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Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
The government has been reshuffled and we have a new Minister for Universities, Michelle Donelan. Chris Skidmore was liked in the sector but has not had the role long, either time.
After recent stories about plans to reduce bureaucracy in research bidding by removing a section on impact (later it was noted that impact should be covered in a different section instead!), UKRI are trialling a new “streamlined” process.
EPSRC’s £10 million New Horizons fund will support up to 50 highly transformative research projects across mathematics and the physical sciences. The projects will be funded via a streamlined process, with a focus on the transformational potential of the research. Applications will be invited up to a value of £200,000, for a duration of two years, without costing required in the application. The proposal paperwork submission will only consist of an anonymous four-page case for support, with a further two pages outlining the team’s ability to deliver. Successful projects will provide detailed costings after a decision has been made. Proposals are welcomed across two broad areas:
The Pushing the Frontiers pilot will support the very best individual researchers in the environmental sciences to push the frontiers of knowledge with ground-breaking, risky, innovative scientific discovery. NERC £10 million Pushing the Frontiers pilot will fund successful proposals at the level of award to facilitate ground-breaking discovery over a period of three to four years. NERC will fund projects via a streamlined process, with focus on the proposed transformational research (five pages), and the skills and track record of the individual (two pages). Successful proposals will be asked for a justification of resources after a decision has been made. Proposals are welcomed across the environmental science remit.
Full guidance will be available when the calls are published in the coming weeks on the EPSRC and NERC websites.
Local MP Sir Christopher Chope (Christchurch) has introduced 41 Bills to the Commons. Chope is well known for filibustering (talking a lot so that Bills run out of parliamentary time and fail) and for objecting to private members’ bills so they do not have the chance to become law. It is likely he is playing a parliamentary game here (he has done this before) and none of his Bills will go anywhere. They look designed to provoke. One Bill he has introduced does touch on HE – student loan interest rate levels. This is a theme he has touched on before – we’ll be watching just in case the Bill does proceed.
And the reshuffle:
The Institute for Government has a summary:
The BBC has reported on 45 universities using NDAs to stop students publishing details of their complaints of harassment or bullying, amongst other things.
The story provoked outrage from the (then) Minister who called it “an abuse of power”. The BBC says: “The student complaints regulator, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator, said the use of NDAs was “not appropriate” and advised against the practice.”
The PM intends to reduce the salary threshold for skilled migrant from £30,000 to £25,600 after Brexit. The detail of these plans will be confirmed following Friday’s cabinet meeting. This change follows substantial lobbying from several business sectors including the NHS and schools who rely on non-UK talent in lower paid job roles. The Migration Advisory Committee have been central to the immigration decisions over the last few years and have stepped down from their previous position to implement an across the board (all regions) higher salary threshold. In announcing this change the Government estimates that under the proposed Australian-based points system there will be a cut of 90,000 unskilled EU migrants coming to the UK a year, and an increase of 65,000 skilled workers from Europe and further afield. The new threshold is expected to be introduced for January 2021.
Yet to be discussed with the EU are the potential changes to fees for EU students to attend British universities after the end of the Brexit transition period. It is expected that EU students will be expected to pay international student fees. One thing to note is that there is a double impact here – not only will fees go up, but the students will no longer be eligible for student loans for tuition or maintenance.
And we’re waiting for a response to this parliamentary question raised by Daniel Zeichner MP:
HEPI have published Students with few or no helpful teachers are 146% more likely to report a high level of dissatisfaction with life which highlights the factors most affecting student wellbeing following statistical analysis of the previous HE Student Academic Experience Survey results.
The key findings in What affects student wellbeing? (HEPI Policy Note 21) include:
Tim Blackman, Vice-Chancellor of the Open University and the author of the report, said:
Nick Hillman, Director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, said:
A parliamentary question on easier home/university student access to GPs.
Q – Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling students to register with a GP at home and at university.
A – Jo Churchill:
Click here to view the updated inquiries and consultation tracker. Email us on policy@bournemouth.ac.uk if you’d like to contribute to any of the current consultations.
The Houses of Parliament have entered recess and there will not be a policy update next week.
To subscribe to the weekly policy update simply email policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
JANE FORSTER | SARAH CARTER
Policy Advisor Policy & Public Affairs Officer
Follow: @PolicyBU on Twitter | policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
Homelessness in the UK is a massive issue, with numbers increasing year by year. The South West region had the third highest number of rough sleepers in England in 2018. Bournemouth is within the top 24 local authorities for highest numbers of homeless individuals.
There are big health inequalities for people who are homeless. The mean age of death for a woman living on the streets is 43 years and for a man 45 years. This is almost half of the mean life expectancy of those living in homes. Yet people who are homeless, especially those living on the streets, find it incredibly difficult to navigate and access health and social care.
Drs Vanessa Heaslip, Sue Green, Bibha Simkhada (Department of Nursing Science) and Huseyin Dogan (SciTech) have been awarded a grant by the Burdett Trust for Nursing to identify potential technological solutions to promote self-care of people sleeping rough. They aim to develop a freely available app, enabling navigation and access to resources to manage complex health and social care needs. The team from Bournemouth University will be working in partnership with a local GP from Medicine Providence Surgery, Street Support, Big Issue and Dorset Healthcare NHS Trust on this project.
If you would like any further information – please contact the lead researcher Dr Vanessa Heaslip on vheaslip@bournemouth.ac.uk or 01202 961774
Elsevier, the manufacturers of SciVal, will be coming to BU to deliver a number of workshops on their research performance online tool.
SciVal shows bibliometric data for individuals and organisations and is used by some funders and organisations when assessing research grants, informing research evaluation and identifying collaborators worldwide.
27th February 2020 at Talbot Campus
There are two sessions running during the day as follows:
09:30 – 11:00 SciVal for REF purposes
11:30 – 12:30 SciVal Introduction (for Researchers and Professional Support Staff)
13:30 – 14:30 SciVal Introduction (for Researchers and Professional Support Staff)
15:00 – 16:30 SciVal for REF purposes
To register book your place for one of these workshops, please e-mail Organisational Development stating which session(s) you wish to attend.
If you have any queries, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk
In the last month we had several FHSS-Psychology success stories. The first one was a recently accepted joint publication between Mr. Paul Fairbairn and Dr. Fotini Tsofliou in the Department of Rehabilitation and Sport Sciences, Dr. Andrew Johnson in BU’s Department of Psychology. The joint paper is called ‘Effects of a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement and exercise on mobility and cognition in older women (MOBILE): A randomised semi-blinded placebo controlled study” in the British Journal of Nutrition [1].
Secondly, Dr. Sarah Collard in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science and FHSS Visiting Professor Katherine Barnard-Kelly are to be congratulated on their publication: ‘Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes’ [2].
And last, but not least, Dr. Bibha Simkhada in the Department of Nursing Science together with FHSS colleagues Dr. Michele Board and Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen and Dr. Shanti Shanker in the Department of Psychology were awarded £17,180 in the most recent internal GCRF call. Their proposed project ‘The key issues in Dementia in South Asia’ will run from 2020-2021. Both Dr. Simkhada and Dr. Shanker are Global Engagement Lead (GEL) in their respective departments.
Good to see so many great cross-BU collaborations!
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
Fairbairn, P., Tsofliou, F., Johnson, A., Dyall, S.C. (2010) Effects of a high DHA multi-nutrient supplement and exercise on mobility and cognition in older women (MOBILE): A randomised semi-blinded placebo controlled study, British Journal of Nutrition (accepted).
Collard, S.S., Regmi, P.R., Hood, K.K., Laffel, L., Weissberg-Benchell, J., Naranjo, D., Barnard-Kelly, K. (2020) Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes, Practical Diabetes 2020; 37(1): 19–23.
Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Collard in the Department of Psychology, Dr. Pramod Regmi in the Department of Nursing Science and FHSS Visiting Professor Katherine Barnard-Kelly on their publication: ‘Exercising with an automated insulin delivery system: qualitative insight into the hopes and expectations of people with type 1 diabetes’ [1]. This paper in Practical Diabetes is a joint publication with several North American scholars.
The authors of this qualitative paper distilled three themes related to the benefits of automated insulin delivery systems: (a) more freedom and spontaneity in the individual’s ability to exercise; (b) relief
from worry of hypoglycaemia as a result of exercise; (c) removing the ‘guesswork’ of adjusting insulin for exercise, as well as two further themes relating to potential concerns with regard to safely exercising while wearing an automated insulin delivery system.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Reference:
Tuesday 18th February 13:00 – 17:00 Talbot Campus
This session is for all authors or producers of research outputs in non-traditional formats to work through the key information required and make a start in preparing this ready for submission to a future REF mock exercise. The topics covered will be :
See here for more information and to book. Contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk if you have any queries.
We have some great events coming up in the next few weeks to help support you in your research activities.
Tuesday 18th February | RKEDF: Preparing Practice-Based Research Outputs for Assessment |
Wednesday 19th February | RKEDF: Advanced Literature Search Techniques |
Thursday 20th February | RKEDF: Environment Narrative Writing Day |
Monday 24th February | Global Visiting Fellowship Fund – Best Practice Workshop |
Tuesday 25th February | RKEDF: Research Ethics @ BU |
Wednesday 26th February | RKEDF: Measuring the Impact of Your Research with Advanced Citation Tools |
Thursday 27th February | BRIAN training – nominating your outputs for the REF mock exercise |
Thursday 27th February | RKEDF: SciVal |
Friday 6th March | RKEDF: Research Outputs – Writing Day |
Monday 9th March | RKEDF: Global Visiting Fellowship – Drop in sessions |
Wednesday 11th March | RKEDF: Getting started in public engagement with research |
Monday 16th March | RKEDF: Global Visiting Fellowship – Drop in sessions |
Thursday 19th March | RKEDF: Environment Narrative Writing Day |
Tuesday 24th March | NIHR Grant Applications Seminar & Support Event |
Wednesday 25th March | RDS Academic and Researcher Induction Event |
Monday 30th March | RKEDF: Building Evidence for REF Impact Case Studies |
You can see all the Organisational Development and Research Knowledge Development Framework (RKEDF) events in one place on the handy calendar of events.
Please note that all events are now targeted, so look closely at the event page to ensure that the event is suitable for you. In addition, most RKEDF events now require the approval of your Head of Department (or other nominated approver). Please follow the instructions given on the event page and the template email for you to initiate the booking request.
If you have any queries, please get in touch!
GOOD-PRACTICE SHARING
Safeguarding Researchers: Preparing & Supporting PGR Fieldwork
Discover effective practices and contribute to a sector-wide standard for support and guidance in safeguarding postgraduate researchers undertaking fieldwork.
8th March 2020. University of Glasgow
This workshop will explore effective practices in, and opportunities to enhance, the support for researchers undertaking fieldwork, during the preparation phase, whilst they are away and on their return.
What to Expect
This workshop will consider:
Date & Venue Cost
18th March 2020. UKCGE Member: £195
University of Glasgow. Non-member: £295
Members from the Ageing and Dementia Research Centre were invited to present at the Wessex Brain Ageing and Dementia Research meeting on 4th February, St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton. Hosted by IDeAC, NIHR CRN and ARC Wessex, the event showcased dementia research in Wessex, linking dementia researchers across Wessex and grow the network for clinical trials.
PGR Raysa ElZein presented a poster on research on dietary fat interventions in cognitive impairment and older people, Dr Michele Board on research using the ‘A Walk Through Dementia’ app, Dr Samuel Nyman presented his research on Tai Chi (The TACIT Trial) for people with dementia and Prof Jane Murphy gave an overview of the ADRC’s research and a workshop on PPI and dementia research with Dr Michelle Heward. It was a great opportunity to share research and grow opportunities to collaborate on projects across Wessex and cross disciplines with academics and stakeholders attending.
We will be holding the next in our regular series of Public Lecture Days on Monday 6 April, and are currently seeking expressions of interest for delivering a talk.
The theme for the day is health, so if your research has implications for health then please get in touch. We’re particularly interested if you can translate your work into advice or recommendations for improving health, especially as it relates to older people, though this is not a requirement.
The event will be held on the afternoon of Monday 6 April 2020, including a catered lunch. Your talk would need to be suitable for an adult public audience unfamiliar with your field of research, lasting around 50 mins including time for questions.
If you are interested in being involved, please email publicengagement@bournemouth.ac.uk with the following details;
Please understand that we have a limited number of slots for speakers, so it is not guaranteed that you will be included. However, we will do our best to let you know as soon as possible, and can advise you on finding alternative opportunities if necessary.
If you’re interested in improving your public engagement with research, why not sign up to our upcoming training courses? Join ‘Getting started in public engagement’, ‘High quality public engagement’ and ‘Evaluation: Developing your approach’.
In June 2019 we embarked on a journey at BU, in collaboration with Association of Sustainability Practitioners and Poole Bay Rotary Club, and set up the BU Social Entrepreneurs Forum BUSEF- A collaborative, Inclusive forum to facilitate knowledge exchange between BU and local socially focused businesses.
https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2019-06-28/forum-launched-support-local-social-enterprises
Under the auspices of the BU Social Entrepreneurs Forum we organised a rather successful very first Global Entrepreneurship Week celebrations at BU in November 2019.
One of the main objectives of this Forum was to support the development of our students at BU towards their employ-ability skills. As a pilot, we generated dozens of projects with local social businesses for two final year cohorts at BU- FoM Entrepreneurship and Business Ventures and FMC Digital Communications. Students worked in groups in providing solutions (to challenges that the businesses shared with us at a previous session of BUSEF) on business model/business planning and digital communications/Social media marketing.
We are now in a position to reflect on those excellent projects and look ahead to what we can do better and more. If you are interested in working with local businesses via student projects please join us on the 19th of Feb at F305 Fusion Building at 1730, Talbot Campus to hear of the experiences of the local businesses and our students.
Free places on offer to hear how BU students successfully helped local social entrepreneurs
Thursday 13th February 09:30 – 16:00 Poole House
Systematic and scoping reviews are a great way of publishing quality publications. They are also highly valued as REF submissions, especially in the health field.
One of the most important aspects for a systematic review is to create an effective and professional search strategy.
This session will provide information on effective search strategies – with advice from the library to specific researchers, as well as advice on writing scoping and systematic reviews from academics with experience in this field.
Both staff and postgraduate students should consider writing up their literature reviews as journal articles. For more information about how scoping and systematic reviews can help improve your academic career please see the blog.
Click to book. Any queries, please contact RKEDF@bournemouth.ac.uk.
With a reshuffle on the horizon this week, last week was Apprenticeships Week and Children’s Mental Health Week.
Cabinet Reshuffle – we are expecting a ministerial reshuffle to take place before Parliament enters recess at the end of next week. Politico speculates about who may be in and out of favour.
Brexit – Dods have produced an interesting briefing on the Brexit transition phase exploring the negotiating give and take and explaining what the key terms like ‘level playing field’ may translate as within the Withdrawal Agreement.
Contract Cheating – Lord Storey continues his campaign to end contract cheating by introducing the HE Cheating Services Prohibition Bill as a private members bill (PMB). As you’ll recall from previous policy updates PMB’s rarely succeed, however, they can raise visibility of the issue even when they fail. The Committee Stage within the House of Lords is next.
Private Member’s Bills – There’s no news on the Lord Holmes’ Unpaid Work Experience Prohibition Bill yet, we’re still waiting for the second reading and vote. However, Alex Cunningham, a Labour MP has also introduced a similar Bill entitled Unpaid Work Experience (Prohibition No. 2) through his win on the Commons’ PMB ballot. Alex’s bill (to prohibit unpaid work experience exceeding four weeks) is due to be read a second time on 27 March and will need to win the vote to continue passage through Parliament. Two very similar PMB’s progressing at the same time is an interesting Parliamentary twist that we’ll be watching closely. Unfortunately Alex’s PMB is number 14 in the queue so it may not ever progress due to lack of parliamentary session time.
The MP’s winning the Common’s PMB vote have declared the topics their intended legislation will cover. There is little of direct interest for the HE sector beside Alex’s unpaid work experience Bill.
(Welfare of Children) PMB aims to impose duties on certain education and training providers in relation to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. Mike Amesbury’s PMB (first to be debated) aims to pick up the provision for guidance to schools about the cost aspects of school uniform policies. You’ll remember mention of this floated around Parliamentary debate several times during the last Parliament, gaining traction but not progressing into law or regulation.
Select Committees
Several of the new Education Select Committee members have been revealed by Tes. Whips from Labour and Conservatives held elections for Committee members last night, but the result have not officially been announced. Tes has been told, however, that new members from the Conservative side are all newly-elected MPs and include a former secondary teacher and a former chair of a social mobility charity. They are understood to be:
From the Labour side, the following members are understood to be elected to the Committee:
Education Committee Members’ Priorities
Jonathan Gullis who is a teacher (and had to return to work at his Birmingham secondary school on the day after the general election) has set out his priorities as reducing the sizes of large multi-academy trusts to ”give power back to schools” as well as investigating the effectiveness of alternative provision and the possibility of introducing new grammar schools into deprived areas. He said: “There are a number of things to look at to be quite frank. Obviously the government has pledged a £14 billion injection into the education system which is sorely needed – and my job, along with my fellow committee members, will be to make sure this ends up in the hands of headteachers and that the money is being spent on pupils”.
David Johnston is a former chair of the Social Mobility Foundation charity. He said: “I’ll be looking at whether we are improving life chances for the most disadvantaged pupils. We also need to get the best teachers into the schools that find it difficult to attract teachers.”
Tom Hunt intends to focus on special educational needs as he has personal experience of both dyslexia and dyspraxia. He said: “I really struggled at school but I was really fortunate I got the support I needed, so I turned it around and did pretty well academically, but I’m acutely aware that a lot of pupils don’t get the support they need so that’s what I’m most passionate about.”
Labour Leadership Contest – The hustings continued for the leadership candidates all through this week.
PMQs
Local MP Michael Tomlinson (Mid Dorset and North Poole) featured in Prime Minister’s Questions this week when he asked whether the PM would prioritise family hubs and ensure that they were linked to Early Years Strategy, the Troubled Families Programme, and children’s’ services reform. The PM said £165 million had been allocated to extend the Troubled Families Programme this year.
It is National Apprenticeship Week and there has been a plethora of employers and organisations celebrating apprenticeships amongst discussions of future changes and sharing information to ensure more potential students consider apprenticeships as an alternative to university.
Hitting the headlines was the DfE survey with Mumsnet which set out to understand parents’ preconceptions on apprenticeships. They found:
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson comments on the survey:
Here is the Mumsnet press release on the survey. Mumsnet Founder Justine Roberts said:
Other sources
HEPI have published Unheard: the voices of part-time adult learners aiming to prompt a re-think of how mature part time students are engaged and attracted to degree level study. There has been a 61% drop in part time students since 2010. Author, Dr John Butcher from the Open University, said:
Nick Hillman, Director of HEPI, said: …people who want, or need, to study part-time have less choice than they did. The removal of some public funding in 2008, the tripling of tuition fees in 2012 and the withdrawal of some courses have had a terrible combined impact.
Excerpts from the paper:
Page 13 onwards explores the voices of mature part timers within these three themes:
And intersperses recommendations on elements universities can change to make part time learning more accessible and successful.
OfS
The OfS have released a new blog from a mature healthcare student describing the positive experience he had whilst studying radiography. The blog talks about gender balance within the healthcare sector and taking the leap from established career and family to return to study full time. The student describes the additional opportunities he engaged with including the Council of Deans Student Leadership Programme, working with the OfS, and as a Student Observer to the UK Council (radiography). The upbeat blog is quite the counterpoint to the HEPI publication which describes isolated part time students who never fully develop their sense of institutional belonging.
The Government have announced a £24 million investment in FE to enable the sector to recruit, retain and develop high quality FE teachers, including those needed for the new T levels. This is part of the £400 million announced in August last year. It includes:
On the £400 million announced in August 2019 Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:
Specifically on the £24 million Gavin Williamson said:
The Government will also begin to collect FE workforce data every year from 2020/21to ensure they have robust information and a greater understanding of who makes up the FE sector.
On the same day City AM published The graduate premium is little more than a myth – invest in further education instead. The piece is exactly as the title describes. It argues for less investment in HE (particularly disdainful of the increase in the number of young people attending HE) and suggests that better funded FE provision would result in a ‘FE premium’ salary boost. Excerpt:
Why pay extra for something which is in excess supply? This is exactly how it has turned out. Many graduates end up in mundane, low-paying jobs. The Office for National Statistics shows that 31 per cent of graduates have more education than is required for the work they are doing.
Erasmus & International Students
Chris Skidmore answered ANOTHER question relating to Erasmus – no new news – poor Chris is probably reciting these same answers in his sleep now.
Lord Duncan of Springbank, answering on behalf of the Government, sidesteps responding to a question asking how much budget has been set aside for the Horizon Research Programme beyond 2020.
The House of Commons Library has published a briefing paper on The Erasmus Programme.
Key facts:
There was also a parliamentary question on international students asking how many university places were allocated to non-British students.
Disadvantaged Attainment Gap
Q – Ben Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to support working class boys to close the attainment gap. [6162]
A – Nick Gibb:
Collaboration – UUK issued a press release on Brexit day to reaffirm their commitment to working with HE and research institutions across Europe. The group called on their respective Governments to make this a priority as discussions about the future relationship take place. UUK describe the membership of the group: a total of 36 major domestic and international organisations, which includes the European University Association (EUA), 24 National University representative bodies, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and many other bodies across Europe. Excerpt from their joint statement:
Diversity and underrepresentation – Advance HE have published Increasing Diversity: Tackling underrepresentation of protected groups in HE. It recommends developing quantitative and qualitative skills in institutional research when examining issues of student equity. Wonkhe report that:
Sector Leading: A new Wonkhe blog written by Bristol Student Union’s Education Officer looks the value of a university being recognised as ‘sector leading’ with an eye on what this means for equality, diversity and inclusion, particularly taking risks and trying out new ways to tackle problems and improve the student experience.
Student Loans Company: Professor Andrew Wathey (VC Northumbria University) has been appointed as the interim Chair of the Student Loans Company (SLC).He has been a Non-Executive Board member at the SLC since 2018 and was Chair of the SLC Stakeholder Forum between 2010 and 2017.
Hedgehog rankings: Hedgehog fans will be pleased to know that the Preservation Society has launched a TEF style Gold, Silver Bronze accreditation scheme for universities that are looking after their campus hedgehog population.
Mental Health: Wonkhe report that the OfS has awarded £95,000 to student mental health charity Student Minds to develop a Charter Award Scheme, following the publication of Student Minds’ Mental Health Charter. At school level the National Association of Head Teachers has issued a press statement on the (almost) doubling of the numbers of counsellors needed to support school pupils. In 2016 36% of schools sought help for children’s mental health issues, in 2019 it rose to 66%. It was Children’s Mental Health Week this week.
Student Accommodation: The BBC report on three companies who failed to meet fire safety standards in a student residence in Leeds. Action was taken and the companies fined £670,000 in total after a concerned parent reported the safety breaches. Meanwhile Deloitte said the number of student beds under construction in Britain’s biggest regional cities has fallen 16.6% due to concerns over potential oversupply (reported in The Times).
IT: Regulations relating to the Digital Economy Act 2017 require that IT qualifications be provided free of charge for those aged 19+ who do not already hold an appropriate qualification standard in certain specified IT areas.
The Future: The Association of University Administrators are running a survey as part of research identifying future development needs and how professional service roles are developing during the current rapid changes for the HE sector. The survey is open until the end of February.
Student Vote: The impact of the supposed student vote did not deliver the majority Theresa May expected in the 2017 snap general election. The phenomenon has been analysed ad nauseam ever since (revealing it is far more complex than a student vote). However, the Conservatives are concerned to court the younger vote and wary of constituencies with large student populations. Boris Johnson even unsuccessfully tried for an early September 2019 general election reputedly in part to decrease the impact of the student vote by holding it before or in the transition of the beginning of term when students would not be registered to vote in the local university address. HEPI have an interesting blog by Dean Machin (Policy Advisor at Portsmouth University) who tackles some of the anti-student suggestions on limiting the vote and sets it in a wider context by applying the logic to other marginalised sectors within society (the elderly, carers, apprentices, and the terminally ill) – with some results which would be politically unpalatable. It is worth the quick 2 minute read.
To subscribe to the weekly policy update simply email policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
JANE FORSTER | SARAH CARTER
Policy Advisor Policy & Public Affairs Officer
Follow: @PolicyBU on Twitter | policy@bournemouth.ac.uk
Dr. Ann Luce, Principal Academic in Journalism and Communication in FMC has been elected to the Council of National Representatives for the International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP).
In her new role as UK representative, she will champion the UK’s national suicide prevention strategy and Parliament’s suicide prevention agenda on a global stage, helping to inform international policy on suicide prevention.
