Campus News
Times Higher Education Awards 2022
May 10th, 2022
Nominations are now open for the annual Times Higher Education Awards.
These annual ‘Oscars of Higher Education’ celebrate excellence in research, teaching, student support and international practice across the sector. Colleagues are encouraged to consider nominations that would profile the excellence found across our university.
Consider your entry now
To co-ordinate the highest standard of entries in an intense competition, colleagues are invited to submit a 300-word precis of their nomination to jenny.stevenson@nottingham.ac.uk by Friday 27 May 2022.
Nominations will be reviewed by a senior panel led by Registrar Paul Greatrix. Approved nominations will then receive full drafting support to enter the competition by the deadline of Wednesday 8 June 2022.
Success in THE Awards 2021
Last year, university researchers won two major awards at the Times Higher Education Awards 2021. Professor Heike Bartel’s project, Hungry for Words, which uses the creative arts to raise awareness of eating disorders in men and boys, won Research Project of the Year (Arts). The award for Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community went to a joint project with Nottingham Trent University led by Professor Louise Mullany and Dr Loretta Tickett on gender hate crime and tackling harassment, violence and abuse of women and girls in public spaces.
Further accolades went to the university’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Science – runner up in the Outreach Initiative of the Year for its virtual work experience project, an open-to-all online course that has boosted applications from students from low socio-economic backgrounds. Runner up in the Outstanding Research Supervisor category was Dr Ravinder Anand-Ivell, Director of Postgraduate and Postdoctoral Research in the School of Biosciences.
Award categories
Full details of the awards categories and criteria are posted at Times Higher Education Awards – please note entries are only usually considered where the majority of activity is delivered in the 2020/21 academic year. The awards ceremony will take place in London on 17 November 2022.
The award categories are as follows:
• Business School of the Year
• Widening Participation or Outreach Initiative of the Year
• Knowledge Exchange/Transfer Initiative of the Year
• Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
• Research Project of the Year: STEM
• Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year*
• Outstanding Contribution to the Local Community
• Outstanding Support for Students
• Outstanding Entrepreneurial University
• Outstanding Library Team
• Outstanding Estates Team
• Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Outstanding Technician of the Year
* Outstanding Marketing/Communications Team
• Most Innovative Teacher of the Year
• International Collaboration of the Year
• Technological or Digital Innovation of the Year
• THE Outstanding Achievement Award
• THE DataPoints Merit Award
• University of the Year
*The University nomination for Research Supervisor of the Year has already been identified through the Research Academy’s as part of its annual researcher awards scheme.
Tags: the awards, THE Awards 2022, Times Higher Education Awards
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Campus Solutions PeopleTools upgrade
May 10th, 2022
Campus Solutions will be unavailable for a weekend in May so that the framework (PeopleTools) can be upgraded to the latest version.
From 6pm on Friday 20 May to 1am Monday 23 May (1am Saturday 21 May to 8am Monday 23 May China/Malaysia time), Campus Solutions will be unavailable for staff or students to use.
PeopleTools will be upgraded to the latest version, enabling us to meet our statutory and regulatory requirements due to changes in the following areas:
- Department for Education teacher training applications through DFE Apply
- Student Loans Company (SLC) student loan processing
- Visas and immigration (UKVI) statutory reporting
The upgrade also ensures Campus Solutions will be better integrated with other systems for the university’s current and future projects.
Changes that APM colleagues will see after the upgrade
Administrative, Professional and Managerial (APM) colleagues will see some small changes after the upgrade:
- The icons for recently visited webpages and your favourites will change. You will see the new icons on the left of the homepage, or when you click on the compass icon in the top right-hand corner:
- A search bar will be located in the top menu on the Campus Solutions homepage (on subsequent pages you will need to click on the magnifying glass icon to perform a search):
- You will see the navigation breadcrumb trail when you use Campus Solutions – this shows you your current location in the system:
Please view the upgrade changes video to find out more about the upcoming changes and how to navigate Campus Solutions.
Further support
Thank you for your understanding as we complete this essential upgrade. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Should you experience any issues after this upgrade is completed, please contact your respective IT Service Desk in UK, China or Malaysia for assistance.
