BU Research Blog

An opportunity has come up for BU staff and students to take their research to Countryfile Live, taking place at Blenheim Palave 4-7 August 2016.  Travel and expenses will be covered by BU and you can either do all four days or just go for two.

For further information about the event take a look at their website, and if you’d be interested in taking your research, email nkay@bournemouth.ac.uk .  We will be attending alongside other universities so this is an excellent networking opportunity, as well as an opportunity to talk to the public about your research.

The themes of the event are around conservation, wildlife and agriculture so research around these areas would be especially relevant.

Over 20 delegates from fisheries and conservation agencies and universities contributed to a seminar at Bournemouth University on the management of emerging and novel fisheries. With rising temperatures and increasing global trade and communications, species that are not native to the North east Atlantic are becoming established around our coast. Most of these are not currently of any concern; however a small proportion can become invasive and cause negative ecological impacts. Yet some non-native species have become beneficial and now support important fisheries, such as the Manila clam in Poole Harbour. There is therefore a tension between developing the economic potential of these new fisheries and risk to biodiversity and species and habitats within protected areas.

Manila clams from Poole Harbour

Photo: John Humphreys jhc Research.

The seminar considered three main questions:

• What can we learn from the history of ‘invading’, yet economically valuable shellfish? Is the pattern of spread any different from other invasions?
• What are the ecological and economic threats, benefits and opportunities from non-native yet valuable species?
• How can we mitigate potential ecological damage through sustainable management and harvesting?

We especially valued contributions from Dr Rosa Freitas and Dr Stefania Chiesa from the University of Aveiro, Portugal, who carry out research on the impacts of some of these species in southern Europe.

Dr Stefania Chiesa from University of Aveiro

Dr. Roger Herbert

Dept. Life and Environmental Sciences

rherbert@bournemouth.ac.uk

Find out more about the Brownsea Marine and Coastal Observatory

This week there were lots of announcements and important changes for the higher education sector. BIS has published the White Paper which sets out the government’s proposals for higher education following on from the Green Paper in 2015. The Higher Education and Research Bill was also published this week. You can view a summary of all the key points from both the White Paper and the bill here.

Below are some updates on the key areas that came out of both the paper and the bill.

TEF

• Universities will be awarded a Meets Expectations, Excellent or Outstanding ​rating.
• Year one (2016/17)- all providers with any form of successful QA award will receive a rating of ‘Meets Expectations’
• Year Two (2017/18)- trial year. The core metrics will be student satisfaction scores (National Student Survey), graduate outcome data (Destination of Leavers from Higher Education), and continuation rates.
• Year Three (2018/19) will include the incorporation of other metrics as a result of the TEF technical consultation and will include pilot assessments at disciplinary level.
• Year Four (2019/20) will be the first year in which disciplinary level assessments take place and will be the earliest the government intends to also include taught postgraduate courses.
• The TEF will allow for inflationary increases to tuition fees for participating institutions that meet basic standards in 2017-18 and 2018-19, ahead of the introduction of differentiated caps in 2019-20 (fee caps are yet to be set).

 Agencies

• HEFCE is closing and is to be replaced by an Office for Students (OfS) which will commence on 1st April 2018.
• The Office for Fair Access will be subsumed into OfS
• HEFCE and OFFA staff will transfer across to OfS which will also have a new board.

Research

• A new body – UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) will replace Research Councils UK and will merge the research councils and Innovate UK into this “single, strategic research funding body”.
• A brand new body called Research England will be created under UKRI and will take responsibility for managing the REF and delivering QR, although it will maintain its own governance structure to ensure that the dual support system is maintained.

• The Secretary of State may by regulation add/omit/change the name of a council.

Quality

• The OfS will have oversight of not just the regime for quality, as Hefce did, but also of standards.
• The government will be abolishing the previous process of cyclic quality review where every provider, regardless of risk, was reviewed after the same number of years. Rather, quality reviews will only occur when triggered by a provider seeking to gain approved status, approved (fee cap) status or Degree Awarding Powers (DAPs) as a result of a previous provisionally satisfied assessment, or if annual monitoring activity gives cause for concern.

