It has been a busy few weeks both on campus and in the city. The recent by-election result catapulted the city into national and international headlines and took a lot of people by surprise. A real positive was the number of new voters who took part and I look forward to seeing what impact the election has on the city. The campus itself is also, once again, very busy. The Sustainable Enterprise Centre is progressing well and we hope to begin the demolition of Bradford Halls together with the installation of new multi-use sports pitches fairly soon.
As we prepare to face the challenge of the £9k fees we are looking closely at what we need to change, to attract students and make Bradford the university of choice, through a series of reviews. Read more ›
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Today is the start of the third annual Universities Week campaign, which were are proud to celebrate here at the University of Bradford. Each year Universities Week aims to increase public awareness of the wide and varied role of the UK’s universities – this year’s campaign is to celebrate the contribution that our universities make – and have always made – to the Olympic movement, the sports industry and society as whole.
Each year we welcome students from all over the world and from many different backgrounds to study, and we continue to have one of the highest percentages of international students in the UK. They bring a richness and diversity which we appreciate and celebrate in a vibrancy that is reflected across the campus. Last year we had 10,400 undergraduate and 3,300 postgraduate students from 117 countries.
It therefore seems highly appropriate that during this Universities Week we celebrate is our international student community, which benefits the University the same way the Olympics will benefit the UK – by enriching our culture and reinforcing fellowship across international relations. As you can see from the picture, they’ve already begun the celebrations on our behalf!
I hope you are able to take a few minutes and explore our take on Universities Week 2012.
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The city has been the focus of a lot of political activity in recent week’s as we approach the Bradford West by-election on March 29 and have recently held the Students’ Union election for next year’s executive and council roles.
Last week I welcomed Conservative minister Baroness Warsi, along with Conservative candidate Jackie Whiteley, to tour our new student accommodation and on Wednesday Student Central played host to a number of the candidates in the forthcoming election at a hustings event. Candidates at the event were; George Gallaway – Respect, Jeanette Sunderland – Liberal Democrats, Dawud Islam – Green Party and Sonja McNally – UKIP.
Today Labour Leader Ed Miliband came to Bradford to speak to local people and I was pleased that he chose to host the event here at the University. Mr Miliband, who was introduced by Labour candidate, Imran Hussain, answered questions from an audience of University students and staff, local businesses and other members of the local community.
Click here for a list of all the candidates in the forthcoming by-election (BBC Yorkshire)
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Taking forward the Bradford Offer
Since our discussions of the ‘Bradford Offer’ last year a significant number of groups have been working through the key elements of that offer. This includes developning the curriculum, the Student Charter, the staff experience, our employability strategy and on- going work on Ecoversity.
Those groups have contributed a great deal to our discussions at Senate and Council over the past year. We have also begun to identify a number of simple, measurable and achievable targets for our work over the next three years reflecting both the strengths of the University and the nature of the changes in the Higher Education environment in that period. I hope that this list of targets and aspirations, some quantifiable, others more qualitative, will be helpful in understanding the focus of our work in the next few years.
Our Sustainable Campus
The University has pursued a policy of embedding sustainability principles across all our activities for several years now and it has been encouraging to see some of the results. The Sustainability Enterprise Centre in the heart of the City Campus is rapidly taking shape. The building itself is cutting-edge in its design and we intend it to be a showpiece for users of all kinds – students, staff, businesses, primary and secondary schools and the local community.
One of the consequences of our Ecoversity programme has been a significant reduction in our overall energy consumption and costs. The most recent figures show that work on our buildings, on changing our cultures around energy use and on initiatives such as the Combined Heat and Power unit have led to significant reductions in energy use over the winter period (I am assuming winter is now over…)
The range of initiatives that underpin the Ecoversity programme were reflected in the Carbon Champion 2012 award that the University recently won against competition from, among others, Harrods and the Royal Shakespeare Company. It is especially gratifying to be recognised for our work outside the sector and I’d like to thank all our staff and students, and especially the Estates team for their efforts in seeking to develop low carbon solutions to all the work they do.
