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Two pieces of good news from the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Consortium and Conference

PG research

AMS is one of the key conferences for international marketers. Following a competitive selection process, Ms. Samreen Ashraf (PhD student from the Business School) was selected to attend the doctoral consortium organised by the Academy of Marketing Science. The consortium aimed to bring renowned scholars together in the field of marketing to discuss emerging areas, along with the art of producing publishable research. Some of these areas were marketing scholarship and new frontiers in services research. However the main focus was to identify the ways which can assist early career researchers to increase the impact of their research. 

Me and Julie picture

Ms. Samreen Ashraf also presented a research paper at the main conference which was co-authored with Dr. Julie Robson and Dr. Najat Abdullrahim titled: Faith, trust and pixie dust: a comparative study of consumer trust in Islamic banks’. This paper explored how and in what form trust, in an Islamic bank compliance with Sharia law, occurs in two distinctly different contexts, namely England and Pakistan; and how this in turn influences banking behaviour. Trust was investigated from cognitive, affective and behavioral dimensions. 

The AMS consortium and conference took place in Orlando, Florida. 

Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework – Research Council funding

Knowledge Exchange, Training

RCUK logoWe have previously posted about the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Development Framework. Here we introduce the first of the pathways: that dedicated to funding from the UK Research Councils.

There will be a wide range of sessions relating to RC applications, including an online introduction to the UK Research Councils for those new to the funders, or to the UK funding landscape. There will be an event led by an external facilitator where you’ll have the opportunity to get you thinking about different ways of approaching the Case for Support, including time to write the document and gain feedback. We’ll run a session giving information and examples relating to building partnerships and working with stakeholders and another concerning the Pathways to Impact statement. We’ll also provide another online session to support you in writing the Justification of Resources.

We’ll be populating the the OD website with more information and the booking link over the coming weeks. We’ll also be providing a timetable of all events as soon as possible. In the meantime, updates will be posted on the BU research blog and the Faculty blogs.

Introduction to the Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework

Knowledge Exchange, Training

We are delighted to announce that the Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) development framework will launch in October 2016! launching soon pic

The RKE development framework will offer a new range of opportunities for BU academics  to develop their skills, knowledge and capabilities in relation to research and knowledge exchange.

Consultation with academic colleagues has been key to its development, to ensure that the opportunities to be made available match their needs and wishes. We have created an agile and flexible Framework which we trust will appeal to colleagues undertaking research and knowledge exchange activities across the University.

Look out for more information coming each week on the research blog.

Committee inquiries: open calls for evidence

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

Joint Committee inquiries

HE Policy Update

Student Loans 

It has been reported that some graduates are not informed when their student loans have been paid off resulting in repayments being taken from their accounts, despite clearing their debt. Graduates who keep on paying after they’ve cleared their student debts (The Guardian).

Skills White Paper

BIS is planning to publish a Skills White Paper, which will propose the recommendations from a review into technical and professional education pathways led by Lord Sainsbury. No technical and professional education pilot until 2019/20 (FE Week).

OfS and UKRI

BIS have published their business cases for the Office for Students (OfS) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The documents reveal that the OfS will cost approximately £31 million to run annually, considerably more than the joint £26.6 million running costs of HEFCE and OFFA in 2015. BIS has also predicted a £4 million transitional cost falling in 2017-18 for setting up the UKRI.

 UCAS

UCAS have published their first equality reports for individual universities. This is the first time application and offer data at the institutional level has been made available and broken down by sex, ethnicity and socio-economic background. The data reveals there are many factors that can affect the statistics for individual universities, such as the courses they offer, where they are located, and how they assess different exam subjects. Universities will often have a student profile driven mainly by the demographics of the local population if that is their main recruitment area. You can view the data here.

Student Academic Experience

HEPI and HEA have published their annual findings from their report on the student academic experience. The report reveals that many students would opt for high contact hours above small class sizes. The report also reveals that students care about high-quality teaching and staff who continuously develop their skills. You can view the report here.

 Jo Johnson MP

The Universities and Science Minister Jo Johnson spoke at a HEPI event focusing on the student journey. Jo Johnson set out the rationale for the HE reforms saying how students now expect to meet more of the costs of their education through their future earnings and therefore have a sharper eye for quality and value for money. You can read his full speech here.

EU research funding

UUK have published a report claiming that EU research funding generates more than 19,000 jobs across the UK, £1.86 billion for the UK economy and contributes more than £1 billion to GDP. You can view the report here.

