Campus News

Times Higher Education – free access to staff and students

May 28th, 2019

Staff and students at the University of Nottingham have free access to the Times Higher Education online through an institutional subscription.

Staff and students have unlimited access to:

  • read articles online
  • view whole digital editions
  • download the app to any device, so you can access the magazine anytime, anywhere

Full THE online content is now also be available through the University of Nottingham Libraries NuSearch service.

If you currently have an individual THE subscription, let it expire and set up a new account to access the magazine online for free.

For more information on how to set up an account and access content, visit the set up page on the Libraries website.

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University-wide Race Equality Charter survey

May 28th, 2019

The Race Equality Charter Survey for staff and students launched on Tuesday 7 May – it’s the University’s largest-ever survey into racial equality on campus.

The University of Nottingham is committed to providing the best support, learning experience and working environment for its students and staff, regardless of their race.

The University is set to apply for Race Equality Charter bronze status in summer 2020. Data from the survey is a key part of the application process, and will inform our action plan going forward.

The Race Equality Charter gives us a framework in which to identify, explore and consider issues affecting the representation, progression and success of BME (black and minority ethnic) students and staff at the University. Completing the detailed analysis in support of the Race Equality Charter is a useful additional process alongside our more general work to support equality, diversity and inclusion, through which we can drive culture and process change – institution wide

Professor Sarah Sharples, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) said: Whilst awards through externally managed schemes such as the Race Equality Charter are important, they are only of value to us as a University if they reflect a real and active commitment to change.

“We hope that as many staff and students as possible will support us by taking the time to complete the REC survey, and help us to make changes within our University that will make our place of study and work better for all.”

The experiences and perceptions of all students and staff are essential to the data collection process – but it is particularly important to gather information from the BME members of the University community.

The survey is a key part of the Race Equality Charter process, and it is important that staff and students from ALL backgrounds take part. The survey is an important tool in making the University a better place to work and study.

The data will help us to assess and define our current position – giving us a picture of the experiences of staff and students across the institution. Survey data will be used with other information already collected by the University to create this picture – including recruitment and attainment data.

All information collected during the survey and through other data-gathering exercises will be completely confidential. On occasion we might ask for contact details so that we can invite respondents to be involved in further activity. This is entirely voluntary, and contact information will always be stored separately to survey responses.

For more information on the Race Equality Charter and the staff and student survey, visit our EDI webpages, or email mailto:rec@nottingham.ac.uk.

Read Professor Sharples’ latest blog here.

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Staff Oscars 2019: the results

May 24th, 2019

This year’s Staff Oscars, hosted by the Students’ Union’s Education Network, took place on Wednesday 15 May for our UK campuses. 

The annual Staff Oscars event was set up by students to recognise inspiring staff across the institution – at all levels and professions – for the positive impact they have on the student experience. 

The event is entirely student-led with a panel made up of course reps, faculty and education reps, as well as postgraduate reps. Staff were nominated for a variety of awards, including Best All Round Teacher, Best Welfare Support and Best Member of Support Staff. 

Professor Michael Randall, who won the award for Best All Round Teacher, said: “I was thrilled that our students chose to nominate me for a Students’ Union Staff Oscar. Teaching has become a privilege, and being able to work with and teach such talented Medical and Pharmacy students over many years has been a genuine pleasure. It was great to see the Students’ Union working hard to recognise teaching and student support activities throughout the staff community.” 

The full list of winners can be found below. 

University Life: Best Member of Support Staff 

Winner:
Ian Conway, Head Technician, Faculty of Social Sciences

Highly commended:
Sarah Wilson, Student Services
Abdul Aboueid, Porter, Cavendish Hall
Emma Tarrant Tayou, Regional Manager, West Africa 

Teaching: Best Personal Tutor 

Winner:
Professor Deborah Merrick, Assistant Professor in Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences 

Highly commended:
Dr Sarah Holland, Teaching Associate, Faculty of Arts
Dr Francis Gilbert, Professor of Ecology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences 

Teaching: Best Dissertation Supervisor 

Winner:
Professor Jeanette Woolard, Associate Professor of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences 

Highly commended:
Professor Tam Nguyen, Faculty of Social Sciences
Laura Todd, Teaching Associate, Russian and Slavonic Studies, Faculty of Arts 

Teaching: Best All Rounder 

Winner:
Professor Michael Randall, Professor of Pharmacology, Faculty of  Science 

Highly commended:
Dr Sarah Dauncey, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences 

University Life: Best Welfare Support 

Winner:
Paul Barrett, Accessible Minibus Driver, Transport 

Highly commended:
Professor Anne Felton, Associate Professor, Health and Social Care, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Helen Coombes, Mental Health Advisor 

