Category / Uncategorized

Committee inquiries: open calls for evidence

Uncategorized

Below is a list of committee inquiries with current open calls for evidence. Please contact Emma Bambury-Whitton if you would like to discuss submitting evidence.

Commons Select Committee inquiries

Lords Select Committee inquiries

Joint Committee inquiries

Public Bill Committees

 

Policy Update

Uncategorized

Monday

Refugees

A senior lecturer has suggested that universities should consider focusing on targeted support for refugee students, through policies such as fee waivers, scholarships and schemes to pair refugees with host students. UK universities ‘should provide targeted support for refugee students’ (THE).

Tuesday

Green Paper

The University of Cambridge has said the Green Paper could cause considerable damage to the sector and its international reputa­­tion. University of Cambridge: Green Paper plans risk ‘considerable damage’. (THE).

FOI

Proposals by ministers to exempt universities from revealing information in the public interest will be rejected by the commission reviewing the legislation, it has been indicated. FOI commission ‘will not propose exempting universities from law’ despite proposals from ministers (The Telegraph).

Wednesday

Gender Pay Gap

The Women and Equalities Committee has heard that strong commitment to social justice has helped to diminish discrepancies in earnings between men and women working in higher education. Gender pay gap narrows. (Research Professional).

Widening Participation

Higher education institutions should focus on developing talent from a young age in order to encourage more children from disadvantaged backgrounds into university, an education expert has claimed. Universities should ‘nurture pupils from primary school’ (The Telegraph).

Thursday

Ucas

Ucas has urged parents and teachers to be more aware of other options for getting into university, as rising numbers of students apply to university without the traditional three A-levels. A-levels are not the only route to university, says Ucas. (BBC News).

Student Number Controls

The removal of SNCs has led some English universities to increase their student intake by more than 20 percent in a year, while others have recorded drops of up to 10 per cent according to new UCAS figures. Several London post-92s see falls in battle for students (THE).

Friday

OECD

A new study from the OECD argues that students who are struggling with literacy and numeracy should not be able to go to university. Students with poor literacy and numeracy skills should not attend university, study suggests (The Telegraph).

An Introduction to Exhibition Design training course

Knowledge Transfer, Research news, Uncategorized

The Royal Society of Biology are holding An Introduction to Exhibition Design training course on 10th March 2016, 10:00- 17:30 at The Royal Society of Biology, Charles Darwin House, 12 Roger Street, London, WC1N 2JU.

This is a practical day course for biologists involved in public engagement and outreach.

Who is it for?:

This practical course is suitable for those who may need to create a small display, for example:

– science communicators

– scientists working in public engagement & outreach

Creating an exhibition or small display can be a daunting task: they are a complex, multimedia format. How do you make sure your ideas are conveyed clearly? What is the best visual representation for this idea? What exhibits should I select? Using case studies and exercises, this course will introduce participants to exhibition making from the development of an exhibition concept to the final product.

Further information:

Dr Rachel Souhami has over 18 years’ experience of exhibition development, working with national and regional museums, independent organisations and exhibition design companies. Rachel has trained budding exhibition developers for ten years, and has lectured in science studies, museum studies and exhibition development at Imperial College, The University of Manchester and Westminster University. Rachel’s knowledge as a practitioner is enhanced by her research, which examines the working practices and design processes that lead to the successful implementation of an exhibition concept.

This event has been approved by the Royal Society of Biology for the purposes of CPD and can count as 18 CPD points.

For further information and to register your place at: https://www.rsb.org.uk/events/event_anintroductiontoexhibitiondesign

 

SPARCing up the heart in flies…

BU research, Research communication, Research news, Uncategorized

The heart of a fly. Two cells wide and capable of beatign 5 times per second. Genes controlling the hearts contractile function are conserved in humans.

The heart of a fly. Two cells wide and capable of beating five times per second, the fly heart is helping us unlock the secrets governing our own heart’s function.

Research funded by the British Heart Foundation and conducted both here and at the Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discover Institute near San Diego in California, is to be published in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics.

