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Yearly Archives / 2018

Women’s Academic Network (WAN): Gender Research Seminar Series

BU Women’s Academic Network (WAN) launches its Gender Research Seminar Series on Wednesday 28th November 1.30-3.30 (Room: Fusion 112). The inaugural seminar addresses gender, race and ethnicity, and celebrates the excellent work of two BU women academics: Dr Deborah Gabriel and Dr Hyun-Joo Lim.

 

Dr Gabriel is a senior lecturer in politics, media & communication and co-author of Inside the Ivory Tower: Narratives of Women of Colour Surviving and Thriving in British Academia. Her seminar presentation is entitled:Inside the Ivory Tower: Advancing a Black Feminist Strategy for Race and Gender Equality. The abstract is as follows:

Gender – like other facets of identity have always been approached institutionally from a monocultural standpoint, through essentialised categories that make up ‘protected’ characteristics within Equality and Diversity policy. This has contributed to the exclusion, invisibility and stagnant career progress of women of colour, since their needs are only considered as an afterthought. This has led to tokenistic efforts centred on ‘promoting diversity’ rather than strategic interventions to address barriers to equality, especially in relation to White privilege. In this presentation, Deborah Gabriel discusses Black British Academics’ Ivory Tower project, designed to promote critical consciousness and agency – key themes within a Black Feminist standpoint and important components for developing a critical race strategy to facilitate an intersectional agenda for race equality.​

 

Dr Hyun-Joo Limis a senior lecturer in sociology and author of East Asian Mothers in Britain: An Intersectional Exploration of Motherhood and Employment. Her presentation is entitled: No freedom: the abuse and inhumane experiences of women inside and outside North Korea. The abstract is as follows:

North Korean women are routinely subject to systemic human rights abuse and sexual violation inside and outside North Korea. As a result of the strong influence of Confucian patriarchy, women inside North Korea face a violation of basic rights and inequality on a daily basis. In addition, for the many who successfully escape their country to gain a better life and overcome hunger, the search for freedom is just as tough, as they are frequently abducted, sold and exploited by traffickers. In this presentation I will talk about my research on North Korean female defectors living in the UK and the systemic human rights abuse they experienced both inside and outside their homeland, specifically in China.

 

The seminar is open to all. If you wish to attend please email the co-conveners of WAN so that we can keep track of numbers.

Jayne Caudwell: jcaudwell@bournemouth.ac.uk

Lorraine Brown: LBrown@bournemouth.ac.uk

Francis Hawkhead: fhawkhead@bournemouth.ac.uk

7th Call to the Interreg 2Seas programme

Funding opportunities

The 7th Call for step 1 applications to the Interreg 2Seas programme is open.

If BU academics are interested or are not sure about participation, there is an introductory and project development workshop scheduled in London on 23rd October.

Here is the link to programme and registration; please be aware that registration closes on 16th October.

Some projects are looking for UK Partners in following areas:

– Recovery of phosphorous from waste water to re-use as fertiliser – looking for very particular types of organisation
– Re-using industrial waste as new products of value
– Circular entrepreneurship in the leisure economy
– Adapting to future risks from coastal storms and compound flood events
– Converting empty buildings into affordable housing.

If you are interested in joining any of above projects, please contact international Research Facilitator or your Funding Development Officer for more details.

More information on the programme available on Interreg 2Seas website.

Professor Heather Hartwell research into large scale nutrition interventions to improve public health

Professor Heather Hartwell research into large scale nutrition interventions to improve public health

Good nutrition and eating well is an important part of public health and can help stave off a number of age-related illnesses. Over the last twenty years, Bournemouth University’s Professor Heather Hartwell has been carrying out research into nutrition in the context of developing large scale interventions to improve public health. Her work has taken her from prisons to hospitals to workplace canteens. When Professor Hartwell began her research career in nutrition, much of the health policy focus was on one-to-one support for people who were struggling with associated health conditions. The idea that large scale interventions might be successful was only beginning to be recognised.