Additional points

• The OfS will take over responsibility for granting DAPs and University Title for English institutions from the Privy Council.
• Providers that receive public funding will continue to come under the scope of FOI, while those that do not receive public funding will not.
• All universities will be required to publish detailed information about application, offer and progression rates, broken down by ethnicity, gender and socio-economic background.
• The OfS will be able to validate degrees

Additional consultations

Alongside the White Paper, the government has released two consultations, both of which BU will be responding to.

• The government is seeking views on student’s being able to more easily switch university or degree, as well as views on accelerated courses. Accelerated courses and switching university or degree
• The government is also seeking views on the operation of the Teaching Excellence Framework in year 2, including the assessment framework and process. Teaching Excellence Framework: year 2

Labour

Labour has launched a campaign to stop David Cameron lifting the cap on university fees in response to the White Paper and bill. Mr Corbyn has said he would abolish tuition fees by raising £10bn of taxes from businesses or higher-earners. Jeremy Corbyn launches campaign against student tuition fees and labels proposed hike ‘a tax on education’ (The Independent).

Teaching quality research

BIS has released data that looks into views on teaching quality in higher education from applicants and graduates. 93% of applicants said that access to transparent and reliable information about universities is important, and 84% of graduates asked said that they believed students should be able to access independent assessment of a university or course’s teaching quality. You can view the data here.

For more information on the reforms to higher education, you can have a look at our intranet pages and a post on the research blog. Please feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have.

Communicating Research

FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16

The Faculty of Media and Communication at BU

Venue: W240, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB

Wednesday 18 May 2016, 4pm, W240

A Journalism Research Group Guest Lecture

Tim Markham, Birkbeck (University of London)

Making Audiences Care: Journalistic Depictions of Distant Suffering

One of the tropes often heard in journalism research is that audiences suffer from compassion fatigue: with all the suffering going on in the world, they aren’t willing or able to care about it as much as journalists want them to. This is usually framed in pejorative terms, with readers and viewers seen as cosseted, and in response scholars and practitioners try to come up with new ways of breaking through the desensitised fog in which people are thought to live. In this seminar it will be seen that such strategies are largely counter-productive, and that if we want to reengage audiences with the realities of conflict and injustice we need to understand better how they pay attention to it amid the routines and rhythms of everyday life.

About the series

This new seminar series showcases current research across different disciplines and approaches within the Faculty of Media and Communication at BU. The research seminars include invited speakers in the fields of journalism, politics, narrative studies, media, communication and marketing studies. The aim is to celebrate the diversity of research across departments in the faculty and also generate dialogue and discussion between those areas of research.

Contributions include speakers on behalf of

The Centre for Politics and Media Research

The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community

Promotional Cultures & Communication Centre

Public Relations Research Centre

Narrative Research Group

Journalism Research Group

Advances in Media Management Research Group

Kind Regards,

Brian

Brian McNulty

Research Development Co-ordinator

Faculty of Media & Communication

The Loft (P181), Poole House, Talbot Campus

Fernbarrow, Poole

BH12 5BB

bmcnulty@bournemouth.ac.uk

(+44 (0)7834 154984

Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00-16:30

Web: www.bournemouth.ac.uk

Join us on: Facebook |Twitter |YouTube |LinkedIn

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

• Science communication | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Friday 29 April 2016 (still accepting submissions)
• Robotics and artificial intelligence | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Friday 29 April 2016 (still accepting submissions)
• Science in emergencies: chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear incidents | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Friday 20 May 2016
• Sexual harassment and sexual violence in schools | Women and Equalities Committee | Deadline: Sunday 22 May 2016
• DFID’s use of contractors | International Development Committee | Deadline: Monday 23 May 2016
• Improving the rail passenger experience | Transport Committee | Deadline: Wednesday 25 May 2016
• Regenerative medicine | Science and Technology Committee | Deadline: Tuesday 31 May 2016
• Impact of membership on the EU on health policy in the UK | Health Committee | Deadline: Tuesday 31 May 2016
• Electricity sector in Northern Ireland | Northern Ireland Affairs Committee | Deadline: Wednesday 1 June 2016
• Rail franchising | Transport Committee | Deadline: Friday 3 June 2016
• Fragility and development in the Democratic Republic of Congo | International Development Committee | Deadline: Monday 6 June 2016
• SDSR2015 and the Army | Defence Committee | Deadline: Monday 6 June 2016
• MoD support for former and serving personnel subject to judicial processes | Defence Sub-Committee | Deadline: Wednesday 8 June 2016

Joint Committee inquiries

• The Arms Trade Treaty | Committees on Arms Export Controls | Deadline: Tuesday 31 May 2016

UCU

UCU has confirmed that staff will strike on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 May, adding that if no agreement is reached in the coming weeks “members have agreed to target further strike action in June and July”. There is concern that the strikes will affect students over the exam period. University strike could threaten exams. (BBC News).

DHLE Consultation

HESA has released its consultation on the future of DLHE. The consultation is looking for feedback on high level principles regarding what information needs to be gathered about post study outcomes for those leaving higher education in future. It will focus on four key themes: future-proofing, efficiency, fit for purpose and supporting legislation. BU will be coordinating a response to the consultation.

 Resolution Foundation

The Resolution Foundation has published a report looking into improving career pathways for non-graduate careers. The report highlights that previous analysis and policy has focused on two groups – boosting high-level skills and improving the employment prospects of the least educated, whereas individuals in between those groups have been overlooked. You can view the report here.

 HEPI

HEPI has published a new report looking into why fewer men go to university than women, and why those who do attend, do not perform as well at university. The report makes several recommendations, including the suggestion of adopting a ‘Take Our Sons To University Day’ modelled on ‘Take Your Daughter To Work Day’. You can view the report here.

OFFA

OFFA has published their annual report on the outcomes of its access agreements in 2014/15. The report notes that while headway has been made to address under-representation among some groups, including students with a disability, more limited progress has been made in relation to part-time and mature students. You can view the report here.

NUS

Newcastle University Students’ Union has joined Lincoln in voting to disaffiliate from NUS. As at Lincoln, turnout was low, but the result was far more comprehensive in Newcastle with 67% voting to leave. Newcastle cut ties with the National Union of Students. (The Telegraph).

 HE White Paper

We are expecting the HE White Paper early next week. Wonkhe has published a blog outlining the ‘hopes and fears’ of the white paper which you can see here. The blog includes a comment from Jane Forster.

HEFCE

HEFCE has announced its preferred bidders for the new operating model for quality assessment in higher education in England.

• Gateway into the higher education system (Lot 1): the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
• Verification of a provider’s approach to its own review processes (Lot 2): the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
• Support for governing bodies (Lot 3): the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
• Unsatisfactory quality investigations (Lot 4): the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.
• Degree standards (Lot 5): the Higher Education Academy.
• International activities (Lot 6): the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education.

If you’ve got a great business idea or consider yourself a budding entrepreneur, you’re invited to present your pitch to a panel of five or six enthusiastic local business people at the AFC Bournemouth Vitality Stadium in June.

The panel will be made up of passionate local business people including, Lucy Cooper, Dorset Growth Hub and Nick Hixon, from Hixsons Business Advisors. Each pitch will be expected to last around 15 minutes, followed by 10 minutes for questions from the panel. There are five prizes of £1000 to be won which will be awarded at 4pm on the day.

To get involved, send a brief summary (no more than one side of A4) of your idea to careers@bournemouth.ac.uk by midday on Friday 20 May, with the subject line “Pitch at the pitch”.

Ten finalists will be invited to present their pitches at AFC Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium and successful applicants will be contacted on Friday 27 May.

For the full entry terms and conditions, please login to MyCareerHub using your BU login details.

The challenge is open to all levels and all years of BU students – so, why not get the ball rolling!

The pitch at the pitch challenge is brought you by Santander in conjunction with BU and hosted by AFC Bournemouth.

The final date for receiving any further funding applications related to UoA25 research development for this year (see earlier posts for details) will be Wednesday 18th May.

Communicating Research

FMC Cross-Departmental Seminar Series 2015-16

The Faculty of Media and Communication at BU

Venue: W240, Weymouth House, Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, BH12 5BB

Wednesday 11 May 2016, 3pm, W240

A Centre for Politics and Media Research Guest Lecture

Maria Rovisco, Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester

Picturing the Square: the Indignados Social Movement, Pop-up Democracy and the Occupied Square

This paper is concerned with how the indignados social movement (also known as M15) used particular forms of symbolic communication to articulate their collective self-representation as a movement of global citizens. Using a cultural sociology approach, I argue that in their public communication the indignados use the image of the ‘occupied square’ as a symbol of democracy ‘from below’ to transcend the local and address a global public of equally disaffected ordinary citizens. City squares became a stage for a political theatre in which the indignados go on to articulate their democratic struggles and a new way of doing politics outside formal politics, which is highly performative, and constitutive of their collective identity. Drawing upon Hariman and Lucaites’s (2007) conception of iconic image, we will see that the image of the occupied square resonates with global audiences because its meanings tap on a repertoire of culturally shared representations of non-violent occupations of urban space in the twentieth-century (e.g., Tiananmen Square, the civil rights sit-ins) that is powerfully embedded in western public memory. Through semiotic analysis of visual material (maps, photos, posters, image memes) and discourse analysis of public documentation (e.g., pamphlets, manifestos) available in the blogs of the encampments of Lisbon, Barcelona and Madrid, I will show how the occupied square can be understood both as a model of dissent and democratic participation, which becomes available for global circulation when it is picked up and amplified by the media.

About the series

This new seminar series showcases current research across different disciplines and approaches within the Faculty of Media and Communication at BU. The research seminars include invited speakers in the fields of journalism, politics, narrative studies, media, communication and marketing studies. The aim is to celebrate the diversity of research across departments in the faculty and also generate dialogue and discussion between those areas of research.

Contributions include speakers on behalf of

The Centre for Politics and Media Research

The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community

Promotional Cultures & Communication Centre

Public Relations Research Centre

Narrative Research Group

Journalism Research Group

Advances in Media Management Research Group

Kind Regards,

Brian

Brian McNulty

Research Development Co-ordinator

Faculty of Media & Communication

The Loft (P181), Poole House, Talbot Campus

Fernbarrow, Poole

BH12 5BB

bmcnulty@bournemouth.ac.uk

(+44 (0)7834 154984

Office Hours: Monday-Friday 8:00-16:30

Web: www.bournemouth.ac.uk

Join us on: Facebook |Twitter |YouTube |LinkedIn

Excitement as anniversaries loom and RUFUS STONE is involved in all of it!

• Excitement as anniversaries loom and RUFUS STONE is involved in all of it! 10th Anniversary of the LGBT tent at Glastonbury this summer where our film will feature.
  
• Next, a proposal for a 5th Anniversary of the premiere of RUFUS STONE is in the mix for next November at the Shelley Theatre in Bournemouth.
  
• Finally, BBC will be using our research to inform a new BBC Two film marking 50 years since the passage of the 1967 Sexual Offences Act (making homosexuality in the UK no longer punishable as a crime).

Stay tuned for further details about these events!

RUFUS STONE the movie website

Last week saw the publication of a new paper entitled: Dating WF16: Exploring the Chronology of a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A Settlement in the Southern Levant in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (London). This was published by BU staff member Emma Jenkins who is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology and colleagues from the University of Reading and Oxford Brookes University. This is a significant paper which presents 46 AMS Radiocarbon dates from the site and utilizes Bayesian methods to try and establish a chronology for WF16, one of the earliest settlements in the world which is located in southern Jordan. The excavation was unique in its size and scope for a site of this time period and in the number of AMS dates obtained. This paper makes an important contribution to our understanding of the Neolithic in the Levant-a time and place which saw the transition from mobile hunter-gatherers to settled farming communities. The paper is published Gold Open access and is available here: http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/23519/