Campus News

Small Business Engagement Award

August 25th, 2020

The Small Business Engagement Award is designed to enable University of Nottingham academics to engage in knowledge exchange with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

With support from the Research and Innovation team, successful applicants will be given the opportunity to develop their business engagement skills, disseminate their research to SMEs and develop meaningful external relationships that can lead to impact and other collaboration opportunities.

The University already has an established business network of over 1500 external contacts. Its programme of regular business-facing events (currently being delivered as webinars) offers academics a platform to connect with companies from a range of sectors, upon which longer-term relationships and collaborations can be built.

Through the award, academics will be supported to utilise online events to engage businesses in their research and assist them to implement and embed knowledge into their own company policies and practices.

Awards of up to £4,000 are available to cover direct costs of academic time and project delivery costs. Please note, applicants must demonstrate that the funding will be used to directly support the project activities as outlined in their proposal and will be required to report on spend and outcomes.

For more information on how to apply, download this document and submit your Expression of Interest.

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Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s blog: Returning safely to campus

August 25th, 2020

As some of our students start to return to Nottingham ahead of the new academic year I thought I would update you on some of the measures we are taking with partners to protect the safety and security both our University and the wider Nottingham community.

Firstly please take the time to revisit our Welcome webpages which set out further guidance for new and returning students on how measures we are taking around the Coronavirus will affect them- this includes everything from living in halls to moving into the City, socialising and teaching.

We have also been working alongside Nottingham City Council, Nottingham Trent University (NTU), Nottinghamshire Police and others, to consider how the return of our students will have an impact in a range of areas such as the local businesses, transport, and community cohesion. This is in addition to the Universities for Nottingham Civic Agreement which commits a number of organisations across the city to work with us to ensure the safe and secure return of students.

While recognising the positive economic, cultural and societal benefits our students bring, there are also, understandably, concerns about how changes brought about because of the pandemic will affect daily life both at the university and beyond.

The health, safety and wellbeing of staff and students and the wider community remains our overriding priority. Our current focus is upon adapting our campus and our practices for an extended period of COVID-affected working.

You will be increasingly familiar with health and safety measures in shops and other businesses, for example the one-way systems, social distancing markers and hand sanitising stations. These, and other measures, will be features of our campus environment too. You can find more detail on these health and safety measures, as well as a video demonstrating their implementation, on our Recovery webpages.

We have also been very clear with students around the behaviours we expect from them. All students will be asked to commit to a COVID-19 Community Pledge – six clear expectations around following guidance to reduce the spread of COVID-19, showing mutual respect, and being inclusive and supportive of others.

The student Code of Discipline has been extended to encompass public health protection issues and this Pledge. Disciplinary measures are already in place for serious breaches on an escalation basis. The pledge includes details of a dedicated email address where anyone can lodge a concern about the behaviour of others but feels unable to raise this with them directly.

The University is actively exploring extending and enhancing its investment in community protection to meet the challenges students and communities face due to the pandemic.

We will be launching a digital campaign in September to remind students of these expectations and the COVID-19 Community Pledge.

You’ll have seen reference to the pledge in Professor Sarah Speight’s blog on Guiding Principles for Teaching in 2020-21 published last week and I hope that goes some way in reassuring staff who may be anxious about students returning to campus.

I also shared details some weeks ago about our plans to mitigate future outbreaks and our collaboration with Public Health England and Local Public Health officials to establish a Local Outbreak Plan.

A dedicated Incident Management Plan Task & Finish group for Higher Education has been established and scenario preparation exercises are being run in conjunction with local healthcare organisations.

Plans to provide support for students in the community who need to isolate are being developed and the University’s pilot testing of returned Vet School students is well underway.

We are now in phase eight of our building reopening schedule, checking and reopening close to 100 buildings across our campuses. The effort that has gone into getting to this point in our recovery cannot be underestimated and I know, for many, the next month will be equally as busy in readiness for the new academic year.

Next week we will be sharing more information on our long term plans to return other areas of the university to campus. This will be followed up with briefings from members of University Executive Board in coming weeks.

As ever I’ve grateful for all your hard work, patience and professionalism.

