

The collaboration is in the form of a full‐time PhD studentship, jointly funded by NHS Stoke-on-Trent and EPSAM, for Sajith Pothupitiya.

ACADEMIC PANEL ON 'INSURING SECURITY'

The Centre for International Relations at the Department of War Studies, King's College London, organised an academic panel last week on Dr Luis Lobo-Guerrero's new book 'Insuring Security'.

The panel, composed of Professor Vivienne Jabri (King's College London), Dr Javier Lezaun (Oxford University), and Dr Claudia Aradau (The Open University) discussed the opportunities arising from the work of Dr Lobo-Guerrero (School of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy), pictured above, to forward the role of insurance as a global security technology.

The panel was followed by a wine reception organised by Routledge to launch the book.

POPULAR FICTION AND THE EVERYDAY

Professor Scott McCracken, English/ School of Humanities, made a short visit to Leuven University in Belgium this week, where he gave a lecture, 'Reading Time: Popular Fiction and the Everyday', and conducted a graduate seminar with PhD students working in the field of popular culture.

THREE COUNTIES OPEN ART EXHIBITION

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nick Foskett, last week officially opened the Keele Three Counties Open Art Exhibition and presented prizes to the winning artists.

First prize went jointly to Martin Eldridge, of Shrewsbury, for "Snow on the M6", pictured above, and Jenny Hulse, of Crewe, for "Lamp and Pink Pot with Dark Landscape". Second prize was awarded to Craig Sumner, of Blythe Bridge, for his painting "Adams Violin Recital".

This is Keele's fifteenth open show and the exhibition, in the Art Gallery in the Chancellor's Building, runs until 15 December. More than 400 works were submitted and 99 were accepted for the exhibition.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

This week 27 years ago –

10 November 1983

Professor James Elder, Reader in Surgery at Manchester University and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Manchester Royal Infirmary, has been appointed to the first Chair of Surgery in the Department of Postgraduate Medicine at Keele.