Teaching: Most Inspiring 

Winner:
Professor Jake Hodder, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences 

Highly commended:
Professor Allan Swaby, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Professor Theo Stickley, Associate Professor of Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences 

Teaching: Best School/Department 

Winner:
School of Pharmacy

Highly commended:
Department of Modern Languages and Cultures 

Teaching: Best PG Who Teaches 

Winner:
Chloe Robbins, ESRC, PhD student, Faculty of Science 

Highly commended:
Charfedinne Ayed, Postdoctoral Researcher, Faculty of Science
Daniel Fallows, Faculty of Engineering 

Teaching: Most Innovative 

Winner:
Julia Kydd, Assistant Professor in Applied Immunology, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences 

Highly commended:
Emma Whitt, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science
Sarah Grandage, Lecturer in Drama, Performance and Language, Faculty of Arts 

Teaching: Best Research Supervisor 

Winner:
Professor Matthew Johnson, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences 

Highly commended:
Professor Jo Darkwa, Professor of Energy Storage Technologies, Faculty of Engineering
Professor Daniel Beneroso Vallejo, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering 

Congratulations to all staff who were nominated for an award. 

Staff Oscars have also taken place this month at our Malaysia campus. To view the list of winners, visit the UNM Campus News blog.

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Take part in the Professional Services Quality Survey

May 23rd, 2019

The Professional Services Quality Survey is now live, giving colleagues the opportunity to feed back on the services and support they have received.

The survey seeks views on staff interactions with Professional Services since September 2019. These perspectives are essential to developing services, and allow us to continually improve the levels of support provided to colleagues across the institution.

Take the survey here.

The survey will be run jointly with seven other universities, allowing us to assess current views of service quality while benchmarking against other institutions.

The results of this year’s survey will be shared on general channels and with Professional Services departments in September. Previous years’ survey results are available on Tableau.

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Eurydice Prevails: Lakeside Arts installs new public artwork

May 22nd, 2019

Lakeside Arts, the University of Nottingham’s public arts programme and centre, has formally installed a new public artwork by internationally renowned contemporary visual artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva.

Eurydice Prevails is one of a series of inverted tree works that Elpida has made over the last decade. The work will be installed in the parkland by the DH Lawrence Pavilion, and is supported by Sir Harry Djanogly — and dedicated to the memory of Lady Carol Djanogly — a longstanding friend and philanthropist to the University and Lakeside Arts.

To create the work, Elpida selected two sustainably sourced elm trees, from the University Park and a Gloucestershire estate, which had already reached the end of their natural lifespan and been felled due to poor health.

She then worked with University students, staff and members of the public to make the work using the ancient Japanese process of Yakisugi, a method of wood preservation achieved through the charring of the surface. The trees were then inscribed with metallic motifs that trace the tunnel-like galleries created by elm bark beetles — carriers of Dutch Elm disease that is estimated to have killed and affected 25 million elm trees since the 1960s. The trees will now be installed in inverted form, their roots reaching to the sky.

In Eurydice Prevails, Elpida has rewritten the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice so that she successfully escapes Hades and reaches the surface despite Orpheus turning back to look at her. The Yakisugi charring represents the depths of the underworld and the metallic motifs represent the tunnel from which Orpheus and Eurydice must travel to reach the light of the surface.

Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva said:

“It is a real pleasure to contribute a public work to Lakeside Arts, whose support for artists is so strong. Staff and students have been wonderful in supporting the making of these new works. I’m very grateful for the opportunity and I hope the works give as much delight to the people of Nottingham as I have had in making them.”

Shona Powell, Director of Lakeside Arts, said:

“We have loved working with Elpida as she has created this stunning addition to our public arts offer. It was important to Elpida to be able to engage students, staff, members of the public and our alumni community in its development, and I know everyone has enjoyed being part of the process. Now we hope that many more people can enjoy the result.”

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Getting in Shape — Investing in Our Future

May 22nd, 2019

Professor Sam Kingman —Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Faculty of Engineering — has announced a new programme to improve how we manage our money, activities and services, and grow investment in our teaching, research, staff and students.

The Getting in Shape — Investing in Our Future programme is being led in partnership with colleagues across the University. Read the blog to find out more.