“One of the first projects I was involved in at Bournemouth University was a commission from the National Audit Office, exploring nutrition in prisons,” says Professor Hartwell, “We found that while prisoners did have healthy eating options, the catering on offer tended to over-rely on processed foods – bread, sausages and pasties, for example. This meant they were eating more salt than the general population, which can lead to high blood pressure and the risk of heart disease. Among other things, we recommended that they used the prison gardens to grow fresh produce, as it was a low-cost way of adding more vegetables to the food on offer. Around the same time, we were also looking at nutrition in hospital catering. In this setting, we found that there were much fewer healthy food options on offer and that meal production and delivery were overseen by a number of different teams – caterers, porters and ward staff. This meant that there was no real consistency and making it easier for miscommunication to take place.”

“It was quite eye-opening working in two very different public sector contexts,” continues Professor Hartwell, “As researchers, it’s important to go into every situation with humility because until you’re fully immersed in the context in which you’re working, you can’t fully appreciate the barriers that staff might be facing. In the NHS, for example, catering managers are often providing three meals per day, drinks and snacks on a very low budget, which limits what they’re able to do. You can’t achieve perfection in any situation, but co-created research can significantly improve what was there before.”

Working in public sector settings and seeing the difference that larger scale interventions could make on people’s health then led Professor Hartwell to consider the difference that healthier eating options could make in workplace canteen environments. “These settings are really important because they’re where people eat on a regular basis, not just one-off celebratory meals. If people are continually being offered unhealthy food choices, then it can have long-term implications for their health. We’re offered very little information about what’s in our food when we eat out, so my starting point was to improve that.”

Over the last few years, Professor Hartwell has been working on a major European grant, FoodSMART, which has been addressing exactly that issue. The grant enabled Professor Hartwell and her team to develop an App, which uses data provided by catering companies to help consumers to make more informed choices about their meals. “We wanted to create an IT solution for the contract catering industry which would both better inform their consumers and also give the companies an edge when competing for new contracts,” explains Professor Hartwell, “It was slightly ahead of its time when we first created it, but is getting much more interest now as workplaces are increasingly concerned about employee wellbeing. Nutrition can help contribute to better health, which helps to reduce sickness rates and can improve productivity too.”

Alongside FoodSMART, Professor Hartwell and her team were also leading on another European grant, which was looking at increasing our protein intake through vegetables. In the context of an increasing global population, it is important for the agricultural and catering sectors to consider more sustainable sources of food. “The project was about encouraging people to get their protein through vegetables, rather than meat, which uses far more resources than arable farming,” says Professor Hartwell, “It’s a healthier way of meeting our protein requirements as vegetables contain less fat and are much more sustainable in the long run.” Partly inspired by the issues of sustainability raised in this project, Professor Hartwell and her team have recently started working on a new research grant with partners in Brazil to consider how to improve our long term food security.

More information about VeggiEAT can be found here: https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/veggieat/
More information about FoodSMART can be found here: https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/foodsmart/

Congratulations to Dr Terri Cole for receiving this year’s BPS Textbook Award

Dr Terri Cole’s co-written book Forensic Psychology: Theory, Research, Policy and Practice (2015), with Jennifer Brown (London School of Economics) and Yvonne Shell, has won the British Psychological Society Book Award 2018 in the Textbook category. The Society’s Book Award recognises excellent published work in psychology and recipients will be presented with a commemorative certificate at the Society’s Annual Conference.

The book was nominated by her publishing company, SAGE: “It is such an honour and I’m absolutely over the moon to have even been nominated for the Awards”, says Dr Cole. “It is a subject all of us have spent our careers working in and we are all very passionate with a variety of experience.”

Image result for Forensic Psychology: Theory, Research, Policy and Practice by Brown, Shell and Cole (2015)

Forensic Psychology: Theory, Research, Policy and Practice (2015) is primarily targeted towards Masters students studying Forensic Psychology, as well as practitioners and those already qualified who need to keep up with the CPD (Continuing Professional Development). It is also a useful companion to professionals in allied criminal justice professions.

Students of Forensic Psychology need to learn how to combine practical skills such as report writing or assessments with a critical understanding of both theory and the wider political and policy landscape that surrounds the profession, and Dr Cole’s book will help them to understand how these crucial areas of the profession interact and how they can shape one another.

