Bangor International August 2014 by Bangor University

BANGOR INTERNATIONAL August 2014

Graduation success stories Below are only a few of our International students who successfully graduated from Bangor University last month...

Eta Uso from Nigeria emerged as Best Graduating Student by achieving the highest overall marks for all students who were taking the MSc Computing & Internet Systems programme at Bangor University’s School of Computer Science.

"One interesting thing that comes to mind when I think about my time in Bangor University, is that, the two renowned lecturers whom I read about and who inspired me to come to Bangor, actually did play a major role in my life story at Bangor University - Professor Jianming Tang and Dr William J Teahan”.

Ji Wu from China graduated with a ﬁrst-class BEng Electronic Engineering degree.

“Bangor has been a great experience for me, I was fully immersed into another culture and language which was scary at first but then I realised the benefits and made friends from all over the world. This really helped my English language, I am now confident and happy as a result. The good thing about Bangor is that it is a fairly quiet city with fewer distractions than at home which meant that I found it easy to concentrate on my studies.”

Maryam Khaled Ahmed Abdulla Mahmood from Bahrain who came to Bangor as part of an overseas partnership programme with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF) has come top of her year. She graduated from Bangor with the highest mark of approximately 320 ﬁnal-year graduates in the Business School – and the Craig Williams Memorial Award for the best performance in any Bangor Business School degree. “Bangor oﬀers a very suitable environment for those students who truly want to focus on their studies. “

In this issue of our newsletter... u u u

Graduation Success Launch of the Centre for Public Procurement Research News www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Research News Bangor holds a Brazilian themed World Cup Final Party! Biotechnology for green Pesticides Bangor University in conjunction with Almac Group and Hockley International have been awarded a grant to develop an organic natural based pesticide. The work will be carried out at the University’s College of Natural Sciences and Almac’s laboratories based in Northern Ireland commencing in September. This industry-relevant project using synthetic biology methods has attracted half a million pounds of funding to Bangor University over 3 years. This £1.25 million research is funded through Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council and Technology Strategy Board and it is aimed at bringing a novel natural herbicide produced via enzymatic route from an abundant natural oil to the market.

“It will be a close collaboration between the University’s School of Biological Sciences, Biocomposites Centre and 2 commercial partners - Almac and Hockley International,” explains Dr Viacheslav Tverezovskiy who is leading this research from the BioComposites Centre. Natural evolution has provided microbes with a toolbox of enzymes that are able to convert many biomolecules in nature. Frank Howard, MD and owner of Hockley International adds,

“Hockley has worked with the friendly and professional team at Biocomposites Centre for some four years on a large KTP project and some smaller items of research. Now we look forward to starting a new major three year project in synthetic biology along with Bangor and Almac which promises to be most exciting and scientiﬁcally challenging for us all.”

A large group of international students celebrated the football World Cup ﬁnal at Bangor with a Brazilian themed party on Sunday the 13th of July. The celebrations were led by our Brazilian ‘Science without Borders’ students who, although disappointed that Brazil hadn’t reached the ﬁnal, made sure it was a fun and lively event. Mask making and an international quiz preceded the big match with most of the students supporting Germany…and therefore very happy with the result! The party was one event of a series organised during the summer months for our pre-sessional English students. The comprehensive programme of trips, events, sports and cultural activities give students an opportunity to meet others in an informal setting, and to practice their English outside of the classroom.

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission student graduates Grace Mutali is the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Geography’s ﬁrst Commonwealth Scholarship Commission scholar to complete an MSc Forestry Distance Learning. She lives in Zambia, from where she has completed the entire course, except for a summer school that she attended in 2012 in Tanzania. She completed her dissertation with the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), with whom the School of Environment, Natural Resources and Georgraphy has very close links. Grace said: “Many thanks once again to Commonwealth Scholarship Commission for granting me a scholarship which enabled me obtain a Masters Degree in Forestry.”