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EDI case studies

May 21st, 2019

A blog post by Professor Sarah Sharples, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Dear colleagues,

In order to encourage Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) learning across the University, we would like to create a set of case studies covering the following key characteristics of our staff and students:

  • Age
  • Care responsibilities
  • Disabled students and staff
  • Gender equality
  • Gender reassignment
  • LGBTQ+
  • Marriage and civil partnership
  • Mental health
  • Pregnancy and maternity
  • Race equality
  • Religion and belief
  • Socio-economic background

Do you have any specific examples where staff or students from the above groups have been supported by the University or what we could do better to understand the issues these individuals face?

Please send your examples to Riz.Ahmed@nottingham.ac.uk by Friday 31 May 2019 so we can collate a list of potential case studies.

We are planning to publish the case studies as a paper that will be available for anyone to access on the internet. This will help to increase awareness of EDI activity so we can take steps to make improvements in this area. Individuals of course have the option of remaining anonymous in the case studies; the focus will be on the stories themselves and the learnings that we can take from these.

If staff have specific concerns regarding the support that is available to them, they should continue to raise these with their line managers for them to be actioned.

Many thanks for your contributions to this important initiative.

Professor Sarah Sharples
Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

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UoN student named among Nation’s Lifesavers

May 21st, 2019

An inspirational University of Nottingham nursing researcher has been named among the Nation’s Lifesavers for her exceptional contribution to keeping the nation healthy. 

Josephine NwaAmaka Bardi is an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) PhD mental health and wellbeing student from the School of Health Sciences. She was recognised as a Nation Lifesaver by the Universities UK campaign MadeAtUni, which highlights the positive impacts of universities on the wider population. 

Josephine was recognised for leading her own national lobby called Raising Awareness of Mental Health in Higher Education (RAMHE), which was the first student-led initiative in the country. 

The campaign was prompted by Josephine’s personal experiences of working with people with mental illnesses – from her early days of volunteering with a homeless charity in London after arriving from her home in Nigeria, to working as a mental health nurse and receiving the ESRC funding to research activity at The Dragon Café in Southwark, the UK’s first mental health café. Her time as a PhD student at Nottingham, Associate Staff member at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Lecturer at the University of East London has focused her recent efforts on mental health among students in higher education. 

“It is extremely gratifying to be named as one of the Nation’s Lifesavers by Universities UK,” said Josephine of her recognition. “I am both honoured and thankful for this because for me RAMHHE is more than just students; it is about friends and family members, and the communities that students come from – it is about everyone. I see myself as an embodiment of all that RAMHHE stands for…I was once an international student, now a lecturer and a PhD student. With the RAMHHE campaign, I hope that universities will put systems in place such as student-led on-campus campaigns to enable anti-stigma and all-inclusive spaces where students and staff can engage in collective dialogue about mental health. This would allow students’ voices to be heard in the development, implementation and evaluation of mental health interventions. More importantly, universities can develop student-informed mental health interventions. In the absence of positive mental health, the student experience is hindered, and academic attainment may be limited.” 

Professor Joanne Lymn, Head of the School of Nursing, “This nomination is a significant accolade for Josephine, for her invaluable work in reducing the stigma surrounding mental health in higher education and promoting greater inclusivity and compassion for those with mental health issues. She is a hugely inspirational character and has a compelling story to tell about her life experiences which have led to this campaign.” 

Josephine concluded: “I would like to add that this award also goes to everyone who has supported the RAMHHE campaign, especially university students around the world who have taken part, both face to face and online. I think the MadeAtUni campaign is a great chance to celebrate the many ways universities are having a significant impact on our everyday lives.” 

In addition, Josephine recently received a University Tri Campus Postgraduate Prize in recognition of her research and contribution to the postgraduate community. She was awarded the Gertrude Cropper Scholarship. 

To find out more about Josephine’s research and experiences, read the Nursing Times, ProtectED and Institute of Mental Health blogs. 

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Volunteer Awards 2019: Nominate outstanding volunteers

May 20th, 2019

To celebrate the upcoming National Volunteers Week (Saturday 1 – Friday 7 June), we’re opening nominations for this year’s Volunteer Awards on Monday 20 May. 

The Volunteer Awards celebrate the outstanding contributions of our alumni and friends who give their time to inspire our students, support our researchers and make a positive difference to our global community. 

Staff and students are invited to nominate the outstanding alumni and non-alumni volunteers they know in one of the four award categories. For more information, visit the awards page on the Alumni website. 

Nominations will close on Monday 19 August. To discuss a nomination in more detail, please contact Wayne Crawford (Volunteering Officer). 

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Review of Green Paper consultation phase for new University strategy

May 16th, 2019

In his latest blog, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Andy Long thanks everyone for sharing their views for the new University strategy during the Green Paper consultation phase.

Read the Deputy Vice-Chancellor’s blog

 

 

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