The text provides a detailed analysis of key concepts, debates and theories while weaving in insights and reflections from key professionals working in practice from all fields amidst the text, ensuring readers have the necessary knowledge and skills to pass assignments and get past the stage 2 supervised practice requirements en-route to becoming a qualified forensic psychologist.

“Rather than just summarising the theory, we have incorporated ours and others’ practical experiences and lessons learnt adding a human element and discussing wider points from the political framework in which our work is based, to the personal toll of working in such a domain,” says Dr Cole.

Sarb Bajwa, chief executive of the British Psychological Society, says: “I congratulate all the award winners whose varied expertise emphasise the depth and diversity of psychology. The fact that we were able to recognise three such distinguished and appealing books shows that psychology publishing is in good health. What shines through in each of these books is a relentless focus on good science and an insistence on following the evidence.”

For more information on this book, contact Dr Terri Cole here.

UKRI want your views on ‘Digital Innovation for Development in Africa’

UK Research and Innovation are opening an online discussion platform and they want to collect thoughts and ideas to help shape research in the area of digital innovation for development across Africa.

The Digital Innovation for Development in Africa Online Platform will allow you to share your thoughts on the issues and challenges faced by people living within Africa to determine where digital solutions could lead to the biggest impacts. From undemocratic elections to infectious diseases; to lack of access to education to global warming, they want to realise the challenges faced by communities across Africa and consider the potential value digital research and innovation could bring.

The platform will also create an online community which will engage and connect local actors, researchers, entrepreneurs, charities, etc., and allow users to exchange ideas and expertise. The ideas gathered from the Digital for Development in Africa Platform will be collated and used to shape future UKRI spending activities under the Global Challenge Research Fund. Thoughts collected on the challenges and potential for digital innovation to solve these will provide recommendations for research and innovation in these areas in order to make progress in addressing these challenges.

To express your interest in joining this platform, please complete the following SmartSurvey. Expressions of interest to join the online platform will close at 16:00 BST 19th October 2018. After this, users will be selected and notified from the expressions of interest. Please note, there is a limited number of users permitted to use the online platform, therefore, by completing the survey, you will not be guaranteed an invitation to use the platform. For further enquiries, please contact GCRF@rcuk.ac.uk

BRIAN Down – 11th October 2018

BRIAN

IT are undertaking essential maintenance to the BRIAN servers on Thursday 11th October 8am. This will involve BRIAN being unavailable to users for a short period of time.

We will communicate on the blog as soon as BRIAN is up and running again.

HE Policy Update for the w/e 5th October 2018

Funding opportunities, Student Engagement

Conservative Party Conference

The Conference ended with the PM’s speech, in which she declared the end of austerity and tried to fight back on Brexit.  This came after a predictably colourful speech from Boris Johnson calling for the party to be more positive – and #chuckchequers.  Neither talked about HE.

Education was on the agenda at the conference, though.  Damien Hinds gave a speech mainly focusing on schools.  He listed three key imperatives (all Ps):

  • Progress – “each generation should have better opportunities than the last and every year we need to raise our sights higher and we need to reach wider”
  • The prospects and prosperity of the country – productivity depends on education of this generation
  • Preparedness – being ready for an uncertain world. He mentioned global trade and technological change

And to deal with these challenges, he said that the plan was to focus on:

  • Academic standards (and there is an ongoing row about his statistics)
  • Basic essential skills (32 primary schools and 21 colleges to be centres of excellence for early literacy and post 16 Maths)
  • Behaviour management (£10m to support best practice in this area)
  • And of course, vocational and technical education (and announced a £38m capital pot for investment in colleges delivering T-levels)
  • Careers advice – doubling the number of trained careers leaders in schools
  • Reviewing level 4 and level 5 qualifications that are the direct alternative to university (this is not new, see below)

He also talked about character, workplace skills and extra-curricular activities.

