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Archived News
*Film and Photo Competition Awards 2010*
The Centre for International Exchange and Development recently hosted the annual Study Abroad Film & Photo Awards in Keele Hall. It was extremely successful, with excellent attendance from returnee exchange students and international students.
The winner of the film competition was Edward Simmons, with his entry "UNCW 2009"
The winner of the photo competions were:
- 1st Place - Dwayn Evans
- 2nd Place - Robert Cartlidge
- 3rd Place - Emily Postlewhaite
*VISIT FROM BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY, Ohio, USA*
Trinka Messenheimer from Bowling Green State University, Ohio visited Keele this week. She met with the Education Department to discuss the continuation of the student Education Study Abroad Programme that runs every year.
*VISIT FROM LINGNAN UNIVERSITY, Hong Kong*
Professor William Lee, Associate Vice President (Academic Affairs), Debbie Lam, Programme Officer and Ms Fiona Wong, Head of Office of Mainland and International Programmes from Lingnan University, Hong Kong visted Keele. During their visit they attended the Keele Welcome Sessions and met with the Deputy Vice Chancellor.
*VISIT FROM HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERISTY*
Peter Li, Director, International Office & Ms Sandy Lee Programme Manager, Hong Kong Baptist University visted Keele. The purpose of this visit was to look at setting up student exchanges, during their visit they met with the Dr Nick Reyland (Music Subject Tutor) and the Deputy Vice Chancellor
*CORDOBA UNIVERSITY VISIT*
The English Language Unit (ELU) and the Centre for International Exchange and Development (CIED) welcomed a group of 33 Spanish staff from Cordoba University 's Faculty of Economics and Law in the first week of August. Some of the staff were accompanied by their partners and children. The lecturers came to Keele in order to take part in an English Communication Course, focussing on academic English, in particular the language they would use when attending conferences, or participating in ERASMUS teaching mobility activities. The older children were enrolled in English classes, taught by Keele students who recently completed the Trinity Certificate in TESOL run by the ELU here at Keele. The younger children joined the Kids Klub run by the Leisure Centre and the Nursery. During the week here the Cordoba visitors enjoyed excursions to Chester , Warwick , Stratford upon Avon, and Birmingham .
The programme was extremely successful, and Dr Annette Kratz, Head of CIED, and Jody Harlowe, Head of the ELU plan to visit Cordoba University in October to discuss expansion of this programme to other faculties, and to other Spanish universities.
*FAREWELL SUMMER BBQ*
Our annual Summer BBQ was held on 28th May at the back of the Students' Union. It was a chance to meet up with friends, International students, study abroad students and returnees before the semester ends. The sun was shining and we had a really good turn out!
*VISIT FROM SWEDEN*
Karin Dejke (International Coordinator) Annelie Hyllner (International Coordinator, Pharmacy, Medicine) Gunnar Tobin (Head of International Committee and Dean) Bibi Kennergren (International Coordinator, Nursing) and Birgitta Lindquist (International Coordinator, Dentistry) from the Sahlgrenska Academy , University of Göteborg , Sweden visited Keele this week. This is the equivalent of our Faculty of Health. The University of Göteborg is a long-standing ERASMUS partner and activity so far has concentrated on student exchanges in Social Science and staff exchanges in HRM.
The purpose of this visit was to look at setting up teaching and administrative exchanges within Nursing and Midwifery and Pharmacy and looking at offering clinical elective placements for students across the Faculty. During the visit the delegates met with representatives from the School of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Pharmacy and the Medical School and toured the facilities at the hospital and the university site.
Hannah Clemson the Marketing Coordinator for the School of Nursing and Midwifery will be going on one of the administrative Erasmus visits to Göteborg in May, and teacher mobility agreement in Nursing was signed for 2009/10.
*STUDY ABROAD FAIR*
The Centre for International Exchange and Development recently hosted the annual Study Abroad Fair in the Chancellor's Building Exhibition Suite. It was an extremely successful day, with excellent attendance from first years and plenty of enthusiasm from returnee exchange students and international students.
*FAREWELL BBQ FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS*
International students returning home and Keele students studying abroad next year said their farewells at a BBQ oganised by CIED (click here for a photo of Dr Annette Kratz with some of the students).
*ERASMUS EXCHANGE TO TURKEY*
Wynne Thomas International Placement Facilitator and Shelagh Heneghan Midwifery Lecturer from the School of Nursing and Midwifery, recently visited the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ankara University , Turkey . They gained an awareness of nurse and midwifery education and also the health care systems in Turkey . During their visit they taught a range of subjects as guest lecturers to nursing and midwifery students.
Shelagh and Wynne had meetings with a variety of Ankara University and School Staff, including Professor Nusret Aras the University Rector, Professor Fulya Teksen, Dean of Health Sciences Faculty and Professor Tulin Beduk, President of Nursing Department.
They also had clinical placement visits to two large hospitals, the Dr. Zekai Tahir Burak Women Health Teaching and Research Hospital , which has 550 beds and has approximately 30,000 births per year. In addition they were invited to tour the Ankara University Faculty of Medicine which has 900 beds and a wide range of specialities. In the two hospitals they met Senior Nurses and Clinical Nurse Managers.
A member of academic staff from Ankara University will be visiting and teaching at the School of Nursing and Midwifery Keele University next month.
*ERASMUS STAFF VISIT TO KEELE*
Karin Axelsson-Grafström from the Office of External Relations at Luleå University of Technology recently visited Keele. The purpose of this visit was to exchange ideas and share good practice, thus strengthening cooperation between Keele and LTU and increasing awareness of how to run an International Centre.