Tags: campus solutions, upgrade to campus solutions
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Temporary delay to New Stream system
May 9th, 2022
Earlier this year, we communicated about changes to where Microsoft Teams Meeting recordings are stored.
In light of ongoing implementation issues by Microsoft, we have taken the decision to delay the change to the ‘New Stream’ system in Office 365.
What this means for you
Any Teams based meeting recording will continue to be stored in ‘Old Stream’ and no expiry date will be applied. All historical recordings will remain unaffected.
We continue to work alongside Microsoft and hope to transition to the new system in the week commencing 6th June 2022 (subject to change).
We apologies for the delay and appreciate your patience and understanding.
For the latest news on ‘New Stream’, please visit the Virtual Broadcast SharePoint site.
Tags: Microsoft streaming, Microsoft Teams, New Stream, Stream, Teams Meeting
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Update on Digital Engagement programme
May 9th, 2022
The university has successfully completed the first delivery wave one of the Digital Engagement programme.
Below is a summary what we’ve been working on, what our focus is for the next delivery wave and important changes that Digital Engagement will introduce.
A more detailed update is available on our SharePoint site.
What have we been working on?
Content Strategy and Content Production and Development Model
We’ve been reimagining how we engage and communicate with our prospective students. We want to make the University of Nottingham irresistible over our competitors, informative by providing the right information at the right time, and inclusive to make people feel that Nottingham is the right place for them.
Design System
We are working on a Design System which will provide reusable components to ensure attractive visual design and consistency through the website. In wave 1 we used Storybook to build components and in wave 2 we will be focusing on building Design File which will define the rules for how we use specific components, why we use them as well as the guidance on colours and layouts
DAM (Digital Asset Management)
DAM will provide an online tool and framework for storing, organising, protecting and distributing digital assets, such as photos, videos and content. This is a vast improvement from the current siloed ways of managing assets via Sharepoint, Image Bank and personal storage drives and will ensure our assets are consistent and compliant. DAM is the first product that Digital Engagement will release so we have been working hard to create a new and improved folder structure for assets and a ‘smart tagging’ function to make searching for assets much easier and faster.
Campaign Design, Delivery and Management
Our mission is to connect with prospects at all parts of their recruitment journey, and we hope to achieve this through well-timed, personalised and impactful campaigns. So far, we have set up the strategic foundations to be able to deliver a variety of campaigns and are working towards building our first campaign to launch in September. We’re also starting to move over some existing campaign activity into the new Adobe platform, making the process more efficient for staff and seamless for prospective students.
Find Your Nottingham
At the start of the student recruitment journey is ‘Find Your Nottingham’, a way to personalise the online prospectus to present prospects with content that is more relevant and valuable to them. We’ve tested this new service with students and received great feedback including that it ‘made them feel heard’ and ‘made them feel like Nottingham cared about who they were’. Our ambition is to release this service in September to attract and guide prospects as early as possible.
Data Capture and Management
To deliver an unparalleled customer experience, we are introducing a new CRM using Microsoft Dynamics 365. This will be the home of all prospect data, having pulled information from the website, Events and any other interactions the prospect has with the University. So far, we’ve built the foundations based on what data we can and should capture, and how to restrict this data to only those who need it. Capturing prospect data in one place allows us to understand the ‘holistic view’ of a prospect, including what courses and societies they are interested in, their previous contact with the University, events they may have attended and what communications they have received. By gathering this information, we can provide a far more personalised service.
How do I find out more?
To understand more about what the programme is working on now and in future, visit our SharePoint to view our latest end of wave wrap-up, or join our MS Teams channel to get regular updates. You can also email us on digitalengagement@nottingham.ac.uk.
Tags: digital, digital engagement, Digital Engagement Programme
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UoN Procurement Team nominated for two GO awards
May 9th, 2022
The university’s Procurement Team has been nominated for two awards in this year’s Government Organisation (GO) Awards.
The UK GO Excellence in Public Procurement Awards are all about showcasing organisations that lead the way in public procurement best practice across all UK nations.
This year, the university’s Procurement Team has been selected as finalists in two categories: Social Value and the coveted Team of the Year 2022.
To win their place as nominees, the team have shown emerging talent across the board in their dedication to improve customer service and satisfaction over the year of 2021.
Notably during this time period, one member of the team was a runner up for The Procurement Hero Award in The 2020 Amazon Business Exchange Awards, and another member was awarded a Vice Chancellors medal for being part of the team to set up our own Covid-19 testing centres for students – as well as managing the critical sourcing of PPE materials.
The Procurement team also demonstrated exceptional performance and attitude throughout a challenging period, as evidenced by the ‘Fix the Engine’ project, which saw more than 20 different projects feed into an overarching transformation program.
For the Social Value category, the team have been key contributors to the university work on modern slavery to become a slavery-free campus, which is a pioneering piece of work and that is being showcased across the public sector in the UK, US and Australia. You can see more about this work here.
Head of Procurement at the university, Rosalie Parkin, said: “I am incredibly proud of the ambition and resilience shown by the Procurement team during 20/21.
Despite a number of significant challenges, including Brexit bringing in additional time, cost and complications to overseas deliveries and multiple supply chain constraints in critical areas due to Covid, the team have pushed themselves to deliver BAU activities as well as continuously improving processes, policies and ways of working by listening to feedback from our community.
We are extremely pleased to be shortlisted as finalists in both categories and recognised for the significant work delivered to date”.
The Procurement Team also join fellow nominee, Final-Year PhD Researcher, Tien Thuy Quach – who has been nominated in the Individual Achievement of the Year category.
Winners of this year’s GO Awards will be handed their awards at a celebratory event on Wednesday 25 May 2022 at the Hilton in Birmingham.
Find out more about the GO Awards.
Tags: GO Awards, procurement, Procurement team
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Guest EDI blog: Mental health awareness week 2022
May 9th, 2022
Monday 9 – Sunday 15 May is Mental Health Awareness Week 2022, with this year’s theme focussing on the impact of loneliness on our mental health and the practical steps we can take to address it.
To mark the week and help start a wider conversation about mental health, Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Director of the UoN Biodiscovery Institute, Chris Denning, has shared a personal blog about his mental health journey and highlights the support available.
The university is also holding an event as part of Disability Recognition Month which focuses on mental health and hidden disabilities.
A panel of our Disabled staff and students will join Katherine Linehan, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and People, in a conversation about their lived experience of invisible disabilities and mental health awareness in the university.
You can find out more about the event and book a place here.
Read more about Mental Health Awareness Week and find more support and guidance at Mental Health.org.
Tags: disability, Disability Recognition Month 2022, mental health, mental health awareness, Mental Health Awareness Week, positive mental health, staff mental health
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Roads and car parks to close for Run For All Nottingham 10K
May 5th, 2022
A number of key roads and car parks will be temporarily closed on Sunday 22 May 2022 as the university hosts the Run For All Nottingham 10k on University Park Campus.
All entrances to the university on University Park Campus, except the West entrance will be closed until approximately midday on Sunday 22 May.
The race has start and finish points on either side of the Portland Building, so these are expected to be the busiest areas during the day. People travelling to or from the university are encouraged to leave plenty of time before they travel.
There will be an event village set up towards the rear of the Portland Building, on Cherry Tree Hill for people taking part in the challenge.
Two car parks will be closed for the duration of the event; Jubilee Avenue and Lenton Hall Drive, next to Lincoln Hall.
We recommend that staff and students do not leave vehicles on University Park campus from Saturday 21 May – Sunday 22 May, as they will not be able to collect them until midday on Sunday 22 May, possibly later.
Our libraries will remain open as normal.
For a detailed map of the affected areas and times, please visit our dedicated MyMaps webpage.
Tags: car park, car park closure, car parking, road closed, Road closures
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University publishes response to Higher Education Reform proposals
May 5th, 2022
The university has today submitted its response to Government following major consultations on funding in Higher Education.
The Department for Education has led consultations into Higher Education Reform – including views on proposals to limit student numbers and change eligibility requirements – and Lifelong Loan Entitlement which will allow students to take out a loan for education to be used across their lifetime.