BU’s PhD student Isabell Nessel attending the UK Association for Milk Banking annual training day in London, 8th of June

conferences, PG research

UKAMB Training Day2

The UK Association for Milk Banking (UKAMB) recently held their annual training day in London (Picture: Isabell and UKAMB’s Trustee Chair Ann McCrea). Mostly, milk bank staff were present; however, the training day is also open to anyone interested in human milk banking. Therefore, milk donors, medical researchers, midwives, neonatal nurses and clinicians were also in attendance. The presentations included current topics such as the Zika virus and the implications for milk banking, new guidance on decontamination of breast milk pumps and an update of ongoing research at donor milk banks.

As part of this, I presented my proposed donor milk bank survey, which is part of my PhD at BU. I received a great deal of helpful feedback and support from UKAMB and the audience. It was a great opportunity to get more insights into human milk banking and ongoing research in the UK and to network with potenital participants of the survey and possible future collaborators. Thanks to Bournemouth University for the funding, which made my attendance possible!

A big thank you also goes to Gillian Weaver and UKAMB for the invitation,UKAMB and this great, informative day! If you would like to find out more about human milk banking in the UK or want to become a milk donor visit UKAMB’s website at http://www.ukamb.org/.

If you would like to learn more about our research, please feel free to contact me at inessel@bournemouth.ac.uk

Isabell

Annual Eurographics UK Chapter Conference -Computer Graphics and Visual Computing

conferences

BU is hosting the 2016 Annual Eurographics UK Chapter Conference -Computer Graphics and Visual Computing (CGVC 2016). 

The annual EGUK conference is a meeting place for all those in the UK working in computer graphics and visual computing. It attracts researchers from across the country and from further afield.​ Followed by the 2015 CGVC  conference held at UCL, the Creative Technology department in the Faculty of Science and Technology is the local organizer  of 2016 CGVC.  

Detailed call for paper can be found at http://www.eguk.org.uk/CGVC2016/

For more information, contact Dr Wen Tang.​

BU-Nepal link highlighted

international, Publishing, writing

Talbot Himalayans 2016This week BU’s work in Nepal was highlighted in several ways.  Most publicly on the wonderful new mural at Talbot Campus.  Secondly, BU currently displays some of the entries of images to the past two years of its research photo competition.  The photos show the creativity of BU’s academics and students as well as the fascinating range of research taking place at the university.  One of these pictures was taken by FHSS Visiting Faculty Dr. Bibha Simkhada during fieldwork in Dhading, Nepal.  The selected photos are on display in the Atrium Art Gallery until the 13th of June.  Helicopter Dhading

Last, but not least, another FHSS Visiting Faculty, Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust midwife Jillian Ireland published a blog on her involvement in the THET-funded project in Nepal.  She reflects on her time as UK volunteer in Nepal.  Jilly wrote: ” Three volunteers Andrea Lawrie, David Havelock and I are keen to share what we experienced in a paper sometime soon and today I will condense some of my own reflections. I wrote ‘letters’ (via email) to my Head of Midwifery, Sandra Chitty and to Senior Lecturer in Midwifery at Bournemouth University Dr. Jen Leamon while I was away, using different styles of expression to ‘get at’ my reflections from more than one angle. It helped me to separate out elements of the whole experience.”

Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen

CMMPH

My Erasmus mobility in Viana do Castelo, Portugal

I recently returned from Portugal where I spent time as part of an Erasmus staff mobility. I spent a week at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo, and more specifically at the Tourism Department within the School of Management & Technology. Viana do Castelo is located in the north-west of Portugal, in a beautiful province called Minho, and sits along the mouth of the Lima River.

viana (18)20160522_18155420160519_183603

Having done my undergraduate studies in Portugal, and then my PhD in the UK, I have always reflected on the characteristics of the two educational systems. One major difference between them is that in Portugal the system assumes that the student has the skills and therefore the educational work mainly focuses on ‘doing’. In the UK, in contrast, we do not make such assumption and there is a very intense focus on study skills. In other words, we focus on content as much as on the process of doing the task well. That’s why we have very comprehensive study skills communities and we focus part of our learning and teaching activity on helping students to develop skills rather than knowledge.

Over the years I have learned about, and reflected on what those key skills are, while at the same time tried to find ways to explain these skills to students in a way that it makes sense to them. Initially, the driver to do this was the help myself (so that I could evolve my style of teaching and adapt to the UK system), but along the way I started to develop simple yet effective ways of explaining those skills to students.