Professor Andy Long
Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor

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Volunteers wanted for International Welcome Programme

August 24th, 2020

Colleagues across the University are asked if they can volunteer their time to act as chaperones for newly arrived students as part of the International Welcome Programme.

Every year, a group of volunteers go down to Heathrow Airport to help newly arrived students make the journey up to campus to start their studies.

Our staff act as chaperones for the coach, providing support and guidance to students should they need it.

Coach transfers will be running on five dates in 2020:

  • Friday 4 September
  • Monday 7 September
  • Wednesday 16 September
  • Thursday 17 September
  • Friday 18 September

If you are able to attend on any of those dates, please let the team know. This is often the first time new students have travelled to the UK and more often than not, they experience a whole range of emotions.

Of course, this year there are additional concerns and anxiety created by coronavirus and students are reporting worries about getting to campus safely, which makes this role all the more important.

In terms of staff safety, additional precautions are being taken to make sure that everyone is kept safe. As part of that, the journey to Heathrow for staff will be completed in one day (those who have volunteered before may have previously been asked to stay overnight).  The coach times have been amended to make this easier for volunteers.

If you do volunteer, you will definitely be needed, so please hold the time in your diary.  Timings and details of collection and drop off points will be confirmed nearer the time.

Please provide your expressions of interest here by Wednesday 2 September or earlier so that the team can get in touch.

If you have any further questions please contact Kirsty Richardson.

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Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s blog: Teaching principles

August 19th, 2020

In this week’s Recovery blog Professor Sarah Speight, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience introduces the principles that will guide the delivery of teaching in the academic year 2020-21. 

As we approach September, I am conscious that this is not the start of the academic year that any of us were expecting.  Our returning and new students have experienced significant disruption to their studies and their lives, and our preparations for 2020-21 reflect our expectations of further disruption ahead.

I know that you individually, and colleagues across all areas of the university, are continuing to do everything possible to proactively ready us for the start of session.  From prepping our modules to opening our libraries, from planning our labs to designing our assessments, we are endeavouring to put the health, safety and well-being of our students and our colleagues first. We are all committed to offering high-quality education.

In June and July 2020, we ran a survey to understand the experiences of our students during the pandemic and their priorities for the autumn. Over 5,300 students responded. They told us that their motivation and mental health had suffered. They told us that they wanted good health and safety measures to support a return to face-to-face teaching alongside their online learning.

To support this, I have worked with senior academic and professional service colleagues to develop a set of principles to guide our teaching. These principles inclide documents many of you will have already read, or contributed to: for example, the Faculty teaching delivery plans, the guidance for timetabling and personal tutoring, and the health and safety guidance. The principles also link to the Return to Operations (HR) Guide.

The Guiding Principles for Teaching in 2020-21 are founded on the need to provide high quality education for our students in a safe environment.

While teaching will comprise a blend of digital and in-person delivery, it is expected that staff will normally deliver their scheduled teaching on-campus regardless of the mode of delivery (in-person or digital), unless space or building occupancy limitations, access to essential technologies, or time of day make this impractical.

Our promise to our students is that we will provide as much in-person teaching as we safely can. This includes seminars, small group academic tutorials, laboratory classes, clinical skills, practice and workshop sessions. Comprehensive health and safety measures will be in place for all in-person teaching, and we will shorten classes to enable safe entry and exit from rooms and buildings.

In 2020-21, our lectures will be delivered via digital technologies. We are using the new term ‘lecture engagement’ to distinguish between pre-prepared lecture resources and activities (which students can access when convenient) and the related interactive online sessions that will be scheduled.

The development of these digital resources and activities is supported through the Faculty Resource Hubs. These will help you to design good quality digital learning materials such as short content videos, quizzes, problems, worked answer videos, model answers, transcripts, and links to resources. Your students can then access these to build on their learning.

Our blended approach to teaching, and the support of student learning, must have accessibility and inclusivity at its heart. Where there are multiple seminar groups for a module, one or more of these will be scheduled as online to facilitate engagement for students unable to attend in-person teaching, and to provide an option for staff unable to return to campus.

To support self-directed learning and on-campus engagement with digital teaching such as a computing practicals or online seminars, we hope to develop a system to alert students to the spaces available to them. More detail on this will be provided in the coming weeks.

The Guiding Principles for Teaching in 2020-21 also include some requirements for our students. For example, students will be expected to comply with all health and safety guidance, backed up by their commitment to the University of Nottingham Community Pledge.

They will need to wear face coverings when in indoor areas and in teaching sessions unless advised by staff that the activity being undertaken is exempt, or where they are personally exempt due to individual circumstances. Sunflower lanyards will be available to enable students (and staff) to indicate this.

In March 2020, our focus was upon emergency completion of planned teaching and assessment. Our current focus is upon adapting our campus and our practice for an extended period of COVID-affected working.   We are increasingly familiar with health and safety measures in shops and other businesses, for example the one-way systems, social distancing markers and hand sanitising stations. These, and other measures, will be features of our campus environment too.

While some staff have remained working on campus since March, and others have recently returned to re-open libraries and prepare for early course starts, I know that many of you are keen to access your offices and our teaching spaces. I understand that you want to familiarise yourselves with the new layouts and health and safety procedures in the buildings you will be working in. The plan is for you to be able to return to campus before the arrival of most of our students from September 21.

Finally, I know there will be circumstances where some staff, particularly those who are in vulnerable categories, may be unable to return to campus. There may also be ad-hoc situations that occur due to localised outbreaks and lockdowns. The Return to Operations (HR) Guide has been expanded to provide guidance specific to teaching.

I will finish by thanking you for your sustained effort and sheer hard work since March. I know our challenges continue, but I hope we can all draw some positives from the remarkable ways in which we have pulled together, moved our teaching online, graduated our students, and progressed our preparations for 2020-21.  I hope you are able to take some leave before the start of term.

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Bumper crop of media coverage from top stories and COVID-19 expertise

August 18th, 2020

The chances of switching on the TV or opening a newspaper and seeing a story featuring the University of Nottingham were massively increased this year. Academic expertise from the University has placed it at the forefront of news commentary around the globe during the coronavirus pandemic, leading to an unprecedented rise in media coverage.

From January to August 2020, the Media Relations Team in External Relations has tracked an increase in broadcast audiences to 1.35 billion and more than doubled print and online audiences to 104 billion and advertising value equivalent (AVE) of coverage to £964 million on the same period last year.

With professional support from the Press Office team, academics including virologist Professor Jonathan Ball in the School of Life Sciences, whose work with the media was recently recognised with a Vice-Chancellor’s Medal, and Keith Neal, Emeritus Professor in the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, are among national print and broadcast journalists’ go-to experts on a daily basis for a range of COVID-19-related topics including vaccine development, antibody testing and public health protection measures.

They have been joined in the media spotlight by a numerous other University experts featured in national COVID-19 news stories including Dr Rachel Tarlinton from Veterinary Medicine and Sciences (Sky News); Dr Chris Coleman, Assistant Professor of Infection Immunology (Daily Telegraph); virologist Professor Will Irving (The Guardian); and John Gathergood, Professor of Economics (Daily Telegraph), among many more.

Nottingham’s COVID-19 contributions in the spotlight
The University’s fight against the coronavirus has also made headlines. In July, Channel 4 News featured a study examining why some people with coronavirus are more susceptible to serious illness led by Gisli Jenkins, Professor of Experimental Medicine and Ana Valdes, Associate Professor in the School of Medicine, while back in June, Sky News visited the lab of Lindy Durrant, Professor of Cancer Immunotherapy, who is testing a vaccine, which encourages a patient’s immune system to fight the disease.

Microbiologist Dr David Turner, who is researching how many children in our region have had the COVID-19 infection and Dr Samantha Bryan in the Faculty of Engineering, who is working with the biotech company Cyanetics and Public Health England to use a harmless bacteria found in soil to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, have both been featured by local news outlet BBC East Midlands Today.

In April, the BBC’s One Show paid emotional tribute to the contribution of the University’s medical students who graduated early to fight the virus on the NHS frontline by hosting a virtual graduation leading to a flurry of tweets from viewers who had been moved to tears, including TV presenter Richard Osman who told followers the segment had left him ‘weeping’.

But the Press Office team has also played a key role in helping to promote research offering a welcome respite from the relentless rolling coverage of coronavirus.

In the biggest single news story of the year, research by Dr Cris Conselice in the School of Physics and Astronomy, which hypothesised that there could be as many as 36 alien species in our galaxy, was featured by more than 1,000 different news outlets with AVE of more than £30m including CNN, The Guardian, the Daily Star (front page) and Newsround, and captured the imagination of comedian David Mitchell who penned his Guardian column around the revelation.

Making the headlines
Other top stories have included:

  • Professor John Robertson in the School of Medicine who spoke to ITN News about a blood test he spent 25 years of his career developing which is now providing a breakthrough in lung cancer detection rates.
  • The return to campus of our April cohort of Vet Students which was featured on national BBC News and including this lovely piece, BBC Radio 4 The World Tonight, BBC Radio 4 You and Yours and Times Radio, among others. The publicity led to a spike in people visiting the Clearing pages and registering interest on the day BBC News featured the story.
  • A survey of 500 A-level students in England, involving Dr Martin Myers in the School of Education, which suggested almost twice as many students would have preferred to have taken their exams, rather than rely on estimated grades which was featured by news outlets including BBC News and BBC East Midlands Today
  • Professor David Walsh, Director of the Pain Centre Versus Arthritis and Assistant Professor in Sport and Exercise Medicine, Joanne Stocks, were featured on the Channel 4 show How to Beat… Pain looking at which simple techniques can help to relieve chronic pain.
  • New research led by Professor Stephen Jackson in the School of Psychology which found that delivering electrical pulses to the wrist can significantly reduce the amount and severity of tics experienced by individuals with Tourette Syndrome (TS) was picked up by the Daily Mail, the Metro, The Times and New Scientist, among others as well as featuring on BBC East Midlands Today.

And finally, 2020 was the year that saw a rekindling of the tragic love story behind everybody’s favourite shellebrity snail Jeremy and his School of Life Sciences scientist Dr Angus Davison. Jeremy first rose to global mega stardom in October 2016 after a public appeal on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme seeking a similarly rare mutant love for the lefty mollusc.

Research published in June, showing that the rare left-spiralling shell of Jeremy and garden snails of his kind is usually a development accident rather than an inherited condition, sparked a resurgence in media interest in the story of the unfortunate gastropod whose genitals were in the wrong place for mating.

The story featured again on BBC Radio 4 Today, the Daily Mail, The i News, The Times and the Guardian – and led to an Experience feature for Dr Davison in the Guardian recently.

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Call for funding: Black History Month activities

August 18th, 2020

As part of the University’s ongoing commitment to EDI, we are inviting applications for the celebration of Black culture and achievements to take place during Black History Month in October 2020.

This is especially timely in light of recent events triggered by George Floyd’s death, the Black Lives Matter movement and the continuing need for anti-racist actions.

This funding initiative is designed to support multiple locally-planned Black History Month activities throughout October 2020.

Funding will be awarded to host local events or activities to a maximum of £200 with applications to be assessed by the Black History Month Planning Committee.

The funding is available on condition that it will be matched by funding from another source (this could be the associated School/Department/Group or an external source).

If your application involves face-to-face events then please visit the University’s Coronavirus webpages as your main source of information and guidance.

For applications, please complete this form by Monday 31 August 2020.

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Changes and updates to procurement at the University

August 18th, 2020

The Procurement Team have been busy updating current and introducing new processes to make procurement easier, quicker and more efficient, as part of a project to ‘Fix the Engine’.

Margaret Monckton was the sponsor for this improvement work as part of the Finance & Infrastructure strategy. She said:

“I am so pleased about the progress that has been made here.  There is enormous opportunity to achieve increased value from our suppliers but we can only do this once we have the basics rights and fixing the procurement engine room, so that the University can buy compliantly and easily, has been urgently needed. 

A huge well done for the team for what they have achieved with this – this is great demonstration of a team owning the plan to improve and using lean methodology to do it. ”

Amongst the many changes being introduced, a new Procurement Policy has been developed that outlines how expenditure will be supported by procurement going forward.

Additional updates and upgrades to procurement include:

  • Launching Amazon Business to allow staff to purchase on Amazon in compliance with procurement regulations
  • A new Sharepoint site with refreshed and streamlined procurement guidance, replacing the Workplace site
  • Ability to now use a selection of online forms to fill out requests – no more printing, signing and scanning!

At the moment, most p-cards are still on campus, so any requirements for payments via p-cards should be discussed with your FM Team Manager.

In addition to the updates above, the Procurement Team have been meeting with key stakeholders for faculties and professional services to talk about their own profile of expenditure – ensuring that teams are adequately supported to realise the 15% savings for 20/21 and beyond.

Find more information here or for any further queries, please contact your procurement partner.

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Statement on Ofqual announcement about A Level results

August 18th, 2020

We recognise that the class of 2020 have faced significant disruption this year and we are doing everything we can to support them in their university journey.

On Monday 17 August, the UK government announced that results will revert to the grades submitted by schools and colleges (centre assessed grades).

We have written to all applicants who were unsuccessful in securing a place. We will honour offers and reinstate places (note some exceptions below) to applicants whose grades have been adjusted and now meet the conditions of their original offer from us or the entry requirements advertised in Clearing for those courses that went into Clearing.

Exceptions may apply to our Medicine and Veterinary Sciences courses which have strict limits on the number of places, as well as a small number of other courses that have placements. Where they are full, we may be able to offer an alternative location or start date or we will honour the 2020 offer for 2021 entry.

As we receive results directly from Ofqual via UCAS, we anticipate that any updated grades will also be provided this way. Therefore, applicants do not need to take any further action at this time.

Our Admissions team is working hard to answer calls and emails and process offers to UCAS. Colleagues will be available on live chat from Wednesday 19 August.

We are working closely with UCAS on the process for updated results and responding to the latest advice from the government and Ofqual.

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Work commences on Serenity Gardens project

August 17th, 2020

Nottingham City Council are due to start work on a memorial garden at Highfields Park today.

The garden will include a figure of 8 path, pergolas, sculptures and tree planting. The work was due to take place earlier this year but was postponed due to the pandemic.

Barriers and fencing are to be installed today (Monday 17 August) to ensure the area is cordoned off from public use, and all COVID-19 safety practices and precautions are being observed.

The main project is due to commence on Monday 24 August and the work is expected to last 6 weeks.

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Campus Stars: The University Farm

August 12th, 2020

The Campus Stars campaign has been launched to showcase the colleagues still working on campus during the lockdown and highlight the crucial work they do.

The University of Nottingham Farm Team is based at Sutton Bonington Campus. The team includes:

  • Arable Manager – Joe Greenfield
  • Dairy Manager – Nigel Armstrong
  • Assistant Dairy Manager – Joe Barton
  • Head of Calf and Youngstock Rearing – Natalie Pummber
  • Farm Administrator – Lucy Shaw
  • Herdsmen – Krzystof Sek and Przemyslaw Czajka
  • Dairy and Arable Farm Technician – Nacia Bonnick

Nigel has worked at the University for 25 years, Krzystof has worked with the cows for around 15 years and Lucy has worked at the University for nine years. The other team members have all joined within the last five years.

The University Farm staff continued to work throughout lockdown and saw little change due to the nature of their work. The cows still needed to be fed and milked and calving continued. Due to the time of year, the spring crops on the arable side of the farm needed to be sowed and the grass that is grown for silage for the dairy cows required tending to. In the farm’s office, paperwork such as government and Red Tractor legislation, cattle passports and invoices for feed and seed still needed processing.

The UoN Farm team do not only support staff and students, but the nation too. The milk produced is sold by Tesco and any leftover crop not used to feed the cows is sent to be used for products such as bread and biscuits.

The team are all from farming backgrounds and have a shared understanding that this work is a way of life that requires dedication. They work during national holidays such as Christmas and bank holidays, so continuing to work during lockdown came as no surprise.

The UoN Farm team’s message to the University community is to stay safe and they look forward to the time that everyone returns to campus.

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