The university has submitted a formal response to both consultations which reflects the values of our institution and covers the following:
- The university is not supportive of student number controls as a means of reducing lower quality provision. Instead we point to our own expertise in ensuring students selected are able to successfully complete the course, maximising access to the high stand of education provided at Nottingham.
- We do not support the introduction of any minimum entry requirements. This, we feel, would have a disproportionate impact on Widening Participation students and does not reflect our core values.
- We have concern over impact of funding changes on Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. We argue that these degrees emphasise the importance of research skills, synthesising material, reflection, careful construction of arguments, and clear communication – all of which are extremely valuable in most graduate careers. They teach students cultural awareness, flexibility, and adaptability.
- We stress the importance of retaining funding for foundation years to ensure a high-quality provision.
We emphasise that in looking to make efficiencies, it is unavoidable that the student experience is impacted as well as research activity. We respectfully ask the Government to consider the knock-on effects of limitations to funding now and the short-term savings on society and the economy longer-term in restricting the ambitions of Higher Education.
Lifelong Loan Entitlement (LLE)
The university is supportive in principle of the concept of LLE but has concerns over eligibility and scope.
We ask Government to;
- Encourage a model that is broad and not restrictive.
- Ensure that structures for LLE are consistent with current practice, proportionate, fair and inclusive.
- Broaden LLE eligibility to cover level 7 (Masters) courses which are currently not within scope.
- Ensure any credit framework for LLE is consistent with current models and principles.
The Russell Group has submitted its own responses – Higher Education Reform and LLE– on behalf of the sector urging the Government to prioritise long term sustainable funding for higher education to ensure high-quality teaching provision can continue to be responsive to the country’s skills needs.
It estimates that as a result of rising student demand and rapidly increasing costs alongside frozen tuition fees up to 2024/25, the average deficit per UK undergraduate taught is set to more than double from £1,750 in 2021/22 to around £4,000 in 2024/25, with deficits across all subjects.
Tags: Higher Education Reform, Lifelong loan entitlement, LLE, Russell Group
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University Covid-19 Asymptomatic Testing Service to close at end of academic year
May 3rd, 2022
After almost two years of operation, the university’s on-site Covid-19 Asymptomatic Testing Service is set to close.
From the end of the summer term in June 2022 it will no longer offer sample collection or testing for staff and students.
However, the service can be quickly reinstated should it be required in future in the event of, for example, a new wave of Covid-19 infections, new variants emerging, or virus symptoms increasing in severity.
Ian Hall, Professor of Molecular Medicine at the university, said:
“The end of the academic year is a sensible time at which to close the university’s testing service for asymptomatic cases of Covid-19. Though current variants of the virus are very transmissible, illness in those who experience symptoms is much less severe in most cases.
“The extensive vaccination programme, alongside development of anti-viral and other treatments which better treat those who do experience more severe symptoms, mean that we no longer need to monitor and manage outbreaks of the virus in the same way.
“The end of the academic year brings a natural transmission break on our campuses, and allows us to move to a lower level of infection management, which is appropriate to the current stage of the pandemic.
We would encourage people to continue to follow government advice on living safely with Covid, which emphasises the importance of being vaccinated, continuing to use a mask in enclosed spaces and of trying to avoid contact with others if you have symptoms suggestive of an infectious disease.”
The asymptomatic service was launched in September 2020 to support staff and students on campus with free access to asymptomatic testing for Covid-19.
This gave our university community access to testing when government testing centres were in high demand, and ensured that we could catch infections early and track and manage potential outbreaks across campus.
It has since tested more than 150,000 samples, identifying almost 2,000 positive cases of Covid-19 in staff and students who displayed no symptoms at the time of testing and may otherwise not have realised they had Covid.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Andy Long said: “The Covid-19 asymptomatic testing service is at the heart of our response to the pandemic. It was key to bringing staff and students back to campus – and ensuring that students could go home confident they weren’t passing the virus on to vulnerable family and friends.
“I want to thank everyone involved in this huge, complex and far-reaching project – from the team in the lab to the volunteers on the collection points to the administrators that worked on gaining accreditation for the service and everyone in between. You’ve done an incredible job.”
Tags: COVID testing, COVID-19, testing, University Testing Service
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