The work identified a genetic pathway linking cardiac function with expression of a protein called SPARC (Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine). In humans, increases in SPARC accompany cardiac ageing, inflammatory disease, obesity and cancer. As a consequence SPARC is a potentially very important therapeutic target in a wide range of important clinical settings. Our work, which utilised the fly Drosophila, demonstrated that heart dysfunction (cardiomyopathy) could be cured by reducing SPARC gene expression. Establishing this link allows us to ascertain the mechanism by which SPARC contributes to cardiac function in humans. Whilst the human heart is significantly more complex than that of a fly, their early development and function are controlled by similar genetic pathways; evolution may have added to the human heart but it has not changed its fundamentals. Hence, we’re able to learn a lot about ourselves by studying this simple, yet very sophisticated, little insect.

CFPs RGS-IBG 2016: Geographies of Religion and Spirituality

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research7RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2016: Nexus Thinking
London, 30th August – 2nd September 2016

CFP: Geographies of Religion and Spirituality: Beyond the ‘officially’ sacred

Session Convenor(s):
Jaeyeon Choe (Bournemouth University, UK)
Michael Di Giovine (West Chester University, US)
Michael Hitchcock (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK)
Michael O’ Regan (Bournemouth University, UK)

Religious spaces facilitate not only historical and traditional rituals and practices, but also social activities such as festivals, games, feasts, travel, sports as well as weddings and funerals (Chick, 1991). In greater and complex societies, religion has become secularized as religious options, personal choice and quests outweigh religious obligation (Graburn, 1983; Possamai, 2000; Turner & Turner, 1978). There has, for example, been increased participation in spiritual activities among tourists at pilgrimage sites (Timothy & Olsen, 2006). Whilst many of people at the sites are motivated by devotion, a large number of sites are shared by tourists and touristic processes. Indeed, many pilgrimage sites have often themselves become secularized (Di Giovine & Picard, 2015). Thus, the distinction between pilgrims and secular tourists has been diminishing, and “not only pilgrims not be easily separated out from secular tourists in this (post-) modern and ‘post-traditional’ age wherein sacrality is often divorced from pure religion” (D’Agostino & Vespasiano, 2000, p. 5). Pilgrims often “share many of the physical infrastructures and service providers as secular travelers…pilgrimage trails and destinations have been given new life through modern, secular tourism” (Di Giovine, 2011, p. 249). As such, pilgrims and tourists exist on a continuum of sacredness and secularity (Smith, 1992), and the distinction between tourism/pilgrimage, tourist/pilgrim, and secular/sacred is rather complex.

While there have been ongoing discussions about categorizing ‘pilgrims’ and/or ‘tourists,’ it is still challenging despite frequent attempts (Afferni, Ferrario & Mangano, 2011; Collins-Kreiner & Gatrell, 2006; Di Giovine, 2011; Poira, Butler & Airey, 2003; Sharpley, 2009). This panel session aims to recognize how religious spaces are central to the lives of pilgrims, and how these religious spaces have meanings to tourists. This panel also seeks to explore discourses on how the two groups experience, interpret, co-exist and perform religious space. Beyond the ‘officially sacred,’ this panel will explore the meanings of religious space to pilgrims and tourists so as to provide a blueprint for how work in the geography of religion and the field of religious tourism may move forward (Brace et al, 2006). We are inviting contributors with papers in the following areas (but not limited to):

– Pilgrim culture
– Pilgrimage and ritual
– Intersection of pilgrimage and heritage
– Pilgrimage and nationalism
– Popular vs. authorized pilgrimage movements
– Religious (space) tourism management
– Pilgrimage trails and destinations
– Trends/Motivations of spiritual tourists
– Conflicts between pilgrims and tourists at pilgrimage sites
– Religious/spiritual tourism and sustainability
– Religious tourism and regional development
– Future directions

Di Giovine, M., & Picard, D. (2015). The Seductions of Pilgrimage: Sacred Journeys Afar and Astray in the Western Religious Tradition, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

Please submit abstracts to Jaeyeon Choe (jchoe@bournemouth.ac.uk) by 15th February 2016. Abstracts should be no more than 250 words and include your contact details.