UK - China Centre for Public Summer Schools Shanghai Ocean Procurement Law Research University Students visit Bangor

L-R: Prof Dermot Cahill, Head of Bangor Law School, Bangor University Vice Chancellor,Prof John G Hughes, Prof Jin Huang,President of CUPL & Prof Tao Zeng, Vice Dean of International Education, CUPL and the Chinese Director of the Joint Centre for the Public Procurement Studies

On July 1, 2014 Bangor and CUPL, China's largest Law university, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to launch a new joint research procurement law research centre, The Centre for Public Procurement Law Studies. The Centre will engage in joint research into a field of major significance not just for UK-China relations, but also for the global economy, as China's public procurement market contemplates to what degree should they open up to foreign competition in the years to come. Announcing the appointment of Prof Dermot Cahill and Prof Tao Zeng as the UK and China Directors of the new Centre, Bangor Vice Chancellor, Prof John Hughes observed that with Bangor's leading reputation in public procurement law studies, he was delighted that the superb research teams of Bangor and CUPL were proceeding to work together on issues of mutual interest that are of importance for the global procurement economy. Prof Hughes congratulations were joined by Prof Huang Jin, President of CUPL, who expressed his delight that Bangor/CUPL cooperation, already firmly established with our Confucius Institute, is now intensifying with the launch of the new joint procurement research Centre. Madame Ying Wang, the Director of the Department of Public Procurement at the Chinese Ministry of Finance welcomed the launch, offering strong support from the Chinese Government for the new Centre, and offered to engage strongly with the Centre as a resource to help the Chinese Government proceed with plans to reform its procurement laws and prepare for the Government Procurement Agreement global procurement negotiations. Professor Dermot Cahill confirmed that Bangor's major annual five day procurement week conference, Procurement Week 2015, will feature a dedicated session on China procurement issues and he will invite CUPL procurement researchers and Ministry officials to sit with global experts to contribute to the ongoing debate, which is of tremendous significance for the world economy. Over 20 Research Fellows from Bangor and CUPL were nominated to support the work of the new Centre, which will also help advise Chinese and UK enterprises on Chinese procurement issues. Welcoming Prof Tao Zeng to Bangor in August 2014, Prof Cahill said it was a privilege to now be working alongside such a brilliant scholar as Tao Zeng and he was confident that joint research bids and publications would result from the cooperation under the new Centre.

For the second year running a group of students from Shanghai Ocean University, China came to Bangor University for a two week Ocean Sciences summer school during July. During their time at Bangor they had the opportunity to study marine science in a setting where the ocean is just outside the door. They conducted various fieldwork activities along the Menai Straits, observing movements of the tidal currents, collecting zooplankton, they took part in lab work and fish dissection, observed breeding birds, took part in sand dune and exposed sandy shore fieldwork as well as a fieldtrip to Cwm Idwal in the Glyderau range of the Snowdonia mountains to discuss the geology of the mountains. In their fun filled two weeks the students also spent a weekend in London, visited the cultural city of Liverpool and the quaint seaside towns of Llandudno and Beaumaris, where they ended their two week stay with an exciting rib-ride along the Menai Straits.

www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Country Representatives Bing Li

Sukhjinder Bhatti

Maggie Parke

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388207 Email: b.li@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388874 Email: s.bhatti@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388416 Email: maggie.parke@bangor.ac.uk

Responsible for:

Bangladesh India Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka International students in the UK

Argentina Brazil Canada Chile

Sarah Jones-Morris

Noor Al-Zubaidi

Michael Rogerson

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 388843 Email: s.jones-morris@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 382879 Email: n.al-zubaidi@bangor.ac.uk

Tel: +44 (0) 1248 382879 Email: m.rogerson@bangor.ac.uk

Responsible for:

Brunei Russia Indonesia Singapore Kazakhstan Thailand Malaysia Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon

Bahrain Egypt Iraq Jordan Kuwait Libya

European Union Countries

Mainland China Hong Kong Japan Vietnam

South Korea Taiwan Philippines

Oman Saudi Arabia Turkey UAE Qatar

Upcoming Visits for 2014 We shall be visiting the following countries between August and December 2014: Bangladesh Bahrain Brunei Brazil Cananda China Colombia Ghana Hong Kong Indonesia Japan

Kuwait Kurdistan Malaysia Nigeria Oman Singapore Taiwan Thailand USA Vietnam

Please do contact us if you would like one of our international oﬃcers to visit your school or if you need any advice. W: www.bangor.ac.uk/international E: international@bangor.ac.uk

Colombia Mexico USA

January 2015 Courses Bangor University are offering numerous Business , Finance and Law programmes starting in January 2015. Most of the courses will be offerered at our Bangor Campus but there will also be a few available at our London Centre. For a detailed list of all courses offered in the January intake please visit the following link: www.bangor.ac.uk/courses/postgrad/postgrad_jan_intake.php.en Bangor is currently ranked No. 1 in the UK for Banking, Accounting & Finance Research (RAE 2008).