Dr. Luce’s role will require her to work with national representatives from 77 countries around the world, including low- and middle-income countries, where 70% of the world’s suicides occur. She will also build upon her work with the World Health Organisation, where she helped create media reporting guidelines for journalists in 2008 and 2017; and will now work closely with the World Federation of Mental Health (WFMH) and the World Psychiatry Association (WPA).
This three-year international appointment builds upon Dr. Luce’s national appointment as a steering group member to the National Suicide Prevention Alliance in 2019. In that role, she strategically influences the Government’s national strategy on preventing suicide, working closely with the Department of Health on both the National Strategy Advisory Group and the National Strategy Delivery Group.
Closer to home, Dr. Luce is research and media lead on the Pan-Dorset Suicide Prevention Strategy Group and a member of the suicide response team, which deals with suicide clusters across Dorset.
Dr. Luce has been researching and working in the area of suicide prevention for the last 15 years. She has written two sets of media reporting guidelines for the World Health Organisation through her work on the World Media Task Force for the Prevention of Suicide and has also written blogging guidelines for Save.org, the USA’s largest mental health charity. She has consulted with governments in Wales, Norway and Australia to reduce suicide rates and has served as an expert panel member and worked with the Australian Government, under the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Program to create #chatsafe, a young person’s guide for communicating safely online about suicide.
She can be contacted at: aluce@bournemouth.ac.uk or on Twitter: @stann2
The SIAM Journal on Imaging Sciences (“SIIMS – a broad authoritative source for fundamental results in imaging sciences, with a unique combination of mathematics and applications”), an influential Q1-journal with a significant Impact Factor and SJR indicator, has just published the paper “Automatically Controlled Morphing of 2D Shapes with Textures” authored by NCCA academics and students. This multidisciplinary paper proposes a novel theoretical and practical framework resulting in a suite of mathematically substantiated techniques important in the context of 2D imagery, artistic design, computer animation, and emerging streaming and interactive applications.
The paper has a rather long and non-trivial history related to the fusion of academic and student research. Initially, NCCA UG student Felix Marrington-Reeve (“Computer Visualisation and Animation” course, Level 6) undertook his R&D project within the “Innovations” unit and got some interesting results. The 8-page paper written on the basis of his project and co-authored with his supervisors Dr Valery Adzhiev and Prof Alexander Pasko, was, however, rejected in 2017 by two international conferences (they were prepared to accept a short version but the authors thought the work deserved a better fate).
After Felix’s graduation (he started working in a leading production company Framestore) Dr Oleg Fryazinov and PhD student Alexander Tereshin joined the project team. A lot of additional theoretical and practical work had been done, and in February 2019 the radically modified and extended 30-page version was submitted to SIIMS. After two-stage rigorous peer-reviewing process, in October 2019 the paper was accepted by this prestigious journal.
References:
The Research Development & Support RKE Application timeline is your ultimate guide to applying for external R&KE funding. The timeline guides you through all the necessary steps, procedures and processes involved, including navigating through all the requirements of the internal quality approvals, costing preparations, legal and finances approvals, faculty approvals, etc.
The R&KE timeline also provides helpful guidance in the time needed in preparing and finalising external funding applications, taking you through initial planning, the submission preparation processes, legal and finance approval processes and to the submission to funder process.
You can also find useful links and information, as well as your Funding Development Team contacts on this timeline document.
Performative Social Science (PSS) is an arts-led method of research and dissemination developed by Jones at Bournemouth University over ten years and is recognised internationally. 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’.
Performative Social Science (PSS) is positioned within the current era of cross-pollination from discipline to discipline. Practitioners from the Arts and Humanities look to the Social Sciences for fresh frameworks, whist Social Science practitioners explore the Arts for potential new tools for enquiry and dissemination.
‘Kip Jones brings the genre of what he calls performative social sciences forward with wide-ranging theoretical, academic, and artistic products in a various media that takes up how social scientists can use art for investigation and dissemination.’ —“Embodied Methodologies, Participation, and the Art of Research” by Madeline Fox
Dr Kip Jones, Reader in Qualitative Research and Performative Social Science retires from Bournemouth University at the end of February, but will continue with PhD supervision on a part-time basis. He has four potential publications in discussion with publishers, including a volume on PSS.