  • “..we need to move forwards with our reforms. We need to ensure that the vocational and the technical, are absolutely on a par with the academic. We need to make sure that we extend our reforms in all regions, in all parts of the country. That all parts of our society have equal opportunity, that everywhere we see raised expectations and raised aspirations, and when that happens, then we will be able to say, this is a world class education for everyone.”

Level 4 and 5 qualifications have been discussed a lot recently  – see the August report  by Professor Dave Phoenix, VC of South Bank University has written for HEPI “Filling in the biggest skills gap: Increasing learning at Levels 4 and 5”.

The DfE are conducting a review of classroom-based, level 4 & 5 technical education launched in October 2017 (interim findings here) which will inform the ongoing Review of Post-18 Education.

Industrial Strategy – Creative Industries

A new £8 million funding competition will enable virtual, augmented and mixed reality experiences – also known as immersive content – to be created faster and more efficiently by UK content creators.  The competition is part of the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund’s audience of the future programme. Up to £33 million is available to develop new products and services that exploit immersive technologies.  Funding is provided by UK Research and Innovation through Innovate UK.

Immigration

Also while the Conservative Party Conference was going on, announcements were made about future immigration rules post Brexit.

From Dods:  a White Paper outlining how the system will work to be published in the autumn, ahead of legislation next year. The proposals largely mirror the recommendations of the Migration Advisory Committee from September, and offer no preferential treatment for EEA citizens coming to the country. Notably, there is a commitment under the new system not to cap the number of student visas. (there is currently no such cap)

Under the proposals:

  • The passports of short-stay tourists and business people from all “low-risk” countries would be scanned at e-gates – currently only EU citizens can do this
  • Security and criminal records checks would be carried out before visits, similar to the system of prior authorisation in the US
  • Workers wanting to stay for longer periods would need a minimum salary, to “ensure they are not competing with people already in the UK”
  • Successful applicants for high-skilled work would be able to bring their immediate family, but only if sponsored by their future employers
  • The new system will not cap the number of student visas

Theresa May said:

  • “The new skills-based system will make sure low-skilled immigration is brought down and set the UK on the path to reduce immigration to sustainable levels, as we promised. At the same time we are training up British people for the skilled jobs of the future.”
  • “Two years ago, the British public voted to leave the European Union and take back control of our borders. When we leave we will bring in a new immigration system that ends freedom of movement once and for all. It will be a system that looks across the globe and attracts the people with the skills we need. Crucially it will be fair to ordinary working people. For too long people have felt they have been ignored on immigration and that politicians have not taken their concerns seriously enough.”

And meanwhile, at the conference, the Home Secretary announced a new “British values” test for those applying for UK citizenship, which will be “significantly tougher” than the current test, which he said was like a pub quiz, and would be accompanied by strengthened English language tests.

Degree apprenticeships

The Office for Students (OfS) has published new analysis of degree apprenticeships.

  • Compared with other levels of apprenticeships and higher education generally there were relatively few degree apprentices in 2016-17, but the number of starts are growing. In 2016-17 there were 2,580 degree apprentices registered in higher education, of which 1,750 started their apprenticeship that year.
  • The two most popular degree apprenticeships are:
    • Chartered Manager – 34 per cent of entrants
    • Digital and Technology Solutions Professional – 29 per cent of entrants.
  • Most of the degree apprenticeships currently available are within the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject grouping. Within the arts, humanities and social sciences subject areas, the majority of degree apprentices are taking chartered management courses.
  • There was a roughly equal number of young and mature entrants undertaking degree apprenticeships, with young students (entrants under 21) more likely to be going into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) apprenticeships.
  • There were more males entering degree apprenticeships than females, but relative to similar higher education courses there is a slightly lower proportion of males.
  • Apprenticeships at all levels had lower proportions of entrants from minority ethnic groups, than entrants to similar higher education courses.
  • Apprenticeships have a lower proportion of entrants with a declared disability than entrants to higher education.
  • The North West and North East of England have the highest proportion of the working age population entering degree apprenticeships, with London having the lowest density.

30 per cent of degree apprenticeship entrants come from areas underrepresented in higher education, slightly higher than the proportion entering similar full-time higher education courses (26 per cent).

