I have been invited to introduce myself as a new member of HSC, having joined at the start of September. I am part of the midwifery team and based on the Portsmouth campus, though seem to have been in Bournemouth quite regularly! I have recently left UWE in Bristol, and have also worked in the north and east, so I am completing the four points of the compass here now in Bournemouth. I have been in education in midwifery and the NHS for many years and so come with a certain amount of experience, and passion of developing midwives of the future. My research, education and scholarly interests are in holistic care and spirituality in relation to childbirth; the art of midwifery; promoting normality of pregnancy and birth; dignity and humanised care and the use of arts-based methodologies. As I am aware these cross over various established groups and I hope therefore to be able to meet many of you as I connect in. Thank you for the warm welcome I have received and I look forward to continuing to developing relationships and projects.
Category / REF Subjects
Impact, outcome and research methods – HSC PhD student on LSE Impact Blog
With working at a university and the rise of the REF, you would have almost certainly come across the terms ‘impact’ and ‘outcomes’. Whilst there might be a great deal of similarity and overlap in the use of these terms, it is important to discuss the sometime subtle differences between ‘impact’ and ‘outcome’. What consequences might this have for the design of social research?
The health and social care literature uses these terms in a rather haphazard manner. The differences are rarely discussed and it can be suggested that many use the wrong terminology. In this blog post on the LSE Impact of Social Sciences Blog, relating to the field of information and advice on welfare issues, I briefly discuss and propose that there are fundamental differences between what an impact refers to and what an outcome refers to. Furthermore, I suggest that these differences are significant and profound enough to align each to opposing research methodologies.
These thoughts relate to the key areas of my PhD project with Elderly Accommodation Counsel (EAC) in London. EAC coordinates the FirstStop service which provides information and advice to older people (and other stakeholders) on housing and care issues. My research is focused on how older people use information and advice on housing and the wider impact that this has.
If anyone has an interest in this area, do get in touch!
CMMPH Baby Friendly

Congratulations to all in the midwifery team for achieving re-accreditation as Baby Friendly. The UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative’s Designation Committee recently re-assessed Bournemouth University’s Midwifery programme. This committee reported earlier this week that “Bournemouth University (Midwifery) should be re-accredited as Baby Friendly.
The UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative University Standards programme is an accreditation programme aimed at university departments responsible for midwifery and health visitor/public health nurse education. It was developed to ensure that newly qualified midwives and health visitors are equipped with the basic knowledge and skills they need to support breastfeeding effectively.
Baby Friendly Initiative accreditation is awarded to an individual course, not to the university itself. Universities are welcome to apply for accreditation for each of the courses they provide for the training of midwives or health visitors/public health nurses.
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Congratulations to PhD student Carol Richardson on getting a paper in The Practising Midwife

CMMPH PhD student Carol Richardson just had a paper accepted by the editor of The Practising Midwife. Carol is a Bournemouth University clinical academic doctoral midwife based in Portsmouth. She is part of a scheme jointly funded by BU and Portsmouth Hospital NHS trust (PHT).
Carol is also a Supervisor of Midwives, and her first paper ‘Chasing time for reflection’ relates to midwifery supervision.
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Bournemouth University
Shaping European Social Work: BU Hosts Erasmus SOCNET 98
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree & Jill Davey
For the first time in April 2013 BU hosted the SOCNET International University Week (IUW). This is a high profile international event held rotationally at host European universities drawn from across the 19 Higher Education Institution (HEI) members of the SOCNET community. This important annual event brings together a wide range of European academics and students with an interest in social work and social welfare.
It also provides an opportunity for HSC Social Work and Sociology & Social Policy students to interact with international academics and accompanying European students with educational, cultural and social aims in mind. During the IUW a busy series of workshops and lectures are offered based on a particular chosen theme, to which both academics and students contribute as pedagogic peers. Learning through active scholarly participation is the pedagogic approach that has proved very popular and successful over the years.
The theme of each IUW, alongside other organisational business vital to the continuation and the expansion of Erasmus SOCNET initiative, is managed at each host university in the month of October. Consequently, the Centre of Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy was proud to host this year’s organisational event, represented by HSC Erasmus Coordinator, Jill Davey, and Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, Deputy Director of the Centre.
Attendees included academic representatives from across the SocNet-work at St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Austria; School of Social Work, Leuven, Belgium; University College Lillebaelt, Denmark; Hochschule Bremen – University of Applied Sciences, School of Social Work, Germany; Ernst-Abbe Fachhochschule University of Applied Sciences Jena, Germany; Department of Social Science and Care Social Work and Nursing Management, University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic; Faculty of Social and Health Studies, Telemark, Denmark; University College, Department of Social Studies, Faculty of Health and Social Studies, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen, Netherlands; Humak University of applied sciences, Finland; University of Malaga, and finally, Bournemouth University.
A highly productive and sociable set of meetings took place over the course of several days, where, alongside discussing the European Masters in Social Work (where a UK partner is currently being identified for collaboration), the issues of venue and theme for this year’s International University Week were discussed. Since then invitations from the following four universities have been issued to academics and their students across the SOCNET community to attend the IUW (April 20th – 24th 2015) hosted by four international HEIs:
- University College Lillebaelt – Department of Social Work. Theme: Trends in social work in the year 2015.
- Ernst-Abbe Hochschule, University of Applied Sciences Jena. Theme: Diversity and Innovation in European Social Work and Welfare States.
- Telemark University College – Department of Social Studies. Theme: Diversity in Social Work.
- Hochschule Bremen. Theme: Methods and Methodologies of Social Work – Reflecting Professional Interventions.
While the IUW clearly emphasises teaching and learning initiatives, together with internationalisation, the research element has been less publicly evident; although scholarship has always fed into the programme through the synergies between education and research.
However, over the past few years BU has altered the SOCNET landscape and is influencing the development of future trends here; where BU academics advocated for the need for high quality publications to be developed from the important lectures and workshops being annually produced in the IUW events.
Accordingly BU input has been instrumental towards developing robust academic output, which also serves to meet the BU Fusion agenda and KPIs. Thus, from the 2012 IUW at the University of Malaga, which carried the theme of ‘Active Ageing’, Professor Maria Luisa Gómez Jiménez and Professor Jonathan Parker developed the first edited SOCNET publication under London publishers, Whiting & Birch’s innovative social science monograph series, ‘Critical Studies in Socio-cultural Diversity’.
Following fast on the heels of this success, in 2013 Dr Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, proposed and developed the second edited volume from the BU event. Moreover, in Volume II, and in keeping with the sprit of SOCNET, strong chapter contributions have featured from students from Bremen and BU (Samineh Richardson neé Hall, BA Sociology & Social Policy and PhD candidate, David Galley).
The next SOCNET publication will be forthcoming from the IUW held at Hochschule Bremen under our esteemed colleague, Professor Christian Spatscheck and colleagues. This will continue an exciting precedence, first initiated and supported to-date by BU under the Centre for Social Work, Sociology & Social Policy; a fact that we are quietly very proud of.



First issue Journal of Asian Midwives
CMMPH would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the newly established Journal of Asian Midwives on publishing its first issue. Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM) is the first regional online midwifery journal launched by the South Asian Midwifery Alliance (SAMA). Prof. Rafat Jan based in Pakistan at Aga Khan University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery is the lead editor. JAM aims to give a voice to midwives, nurses-midwives, women’s health clinicians, and reproductive health professionals as well as social scientists.
CMMPH proudly announces that one of our Bournemouth University PhD students, Ms. Sheetal Sharma, is on the new journal’s Associate Board. Sheetal’s research is on maternity care in Nepal.