Over the past two years I have put these ideas down on paper through my e-book on “Writing Dissertations & Theses: What you should know but no one tells you”. While the book explains, in a very student friendly way, some of the key skills required to do well in a dissertation, much of its content is also relevant to any academic assignment. After discussing with Portuguese colleagues what would be best for students, we concluded that focusing on developing these research skills would be interesting.

During my presentations I explained some of the key aspects of this work that I have been doing. In particular, I explained the 6Cs of Academic Writing Excellence that I explore in my e-book (Confined, Corroborated, Critical, Concise, Coherent and Captivating) as well as some of the tips & tools required to fulfill with these Cs. These tips & tools include the three pillars of research, the structure of an argument and the stages in the intellectual depth ladder. Personally, this was a great opportunity to share with Portuguese students the material I have been developing at Bournemouth. At the same time, it was an opportunity to test if the material and the explanation is suited to non-UK students.

viana2viana1

The feedback was tremendously positive with students using the presentation to reflect on their academic skills. There were very interesting discussions, with many questions asked and students showing a genuine interest in exploring this ‘New World’ for them.  The impacts were immediate as after the first presentation on Monday, Dr. Alexandra told me that they were already applying some of the knowledge during their Tuesday session, where they worked on an assignment. One student commented on the school’s Facebook, saying “congratulations, it was a very interesting experience which has expanded our horizons and made us learn about other realities. Out of the box. An experience, without a doubt, to be repeated.”

During my visit I also worked with Dr. Alexandra Correia on a joint paper we started last year. I also met with Dr. Goretti Silva and Dr. Carlos Fernandes from the tourism department.

20160521_234801

With Dr. Alexandra Correia and Dr. Goretti Silva at the Chocolate Factory Hotel, on the last day of the mobility.

Research and Knowledge Exchange Development Framework and your appraisal

Knowledge Exchange, Training

We posted a couple of weeks ago about the new Research and Knowlege Exchange (RKE) Development Framework. With appraisals looming, we’ll be going along to discuss the framework with line managers across the Faculties, but you may wish to start thinking about the pathways or sessions you may wish to join in order to progress your career and research and knowledge exchange plans. Presented below are a list of the pathways confirmed at this point, and indicative content for each. We are working hard to confirm further sessions and to provide more detail as soon as possible on the OD webpages.

Pathway Indicative Content
Research Council funding An introduction to the UK Research Councils, some key principles to consider, working with stakeholders, pathways to impact statements, approaching the Case for Support and writing the Justification for Resources
EU Funding An introduction to Horizon 2020 and other EU funding schemes, some key principles to consider, IPR for EU projects, and call-specific Bid Writing Retreats
Funding from the Academies An introduction to the British Academy and the Royal Society, working with stakeholders and Bid Writing Retreats
Funding from Major Charities An introduction to Wellcome and Leverhulme Trusts, working with stakeholders, hints and tips for applications to charities and Bid Writing Retreats
National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) An introduction to funding schemes, applying to NIHR calls and Patient and Public Involvement (PPI)
International Funding An introduction to selected international funding schemes
Pre-Award at BU Getting started, financial and legal considerations, BU processes and using Research Professional to locate funding
Building a Team Working with stakeholders, networking, team building, Sandpits and Interdisciplinary Research.
Working with Business Introductions to knowledge exchange including Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), and IP and commercialisation
Returning to Academia after a break Specific funding opportunities for those returning to academia and building resilience in research and knowledge exchange
The REF TBC
Planning for and communicating research Engaging with policymakers, public engagement, social media for impact and digital communication
Skills Development BRIAN, RED, BURO, Using the Library, Je-S, eGAP, eRA Commons, IPR, Contracts and BU procedures, and Ethics

 

 

**** Speaker Spotlight **** Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day on 21/6/16


IR21616
BU is hosting a Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day on 21st June 2016, dedicated to exploring the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary research.

The Funders’ Perspective will be provided by three speakers:

Charlotte Lester, as Policy Advisor at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will discuss her role where she manages interdisciplinary research and public engagement with research policy

Dan Licari (Innovate UK / KTN Creative, Digital & Design) will explore industry interactions 

Ben Sharman (EU NCP – Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies) will outline Embedding SSH across Horizon 2020.