Graduate Outcomes and Employability

The Office for Students (OfS), has launched its first Challenge Competition, inviting providers to develop and implement projects to identify ways of supporting the transition to highly skilled employment and improving outcomes for graduates who seek employment in their home region.

The OfS intends to support a range of projects that will deliver innovative approaches for graduates and particular student groups, to contribute to improved outcomes and local prosperity. Through this process we want to identify:

  • what interventions work best in a variety of different regional and local contexts to support progression into highly skilled employment
  • what interventions work best for different types of students and graduates
  • findings that can continue to shape sector-wide debate and inform interventions to capitalise on graduate skills and knowledge for the benefit of individuals and for economic prosperity.

Providers with successful bids will be expected to form a network to share, discuss and disseminate key information among themselves and with the OfS, strategic partners, and the wider sector as required.

Metrics and ratings – graduate salaries

From Wonkhe: ONS has released its annual estimates of the value of the UK’s “human capital” – and if you like to promote higher education on the basis of pay premia, it’s not great news for the sector. The headline news is that back in 2004 the average premium for “first and other degrees” was 41%, but by 2017, it had reduced to 24%. The same has happened for “masters and doctorates” – where the pay premia has declined from 69% in 2004 to 48% in 2017. Although the premia for graduates is still significant, the downward trend will provide ammo to those who argue that “too many people are going to university”, ONS says that “one explanation for this could be a large increase in the proportion of the population with a university degree”.

Metrics and ratings – Learning gain

On Wonhke, David Kernohan wrote on 30th September about learning gain “Plenty ventured, but what was gained?”.

  • David notes: Some projects have held final conferences and events. Others (notably two large scale national projects) either concluded early or have never been publicly spoken of.  It’s a far from glorious end to an initiative that set out with a great deal of ambition – to measure “the distance travelled: the improvement in knowledge, skills, work-readiness and personal development demonstrated by students at two points in time” – a goal that would probably represent the most significant finding in the history of educational research.

The learning gain projects were expected to lead to discussions about a new TEF metric for learning gain – or at least to a set of tools and methodologies that providers would over time start to adopt to support their TEF submissions –because learning gain is an important element of the TEF, but one that it is not currently reflected in the metrics.

  • So the article continues: Project after project reported issues with lack of engagement from students and staff. Why would a student complete a test or exercise that had no bearing on their degree, and that was of uncertain benefit? And why would an academic recommend such a course of action to their students while unsure of the underpinning motivation?
  • And David concludes: …learning gain is measurable. But it is measurable only in terms of the way an individual student understands their own learning. Interventions like learning diaries and reflective writing can prove very useful to students making sense of their own progress. What learning gain may not be is comparable – which on the face of it makes perfect sense. In what world could we say that a student of economics has learned the same quanta of learning as a student of the piano?

And so on 2nd October, Yvonne Hawkins of the OfS responded, also on Wonkhe:

  • he’s wrong to say that the programme is coming to an end – the first phase has concluded, and planning for a second phase that draws on the learning from phase one is already underway. I must also take issue with his rather eeyorish view of the wider learning gain endeavour.

So what are the next steps as set out by the OfS? They are “committed to developing a proxy measure for learning gain”. And it “will form part of a set of seven key performance measures to help us demonstrate progress against our student experience objective”.  And how will they get there?  There will be evaluations of the projects that did go ahead, and then there will be a conference, and recommendations to the OfS board in March 2019 about the next phase of work.

So watch this space….

Freedom of speech

Another week another article on free speech by the Minister– this time on Research Professional to coincide with the Conservative Party Conference.

