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Why editorials?

Zika editorial 2016BU academics are editors on a wide range of scientific journals.  As editors we often write editorials for academic journals which have a number of specific functions.  It is a key means of communication between the editor(s) and the journal’s readership.  It is also vehicle to highlight topical academic and political issues related to the journal and the discipline(s) it represents. JAM June 2016 editorial

Earlier this week the latest issue of the Journal of Asian Midwives came out with an editorial which is an illustration of the first point giving information to the readers [1].  The topics addressed in this editorial included the announcement that this new journal was now indexed in the CINAHL Database, a recent major international conference in the field and a call for the forthcoming 2017 ICM (Internation Confederation of Midwives) tri-annual conference.  Today saw the publication of an editorial on the Zika virus and its potential impact in Nepal in the journal Medical Science [2].   This guest editorial co-written by BU’s Visiting Faculties Dr. Brijesh Sathian and Prof. Padam Simkhada with Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen (Centre for Midwifery, Maternal & Perinatal Health) calls for action in Nepal.  A country where malaria is endemic. The Zika virus uses mosquitoes like the ones spreading Dengue fever and malaria.  Zika is a virus we do not wish to see spreading in countries where malaria is already rife.  The editorial warns that precautionary measures are needed to prevent a Zika outbreak as the spread of the virus to the country seems inevitable, the only uncertainty is when it will be arriving.

Both journals are Open Access which means these editorials can be read by anybody with internet access free of charge.

References:

  1. Jan, R., van Teijlingen, E. (2016) Editorial JAM June 2016, Journal of Asian Midwives 3(1):1. http://ecommons.aku.edu/jam/vol3/iss1/1/
  2. van Teijlingen, E., Sathian, B., & Simkhada, P. (2016). Zika & Nepal: a far greater risk for its population than to individuals. Medical Science 4(2): 312-313. http://www.pubmedhouse.com/journals/ms/articles/1064/PMHID1064.pdf

 

Brexit: The future for UK Higher Education

Since the announcement last Friday 24th June that the UK had voted to leave the EU, some light has been shed on the implications for UK universities.

The Minister for Universities and Science, Jo Johnson MP released a statement on 28th June on higher education and research following the EU referendum.

  • He confirmed that EU citizens currently studying in the UK or starting their courses in September 2016 will continue to receive loans until they finish their courses.
  • There will be no immediate changes concerning immigration rules of British students living in the EU, and European students living in the UK.
  • There are no changes to students studying in the EU, beneficiaries of Erasmus+ or those considering applying in 2017.
  • There will be no immediate effect on those applying to or participating in Horizon 2020.

Brexit should therefore not result in any immediate changes. However, there could be significant changes in the years to come, although this will depend on the arrangements negotiated between the UK and EU. The negotiations could begin when a new Prime Minister is announced, this will definitely be by October 2016, but could be as early as September with the conservative contenders due to launch their leadership bids imminently.    They could take up to two years, or even longer (if the EU partners all agree).

Although there is uncertainty ahead about the impact of Brexit for UK higher education, there have been some positive reports about the possible future of the sector’s relationship with the EU. On the 28th June, the Italian Prime Minister said he wanted to find a way for UK students to gain passports while they studied for degree courses. Additionally, the Independent has outlined some reasons to be optimistic about the future relationship of the UK universities and the EU, and states that as long as the UK government commits to higher education, and recognises the role it plays, the future for the sector could remain bright.   An article including quotes from the Minister in the THE is also interesting.

Our Vice-Chancellor has commented in an updated statement and Jane Forster has written a blog on what happens in HE after the vote.

HE Policy Update

EU referendum

With the UK having voted to leave the EU, the higher education sector has responded with lots of material about what it means for universities.

THE has reported that a Brexit will have sparked a huge amount of uncertainty for the future of research funding, student fees and hiring of staff from the European Union.

The Independent reports academic’s fears around a new form of Brexit – a brain exit or brain drain –  that could hit Britain’s universities and the wider scientific community.

Wonkhe comments that universities must find a way to argue for the importance of higher education in the UK inside or outside of the EU.