Other presentations include:

Key Note address – Dr. Louise Mansfield (Deputy Director of the Brunel Centre for Sport, Health and Wellbeing and member of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing research team)

Supporting Interdisciplinary Working – Prof. Alan Lester and Debbie Foy-Everett (Sussex), Jordan Graham and Ehsan Masood (Research Professional) and Christopher Ferguson (Piirus)

The Academics’ Perspective – Prof. Adele Ladkin (BU), Dr. David Hutchinson (Portsmouth) and Dr. Justine McConnell (TORCH, University of Oxford)

Facilitated networking session – How can I contribute?

Please see the Speaker Biographies for further information on our contributors.

The event will take place in BU’s Executive Business Centre. It will be opened BU’s Professor Michael Wilmore (Executive Dean – Faculty of Media and Communication and the closing remarks will be made by BU’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor John Vinney. To find out more about BU’s Research, why not register to receive updates from our award winning Research Blog.

Please see the finalised Interdisciplinary Research HE Sector Day Progamme for more information. Key to the programme, as well as inspirational speakers, there will be plenty of time to network with colleagues and participate in exploring your own relationship with interdisciplinary research.

This event, is free and open to academics and research support staff throughout the UK.

Places are limited, so book now via Eventbrite.

Could Bournemouth be a ‘Green Capital of Europe’?

Business Engagement, Festival of Learning

Our Festival of Learning event (27th June), in partnership with colleagues from Bournemouth Borough Council, will consider this question and explore a vision for developing green talent, sustainable business, and a sustainable city – a virtuous circle!

We shall showcase the leadership role of BU, in relation to sustainable development (education, research, community) and particularly our work to achieve EcoCampus Platinum. We shall also feature the MSc Green Economy – a course which is producing exceptional post-grads who are engaging with amazing projects.

Chris Shephard, Head of Economic Development & Sustainability at Bournemouth Borough Council will provide an update on activities, including the Compact of Mayors, the Earth Charter and work to take sustainability forward. We are already doing a lot locally (the Sustainable Food Partnership and Sustainable Fish City, for example) but are we doing enough of the right things? How do we capture and promote endeavours?

Dr Simon Cripps will talk about natural capital in the context of development planning, both of infrastructure and building, but also of development and growth projects.

Edmund Taylor, Environmental Barrister and Chair of the Sustainable Business Leadership Group (SBLG) will introduce the thinking that led to the formation of the group (we owe thanks to Lee Green), and suggest ways that others might engage. Synergies arise when business leaders work together to share practice and innovation; the group has already catalysed networking and learning.

Following formal presentations, breakout sessions will consider how we build capacity, develop leadership for sustainable development and make a step-change in valuing and contributing to natural capital.  Could we, for example report on natural capital in our Annual Reports? A valuable outcome from the event would be to have a clearer understanding of how we develop a greener economy and work towards branding ourselves as a Sustainable City – gaining the award ‘Green Capital of Europe’ at some point in the future, would be something to be proud of!

Places are free.

To book a place please register at:

https://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/festival-of-learning/events/building-a-sustainable-city-how-can-business-leadership-create-a-greener-bournemouth/

Assessing Undergraduate Research Assistants’ Learning through Participatory Methods

Centre for Excellence in Learning, Fusion Investment Fund, student research

This blog post reports on the progress of the CEL-Fusion Funded project Assessing Undergraduate Research Assistants’ Learning through Participatory Methods (AURAL).

The Undergraduate Research Assistantship (URA) is an institutional programme run by BU’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Office (RKEO), which furnishes academics with the financial means to hire a part-time (spring cohort) or full-time (summer cohort) research assistant who works between 75 and 225 hours on the academics’ research projects. This scheme runs twice a year and this year alone attracted 95 applications from academics with the most diverse projects.

Student researchers plan their diaries' content over pizza and snacks.

Student researchers plan their diaries’ content over pizza and snacks.

Interventions that use a ‘students-as-researchers’ pedagogy, where undergraduate students are involved in research-intensive projects, are increasing in the UK (Walkington, 2015) and internationally (Healey, 2014). BU’s URA programme is an apposite case study given its arrangements of paid research placements, which position the scheme as both research-based and work-based learning. This research contributes to the burgeoning literature on students-as-researchers through its employment of a dialogical participatory research design whereby students actively self-monitor their evolving learning when working on a research project. Through the use of reflective diaries and participatory sessions, students engaged in the process of evaluating the impact of this university-wide scheme.