Preliminary work on the redevelopment of the J.B. Priestley Library will also be starting shortly to bring more light and air circulation into the building and dramatically improve the energy rating of the building.
Our Research
The research profile of the University is vitally important for our future success. Student employability and ‘research that makes a difference’ are key parts of our identity and help define what we believe we are good at. There are significant preparations at the moment for the new Research Excellence Framework (REF) which will benchmark our research and knowledge transfer activity against other UK universities. It is very important that we clearly understand where we have international and world class excellence on our work and we will be looking to continue to invest in staff and facilities in those areas where we have a clear competitive advantage.
The REF will however only be one part of the research emphasis across the University and we want to ensure that all our students experience being taught by academics who are in command of their disciplines and who understand the importance of research and knowledge transfer. Those are precisely the qualities that we believe will help ensure our graduates follow academically rigorous courses and are well equipped to secure employment when they leave.
National Student Survey
It is encouraging to see that the numbers of students completing the National Student Survey shows an increase on the same point last year and I’m grateful to staff for encouraging students to complete the survey. It is an important barometer of student opinion and plays an important part in some key league table metrics so I would hope as many students as possible fill in the survey. The quantitative and qualitative information from the survey is important in helping us to understand where we are performing well and where there is scope to improve further the student experience here.
There are still a few weeks of the survey left so please continue to encourage our students to complete.
The University in the News
We continue to enjoy exposure for our work in local, regional and national media which can be seen on the ‘In the News’ page of the University website.
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Applications are once again open for the Braduate Fund. It provides money to individual students, groups, schools or departments who would like to improve student resources and student life. The overall aim is to make possible extra and special opportunities which are not supported by conventional funding and that will make a significant contribution to the Bradford student experience.
In 2010/11 gifts totalling £24,626.68 were distributed and 30 projects have been funded since 2010. The deadline for applications is 12noon on Monday 19th March 2012.
Recently funded projects
How to apply
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The University of Bradford has once again received national recognition for our sustainable building programme. We beat off intense competition to claim the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) ‘Carbon Champion of Year’ award and the ‘Client of the Year’ award.
It doesn’t get much bigger than this in terms of recognition from the Industry of exceptional work in sustainable and environmentally friendly development. As the CIBSE judges said, this award is not for a ‘one-year -wonder’ but recognises the culmination of the best part of a decade of determined work by the University to produce world-class facilities for our students to live and learn in. We are bucking a trend across the sector as we now seeing our carbon emissions levels falling, and will continue our good progress by opening our Sustainable Enterprise Centre building in 2012.
Well done to all involved!
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With the first update of 2012 can I start by thanking everyone involved in a busy examination period. A lot of staff were involved in setting, marking and administering the exam process over the last few weeks. The campus has been very busy and it has been good to see the progress in a couple of our building projects – the cladding of Horton and the construction of the Sustainable Enterprise Centre – helping to improve the City Campus.
Higher Education politics
You will have seen some of the debate in the last few weeks about the Higher Education Bill which, after a long period of discussion and consultation, has now been shelved because of a busy government legislative programme. Many aspects of the bill, most notably the place of for-profit providers and their access to the student loan system, were controversial and it is likely that those issues will have to be resolved when the bill finally appears in the programme.
The key financial changes that have driven the new system coming into effect in September do however remain intact and are not affected by the delay in the passage of the Bill. Some of the changes that will now be subject to delay include the new regulatory role for HEFCE, currently our main funder, the role and size of the Office for Fair Access and a number of anticipated regulatory changes in degree-awarding powers and University title. Those discussions and proposals will remain on the table for the moment.
One of the key changes for us this year has been a cut in our Home/EU intake (our Student Number Control) of around 10%. Those numbers were taken from us in order to ‘free up’ a ‘pool’ of student numbers which were reallocated to those setting fees of £7500 or lower.