At present, what we do know is that the immigration status of EU students and staff based at BU and in other European countries has not yet changed. We are likely to find out more about the implications when the two-year negotiation process between the UK and other Member States begins- we do not yet know exactly when this will be, but it could be this Autumn with the appointment of a new Prime Minister.

Work experience

The National Centre for Universities and Businesses has published a report exploring business practices and processes around work experience offers. The report highlighted that work experience is used heavily as a recruitment tool, however where work experience is gained is of less importance to employers than the development of transferable skills that the experience of work fosters. You can view the report here.

HE & Research Bill

The Vice-Chancellor of Regent’s University London has warned the Higher Education and Research Bill will meet with “substantial opposition” and may not make it through the House of Commons in its current form. HE bill ‘will face substantial opposition in Parliament’ (THE).

TEF

The TEF could radically reshape the hierarchy of UK higher education, with small campus universities and post-92s outperforming many of the elite Russell Group. TEF ‘set to reshape hierarchy of UK higher education’ (TEF).

If you would like to provide any direct feedback on any of the consultation workshops we have been running, please have a look at the consultation intranet page for more information and links to the relevant documents.

 

Best paper award!

Heart 2015Best Paper for 2015 Award in the international journal Heart.  A paper published by Bournemouth University PhD student, Edward Carlton,  and his supervisors, Prof. Ahmed Khattab (FHSS) and Prof. Kim Greaves from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia in collaboration with world-renowned hospitals: John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford; Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital in Australia; and Christchurch Hospital in New Zealand has  been announced as the Winner of the “Heart Best Paper 2015  Award” [1].  This award is in recognition of the high quality and clinical impact of the paper. The winner for this award were chosen by the Editorial Team from the top 10 papers in each of the following three categories: downloads, citations and Altmetrics Score.

Dr. Edward Carlton has just finished his PhD at BU and he is now working as an Emergency Medicine Consultant in Bristol.Heart PDF 2015

Congratulations!

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

 

 

Reference:

Carlton EW, Cullen L, Than M, Gamble J, Khattab A, Greaves K. A novel diagnostic protocol to identify patients suitable for discharge after a single high-sensitivity troponin. Heart. 2015 Jul;101(13):1041-6. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2014-307288. Epub 2015 Feb 17.

Hello from Osman Ahmed: Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences

Hi all,

I’ve been a bit slow in uploading an introduction the BU research blog but wanted to say thanks to everyone for making feel at home at BU. I’ve been in the role of physiotherapy lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences for about 2 months now and am enjoying it greatly so far.

My clinical background is as a physiotherapist, and I have worked both locally (at Poole Hospital and the Royal Bournemouth Hospital) and internationally (in New Zealand). As well as working at BU, I am also currently working at Poole Hospital NHS Trust as an outpatient physiotherapist, and with the Football Association with their disability football squads. My work in this field is due to take me to Rio De Janeiro in September for the 2016 Paralympic Games.

My main areas of research interest are eHealth/mHealth, sports concussion, and disability sport. I was lucky enough to do my PhD at the University of Otago in New Zealand, where my thesis centred upon the use of Facebook to assist the return to play following sports-concussion. I am looking forwards to helping to educate the next generation of physiotherapists to be forward-thinking and able to cope with the demands of an ever-changing world.

Being Dorset born and bred, I am very proud to be working at BU at this exciting time for the university. I hope that BU can mirror the development of AFC Bournemouth (where I have a season ticket) with regards to reaching new heights and levels of success!

Best wishes,

Osman

NCCPE Engage Competition 2016

The bi-annual NCCPE Engage Competition has launched for 2016, aiming to recognise and reward high quality examples of public engagement with research. The competition first ran in 2014, when 230 entries were received and awarded prizes to some exceptional engagement projects.

This year there are six competition categories, and the winner of each category will receive a prize of £1,500 to go towards further public engagement work at their institution. The winners and runners-up from each category will be celebrated at an awards ceremony as part of Engage 2016, the NCCPE’s annual conference, this year on the 29th and 30th November.