Please see the following link for more details on the conference and registration details.
http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Annual+international+conference.htm

Presentation by PhD student Preeti Mahato Jan 27th.

international, PG research, Research news, student research, Uncategorized

On Wednesday Jan. 27th CMMPH PhD student Preeti Mahato will present her PhD research ideas under the title “Addressing quality of care and equity of services available at birthing centres to improve maternal and neonatal health in western Nepal.”  Her presentation will be held at the Lansdowne Campus at 13.00 in room 301 in Royal London House.

IMG_6459Preeti’s research focuses on birthing centres in western Nepal; and quality and equity of service available at these facilities. In Nepal, birthing centres act as first contact point for the women seeking maternity services especially the basic obstetric care. The focus of this presentation will be to talk about the first review article Preeti Mahato wrote for the ‘Journal of Asian Midwives’ entitled “Birthing centres in Nepal: Recent development, obstacles and opportunities”. The article has been accepted for publication in June 2016 and focuses on introducing birthing centres, their current state of operation under the health system of Nepal, barriers they are facing and what could be done to improve their present state. The quality of care issue available at birthing centre is emphasised, since the number of these facilities are increasing however there is a growing trend to bypass and uptake services at hospitals. Despite barriers to utilisation of services at birthing centres, they can play an important role in increasing institutional delivery rate and proportion of births benefiting from a skilled birth attendant.IMG_6591

The second part of presentation will provide a brief summary on what Preeti has done since writing a review article, as she has worked on a systematic review on quality of basic obstetric care facilities in low and middle income countries.

Preeti Mahato has worked in the field of public health in Nepal for three years after completing her Master of Public Health. She has an interest in sexual and reproductive health, women’s health and maternal and child health. Working as a public health officer she was involved in maternal and neonatal health that developed her interest in pursuing a doctorate related to maternal and neonatal health. Part of her work in Nepal also included monitoring and supervision of birthing centres in rural areas of Nepal and that is how she became motivated to start a PhD at BU.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Less than a week to submit your Festival of Learning Proposal!

Uncategorized

You have until 31st January to submit your application to be get involved and run an event at the The Festival of Learning. That is less than a week away!

In its fourth year now -the dates for 2016 have been set as Saturday 25 – Wednesday 29 June for a shorter and more compact 5 day festival.

What kind of events could I put on?

We’re open to ideas and willing to support a wide variety of events, you could run anything from a professional development workshop to an art exhibition or you could just have a stool with some hands on activities for passers-by.

Some examples:

  • Gaming, computing and coding
  • Everyday professional skills
  • Health and fitness
  • Topics involving real-world issues
  • Media workshops

I’m keen to run an event! What do I do now?

You have until 31st January to submit your application to be considered as part of the festival of learning. Please click here to find the proposal form and instructions on how to submit. If you would like support in developing an event idea or for any further information then please get in touch with Naomi Kay (nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk), Public Engagement Officer.

HE Policy Update

Uncategorized

Monday

Freedom of Speech

Free speech is under growing threat at British universities, with serious restrictions on expression at more than half of campuses. Student unions or universities banned speakers, pressure groups, types of behaviour, songs and even hand gestures on 55 per cent of campuses last year, up from 41 per cent in 2014, according to a new analysis. Half of UK universities are curbing free speech. (The Times).

Graduate Jobs

Graduates turned down a record number of top jobs last year and left more than 1000 posts unfilled a report by High Fliers Research found. ‘Picky’ university graduates turn down record number of top jobs (The Independent).

Tuesday

Student Grants

Opposition MPs have protested against government measures to replace grants for students from the poorest households in England with repayable loans. Labour challenges final end of student grants (BBC News).

Degree Requirements

Penguin Random House will no longer require candidates for new jobs to have a university degree in order to open up opportunities to attract more varied candidates into publishing. Penguin ditches degree requirement for job applicants (The Guardian).