You will also have seen the overall applications to higher education for September 2012 have fallen by around 7%. I am very pleased to report that applications to Bradford have bucked this trend and are 0.4% higher than in 2011 (a year in which applications rose significantly). That is a good sign for us that we will be able to recruit strong students this year and that our decision last year to emphasise our strengths in employability and in research-informed teaching has been successful in attracting applications.
We now need to work hard to ensure these applications convert to new students in September. I am grateful to staff for their efforts to emphasise the value of a Bradford degree – it is more important than ever that this message goes out strongly to our stakeholders and potential students. We will continue to see reductions in our direct funding from HEFCE over the next three years and be increasingly reliant on direct income from student tuition fees. The best way to secure a strong and sustainable university is to continue to focus on the core strengths around employability, a first class student experience and research.
National Student Survey
The NSS began last week and there are a range of ways in which students can respond to the survey over the next couple of months. We would like as many of our students as possible to complete the survey. The level of student satisfaction is a major component of our league table performance and any improvements we can make in the NSS scores are vitally important at a time of ever-increasing scrutiny of such data by students and their families.
The University at Fifty
We have begun planning for the 50th Anniversary of the University in 2015/16 and would welcome any thoughts you might have.
Our work with our alumni and with a range of supporters in the last few years has been reflected in a range of activities and initiatives such as our scholarships, the Braduate Fund to support students and a number of other initiatives and would certainly hope to build on these by starting to mark our global jubilee.
It is important to plan long term for these kinds of initiatives to ensure they are successful. If you do have any ideas of ways in which we might provide suitable ways on celebrating our anniversary, an online survey will be circulated later this month, please take the opportunity to respond.
The University of Bradford in the News
The media relations team have launched a new web page providing details and links to recent news stories about the University in the media.
http://www.bradford.ac.uk/mediacentre/in-the-news/
Celebrating success
Professor Paul Rogers from Peace Studies has been appointed to a part-time post of University External Relations Adviser, initially for two years. His main role will be to advise and assist in the development of the national and international research and teaching profile of the University, not least through enhancing the involvement of academic staff in the conventional and new social media.
Thanks to the efforts of all staff and the work of our Estates department, against a 2020 target of reducing our 2005/06 carbon emissions by 50% we are currently operating at a YTD figure of 25%, which is ahead of target. Success to date and current profiling means we may well achieve our 50% figure within 18-24 months which will be an unprecedented success.
Dr Julia Pansini-Murrell, from the School of Health Studies, has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy in recognition of her work to develop and run the Hysteroscopy courses at Bradford University.
Dr Andrea Capstick from the School for Social Care Research has received £101,102.40 from the National Institute for Health Research for her project: ‘Can participatory video enhance social participation and well-being for people with dementia living in long-term social care?’
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A couple of weeks ago we held five graduation ceremonies which were a great occasion for our students to celebrate their achievements. Happily the weather held off – just the normal wind and rain – and the ceremonies went very well. Our Chancellor, Imran Khan, was not able to be here for the events because of his commitments in Pakistan. He does make every effort to attend as many ceremonies as he can and, compared to many University Chancellors, he attends a lot of the graduations. As always, I’m very grateful to all those staff who help to organise the event and to the academic staff who processed and were on the podium for their ceremonies. It does make a big difference to students when they see staff on the podium who have taught and supported them. We go to a lot of these ceremonies but for our students and their parents and friends it is a single, special event that they will always remember.
Annual address to staff
At the end of November I spoke to staff about some of the issues we face and about how we will be developing as a University in the future (View my slides here). The last year has seen very significant changes in the external environment for Higher Education and I know staff have been very focused on ensuring our long term sustainability in the face of these changes.
A lot of work has centred on what we called the ‘Bradford Offer’ to make sure that we continue to recruit well in the new climate, that we are able to continue to invest in staff and facilities and that we can do all we can to secure employment for our staff. This is a major challenge. We know that our home recruitment numbers will be cut by around 8% for entry in 2012 and we are already seeing significant fluctuations in application numbers across the University. Our overall change is at about the national average level (an overall fall of some 14% compared with the high applications for 2011, but that figure does vary across different subject areas).
As I outlined in my presentation to staff, the key to remaining successful is to ensure that we build on our strengths. Two key themes are vital, first, ensuring that through building an improved student experience our graduate employment record also improves. While we already have a good graduate employment record, we need to maintain that position right across our subject areas, employability will be key to success.
Second, it is vital we continue to build strong research which has significant impact. Our research portfolio is key for our reputation both nationally and internationally and it should be a intrinsic part of what we can offer students who come here. They need to know about our research, see its practical impact and recognise the part it plays in their education here. This twin focus of employability and research, that makes a difference to students, will underpin the work we are doing to look at all of our academic areas over the next few months to ensure that they continue to be strong and sustainable in the changed climate.
Sustainable Enterprise Centre
You will have seen the building work at the heart of the city campus on the new Sustainable Enterprise Centre. This building has had a long gestation period as we secured external funding but it will be completed by this time next year.
Funded from the European Regional Development Fund and HEFCE, the building will be an important coordinating point for our work on sustainability which has been a core part of the Ecoversity project for some six years now. It will showcase the key role that low carbon technologies and changed behaviour can play in developing new approaches to lowering carbon footprints. It will also bring together the work that we do across a range of schools in the University in this area, providing facilities for school children to engage with the sustainability agenda with their teachers.
With the adjacent development of the new STEM Building it will reinforce the connections between science, social science, enterprise and the low carbon future. It will employ very innovative technologies in construction and design and will have the best environmental rating of any public building in Europe when completed.
Giving to our Hardship Fund at Christmas
The University’s Development and Alumni Office works hard to raise funds in support of students facing financial hardship, and these funds are especially stretched over the Summer and Christmas vacations.
Money is raised through the generosity of alumni and staff, who give one-off or monthly gifts. The hardship money is distributed by the Hub to students in the greatest need. I am very proud that our staff and alumni are so committed to helping those members of our University community who are struggling financially. To those students in receipt of hardship funds, every gift, of whatever size, makes a real and tangible difference to an individual or family.
One colleague said: “I donate because, through personal experience, I know how higher education can transform lives.” Take a look at our supporters’ newsletter to read more about staff and alumni who donate.
If you are able to make a gift to help students in hardship, please visit the giving website, or contact the Alumni and Development Office on 6844. Your gift, however large or small, will help a student in crisis.
Finally can I extend my best wishes to everyone for the Christmas season. I do hope everyone manages to have an enjoyable break with their families and friends.
Celebrating Success
Our School of Management remains the number one business school in the North of England in the FT’s 2011 ranking. Bradford also keeps its position within the top 40 in Europe – ahead of UK competitors Manchester, Lancaster, Durham, Cambridge Judge, Edinburgh, Aston, Bath, Leeds, Brunel and Birmingham.
The University has secured almost £750K to safeguard skeletons from world-renowned collections based in Bradford and London. The project, funded by the ‘Joint Information Systems Committee’ (JISC), will use 3D laser scanning, CT scans and high resolution photography together with new clinical descriptions and historical illustrations to create a web-accessible archive of photo-realistic digital 3D models of pathological type-specimens. The skeleton collections used in the project will be from internationally renowned collections that have restricted access and are therefore usually only seen by students and researchers.
In a unique agreement with Bradford University, Bradford City Football Club has given season-long access to students from the University’s Media Working Academy to film all the live home League and Cup matches. Media Academy students will not only cover each game, but have access to players and coaches for pre and post match interviews. They will be working alongside sports coverage professionals to edit game highlights packages, producing content for the FA, the club, the fans and other media.
Click for more examples of our research and knowledge transfer success.
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As you may be aware, the TUC have organised a national day of industrial action and are calling upon all affiliated trade unions (who have a mandate) to take part in strike action on that date. It is highly likely that the planned action will impact upon the University although the level of impact is difficult to predict in advance. That said, please be assured that the University will be working hard to minimise the disruption for our students.
Unless notified by your academic school that learning or assessment activity has been cancelled, you should attend as normal. The University is mindful that public transport, schools and local authority services may also be affected by action on 30 November. If you rely on public transport, schools or local authority services then it would be advisable to consider making alternative arrangements for 30 November. If you believe that you may be unable, as a result of the industrial action, to attend University as planned then please advise your tutors as soon as possible.
The issues at the heart of the dispute are complex with UCU, Unison and GMB in dispute regarding changes to respective pension provisions and Unite in dispute regarding the pay offer. It is disappointing that the University, find ourselves in conflict with the trade unions at a time when the sector faces unprecedented challenges arising from the wider political and economic situation and the major changes in public funding for universities. The University remains committed to playing a full part in resolving matters as speedily and as amicably as possible.
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It has been a busy few weeks and the campus has felt very lively as we move into the colder weather. I attended a number of external meetings including with the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills on the new funding scheme; at Universities UK and in my role as a member of the Commonwealth Scholarships Commission helping to select the new commonwealth scholars for the UK.
On 14 November the Independent Task Force on Student Finance Information have organised Student Finance Day, a national day dedicated to explaining the 2012 changes to student finance in England. On the same day there will be a stall in the atrium providing further information and offering staff and students the opportunity to ask questions related to the new fees regime and our offer here at Bradford. Further Information about the University’s fees and funding will be online soon.
We need to continue to do all we can to explain this new student loan system; provide as much help as we can through fee waivers and bursaries and to emphasise the long term benefits of a University education.
Preparations for the Research Excellence Framework are now underway and we are considering our research base, and any investments we might make in research areas, very carefully. It is vitally important that we continue as a strong research-active university and that students know they are coming to a University with a long tradition of research and knowledge transfer activity.
I am pleased that our financial results for 2010-11 will show a sound surplus which will allow us to continue to develop the University as we move into the new financial climate. Those results reflect a lot of hard work by staff and are important in enabling us to provide a strong educational offer, invest in new facilities and help secure our jobs. Thank you to staff for all of your efforts.
School of Health Studies Opening
Last week we formally opened the School of Health Studies building and Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE, the paralympic athlete officiated at the event. All those who heard her speak were inspired by her drive and determination to achieve and I am sure she was a great inspiration to the students and staff who met her. We welcomed a range of people from across the region and everyone was impressed with the building. My thanks again to all the staff who were involved in the design of the facilities and who helped in what was a very smooth transition to the city campus.
The event was featured in the Yorkshire Post and the Telegraph and Argus
Black History Month
A range of successful events were organised by staff and students to celebrate Black History Month. I enjoyed hearing Diane Abbott MP talk to health professionals about issues around health for ethnic minorities, emphasising the need for strong local and regional organisations in ensuring health issues particular to ethnic groups were fully recognised in health planning.
The visit was also featured in the Telegraph and Argus
A second event saw a number of academic colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds talking about their own career paths and the challenges they faced in achieving their current positions. Over the last two years I was fortunate to chair a national race forum which commissioned research on the barriers that black and minority ethnic staff at all levels continue to face within universities. The report, published by the Equality Challenge Unit highlights the difficulties staff still face in developing and progressing their careers.
Rotary Peace Fellowships
Every year we host an event attended by over 250 Rotarians from across the UK to highlight the work of the Peace Fellows programme. Established at just six Universities across the world, 10-12 Fellows come each year to take a masters degree in Peace Studies and work in an overseas organisation for a three-month placement. This is the 10th year of the programme and it continues to attract outstanding Fellows. The Conference last week provided an excellent opportunity to showcase their work for an international Rotary audience.
In the news
Joint research between the University of York and our Archaeologist Dr Carl Heron was featured in the Daily Mail and USA Today considering how our ancestors were still eating seafood after migrating inland.
Des Tobin at the Centre for Skin Sciences made the pages of Marie Claire.
One of our former animation students from the School of Computing Informatics and Media also gained exposure when his title sequence concept for the new Tin Tin movie was spotted by the film’s director Stephen Spielberg.
Bradford Dementia Group presented interim research findings about how to involve people living with dementia in decision making on MedIndia.net
The newly refurbished Heaton Mount facilities were featured in the Telegraph & Argus, welcoming the revamp of this historically significant Grade II listed building.
Dr John McAlaney of the School of International and Social Studies was called to share his research’s insights with the Telegraph & Argus, around problem drinking during Alcohol Awareness week.
Earlier in October the School of Engineering, Design and Technology hosted the former President of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, Professor William Wilkinson, for the formal opening of the new Wilkinson Chemical Engineering Laboratory.
Research centre in focus
The Centre for Sustainable Environments, recently secured a £420k EPSRC joint research grant to work with Sheffield University as part of the multi-disciplinary Pennine Water Group. They are also currently working on five multi-disciplinary European Framework 7 research projects and one INTERREG research project as well as on a number of UK Research Council contracts and industrially funded projects. Going forward, we are considering a number of European Marie Currie Fellowship and Framework 7 ‘Environment’ themed proposals involving staff from various Schools and we are collaborating with Brazilian and Spanish Universities to develop a multi-lingual Master’s degree on Sustainable Development.
The centre is also running a series of half-day seminars designed to showcase the diversity of sustainability research taking place within the University. The first seminar, held in May 2011, on ‘Management and Governance of the Environment’ was attended by a broad range of academic staff and research students in the University, as well as a number of industrial partners. The next seminar on ‘Technology and Adaptation to Environmental Change’ takes place on 14 December.
The centre is managed by Professor Simon Tait, is supported by a team of staff working across three Schools: Engineering, Design and Technology; Social and International Studies; and Life Sciences. They have a strong focus on water management, planning and governance, and innovative engineering.
Celebrating success
David B. Elliott was awarded the Garland W. Clay Award at a recent American Academy of Optometry meeting in Boston. The award is presented to the author or authors of the manuscript, published in Optometry and Vision Science, which has been most widely cited in the world of scientific literature in the preceding five years.
Robert Falconer and Laurence Patterson, Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, have received a £94,665 grant for a PhD studentship from Fundação para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (Science Foundation, Portugal). The project is for the synthesis and evaluation of potential anti-metastatic agents.
Dr. Ian Scowen, University Analytical Centre, School of Life Sciences has won a contract worth £9,000 for analytical method development and services with Extreme Green Int. Ltd a company developing new technology for the environmentally friendly recycling of waste treated timber.
The Digital Media Working Academy, School of Computing, Informatics and Media, has been working with The Mid-Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust on a £4,000 contract to produce a video and website so that local mums and families can take a virtual tour of their modern maternity facilities.
Peter Cowling has won an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Industrial Case Studentship worth £69,121 over three years. This is to work with Gaist on a project entitled ‘Extending Asset Life through Optimised Maintenance using Grid-Based Decision Support’.
Roger Phillips, Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, School of Life Sciences, and external colleague, Charlotte Willans have received a £44,589 research grant from Yorkshire Cancer Research for ‘Mechanism of action of silver complexes bearing chelating and macrocyclic N-heterocyclic carbene ligands’.
Mostafa Mohamed, Alma Schellart and Simon Tait of the Centre for Sustainable Environments have received €282,000 for investigating the dissipation and recovery of thermal energy from sewer and drainage systems. It is part of an EU funded project with 11 partners into the development of Innovative Energy Recover Strategies (INNERS) in the urban water cycle.
Congratulations to all.
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