In this endeavour, RKEO and CEL worked closely to embed the research into the scheme. We matched a participatory planning session for those students taking part in the research with the induction for the entire cohort of URA, so that the timing would be convenient for the majority of them. In addition, the research was run in parallel with their URA placements, and the necessary adjustments were made when students continued working beyond their URA contracts.

The preliminary results of AURAL were reported during CELebrate, through a session that provided a link with other colleagues interested in fostering research-based learning and its university-wide implementation. Twelve students from the spring cohort agreed to take part in the research, but only 7 wrote at least one diary entry and 3 made it to the closing session. All students who agreed to take part are being invited for an in-depth interview, while 17 new participants have been recruited from the summer cohort.

For a flavour of the passages coded under ‘research skills’ gained by participants, see the quotes below:

I learnt how to successfully collect various forms of offline data in order to provide some background data for a study. I have also learnt that the collection process is not a scary as first thought, and confidence and professionalism is key to the collection of good data and a happy participant. The participant feel safe and confident and more willing to participate if you actually look like you know what you’re doing and happy to be doing so (Participant 3, Diary entry 5)

I understood Thematic Analysis a lot better and felt more comfortable doing it now knowing what I was doing (Participant 4, Diary entry 2)

The full results of this scheme will be ready by the end of the summer. Watch this space!

References

Healey, M. (2014). Integrating Undergraduate Research into the Curriculum: International Perspectives on Capstone and Final-year Projects. CUR Quarterly, 34(4), 26-32.
Walkington, H. (2015). Students as researchers: Supporting undergraduate research in the disciplines in higher education. York: Higher Education Academy.

Note: Earlier versions of this text were submitted as part of a number of internal and external applications and presented at CELebrate. The blog post was first published at the CEL Blog, and is reposted here with permission.

Vitae and Researcher Development

student research, Training

Vitae is an organisation set up to promote career development in both postgraduate researchers and academic staff. Their Researcher Development Framework is intended to help people monitor their skills and plan their personal development. At BU we will be using this framework to format the training on offer for the postgraduate research students and academic staff.

The Vitae website is an excellent resource and the organisation regularly runs free training events for researchers, PGRs and those involved in research development. Upcoming events include Vitae Connections: Supporting Open Researchers.

Vitae_RDF_logo_2011The Researcher Development Framework (RDF) is the professional development framework to realise the potential of researchers. The RDF is a tool for planning, promoting and supporting the personal, professional and career development of researchers in higher education. It was designed following interviews with many successful researchers across the sector and articulates the knowledge, behaviours and attributes of a successful researcher.

There is a planner available on the Vitae website to help you assess which stage you are at with your skills and a tutorial providing guidance on how to use the framework.

Top 10 tips from researchers on using the Researcher Development Framework (RDF):

1. You might choose to use the RDF for short term as well as long term development. The RDF can be used in planning for your long term career ambitions but also to make a feasible short term plan. It can be useful to imagine your long term ambitions in order to focus your career path however the reality of progressing through to the higher phases may be more difficult to plan. In the short term, making decisions about how to progress to the next phase or what sub-domains are most important for you will be easier. Try to be realistic when setting these short term goals.

2. Use the RDF to highlight your strengths and areas for development and how these might be used to benefit/influence your personal, professional and career development.

3. Use the RDF to highlight your applicable and transferable skills. This is important for career progression within or outside academia.

4. Prioritise those areas which are most relevant. You don’t have to try to develop in all the areas of the RDF at once. There may be some sub-domains/descriptors where there is less relevance in progressing through the phases for you.

5. Draw on experiences outside of work to evidence your capabilities.

6. Progression to the highest phase in a descriptor will not be applicable to everyone but being aware of the possibilities can aid personal and career development.

7. Talk to others to get their views about your strengths and capabilities. Your supervisor, manager, peers, family and friends are a great source of information to find out more about yourself. Talk to them about how they perceive your capabilities. By understanding how others view you, you will be able to make more informed choices about your future.

8. To move from one phase to the next why not explore attending courses. These courses may be run at a local level (within your University) or may only be run nationally or internationally so awareness of opportunities for training is important. Vitae also run a wide range of courses which address many aspects of personal and career development.

9. Some phases may only be reached through experience and practice however good self-awareness and professional development planning will aid the process.

10. Networking is likely to enable you to reach more experienced phases.