Latest research and knowledge exchange news at Bournemouth University
This part of the blog features news and information for postgraduate research students and supervisors
An online resource for postgraduate research students to support your wellbeing, learning and research.
Explore the website and find; research, top tips, videos and downloadable action plans. Whether at the beginning, middle or end of your research, there will be something here for you.
The Wellbeing Thesis content has been developed by the University of Derby, King’s College London, Student Minds and PGR student co-creation panels.
For nearly a decade BU researchers have published widely about the hazards and risk of Nepali migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East [1-9]. Despite the fact that most migrant workers end up in semi-skilled and unskilled jobs in their host countries, only a minority report poor working environments. For example, in Pratik Adhikary’s PhD study in FHSS only just over a fifth of migrant workers reported that their work environment in the Middle East or Malaysia was poor or very poor [4]. This relatively high level of satisfaction appears to seems contradict reports in local media on the risks associated with Nepali migrants working abroad, especially focusing on the football world cup in Qatar [7], official reports that many hundreds of bodies of dead Nepali migrants return home every year [10], and the fact that many of these Nepali migrant workers end up doing the jobs the local populations finds too dirty, dangerous and demeaning (colloquially referred to as 3D-jobs). Why do so many who travel abroad take to do risky, dirty and otherwise undesirable jobs, but still assess their working environment as not too bad?
More theoretical papers on the drivers of migration have referred to many interconnected factors and links [11-12]. Local drivers in Nepal include poverty, lack of employment opportunities, having a history of work-related migration, a growing culture of migration (i.e. it becomes more or less an expectation) and many more. One local element that is perhaps too easily ignored is that many Nepali migrant workers would have ended up in dirty, dangerous and demeaning jobs at home too. And the risk, on for example building sites in Nepal might be even greater than that in Qatar or elsewhere in the Middle East as some of the photos below illustrate. These photos of an accident involving an external building lift were taken today on a building site in Kathmandu. 
References:
Martine Hardwick, Lecturer in Law and PhD Candidate in the Department of Humanities and Law, has published a timely commentary in the Bournemouth University Law Review looking ahead to a change in the law on 31 December 2019. On this date, opposite sex couples will finally be able to register their civil partnerships – which until now has been reserved for same sex couples.
However, this change in the law raises important questions for cohabiting couples. Despite longing for more protection and fairness from the law, co-habiting couples will not be presented with the opportunity as heterosexual couples to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. Instead, they will still be bound by the strict rules of formation and dissolution which mirror those of marriage.
Questioning whether the UK has missed an opportunity to provide more rights for cohabiting couples and highlighting a solution drawn from France in the form of Pacte Civil de Solidarité (PACS), Martine argues that learning lessons from the French legal system has to be the way forward in giving cohabitants protection while respecting their autonomy.
1. Be curious. Be a detective. Be ready to be surprised by answers you never expected. It should, in the end, be a good story that you can tell.
2. Insure that the method fits the question(s). This can often take some time. Be willing to investigate until you find the right method. This will save you a lot of grief later.
3. Explore methods. Combine them, expand them, reinvented them, but be prepared to then follow them.
4. If your research question is about people, find a way to really involve them in the process, not just answer some stupid questions.
5. Don’t panic if you method produces a lot of data. Swim in it. It’s fun and it is here that the surprises bubble up. Whatever you do, try to avoid reducing the amount of data by ‘categorizing’ it. (I detest little boxes.)
6. Think hard and long about how you want to share the results of your efforts. Text is only one of many possibilities. Really try to get your personal interests out of the way in this process and let the data lead you in selecting a format or art form.
7. Research is about discovery; Dissemination is about putting your findings into action. Ideally, we can be creative at both.
8. About half of your effort (and time) should be on producing the research, the other half on creating the outputs.
9. Creative outputs produce unexpected outcomes. Be willing to experiment, ‘go it alone’. ‘Doing’ and ‘making’ produce additional findings. Use them, they are rich and you’ve earned them.
10. Be willing to make 100 versions, then one more (Sister Corita Kent). It’s that last one that you will use.
Note: Remember, oh ye serious social scientists, that in Big Science, some of the greatest discoveries were made through mistakes and acknowledging the unexpected. Therefore:
Rule 11: Be curious about the history of your craft. Soak up as much as you can. It will both inspire and lead you.
This article by Kip Jones originally appeared on his
personal KIPWORLD blog and was then published by Creative Quarter and Social Science Space.
This is the second time in a week that I have the pleasure of announcing a paper by our PhD student Orlanda Harvey. This PhD-based paper ‘Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs’ has been accepted by the scientific journal Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy (published by Taylor & Francis) [1]. Orlanda’s PhD is a mixed-methods study of social workers working with people using un-prescribe /recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) in several high-income countries including the UK.