  • He starts with some context: a cultural shift is taking place, and diversity of thought is becoming harder to find as societal views become highly polarised between the left and the right. A culture of censorship has gradually been creeping in, and a monoculture is now emerging where some views are ‘in’ and others are clearly ‘out’. Social media has exacerbated this trend by giving rise to echo chambers that restrict opposing points of view and legitimise threatening and abusive behaviour.
  • So what is the problem? In universities and colleges, we are witnessing the rise of no-platforming, safe spaces, trigger warnings and protests. These may all be well intended and have their place in fostering free speech, but they are also all too easy to be appropriated as tools to deny a voice to those who hold opinions that go against the sanctioned view.
  • It’s perhaps put in rather strong terms: This is catastrophic for democratic debate and puts at risk the fundamental right to be heard that many have fought and died for.
  • And the example – from 2015: I am increasingly alarmed by reports of individuals and groups preferring to support those who seek to restrict others’ right to speak than to protect the fundamental right for all to be heard. This was the case at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2015 when the university’s Feminist Society came out in support of the university’s Islamic Society after its members aggressively disrupted a talk by Maryam Namazie, a feminist campaigner and human rights activist.
  • So what next? That is why I am supporting an initiative coordinated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission to create new free speech guidance to ensure future generations are exposed, without hindrance, to the stimulating debates that lie at the very core of the university experience.

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NERC standard grants (January 2019 deadline) – internal competition launched

Funding opportunities

NERC introduced demand management measures in 2012. These were revised in 2015 to reduce the number and size of applications from research organisations for NERC’s discovery science standard grant scheme. Full details can be found in the BU policy document for NERC demand management measures at: http://intranetsp.bournemouth.ac.uk/policy/BU Policy for NERC Demand Management Measures.docx.

As at March 2015, BU has been capped at one application per standard grant round. The measures only apply to NERC standard grants (including new investigators). An application counts towards an organisation, where the organisation is applying as the grant holding organisation (of the lead or component grant). This will be the organisation of the Principal Investigator of the lead or component grant.

BU process

As a result, BU has introduced a process for determining which application will be submitted to each NERC Standard Grant round. This will take the form of an internal competition, which will include peer review. The next available standard grant round is January 2019. The deadline for internal Expressions of Interest (EoI) which will be used to determine which application will be submitted is 18th October 2018.  The EoI form, BU policy for NERC Demand Management Measures and process for selecting an application can be found here: I:\R&KEO\Public\NERC Demand Management 2019.

NERC have advised that where a research organisation submits more applications to any round than allowed under the cap, NERC will office-reject any excess applications, based purely on the time of submission through the Je-S system (last submitted = first rejected). However, as RKEO submit applications through Je-S on behalf of applicants, RKEO will not submit any applications that do not have prior agreement from the internal competition.

Following the internal competition, the Principal Investigator will have access to support from RKEO, and will work closely with the Research Facilitator and Funding Development Officers to develop the application. Access to external bid writers will also be available.

Appeals process

If an EoI is not selected to be submitted as an application, the Principal Investigator can appeal to Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty, Deputy Vice-Chancellor. Any appeals must be submitted within ten working days of the original decision. All appeals will be considered within ten working days of receipt.

RKEO Contacts

Please contact Rachel Clarke, RKEO Research Facilitator – clarker@bournemouth.ac.uk or Jo Garrad, RKEO Funding Development Manager – jgarrad@bournemouth.ac.uk if you wish to submit an expression of interest.

Early Career Researcher Network – Update

Following the launch of the Early Career Researcher Network in September, the academic leads has been busy finalising the schedule for the coming year.

If you are already registered on the ECR Network community on Brightspace, you can access the calendar and sign up for each monthly meeting, using the link given in the calendar entries. Forthcoming events include career planning, deadline with academic rejections, who can assist with research methods queries, mentoring support and, of course, the opportunity to share your research experiences with your peers.

Within the community, there are discussion boards and surveys, where you can participate between the monthly meetings.

If you do not yet have access to this community and you are an ECR (including PTHP) or wish to support ECRs at BU, then contact us and we will add you to the ECR Network’s Brightspace community

 

International Conference on Migration Health (Rome)

conferences, international, Publishing, writing

Two days ago Bournemouth University Visiting Professor Padam Simkhada presented our paper ‘Problems faced by Nepalese female migrants workers in the Gulf Countries: A quantitative survey’ at the International Conference on Migration Health in Rome, Italy [1].  The study reports on the health and other problems experienced by Nepali women migrants at their work place during foreign employment in Gulf Countries.  The paper is building on earlier research with the charity Pourakhi in Kathmandu which helps women who return from working abroad in trouble.  The first paper was publish earlier this year in the journal BMC International Health & Human Rights [2].  