During the visit Karin met with representatives from the English Language Unit, Student Support and the Careers Service, Quality Assurance, the Alumni Office, Marketing, the Student Counselling Service, the Student Finance Office and Undergraduate and Postgraduate Recruitment. Karin also enjoyed a tour of the campus, guided by a Keele student attending Luleå next year, and informal meetings with the Institutional Coordinator for Luleå as well as the Head of the Centre for International Exchange and Development.
*APPALACHIAN TRAIL AT KEELE*
The Centre for International Exchange & Development hosted visits from three groups of staff from Appalachian State University in North Carolina . ASU Academic Advisers in the areas of Nutrition, Criminology, Business and General Studies joined Nancy Wells, Director of Study Abroad at Keele to see how teaching is different in the UK , attending lectures in Mathematics and Earth Sciences. They met the Institutional Coordinator for ASU, Dr Lucy Munro, and Subject Tutors from Psychology, Dr John Hegarty and American Studies, Dr Steve Mills (photograph of the visitors)
They had a chance to visit the campus guided by one of the five Keele students who will be studying at ASU next semester, and met their own two students who are currently studying at Keele, to hear first-hand about their own experiences at Keele. The aim of the visit was for staff in the various disciplines to have first-hand experience of another education system to make their advising more effective.
In parallel Mary Reichel, the University Librarian and her husband Rao Aluri, a publisher in North Carolina visited Keele Library, meeting with Paul Reynolds to compare the organisation of library provision. Mary was visiting 12 libraries in different countries during her trip to Europe . A long-range goal is the establishment of exchange opportunities for library personnel at our institutions (photograph of the visitors).
Finally Joan Woodworth, who accompanied the first group of Psychology students from ASU to Keele in 2005, returned to discuss with colleagues in Psychology how the programme can be enhanced for the group in Autumn Semester 2009.
*VISITOR FROM WILLAMETTE UNIVERSITY*
Stacey West, Study Abroad Advisor from Willammette University, USA recently visited the campus to improve her knowledge of the University and the opportunities on offer to International students. During her visit, Stacey met with the three Keele students who will be attending Willamette next semester as well as the Willamette student currently at Keele. She also meet the Institutional Coordinator for Willamette, Dr Lucy Munro, and Subject Tutors Dr John Hegarty (Psychology), Dr Rhaiza Maingon (Life Sciences) and Dr Steve Mills (American Studies).
*ERASMUS STAFF VISIT TO SWEDEN*
Patrick Greenhalgh, from the University Careers Service, recently visited the Careers Centre at Gothenburg University in Sweden . Funded by the Erasmus Staff Training part of the Life Long Learning Programme, the visit enabled Patrick to meet with counterparts in Gothenburg, exchange ideas on careers practice and view careers facilities. He gained awareness not only of the HE system in Sweden but the issues surrounding graduate recruitment in the country.
*AND TO BELGIUM*
Kath Pye, Undergraduate Team Co-ordinator for Criminology, Education, Sociology and Social Work was welcomed at the University of Liege in Belgium for a five-day Erasmus admin exchange visit during the first week of May.
Departments visited on the exchange were Criminology and Law, the Institute of Sociology and the Office for Marketing and Recruitment. Kath also met with a student who will be coming to Keele on the student exchange programme in January 2009. The meetings were very positive and informative for administrators involved in the discussions. The University of Liege is keen to encourage further admin/teaching staff exchange. An administrator from Liege plans to visit Keele in the new academic year and CESSW is looking forward to host the visit.
These are the first two of three such visits this year. Any member of staff interested in similar opportunities please contact Annette Kratz in CIED on a.kratz@ciel.keele.ac.uk
*ROUTES INTO LANGUAGES RESIDENTIAL 16TH/17TH APRIL*
As part of the West Midlands Consortium for Routes into Languages (a HEFCE funded initiative to promote foreign language learning), Keele and the Staffordshire Languages Group organised a residential event for 100 Year 8 pupils from 14 Staffordshire and Stoke schools. The intention was for the Year 8 pupils to be enthused to continue with the study of a foreign language to GCSE.
After enjoying a German themed meal in Keele Hall with parents and teachers, the pupils engaged in icebreaking activities to get to know the group. On Thursday morning, the children took part, in small groups, in a variety of German classes - number games and packing suitcases just two examples of the fun activities on offer. After a buffet lunch, each pupil attended two taster sessions chosen from 10 different foreign languages - Chinese, Dutch, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Tamil and Turkish. Again, the emphasis was on the fun and interactive aspect of language learning through songs, games, tongue-twisters and lively presentations by enthusiastic native speakers (click here for more details).
*STUDY ABROAD ADVISER WINS NATIONAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE *
Dr Erica Arthur, Study Abroad Manager, has won the annual Association of University Administrators' Award for Excellence in Higher Education Management and Administration.
This national award "acknowledges publicly the dedication, expertise and creativity of individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the sector."
Erica's award recognises the development and dissemination of Tick Off to Take Off, an online pre-departure aid, which guides Keele students through the academic and administrative requirements for study abroad.
She has created a generic version of TOTTO (Tick Off to Take Off) which has been licensed to the Universities of Manchester, Leeds, Surrey, Leicester, Strathclyde, Hull and Freiburg, Germany.
To watch a preview video of TOTTO click here.
The prize is a £1,000 travel grant that Erica will use to attend the Intercultural Communication Institute in Portland, Oregon.
TOTTO has also been highlighted as an example of best practice in the 2007 Council For Industry and Higher Education publication /Global Horizons for UK Students: A Guide for Universities.