Please follow the link for more de

HE Policy Update

Digital Skills

The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee have released a report warning that 12.6 million UK adults lack basic digital skills and that the country is facing a “digital skills crisis”. The report suggests the Government should encourage universities to provide ‘code conversion courses’ to help graduates from non-computer science backgrounds to enter the tech sector with a recognised qualification. You can view the report here.

HESA

HESA have published data on students in alternative providers in England during the academic year 2014/15. The findings show that just over 50,000 students were enrolled at alternative providers in 2014/15. The majority of students (54%) were enrolled on business and administrative studies designated courses. You can view the data here.

 Student Loans

A petition opposing a retrospective rise in the cost of student loans that obtained 120,000 signatures in just a few days has been rejected by the government. Government throws out student loans petition (The Guardian).

EU

Ministers campaigning to leave the European Union say that they will “continue to fund EU programmes in the UK until 2020” in the event of a Brexit, including research funding. Brexit government ‘would fund EU research programmes until 2020’. (THE).

HEFCE

Formulaic distribution of funding council support for English universities’ efforts to widen participation is set to end. Instead of receiving funding according to the number of students from disadvantaged backgrounds that they have, universities would instead have to apply for support from the National Collaborative Outreach Programme. Hefce reshapes support for widening participation. (THE).

A reminder that we have a workshop taking place on Monday 20th June 2016 09:30-11:00- P401. The workshop will address the  TEF and DLHE consultations. In particular the workshop will be looking at the following consultation questions:

TEF: Q3 Benchmarking, Q4 Coverage and timescales, Q5 Split by characteristics, Q6 Contextual information, Q10 Assessment process, Q11 Years of available data.

DLHE: Q6-9 Linked Data, Q18-22 Presentation and financing, Q29 Personal Data, Q42-44 Links to previous surveys, Q54-57 Salary, Q106-107 Cost v value, Q108-111 Cost base, Q114-115 3rd Party Methodology, Q116-121 Added Value, Q122 Implementation, Q123-124 Onward uses of data, Q125-127 Current uses of data.

 

NIHR Fellowships – Introductory Webinar- 16th June 11-12 – Studland House S203

NIHR will be hosting a live one hour webinar about the NIHR Fellowship Programme on Thursday 16 June 2016 at 11am which may be of interest to you, room booked at Studland House S203

This is a webinar for aspiring NIHR Fellowship award holders ahead of the launch of round 10 of the programme later in the year. The webinar is aimed at clinicians, allied health professionals and health researchers who wish to learn more about personal training awards.

It will be jointly hosted by the NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre (TCC) and the NIHR Research Design Service (RDS) and will include:

  • An overview of the NIHR Fellowship programmes and eligibility requirements
  • A guide to the scope of research projects that are suitable for Fellowship schemes
  • An overview of the support offered by the NIHR RDS
  • Things to consider before applying for an NIHR Fellowship and designing a research project

The webinar will be presented by Nicola Melody, Senior Programme Manager at NIHR TCC and Jill Carlton, Research Fellow in the Health Economics and Decision Science section of ScHARR (School of Health and Related Research) and Fellowships advisor for NIHR Yorkshire and Humber RDS.

As this is a live webinar, attendees will be able to send questions in to the speakers and we will try to answer as many as possible during the webinar. We encourage you to send your question in advance, please for BU, email Alice Brown: browna@bournemouth.ac.uk with the subject: ‘Fellowship Programme webinar question’.

 

Opportunity to join the Strategic Programme Advisory Group

NERC is seeking applications to help steer the future of UK environmental science by joining its Strategic Programme Advisory Group (SPAG). SPAG makes recommendations to NERC’s Science Board and the NERC Executive on how to invest NERC’s strategic research funding through highlight topics or strategic programme areas.

Members, will be drawn from a wide range of environmental science disciplines and sectors, including academia, policymakers, business and NGOs. You will be an innovative thinker, an expert in your area of environmental science or profession. You will have the ability to recognise emerging ideas and opportunities across the whole of NERC’s remit. You should also be able to take a visionary perspective and be skilled at making judgements across a range of scientific, strategic and policy issues.

Appointments will be for one year in the first instance, with the possibility of extension for a further two years. It is expected that the role will require six days per year for meetings plus additional preparation time.

If you are interested in applying for this opportunity, you will find further information here.