With her success in publishing Orlanda is a good ambassador for Bournemouth University’s PhD Integrated Thesis format. Such Integrated Thesis allows PhD candidates to incorporate material that has been published or submitted for publication to an academic peer-reviewed journal. Apart from the inclusion of such materials, the Integrated Thesis must conform to the same regulations as the traditional PhD thesis. Including Orlanda’s previously published review on AAS [3] she is well underway to putting together a well-balanced Integrated Thesis supported by her Faculty of Health & Social Sciences supervisors: Dr. Margarete Parrish, Dr. Steven Trenoweth and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen.
Of course, last week Orlanda already featured in the December of HED Matters as Early Career Researcher (ECR) with an article on ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [2]. See also my BU Research Blog of four days ago (click here!).
Congratulations!
Prof . Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
Reference:
We will have a seminar session with the guest lecturer, Professor Nariaki Ikematsu (Consultant, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology; NICT). This session is the third ‘spin-out’ event from DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS (6-7 December 2019). This research seminar is conducted as a Skype video conference.
Professor Ikematsu will present a contemporary topic of blockchain impact in the Asian countries, Thailand and Vietnam. He will talk about some cases including the business practices of ‘PIZZA 4P’S Makes the World Smile for Peace through “Edutainment”’ referring to the key factors ‘local consumption’ and ‘innovative supply chain management’. https://www.earthackers.com/pizza-4ps-makes-the-world-smile-for-peace-through-edutainment/ (Accessed 12 December 2019).
This seminar is held in line with the suggestions from a Key Note Speech made by Professor Sangeeta Khorana at the conference, DEEP TRANSFORMATIONS AND THE FUTURE OF ORGANIZATIONS on the 6th December in Tunis.
This session will provide unique topics in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as ‘Goal 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure’ and ’Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals’.
This session also aligns with BU2025 strategic investment areas (SIAs), Simulation & Visualisation and Assistive Technology.
The BU ECRs, PhD researchers, and MSc students are welcome to this session.
The session will be facilitated by Dr Hiroko Oe and an ECR, Ediz Akchay. Mr. Gideon Adu-Gyamfi (MSc International Management) will also contribute as a discussant.
*For more details, please email to hoe@brounemouth.ac.uk
PhD student Orlanda Harvey featured in this month’s edition of HED Matters as Early Career Researcher (ECR) with an article on ‘ECR Spotlight: From Social Work to Studying Steroids’ [1]. HED Matters is an online magazine about the use of legal and illegal substances to enhance the human condition published biannually by the HED network. It brings together recent advances in drug research and experiences from both drug users and practitioners. This December 2019 issue focuses on sexual human enhancers. Orlanda’s PhD research project addresses men’s experiences of recreational Anabolic Androgenic Steroid (AAS) use.
Earlier this year she also published a peer-reviewed paper form her research : “Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Scoping Review into what they want and what they access” in the Open Access journal BMC Public Health [2]. Since there is a paucity of research on support for people using Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS), this latter article synthesised the available evidence. Orlanda’s PhD I the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences is being supervised by Dr Margarete Parrish, Dr Steven Trenoweth and Prof Edwin van Teijlingen.
References:
Wednesday 4 December played host to The 11th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference which took place in the Fusion Building. To view highlights of the day visit #BUPGRConf19 on twitter.
The day commenced with the live research exhibition where delegates had the opportunity to learn and practice infant CPR using a modified infant manikin and received novel real-time feedback via a monitor being used as part of Debora Almeida’s PhD.
Denyse King offered visitors to her live research exhibition the opportunity to immerse themselves in demos of virtual reality learning environments being developed as part of her cross-faculty EdD.
Helen Slater shared with delegates a visualisation and sound installation of forest biodiversity and wildlife she is monitoring as part of her PhD.
The event saw nearly 30 posters on display with PGRs presenting and discussing their research with peers and colleagues from across the university. The live research exhibition and poster presentation room had a wonderful energy all morning and we also had the pleasure of being visited by the Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney.
Create Lecture Theatre was the venue of choice for our oral presentation session this year. The variety of research being presented was fascinating and inspiring and the room was alight with discussion, there was a real buzz for all sessions. What really stood out was how PGRs engaged with the audience, getting us all involved, making us laugh and the discussions that followed demonstrated the engagement from the audience. I can confidently say that each presenter showed immense passion for their research which shone through in all presentation styles.