The journal is Open Access and free. JAM does not charge subscription fees so it is free for readers nor does it charge a submission fee so it is also free for authors! The journal can be found at: http://ecommons.aku.edu/jam/
Edwin van Teijlingen & Vanora Hundley
CMMPH
Research Cluster Conflict, Rule of Law and Society is holding a Workshop on ‘Contemporary Issues in International Law’ on Tuesday 28th October 2014, 10-13.00 in EB206
The commitment and role of the international community in fighting Islamic State (IS/ISIL) are a daily item on the news. Therefore the Cluster for Conflict, Rule of Law and Society is holding a Workshop on ‘Contemporary Issues in International Law’ on Tuesday 28th October 2014, 10-13.00 in EB206.
The workshop brings together Undergraduate and Postgraduate students studying International Law and those interested in the issues of terrorism and the use of force in general. It will be a forum for discussion and debate on
- the situation in Ukraine/Russia (including the annexation of Crimea and the downing of Malaysia Airline MH17)
- the situation involving IS/Iraq/Syria, and
- will ask what the status quo of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) doctrine is.
The workshop will be led by Dr. Melanie Klinkner and Sascha Dov Bachmann, Associate Professor in International Law.
There will be tea, coffee and biscuits and interested staff and students are very welcome to join.
Bournemouth University researchers contribute to international workshop on Public Service Motivation
Dr. Fabian Homberg and two of BU’s HR&OB PhD students presented their latest research findings at the workshop on “Behavioural Foundations of Public Service Motivation – Exchanging and Aligning Human Resource, Organizational Behaviour and Public Administration Perspectives” at Friedrichshafen, Germany. Organized by Dr. Homberg and Prof. Rick Vogel, Zeppelin University (ZU), and co-funded by Zeppelin University and German Research Foundation (DFG), the workshop attracted top researchers in the field of public service motivation (PSM) from Europe, Asia and the Americas (details here: https://www.zu.de/lehrstuehle/pmpp/psm-workshop-2014.php).
“We enjoyed one and a half days of inspiring, high quality research and in-depth discussions on various aspects of public service motivation,” Homberg said. “Events like this one are crucial for bridging disciplines, advancing theory and help all participants to develop networks and research projects in a friendly, international and collegiate environment.”
Workshop presentations highlighted the different manners in which PSM can be utilised across sectors and in various contexts. Bournemouth PhD student, Jordan Vincent, presented the finding of her experimental research which involves public service motivation, rewards and incentives.
“Having an opportunity to discuss my research with the top researchers in my field and receiving such targeted feedback has proved invaluable in helping me further develop my work,” said Vincent. “Such workshops are a fantastic place to network with real giants in the field and the informal discussions over dinner have been as interesting and important in helping shape my work and my future direction as formal feedback has been.”
Some presentations highlighted how corruption in public administration could be predicted by PSM levels. Other researchers explored the impact PSM could have on the workforces’ job performance or job satisfaction.
“The workshop was the first of its kind to bring together scholars in the fields of HRM, OB and PSM,” explained Dr. Julian Gould-Williams, Keynote speaker from Cardiff University. “It provided a forum to discuss theoretical issues and challenges facing researchers wishing to advance academic scholarship. Of particular note was the supportive environment in which young and more established researchers interacted with each other, thereby optimising collaborative responses to emerging issues.”
Homberg added “We are grateful for the support we received from ZU and DFG, but I also need to thank BU for funding a similar, but much smaller event at the EBC in 2013 which triggered the efforts for the 2014 workshop on “Behavioural Foundations of Public Service Motivation – Exchanging and Aligning Human Resource, Organizational Behaviour and Public Administration Perspectives.”
Some of the research presented at the workshop will – if surviving the peer-review process – be published in a special issue in the International Journal of Manpower. The call for papers can be found here and is open to everyone working on HRM and PSM: (https://www.zu.de/lehrstuehle/pmpp/assets/pdf/CfP_IJM_HRM_PSM.pdf).
An Example of Research Informed Education
I have been leading final year Design & Engineering “Advanced Technology & Innovation” unit. This is a 40 credit unit and 50% of the course work is assessed through a research publication.
During this unit the students had the opportunity to choose a topic for research within the area of coatings including nano coatings, structural integrity (corrosion simulation and modelling), thermodynamics, renewable energy and materials. These areas of research are supported through state-of-the-art experimental and analytical resources in Sustainable Design Research Centre and supported by significant industrial collaborations.
Final year design engineering students have been actively engaged with the research activity and were successful in publishing the following journal (open access) and conference papers.
Nugent, M., & Khan, Z. (2014). The effects of corrosion rate and manufacturing in the prevention of stress corrosion cracking on structural members of steel bridges. The Journal of Corrosion Science and Engineering JCSE, 17(16). Retrieved from http://www.jcse.org/
Grover, M., & Khan, Z. (2014). The Comparison on Tool Wear, Surface Finish and Geometric Accuracy when turning EN8 Steel in Wet and Dry Conditions. In M. Grover (Ed.), World Congress on Engineering 2014: The 2014 International Conference of Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management (pp. 1093-1097). Imperial College London: Newswood Limited International Association of Engineers. Retrieved from http://www.iaeng.org/WCE2014/index.html
Wilton-Smith, K., Khan, Z., Saeed, A., & Hadfield, M. (2014). Accelerated Corrosion tests of Waste-gated Turbocharger’s Adjustable and Fixed End Links. In High Performance and Optimum Design of Structures and Materials Vol. 137 (pp. 501-508). Southampton: Wessex Institute of Technology, UK. doi: 10.2495/HPSM140461
Dobson, P., & Khan, Z. (2013). Design considerations for carbon steel pipes materials’ selection applied in fossil powered plants subjected to wet-steam flow accelerated- corrosion review paper. Journal of Corrosion Science and Engineering, 16, 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.scopus.com/source/sourceInfo.url?sourceId=12326&origin=recordpage
Denham, L., & Khan, Z. (2013). The prevention of corrosion and corrosion
stress cracking on structural members of
fixed deep sea oil rigs. The Journal of Corrosion Science and Engineering, 16, 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.jcse.org/
The paper “The Comparison on Tool Wear, Surface Finish and Geometric Accuracy when turning EN8 Steel in Wet and Dry Conditions” was accepted in the World Congress on Engineering 2014 organised by International Association of Engineers (IAENG) at the Imperial College London 2-4 July 2014. This paper was presented at the conference. This paper has now been selected to be contributed as a book chapter which will be published by Springer.
“We are happy to inform you that Springer has invited us to publish the edited book [ Transactions on Engineering Technologies – World Congress on Engineering 2014] for our WCE 2014 and we are now inviting our WCE 2014 conference participants of selected papers for the edited book.” [extract from invitation].
Dr Zulfiqar Khan (Associate Professor)
Director Sustainable Design Research Centre
SciTech
Reminder For All Consumer Behaviour Researchers … A forum for discussion around CB research.

The study of consumer behaviour has always been a multi-disciplinary endeavour, so perhaps it is not too surprising that there are pockets of related research activity all around BU. These include consumer related research clusters in the Business School, the Media School, School of Tourism and Psychology. What is surprising is how little we are aware of each other’s work.
Given this the ICB research cluster are hosting a ‘Hands-on Information Sharing Session’ to provide a forum for discussion around CB research at BU. The session will provide an opportunity to meet others with similar research interests and learn more about the variety of consumer research being carried out across the University through brief research presentations, followed by discussions over refreshments to look for potential cross-discipline research opportunities.
Wherever you are in BU, if you think that you would like to be part of a forum aimed at developing a stronger research presence in this area please come along to a meeting over coffee and cakes ….
‘CB Hands-on Information Sharing Session’
Wednesday 22nd October at 15:30 in TAG22, Talbot Campus.
Please could those wishing to attend let Juliet Memery know as soon as possible to ascertain likely numbers for catering purposes, and then send three Powerpoint slides (max) that briefly cover your research/interests in issues relating to consumer behaviour research to her by Monday 20th October (email: jmemery@bournemouth.ac.uk ).
All welcome – we look forward to seeing you there!
Congratulations to Malala Yousafzai !
The Centre for Midwifery, Maternal and Perinatal Health would like to take the opportunity to congratulate 17-year old Malala Yousafzai on winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Her call for education for every child, especially every girl, is praiseworthy. But her work is more than a local activism; she put her life at risk. Two years ago she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating the education of girls and women!
We know from our research in Nepal that educating girls has all sorts of positive effects. For example, it means they are likely to marry later, with is associated with having the first child later and having fewer children in total. This in turn means they have a greater chance of survival in childbirth. In Nepal the overall literacy rate (aged 5 years and above) rose from 54.1% in 2001 to 65.9% in 2011, but women (57.4%) still lag behind men (75.1%). We have seen a reduction in maternal mortality over the past two decades, which is in part driven the increase in education levels of girls.
As educators we feel strongly affiliated with her calling, but we must acknowledge that Malala was one of two winners this year. We would also like to congratulate Indian Human Rights Activist Kailash Satyarthi. Mr Satyarthi fights the grave exploitation of children for financial gain.
Malala is not only part of the minority of women who have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, she is also the youngest ever to win the award!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Congratulations to BU Visiting Faculty on latest publication

Congratulations to Bournemouth University’s Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada and Prof. Padam Simkhada for the paper on financial barriers to the uptake of antenatal care in a rural community in Nepal.1 The first author (a native Nepali-speaker) conducted 50 face-to-face interviews with women and their families in rural Nepal. These interviews were thematically analysed after transcription.
This latest paper adds to our knowledge into user costs related to maternity services in Nepal as we had already published our findings on users costs in the largest obstetric hospital in the capital. 2
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
References:
- Simkhada, B., van Teijlingen, E.R., Porter, M., Simkhada, P. & Wasti, S.P. (2014) Why do costs act as a barrier in maternity care for some, but not all women? A qualitative study in rural Nepal International Journal of Social Economics 41 (8), 705-713
- Simkhada, P.P., van Teijlingen, E., Sharma, G., Simkhada, B., Townend, J. (2012) User costs and informal payments for care in the largest maternity hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal, Health Science Journal 6(2): 317-334. www.hsj.gr/volume6/issue2/6212.pdf
Congratulations to Dr. William Haydock

Congratulations to William Haydock, researcher in HSC, for his recently published paper in Capital & Class 38 (3): 583-600.
The paper “‘20 tins of Stella for a fiver’: The making of class through Labour and Coalition government alcohol policy” is available from: http://cnc.sagepub.com/content/38/3/583.abstract
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
Cyber Security seminars for 2014-2015 start with a bang

Yesterday, we held the first of this academic year’s cyber security seminars. We hosted Dr John Lyle from Facebook, who spoke to a packed audience in the Barnes Lecture Theatre about some of the challenges fighting spam at Facebook. After his talk, John described how impressed he was with some of the thought provoking questions raised by audience.
Our next seminar will be on Tuesday, 25th November and will be delivered by Dr Andrea Atzeni from the Computer and Network Security group at Politecnico di Torino. Andrea will be visiting us that week as part of our Fusion funded Bournemouth European Network in Interdisciplinary Cyber Security (BENICS) project. Watch this space for more details about Andrea’s talk.
Our interdisciplinary seminar series on Cyber Security is a wonderful opportunity to hear interesting, thought-provoking talks on a variety of topics related to security and privacy. Although some of these speakers will be academic, their talks will be approachable and require nothing more than a general interest in security, and an enquiring mind. We’re also interested in ideas about possible speakers or seminar topics, so please get in touch if you have any suggestions.
Understanding the constructions of the ‘other’: co-produced knowledge and understanding of ‘terrorists’ and ‘terrorism’
Last year, I put together a small HEA individual grant to build upon our earlier research concerning terrorism and social work education, and civil unrest and welfare in Muslim countries. Unfortunately, the bid was unsuccessful but one should never let a good bid go to waste. Given that it was education focused, based around co-production and student enhancement – a ‘fusion’-based project! -I thought rather than try somewhere else for funding I would embed it into the third year undergraduate Sociology unit Terrorism, Protection & Society, where it would have sat if successful.
The project encourages active student engagement in learning, employing a methodology of co-production of knowledge in which skills to collaborate in producing critically informed and societally beneficial knowledge will be developed. Students are reading, critically, major UK newspapers, identifying and analysing those articles that mention ‘terrorists, terrorism or terror’ and associated concepts. From this they are engaged in identifying the processes by which our dominant cultural frames are constructed and can be challenged. The project findings, once 30-days worth of newspapers have been scoured for relevant articles, will be widely disseminated through the production of academic papers, a submission to eBU and through conference presentations.
Students following the Terrorism, Protection & Society module, engage in learning how the ‘other’, in this case ‘terrorist’, is constructed within popular debate and within the public media in the UK. As part of the project rooted within the unit, students will also analyse the media’s use of target terms (terrorist, terrorism, terror and so on) through a content and discourse analysis, and debate the potential consequences of this for contemporary society and for developing a deeper and more nuanced understanding that can assist in restraining social conflict, violence and the ‘othering’ of those who may be associated with core characteristics of ‘terrorists’ according to the socio-cultural master-narratives created by media representations.
Students will produce a paper with academic staff for the eBU on-line journal; most co-production of academic papers with students occurs at postgraduate level and this project has a degree of originality in promoting co-production of academic knowledge with undergraduate students, something we have done already in respect of edited books. Other academic outputs will be developed and students demonstrating interest and capacity will be invited to participate in their production.
Alongside the academic publications envisaged, this proposal meets BU’s fusion objectives in seeking also to add to the corpus of evidence of pedagogical benefits for students of knowledge co-creation and includes a focus on the student experience of the processes of learning.
Thus, as part of the teaching and learning students engage with, the project has wide reach and significance for student learning and pedagogical development by enhancing social and cultural understanding amongst students who will soon graduate, alongside producing autonomous and critically thinking individuals who can translate their learning and core skills into the employment market.
This week students energetically engaged with the preliminary data extraction and coding of those newspaper articles dealing with concepts and issues that were termed or could be termed as terror, terrorist, terrorism, extremism and so forth. The work undertaken helped to put in perspective some of the first two weeks’ lecture material and allowed the students to bring their own critical understandings to this complex and emotive area.
So far, the project has illuminated to me what an incredibly versatile and intellectually agile student body we have; people who will be an asset to the workforce of the future and a credit to our university! I am looking forward to the following weeks as the project unfurls.
Professor Jonathan Parker
Beware of rogue journals.
Open Access: not every new journal is rogue!
Open Access publishing is the hot topic in academic publishing. It comes from the idea that publicly funded research used to end up in expensive journals which are difficult to access and which are expensive to users. It also made for real ivory tower research and it did not give the general public, often the funder of research through taxation or charity access to the studies which they ‘paid’ for in the first instance. The success shows in (a) the rising Impact Factors of online Open Access journals, such as, for example BMC Pregnancy & Childbirth; (b) the requirement for the UK funding bodies that all research its funds needs to be published as Open Access by 2016; and (c) the growing number of traditional academic journals that now offer authors the option to pay for online Open Access in addition to the traditional paper-based journal publication, for example Midwifery. Two further signs of success are: (d) the growing popularity of Open Access Week, this month (20-26 Oct.) we celebrate for the 7th time Open Access Week ( http://www.openaccessweek.org/); and (e) the growing number of rogue journals trying to cash in on the Open Access trend.
The latter is the ugly face of capitalism whereby opportunists, i.e. unscrupulous publishers jump on the bandwagon cashing in on a successful service. BU librarian Jean Harris recently shared an interesting article about Predatory Publishers (see: www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/blog/are-we-doing-enough-warn-users-about-predatory-journals?utm_source=Communicator_membership_list&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=Untitled21&utm_campaign=Weekly+News+from+CILIP%2c+18+Sept+2014). Predatory publishers create a convincing looking scientific journal on the web, often borrowing details from other journals. They then email academics and researchers for both manuscripts and the offer to sit on the journal’s editorial board. Submissions are then “peer reviewed” and an invoice for Open Access publishing emailed by return. No submission is rejected! Many of us will have received such spam emails.
The message is not the fall for the scam. Prospective authors should check the webpages of the journal (although some fake ones can be convincing). Talk to more experienced colleagues in your field or your librarian to find out what they know about the ‘new’ journal, do they know someone on the editorial board. Is the journal listed in reputable electronic databases such as SCOPUS? Please, do not rely on information from Google on the journal you are trying to suss out!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
CMMPH
‘It’s Only Banter!’ – ‘Lad Culture’ in University settings
On the evening of the 30th September, the Women’s Academic Network hosted a well attended debate on ‘lad culture’ in the wake of the published NUS research report on women’s experiences of this phenomenon in Higher Education Institutions in the UK. The report entitled That’s what she said was based on commissioned research undertaken by the Centre for Gender Studies at Sussex University.
Crucially for our institution, two of our speakers that night were undergraduate students at BU. They were supported on the debating panel by Blogger and journalist, Reni Eddo Lodge and ‘No More Page 3’ campaign founder Lucy Ann Holmes.
The prevalence of so-called ‘lad culture’, constitutes an important debate to be had at any contemporary UK HEI; and where none are likely to be insulated from this widespread social phenomenon, which appears to be becoming more entrenched in university life, for reasons that are unclear. We were thus particularly pleased that BU took a lead in further illuminating this worrying social issue in this manner. However, the seriousness of lad culture was greatly underestimated by the organisers until this was more fully illuminated by the visceral personal accounts of the speakers.
Consequently, due to the deeply personal nature of these accounts verbatim details of the speakers’ experiences were requested to be withheld from public dissemination; permission for photographs was not given; and the names of student panellists are anonymised. Nonetheless we are able to offer the following issues and insights that we believe are crucial for all HEIs. These seek to address the student experience in relation to the personal safety of students, both female and male, as well as seeking to implement a zero tolerance approach towards intimidation, harassment and the assault of students by students, many of whom have their first encounters of such in Freshers’ Week. During the Week, as we have learned, too often a mixture of a heady sense of freedom from authoritarian constraints, and fuelled by heavy levels of alcohol consumption, create a lack of inhibition for group dynamics that can be experienced as highly confrontational and indeed menacing.
The audience, composed of a mixture of primarily academics and students of both sexes, engaged enthusiastically with the debate – articulating their own sense of unease and even distress at the manifestations of ‘lad culture’ they or their relatives had been exposed at various UK HEIs, including sadly, at BU. These experiences ranged from students (in this case, male students) feeling put off joining sporting activities at university because of the perceived, overtly alpha male, über-macho environment. Worse still were stories of aggressive verbal attacks on other students, often strangers, and often with overtly sexist and racist overtones attached. Additional examples ranged from public belittling and bullying behaviour to the revolting public rating of unwitting, student, sexual partners on an open Facebook site. Furthermore, we heard about alarming sexual molestation towards primarily female, but also male students, escalating to examples of serious assault, including rape, where victims may continue to have to face their attacker in classroom settings.
Although aware to a greater or lesser extent of the ‘lad culture’ issue (and not regarding ourselves as particularly naïve) we were still both profoundly shocked and disturbed to hear these stories, some coming from our own students. The debate put flesh on the vague, skeletal suspicions we have occasionally harboured of possible harassment and bullying of some of our students that may have been responsible for the regrettable decision of, otherwise promising, students who suddenly drop out of their programmes.
Academics, by and large, are usually blissfully unaware of the extent of these kinds of intimidation taking place in the student body. If students do complain of their treatment, it is usually not to academics that they turn, for some reason – this is particularly worrying when the pastoral role of Academic Advisors is strongly promoted. Our guess is that harassment, intimidation and assault is seen as something outside of the rarefied academic setting and as not directly linked to student studies – although of course the ramifications of these situations are clearly apparent to student progress and retention.
What therefore should be done? The extent of these events needs to be investigated and recorded rigorously in order to develop a clearer idea of the extent of the problem. The agenda to enhance the student experience at BU, laudable though it indubitably is, will not in itself eradicate victimisation of students by students; but it can be used to greatly extend its remit to offer enhanced protection of students and to severely penalise those who prey upon their fellows. It can also be used to further inform and bolster the role of the Academic Advisor as one that is integrally conjoined into a pastoral and academic enhancing role.
We would also be keen to see additional institutional support towards student safety initiatives; for example, embedding ‘consent’ workshops into Freshers’ induction in relation to sexual experimentation; in addition to the aforementioned zero tolerance policies towards the abusive repercussions of ‘lad culture’. We would like to see visible ‘safe’ spaces where women who have been assaulted can go; and in this vein, should there be a need, appropriate services for male victims. The issue of what constitutes rape and sexual assault in relation to student safety is of such gravity that more attention needs to be given from the outset to raise awareness of this among student groups, particularly among our vulnerable new Level C students, many of whom are recent school leavers.
The debate left us with mixed views: horror that these were some of the ‘normal’ experiences that predominantly (but not always) female students have; but also reassurance that at least this is an institution where we are able to talk about this issue. Now that it has been publicly raised momentum needs to be maintained: we need to talk about it, to act upon it and we look to colleagues for support in this regard.
Sara Ashencaen Crabtree and Heather Savigny
Bangkok comms conference launched
Following the very successful first International Corporate and Marketing Communication in Asia Conference (ICMCAC), held in November 2013, Chulalongkorn University and Bournemouth University are again providing a scholarly platform for research into Asian perspectives of corporate and marketing communication in all forms and time scales.
The conference will be conducted over two days (January 29 and 30, 2015) with a keynote speaker on both days. It is organised by a partnership of two leading research and teaching universities in the field of corporate and marketing communication with the aim of creating an Asian perspective in research and scholarship.
Advertising, corporate communication, marketing communications, mass communication, media and public relations researchers as well as educators and graduate students from Asia and Australasia are invited to submit abstracts for paper and poster presentation at the 2nd ICMCAC. Researchers from outside these regions are most welcome to submit abstracts with cross-cultural or Asian perspectives.
Professor Tom Watson is BU’s conference leader and organiser for ICMCAC. Professor Watson said the first conference had drawn papers from 10 countries ranging including many Asian universities: “It was the start for development of Asian perspectives in the fields of corporate and marketing communications, and associated area of research”.
For Call for the Papers, click on this link: 2nd ICMCAC Call for Papers)
There are three themes for the 2nd ICMCAC:
- Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia
- Creativity in corporate and marketing communications, including creative industries perspectives
- Cultural identity and norms in mass communication in Asia
General papers are welcomed on a range of topics, as well. The deadline for submissions is: Friday, October 24, 2014 to comira@chula.ac.th.
The conference website is:http://cuprimcconference.net
The venue for the conference is the Pathumwan Princess hotel, near to Chulalongkorn University and the National Stadium rail station.