Wednesday

Migration Advisory Committee

The Migration Advisory Committee which advises MPs, has suggested that the earnings of skilled immigrants seeking visas have been set too high.  It also suggests that employers should pay an immigration charge of £1,000 per person per year, which would affect universities that recruit international staff. You can view the press release here.

Ministerial Committee

Business secretary Sajid Javid has said that his department has not decided whether to create a ministerial committee to oversee science spending across both the research councils and government departments. Ministerial committee not yet a done deal, says Javid (Research Professional).

Student Grants

David Cameron has claimed the government’s move to scrap student maintenance grants allowed it to uncap student numbers, after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn challenged him on the controversial policy at the Prime Minister’s Questions. David Cameron: scrapping grants allows move to uncap student numbers (THE).

Thursday

Green Paper

Universities UK and GuildHE, the sector’s two representative organisations, are among the bodies to give a critical reception to a keystone of the government’s higher education Green Paper. TEF: government under fire on link to multiple fee caps (THE).

Higher Education Academy

The Higher Education Academy is to double its subscription fees for most universities, and will require academics to pay a membership fee and complete continuing professional development in order to retain their fellowships.  HEA subscription fees to double for most universities (THE).

Friday

HE Staff

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, higher education providers added 8,055 jobs in the year to 2014-15, an increase of 2 per cent. Staff numbers rise. (Research Professional).

Student Numbers

A dozen universities accepted ten per cent fewer full-time undergraduates in 2015 compared to 2012, according to figures published by the Universities and Colleges Admission Service. Waxing and waning (Research Professional).

Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning 27 Jan Talbot TAG30

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The next Research Staff Association (RSA) coffee morning will be taking place on Wednesday 27 January, at Talbot Campus in TAG30 from 10 to 11am. This is an informal opportunity to meet other research staff over coffee and cake, discuss your work and share ideas for future collaborations. We would also like to share our plans for the RSA in 2016, so its not to be missed!

For catering purposes please email mheward@bournemouth.ac.uk to confirm your attendance.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Kind regards, Michelle Heward and Marcellus Mbah (RSA Staff Representatives)

New CMMPH international midwifery publication

BU research, international, Publishing, Research news, Uncategorized, writing

Congratulations to Professor Vanora Hundley in the Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health (CMMPH) on the publication of her latest international paper ‘How do midwives in Slovenia view their professional status?’ [1]. slovenia midwifery 2015

The paper explores Slovenian midwives’ views of their professional status, linkng this to the participants’ educational background. Most participants did not consider midwifery to be a profession in its ow right. Midwives with secondary education were more likely to consider practical skills to be important than theoretical midwifery knowledge. In general Slovenian midwives did not feel enabled to practise autonomously causing them several ethical dilemmas. All participants with midwifery secondary school education thought that obstetrics jeopardises midwifery scope of practice, but only half of the B.Sc. participants thought this. One-fifth of all participants estimated that midwifery is also threatened by nursing. The respondents reported feeling a lack of control over their professional activity and policy making; however the majority of midwives claimed that they were willing to take on more responsibility for independent practice. The authors conclude that Slovenian midwifery cannot be considered to be a profession yet. It faces several hindrances, due to its historical development.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

Reference:

Mivšek, P., Pahor, M., Hlebec, V., Hundley, V. (2015) How do midwives in Slovenia view their professional status? Midwifery 31(12):1193-201

Committee inquiries: Open calls for evidence

Uncategorized

Below is a list of committee inquiries with current open calls for evidence. Please contact Emma Bambury-Whitton if you would like to discuss submitting evidence.

Commons Select Committee inquiries

Lords Select Committee inquiries

Joint Committee inquiries

Around the world on a Thursday night

Uncategorized

On the 10th December 2015 the Graduate School hosted its 5th biannual Post Graduate International event. This saw 160 BU postgraduate (PG) students come together to celebrate the wide range of countries represented by the PG community here at BU. The evening, which was opened by BU’s Pro Vice Chancellor Professor John Fletcher, aimed to provide a platform for international students to network away from disciplinary boundaries and to share their cultural experiences with others.