The conference presentation was co-authored with BU’s Dr. Pramod Regmi and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen, Ms. Manju Gurung from Pourakhi, Ms. Samjhana Bhujel from Green Tara Nepal, and Padam Simkhada, who is professor in the Public Health Institute at Liverpool John Moores University.

 

References:

  1. Simkhada, P., van Teijlingen, E., Bhujel, S, Gurung, M., Regmi, P. Problems faced by Nepalese female migrants workers in the Gulf Countries: A quantitative survey’ [Abstract: 238] presented at Internat. Conf. Migration Health, Rome, 1-3 Oct. 2018, http://istmsite.membershipsoftware.org/files/Documents/Activities/Meetings/Migration/FOR%20WEBSITE%20-%20ORAL%20accepted%20abstracts%20-%20session-bookmark.pdf
  2. Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen, E.R., Gurung, M., Wasti, S. (2018) A survey of health problems of Nepalese female migrants workers in the Middle-East and Malaysia, BMC International Health & Human Rights 18(4): 1-7. http://rdcu.be/E3Ro

CQR and CEL: Creativity, the key to connectivity

Centre for Excellence in Learning, writing

The Centre for Excellence in Learning (CEL) and the Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR) are natural allies for creative endeavours–in research and dissemination for CQR, and education or CEL. Members from both centres will be working together to share ideas, skills and resources across the fusion areas of Education, Research and Professional Practice.

CEL are developing a strong creative strand, led by Curie Scott with Lego, Collage and Origami workshops continuing to be taken forward in the University. For example, using collage with 60 post-graduate research students and Lego with MA Corporate Communication students. Origami is used across education and research, read a report on the Origami in Science, Maths and Education conference here.

CQR is led by Kip Jones, Centre Director, and Caroline Ellis-Hill, Deputy Director.

CQR members are known for:

  • Involving creativity in humanising health and social care;
  • gathering data in novel ways;
  • participant involvement at every stage of research and dissemination;
  • unique ways of interpreting and disseminating data;
  • and new ways of writing–including fiction, script-writing, poetry, and auto-ethnography.

CQR has been the home of the development of Performative Social Science (PSS) for more than fourteen years, led by Kip Jones. An arts-led approach to research and its dissemination, it is not simply art for art’s sake, but based in the theoretical premises of Relational Aesthetics. Recently lauded by Sage Publications, they described PSS as pioneering work that will ‘propel arts-led research forward’ and be a ‘valued resource for students and researchers for years to come’.

CQR consists of several subgroups:

  1. Arts in Research Collaborative
  2. Humanisation Special Interest Group
  3. Narrative Research Group
  4. “Gang of Four” Doctoral Methodological Support Group

This year’s CQR ‘Go Create!’ seminars support the BU 2025 call for “Advancing knowledge, creativity and innovation”. List of dates and topics can be found here.

CEL and CQR are excited about more endeavours together in 2018 and beyond.

Join us in our mutual creative endeavours!

Tokyo 2020 Educational Legacy

In September Dr Debbie Sadd and Dr Hiroko Oe were invited to Tokyo by Toyo University to help staff and students build educational legacies from the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. This was as a result of Dr Sadd being invited by the British Council in December 2015 to present at a symposium Bournemouth University’s educational legacies from London 2012.

Toyo University have visited BU twice since as well as a larger delegation of universities with the British Council and this latest visit continues the work being undertaken to help Universities’ in Japan learn from the UK experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During their recent visit Debbie gave some keynote lectures which were followed by Q&A sessions with staff and students. Hiroko then led workshops where the students presented, in teams, plans for legacy building and educational lessons from Tokyo 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of this work stems from the Festival Maker Legacy that BU set up with Bournemouth Council to facilitate volunteer opportunities (thanks to Ian Jones, Regional Community Engagement Manager) and Toyo are particularly keen to get their students setting up a similar scheme as soon as practical and to continue long after the Games have finished.