I would like to take this opportunity to also thank our fantastic session chairs Samreen Ashraf and Duncan Ki-Aries who made presenters feel comfortable and helped with the very smooth running of the four oral presentation sessions.
Following lunch, we were joined by Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Tim McIntyre-Bhatty who came along to introduce the conference keynote speaker Professor Genoveva Esteban. Genoveva shared with us her experience of engaging the public (of all ages) in her field of research, microbial ecology. Genoveva was passionate and motivating, highlighting the benefits of public engagement for research and the wide range of opportunities that PGRs could get involved in, while sharing some tricks of the trade.
This interdisciplinary conference truly highlights the variety of research being undertaken by PGRs at BU, it is a fantastic opportunity for networking and enhancing postgraduate research community and culture.
Congratulations to all presenters, and thank you to all attendees and those that showed support in many other ways. If you would like to leave some feedback, the feedback form will be open until Sunday 15 December.
This year we made steps to improve the sustainability of the conference by reducing the brochure printing through making use of QR codes to access abstracts; encouraging delegates to bring their [Doctoral College] reusable bottles; provided free UniBus travel between campuses on the day of the conference and will re-display printed posters throughout the year to showcase PGR researcher wider.
If you have any questions, or would like to be involved in The 12th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference please get in touch.
In order to assist students wishing to travel to Dorset History Centre for the purposes of accessing collections, Dorset Archives Trust has made a fund available for suitably accredited students to travel to Dorchester. For more information and conditions, please see the information here.
Please share this information with students whom you may feel would benefit from this.
TODAY | FG06 | Drop-In | 09:30 – 11:00
Live Research Exhibition & Poster Presentations
All Welcome!
Check out our brochure to see what will be on display.
Conference programme is available!
Abstracts are now live:
Booking for the conference via Eventbrite is still open, with limited spaces. All student and staff are invited to the Live Research Exhibition and Poster Presentation and viewing in FG06 between 09:30 – 11:00 no need to book just drop-in however, a conference ticket will provide you with free U1 bus travel between Talbot and Lansdowne on the day.
We look forward to seeing as many as you there supporing postgraduate research here at BU.
Are you attending The 11th Annual Postgraduate Research Conference?
If so I would like to encourage you to bring along your [Doctoral College] reusable water bottles and hot drinks cups for the day. There will be refreshments available including tea and coffee and many water fountains throughout the Fusion Building.
There are still some conference spaces available: register here.
Yesterday saw the latest publication based on Bournemouth University (BU) migration research. The international journal BMC Public Health published our quantitative paper ‘Psychological morbidity in Nepali cross-border migrants in India: a community based cross-sectional study’ [1]. This scientific article highlights that since Nepali migrants can freely cross the border with India and hence work and stay there, they are largely undocumented. The majority of these Nepali migrant workers is involved in semi-skilled or unskilled jobs with limited labour rights and social security, which predisposes them to psychological distress. The paper assessed the prevalence of and factors associated with psychological morbidity among Nepali migrants upon their return from India.
Just a few days ago the UN Migration Agency in Nepal IOM (International Organization for Migration) published ‘Research on the Health Vulnerabilities of the Cross-Border Migrants from Nepal‘, an online report to which BU academics (Aryal, Regmi & van Teijlingen) had contributed [2]. Just recently we had published the qualitative sister paper on Nepali migrants working and living in India. [3]. Whilst Dr. Nirmal Aryal was the lead author on a paper highlighting the need for more research specifically focusing on adolescents left behind by migrant workers [4]. Earlier this year BU PhD graduate Dr. Pratik Adhikary published his latest paper from his thesis, the paper is called ‘Workplace accidents among Nepali male workers in the Middle East and Malaysia: A qualitative study’ and was published in the Journal of Immigrant & Minority Health [5].
Last year was also a very good year for BU migration research, including a systematic review on sex trafficking (perhaps the worst kind of migrant workers) [6], an earlier research paper by Dr. Adhikary with his PhD supervisors [7], and one paper on Nepali female migrants workers in the Middle-East & Malaysia [8]. Earlier BU academics published on general health issues and accidents among Nepali migrant workers in Malaysia, Qatar & Saudi Arabia [9-10], Nepali migrants in the UK [11-12] , other papers included: a call for action on Public Health [13]; a systematic review [14]; a paper on migrant workers’ spouses [15]; migrant health workers in the UK [16-17]; migration and tourism industry [18-20]; migrants and space in Italy [21-22]; an anthropological perspective on migration [23]; a media studies’ perspective [24]; and archaeological perspective [25]; and a socio-economic perspective [26]. No doubt there are several other publications I have forgotten or I am simply unaware missed in this list.
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health
References:
Registration has opened! Draft programme available.
Spaces for the oral presentation session are limited. Please only book sessions you can commit to attending. Lunch will be provided to those attending oral presentation sessions and conference presenters.
To attend the Keynote by Professor Genoveva Esteban please book onto session 2 oral presentations.
No need to book for the Live Research Exhibition or Poster Presentations, please just come along to FG06 between 09:30 – 11:30 to visit the exhibitions. However, if you are based at Lansdowne you may wish to register for a ticket as you can show it on the bus for free U1 UniBus travel between campus during the conference.
Register now and spread the word.
We look forward to seeing you there.
A reminder that BU is running two drop-in support sessions this week for Academic Staff considering applying for the BU Matched Funded Studentship Competition which launched last month.
The sessions will be facilitated by a number of Academic and Professional staff who will be available to answer questions about securing matched funding, developing research degree projects or the application process.
There will be two sessions:
Please ensure you are familiar with the allocative process (see below) before you come.
The competition plays an important role in growing PGR numbers, building and strengthening of a greater number of external relationships, providing a stronger Fusion learning experience for our PGRs. For 2020, there will be up to 46 matched funded PhD studentships available over three strands:
In addition, for the first time this year, BU is offering a limited number of MRes Studentship Competitive Matched Funding (up to 3 matched funded studentships).
Application Process
At this stage, academic staff are invited to submit proposals for matched funded Studentship projects which, if successful, will be advertised to recruit PhD candidates for a September 2020 start.
Full details, including the BU Studentship Allocative Process and Proposal Form, can be found on the Doctoral College Staff Intranet .
Submission Deadline:
Applications should be submitted to the Doctoral College via email to phdstudentshipcompetition@bournemouth.ac.uk no later than 5pm on Monday 13 January 2020.
If you have any questions about your application please speak with your Deputy Dean for Research and Professional Practice (DDRPP) or the Doctoral College Academic Managers: Dr Fiona Knight (for FST or FHSS enquiries) or Dr Julia Taylor (for FM or FMC enquiries).
Please ensure applications contain all relevant information (project proposal signed by Faculty DDRPP; letter of support from matched funder; due diligence form signed by Faculty DDRPP) as incomplete applications will not be considered.
Join the brand new Postgraduate Researcher Development Steering Group to provide direction to postgraduate researcher development at BU.
Some of the main responsibilities include:
See the full Terms of Reference for details on the Steering Group if you are interested in becoming a member. There will be 2 meetings per academic year.
Please submit your Expression of Interest, including a half-page as to why you are interested, the knowledge, skills and experience you can bring to the group, via email to Natalie at pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk by midday, Friday 1 November.
Membership available:
– PGR Student Champion: 1 per Faculty (open to all PGRs)
– Academic Champion: 1 per Faculty (ideally an active PGR supervisor)
– Early Career Researcher: 1 representative
Expressions of Interest will be assessed by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Steering Group, we look forward to receiving them.
Last month, approval was provided by the University’s Research Degree Committee for a brand new Postgraduate Researcher Development Steering Group to provide direction to postgraduate researcher development at BU, and I am recruiting members.
There will be 2 meetings per academic year and ad-hoc if required. Some of the main responsibilities include:
See the full Terms of Reference for details on the Steering Group if you are interested in becoming a member.
Please submit your Expression of Interest, including a half-page as to why you are interested, the knowledge, skills and experience you can bring to the group, via email to Natalie at pgrskillsdevelopment@bournemouth.ac.uk by midday, Friday 1 November.
Membership available:
– PGR Student Champion: 1 per Faculty (open to all PGRs)
– Academic Champion: 1 per Faculty (ideally an active PGR supervisor)
– Early Career Researcher: 1 representative
Expressions of Interest will be assessed by the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Steering Group, we look forward to receiving them.
BU staff can login below:
REF 2021 Declaration of Staff Circumstances – Deadline Friday 17th January
REF2021: the importance of Open Access compliance
Einstein’s Garden at Green Man Festival 2020: Applications now open!
Cafe Scientifique Tuesday 4 February: Crooked picture frames and ageing of perception
HE policy update for the w/e 17th January 2020 HE Policy Update for the w/e 10th January 2020 HE Policy Update for the w/e 3rd January 2020 HE Policy Update for the w/e 20th December 2019 HE policy update for the w/e 13th December 2019
Prof. Dinusha Mendis Hosts Final Workshop of the 3D Printing – IP Project at the European Commission
Research Information Network UKRI
The Royal Society – book now for the visit on 5th February 2020
Research Professional – all you need to know
Changes to ESRC New Investigator Grant scheme