Over 42 countries were represented on the night, from Brazil to Nigeria, Poland to Pakistan. The array of diversity led to the event being steeped in colour, wonderful smells and tastes of exotic foods. Everyone that attended proudly_DSC0312 copy represented their home country whilst immersing themselves in rich culture of the 2016 International Event. A video of the event will soon be available on the BU website under postgraduate research (The Graduate School)!

Also, keep your eyes open for the 8th Annual Post Graduate Conference taking place in March 2016. To find out more about the Graduate School and what we offer, find us on the BU website under postgraduate research.

Latest BU Nursing publication

BU research, Centre for Excellence in Learning, Uncategorized, writing

Scammel J Clin Nurse 2016Congratulations to Janet Scammell, Vanessa Heaslip and Emma Crowley in FHSS on their new publication which appeared at the very end of 2015.  Their most recent paper is the first systematic review of service user involvement in non-mental health specific preregistration  nurse education.  The paper ‘Service user involvement in preregistration general nurse education: a systematic review’ is published in the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Nursing. [1]

Well done!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

Reference:

  1. Scammell, J., Heaslip, V., Crowley, E. (2015) ‘Service user involvement in preregistration general nurse education: a systematic review’ Journal of Clinical Nursing 25:53-69.

VisitBritain’s Chairman in BU

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Christopher Rodrigues CBS – VisitBritain’s Chairman will give a guest talk about Great Britain Tourism Strategy

Thursday 25 February 10.00 – 12.00, Lees LT

VisitBritain’s Chairman, provides strategic leadership to
the work to boost tourism to and within Britain, leading the
delivery of a new era of greater coherence and partnership for
the visitor economy.

christopher-Rodrigues_03

The Chairman works with VisitBritain’s private and public sector partners in England, Scotland and Wales to aid in strengthening the marketing of Britain as a tourist destination overseas.
Christopher became Chairman of VisitBritain in January 2007. He is a Trustee of the National Trust and is a Vice Chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council. His past experience include
time as Chief Executive of Visa International between 2004 –
2007 and Chief Executive of Thomas Cook between 1988
-1996.

The event is hosted by Department of Tourism and Hospitality
Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University

Source of pictures and bio: Visit Britain website http://www.visitbritain.com

Mental health & maternity care in Nepal: THET-funded training

BU research, international, open access, Research news, Uncategorized

group work NawalparasiIMG_6649

A few days I posted a short report of our first session as part of the THET-funded project ‘Mental Health Training for Community-based Maternity Providers in Nepal’, see this previous post here.  Yesterday we completed the final third day training of the first session of this BU-led project.  Over three days we had 70 ANMs (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives) in attendance, which we think is (nearly) all such staff based in all birthing centres in the district (=province).  The three days were the same, i.e. each session was repeated twice so each day one third of the ANMs could attend, and two-third could be at work in the birthing centre ensuring women could deliver safely.

logo THETAs part of this project we send UK volunteers (health and/or education) experts to Nepal to offer high quality training in areas where it is most needed.  Further detail on this BU-led THET project can be found in our scientific paper Mental health issues in pregnant women in Nepal  published in the Nepal Journal of Epidemiology available through Open Access.  Mental illness is still very much a taboo topic in Nepal as it has often a serious stigma attached to it.  Moreover, the relatively short training of ANMs is often fairly basic and the national curriculum does not cover mental health issues in any detail.  This joint project between Bournemouth University, Liverpool John Mooores University, Tribhuvan University and the local charity Green Tata Nepal addresses issues about mental health in general and in pregnant women and new mothers in particular.  Tribhuvan University is the oldest university in Nepal and one of the ten largest universities in the world (based on student numbers).  The project is multi-disciplinary involving midwives, (mental health) nurses, and doctors as well as global health researchers, educationalists and sociologists.

 

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH