Campus News
University of Nottingham Malaysia – Share Sale Agreement
August 17th, 2021
The University of Nottingham today confirmed its intention to buy out its joint venture partners in the University of Nottingham Malaysia (UNM) to secure the long-term future of the University in the region and the 650 jobs and 5,200 students on its Malaysian campus.
Following a successful partnership of more than 20 years, in a deal with an estimated value of £23.5 million, the University will buy out its Malaysian partner Boustead Holdings Berhad (BHB), through a wholly-owned Malaysian subsidiary, to run UNM as the majority shareholder.
The purchase presents UNM with exciting opportunities to continue to deliver high quality British education globally, expand international research partnerships and extend operations in Malaysia and the ASEAN region. The transition to majority ownership by the University of Nottingham will commence in the autumn.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West said: “Having recently celebrated 20 years of delivering world-leading research and education in Malaysia, we are looking forward to building the next 20 years of student success, research achievements and commitment to our global presence and impact.
“With demand for higher education in the ASEAN region expected to increase significantly in the coming years, majority ownership of the UNM campus creates the potential for us to provide high quality UK tertiary education to a region which is home to one in 11 of the world’s 15- to 24-year-olds and demonstrates significant appetite to expand its higher education provision.
Undergraduates, Malaysia Campus
“Together with the University’s other global campus in Ningbo, China, where we educate some 8,000 students each year, this will underscore the University’s position as the UK’s truly global university. Nottingham represents the excellence, entrepreneurialism and global engagement that characterises the very best of British universities. This bold investment in our Malaysia campus will help secure our continued success and contribute to that of the UK as it forges its place on the global stage in a post-pandemic world.
“Our commitment to UNM and to Malaysia remains as strong as ever. This purchase will allow us to build on excellent foundations in teaching and research to develop new, innovative teaching programmes and research that supports sustainable development locally, regionally and globally. Degree courses and staff jobs at UNM will be secured for the long-term, and we are developing new strategies to chart our future in Malaysia with the same passion for education in the country that we have had since the start of the century.”
Boustead Holdings Berhad Group Managing Director, Dato’ Sri Mohammed Shazalli Ramly said: “By placing UNM under the full stewardship of the University of Nottingham, we trust that UNM will continue to accomplish great things in the future. The University of Nottingham is an esteemed global institution and we extend our best wishes for all the upcoming endeavours of UNM.”
The creation of UNM in September 2000 is considered the first ever branch campus of a British university to be established outside of the UK, starting with a small cohort of 89 students in Kuala Lumpur. In 2005, the University relocated to 48-hectare campus in Semenyih, and grew to its present size of more than 650 staff and 5,200 students drawn from across the ASEAN region and beyond.
Tags: ASEAN, Boustead Holdings Berhad Group, University of Nottingham Malaysia, UNM
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Annual Leave Purchase Scheme open for enrolment
August 16th, 2021
The Annual Leave Purchase Scheme, as announced in February 2021, is now open for enrolment until Friday 24 September 2021 for eligible university staff.
The Annual Leave Purchase Scheme is a salary sacrifice scheme whereby staff can exchange salary in return for additional annual leave, up to a maximum of 1 week, pro-rated for part-time staff.
The scheme is open to all employee’s on permanent or fixed-term contracts except for those on fractional (term-time only) contracts.
Full scheme details including eligibility can be found within the scheme guide and FAQS on the Employee Hub.
Any annual leave purchased through the scheme needs to be booked in line with normal holiday booking processes. If you are interested in applying to the scheme please discuss any plans for taking the additional purchased annual leave with your manager prior to enrolling.
For more information including details on how to enrol please view the scheme guide.
Applications should be made via the Employee Hub and if you need any help applying you can contact the annual leave purchase hotline run by Sodexo on 01908 303 4980.
Please note: annual leave purchased through the Annual Leave Purchase Scheme must be used in the annual leave year it applies to.
Tags: annual leave, Annual Leave Purchase Scheme, Employee Hub, leave, salary, salary sacrifice, staff benefits
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Re-introduction of car parking charges
August 13th, 2021
Colleagues are reminded that from Wednesday 1 September, parking charges will be re-introduced across the university.
Recognising that colleagues will have differing campus return dates and to reflect more flexible patterns of working on-campus- and home-working, we have retained the flexibility that we introduced last year in how you can pay to park on campus.
- Full permits: full annual permits will still be available. Alternatively, staff or students will now be able to apply for a parking permit at any point in the year and only pay for the months remaining in the permit year. For example, if you apply in December you only pay 9 months of charges.
- Occasional use vouchers: should you wish to use occasional use vouchers to park on campus for a few days each week, for example to accommodate flexible working or until public transport is fully restored, the cost of any unused vouchers will be refunded once you revert to your usual mode of transport. If you wish to upgrade to a full parking permit, the cost of it will be reduced to account for the amount you have already spent on vouchers. For any members of staff typically needing to park on campus for fewer than four days each week, the occasional use voucher scheme offers the more cost-effective solution.
Permits and vouchers can be ordered through the online permit system.
To underpin the sustainability commitments in the University Strategy and reduce the large loss that the university currently makes between parking charges, the cost of providing car parking and its commitments to Nottingham City Council’s Workplace Parking Levy (WPL), the cost of a parking permit will need to rise by 12.5% for 2021/22.
This works out as an annual increase from £69 to £78 for cars in the lowest emission and salary bracket and an annual increase from £774 to £871 in the highest bracket. The average cost of an annual parking permit is £270 – less than £1.18 per day based on 230 days use.
Over the next year as we better understand travel demand, patterns and car parking use we will be developing and consulting on a revised sustainable parking strategy and charging mechanism more aligned to the University Strategy.
Find out more about the university’s car parking scheme.
Tags: car park, car parking, car parking scheme, Car share, parking, parking permits
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UoN researcher to swim the Channel for children’s charity
August 12th, 2021
Maddy Ellis, a 27-year-old researcher at the university and ex-student, is preparing to swim the English channel to raise money for her favourite children’s charity, Over The Wall.
Maddy plans to swim the 21 miles between the UK and France in September 2021, whilst aiming to raise £10k for the Havant based charity that provides free residential camps for children with serious illness. Her brave efforts will enable even more children to experience the wonders of the charity’s camps.
Maddy has previously volunteered at the Over The Wall’s Midlands camps in Staffordshire, helping children with health challenges to reach beyond the boundaries of illness to discover a world of mischief, magic and new possibilities.
Having previously been a runner in full and half marathons, Maddy is no stranger to a physical challenge, but this will be her first long-distance swim. For the last two years s Maddy has been training by swimming in open water for many hours (and even in freezing lakes), whilst also taking regular ice baths to climatise to the cold temperatures expected.
Maddy will be one of very few people to have achieved this challenge, as there have only ever been 2,428 successful channel swims, since the first in 1875 and only 37% of these were women.
Maddy Ellis swimming
As a vegan, Maddy will be among even fewer swimmers that have – as she described- ‘been powered only by plants.’
Maddy said, “I often have wild ideas, but this one popped in my head two years ago, and I immediately registered to do it before anyone could talk me out of it. Volunteering for Over The Wall is one of the best things I have ever done and so it means so much for me to be able to fundraise for the charity and to help provide more opportunities for children to experience camp.”
The outbreak of Covid-19 meant that Over The Wall was forced to cancel its camps in 2020 and 2021. However, the charity quickly developed a virtual, interactive online platform called ’Camp in the Cloud’ that has brought the same joy and magic of the residential camps into each camper’s home. Maddy has also volunteered on these virtual camps helping children experience the next best thing.
“Camp in the Cloud has been an amazing alternative to normal camp, and Over The Wall has done wonders to allow the children to be active, connect with each other and most importantly, have a lot of fun. I absolutely love camp – it feels like home for me now. Nowhere else allows children with serious illness to safely enjoy themselves, forget their illness and experience that magic. Camp will certainly motivate me during the difficult moments of this challenge!”
CEO of Over The Wall, Kevin Mathieson said, “We are truly honoured and incredibly grateful for all of Maddy’s hard work, as both a fundraiser and a regular volunteer. Her efforts in crossing the channel will make a great difference to our charity and will certainly help us to continue to provide our residential camps, when we’re able to reopen the doors to our physical camp locations.”
If you would like to sponsor Maddy on her channel crossing, you can do via her JustGiving page.
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Asymptomatic Testing Service recommended for accreditation by Government
August 10th, 2021
The university’s Asymptomatic Testing Service has been recommended for accreditation from the Government.
From now on, staff and students without symptoms who use the university’s Asymptomatic Testing Service and test positive will only need to test once and will no longer be required to take an NHS confirmatory test.
They will also be able to begin 10 days isolation from the day they took the university test. Results are linked to the NHS Track and Trace programme and we will be updating our registration process to ask a couple of extra questions required as part of the direct reporting process.
Note that people with symptoms still need to continue to get tests via the NHS.
In terms of international travel, currently the government requires Day 2 and Day 8 tests to be sequenced for variants of concern as well as tested for Covid-19.
This is something that we are unable to do in-house and so we are currently unable to provide testing for those travelling into the UK from Amber or Green list countries.
The Government manages a list of private providers who are able to provide the testing service for international arrivals.
Find out more about the university’s Asymptomatic Testing Service.
Tags: Asymptomatic testing, Asymptomatic Testing Service, COVID testing, COVID-19, COVID-19 testing, testing, University Testing Service
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Information security awareness training
August 10th, 2021
To help us all to protect the data we handle, we are continuing our compulsory information security awareness training for all UK-based staff.
Cyber security continues to present a significant threat to universities, with several UK universities suffering significant cyber security incidents in the last year, impacting their key operations .
At the University of Nottingham our security team block an enormous number of phishing emails and attacks on a daily basis. We have also been upgrading our cyber security controls, but everyone has a role to play in keeping our data safe.
On Wednesday 11 August 2021 all staff will receive an email from “UoN Information Security” with a safe link to the training modules.
There are three modules covering the topics: Phishing emails, Freedom of Information, and GDPR. The total viewing time is about 10 minutes for each module, depending on how much you already know about the subject.
Each topic will help you understand your role in protecting our data, and some of the laws that govern the way we handle data within the university.
The modules can be watched separately or together and each one ends with a quiz.
The training is compulsory for all staff at our UK campuses and the modules will be available to complete until Friday 8 October 2021.
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UoN Sport update and new offers – August 2021
August 9th, 2021
Following government guidelines all of our sporting centres are now fully operational.
Pre-booking is still required for use of certain facilities, however this is no longer required for our fitness suites. Whilst no longer mandatory, face coverings are expected in crowded and enclosed spaces.
Some building and customer signage will remain in place to encourage and share best practice where appropriate.
Hand sanitising and cleaning stations will remain available for customers to use and we ask that all customers continue to observe rigorous hygiene practices, particularly regular handwashing and cleaning of equipment before and after use.
Sport and Fitness Membership
As of Sunday 1 August 2021 the university’s staff Sport and Fitness Membership is available to purchase. Priced at £275 or £27.50 per month, both in salary deductions, the staff Sport and Fitness Membership offers excellent value for money here as well as the convenience of being based on the same campus as your workplace!
Giving you access to all of our facilities (David Ross Sports Village, Jubilee, Sutton Bonington and the Kings Meadow Fitness Suite), the membership provides high quality and easily accessible gym, swim and fitness solutions.
With more and more staff returning to campus and to support staff health and wellbeing, UoN Sport are offering all staff a free one-day pass to access the gym, swimming pool or a group exercise class so you can try out facilities and services available.
To sign-up for your free ‘Try Before You Buy’ pass, please complete the online form here. Please note, staff Try Before You Buy passes must be used by Tuesday 31 August 2021.
Find out more about purchasing a Staff Sport and Fitness Membership.
Summer Fitness Pass
If you have felt inspired by the Olympics or are looking to improve your fitness this summer, you can now enjoy our extensive health and fitness facilities with our great value Summer Fitness Pass. Priced at £25 for 30 days use of our state-of-the-art facilities before Sunday 19 September 2021, or £10 for 7 days’ worth of use, this option is a brilliant option if you want to swim, gym or try new group classes.
Access is also provided to our indoor squash and badminton courts, to allow you to experience the full UoN Sport membership experience.
More information on our Summer Fitness Passes and how to purchase them can be found here.
Summer Fitness Pass holders who go on to purchase a full UoN Sport and Fitness Membership before Thursday 30 September 2021 will receive a £10 discount on their first monthly payment. Memberships must be purchased for a minimum of a 3-month contract.
Tags: fitness, Fitness pass, fitness passes, sport membership, sport offers, sports, summer fitness, university sports, UoN Sports
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A52 Clifton Bridge repair scheme – August 2021 newsletter
August 9th, 2021
The new edition of Highways England’s newsletter to help keep people up-to-date with the latest information about the A52 Clifton Bridge repair scheme is now available.
The main updates include:
Overnight closures
A52 Clifton Bridge Eastbound (towards Grantham)
The overnight closures will be on: August: 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, from 20:00 to 06:00.
Altering the Traffic Management
A52 Clifton Bridge east, overnight on Saturday 7 August (weather permitting).
- From 6am Sunday 8 August, the live lanes will have switched
- Currently: lanes 1 and 2 are live, with lanes 3 and 4 closed.
- From Sunday: lanes 3 and 4 will be live, with lanes 1 and 2 closed.
- This will mean a change of lane discipline at the A433 junction. After the switch, traffic for the A453 will continue in the same lane. While traffic remaining on the A52, will need to change lanes, following the directional signs.
To catch up on all of the updates, you can read the full August 2021 edition of the Clifton Bridge Newsletter here.
Tags: A52, Clifton, Clifton Bridge, Clifton bridge repairs, roadworks
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Library study space bookings unavailable from 13 – 30 August
August 5th, 2021
Drop-in study space will still be available across all libraries.
In order to make improvements to Libraries’ online booking service, Click and Study, study space bookings will be unavailable from Friday 13 August – Monday 30 August (inclusive).
Any bookings already placed for dates between 13 and 19 August will be honoured but no new bookings will be accepted.
Study space will still be available in all libraries during this time, including some newly reintroduced group spaces.
To access these spaces, simply pop-in to any of our libraries with your University Card and use any available space.
Please follow the university’s Safety on Campus guidance when using the libraries. Food cannot be eaten in our libraries, however, you are welcome to bring in drinks.
Once the improvement work is complete, you will be able to choose from a wider range of study spaces, including group and silent spaces.
If you’re taking resits this summer, our Libraries team are here to support you with a range of webinars and online resources. Visit the Exam support webpage for more information.
If you have any questions, please contact the Library Helpline via email, phone or live chat.
Tags: Click and Study, Libraries, library, library helpline, safety on campus, study, study spaces
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National recognition for teaching excellence
August 5th, 2021
The excellence and innovation of teaching at the University of Nottingham has achieved national recognition, after scooping two prestigious awards.
The Teaching Excellence Awards are awarded each year by AdvanceHE, a member-led, sector-owned charity that works with institutions and higher education across the world to improve higher education for staff, students and society.
The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) and the Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) showcase the outstanding impact of individuals and teams who teach or support learning in UK higher education, recognising their success and providing a platform to share the learning from their practice.
In this year’s awards being announced today (Thursday 5 August), Dr Cristina De Matteis, Faculty Digital Learning Director in the university’s School of Pharmacy, has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship, which recognises the significant impact that recipients have made both on student learning outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education.
Dr De Matteis said: “I am delighted and very excited to have received this national teaching fellowship. It has been a real pleasure and privilege to be able to work with so many young people, in the areas of both teaching and research, and to observe their infectious enthusiasm, drive and creativity. This has been a powerful force in enhancing my learning, research and pedagogy.
“Making chemistry more accessible has been a passion of mine. Finding new ways to help students, at different stages of their education, engage with and understand chemistry has been enormously rewarding. By focussing on visual imagery, including 3D computer graphics images of molecules, I have learnt about the tremendous power of the visual image and its capacity to “catch the eye” and hence engage, and also to explain.
“The School of Pharmacy at Nottingham and at the Malaysia campus have provided wonderful opportunities to innovate and collaborate. Always forward looking, colleagues have provided a rich, creative and “fertile” environment in which to collectively develop new ideas and approaches in teaching and learning, with science always at the forefront. It is an exciting place in which to work.
I work within a fantastic team of digital learning, and education and student experience experts. I am indebted to them for the creative, collegial and collaborative culture they have created.”
Professor Sarah Speight, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience at the university said: “The National Teaching Fellowship is a prestigious award, and I am thrilled that Cristina has been selected to receive one this year. The award criteria include individual excellence, supporting excellence in others, and commitment to continuous development of professional practice. Cristina demonstrates this through her institution-wide work as one of our Digital Learning Directors, and also through her many years of teaching and curriculum leadership in the School of Pharmacy. She is an inspirational colleague, fully deserving of this national recognition.”
Meanwhile, the University’s HELM (Health E-Learning and Media) team in the School of Health Sciences, has been awarded a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE). The award recognises and rewards the role of teamwork in enhancing teaching and learning through collaborative approaches in higher education.
The HELM team provides expertise and support in the development, design, evaluation and research of technological and media-based educational materials and interventions in health. Using co-design approaches HELM produces state of the art digital resources for healthcare education and practice.
Heather Wharrad, Professor of E-learning and Health Informatics said: “This is a terrific accolade for the HELM team as collaboration is at the heart of everything we do. The award recognises our work in delivering high quality digital learning to our own students, and to others across the world. Our digital learning resources co-created by healthcare workers and patient groups are having a real impact on health and wellbeing in local and global communities whilst also benefiting our students”.
Congratulating the team on its success, Professor Speight said: “HELM have been impacting health education and healthcare practice for many years through their development of multimedia learning resources. Their reach is global, and their model of co-creation means that they construct partnerships of academics, educational developers and learning technologists, students, healthcare workers, service users and carers. They do great work, and it is great to see this acknowledged by Advance HE.”
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