Bangor International Newsletter June 2013

BANGOR INTERNATIONAL June 2013

Three Bangor students win ‘Best Translator’ in European Competition... Three students at Bangor University have come tops in ‘University Challenge’, a ﬁerce pan European translation competition oﬀered by Veritas Language Solutions. The students, who are all studying at Bangor University’s School of Modern Languages, have each won ‘BestTranslators’ in their respective language categories. Dr Laura Rorato, Head of the School of Modern Languages said,

“We’re delighted to see that our students are so successful and they stand out amongst competitors from universities across Europe.” The winning students were Christina Les, Liu Changjing and Matt Jellicoe. In order to seek out the brightest young linguistic minds, the Competition judged their translations of set pieces of literature on the accuracy of their grammar and spelling, evidence of cultural knowledge, use of appropriate language, use of register and tone and their clear comprehension of the provided text. Liu Changjing won the English to Chinese category. She comes originally from Zhejiang in East China, but was attracted to Bangor University to study the MA in Translation Studies, aware that she would have a Chinese

Dr Laura Rorato, Head of the School of Modern Languages with Liu Changjing, one of the winning students

supervisor, and also aware of the UK’s great reputation for education. She was also awarded a School of Modern Languages International Scholarship. Liu is hoping to continue to PhD level and is currently awaiting conﬁrmation of a China Council Scholarship. Christina Les who won the translation from German to English is currently halfway through an MA in Translation Studies at Bangor University. The third winner was Matt Jellicoe who won the Chinese to English

translation. Matt is from Solihull, near Birmingham and is in his year at Bangor University. Dr Yan Ying Lecturer in translational Studies said:

“The source texts of this competition are very demanding. To be the ‘Best Translators’ of three language combinations in this competition testiﬁes the language proﬁciency as well as translation skills of our students.”

In this months issue... u u u

‘Best Translator’ success in European Competition Bangor chosen as host of prestigious Iraqi delegation Business School ranked top 20 in the world for banking research www.bangor.ac.uk/international

Research News... Bangor University chosen as

Bangor News...

host of prestigious Iraqi delegation...

New Research reveals the power of a smile...

A delegation of academics from universities in Iraq visited Bangor University this Spring for a month long intensive academic training program. The program provided 20 academics from top universities in Iraq with an insight into teaching and learning practices in the UK, giving the opportunity for academics to develop a learning vision towards research and teaching activities in international standards.

The School of Psychology at Bangor University has carried out research which reveals that people can easily and subconsciously spot the diﬀerence between genuine smiles and fake smiles, and that a fake smile can actually have a negative eﬀect on product sales.

Many of the academics will use practices which they have discovered in Bangor back in their home universities in Iraq and develop their programmes and in turn develop their students.

The research was carried out jointly with the School Of Psychology at Bangor University with whom SBXL (Shopping Behaviour Xplained Ltd) has a link-up to study how psychological and neuroscience research can help supermarkets and brands understand consumer decision making.

The training program is a result of a call from the Ministry of Higher Education in Iraq. Bangor University was chosen to host the training because of its “strong commitments and partnerships in Iraq” and “internationally recognised teaching and learning practices.”

The research carried out on behalf of a leading healthcare chain, showed that consumers were statistically more likely to select products which showed or were promoted with geniune smiles. SBXL’s managing director Phillip Adcock said there was behavioural science evidence which supported the research ﬁndings.

Since 2011, Bangor University has been expanding its partnerships with institutions as an integral part of its Internationalisation Strategy. This training program will provide a platform for universities in Iraq to discuss research and collaborative

Bangor Business School top 20 in the world for Banking Research...

opportunities with Bangor. The training programme has included classroom visits to observe teaching methods, visits to laboratories to see the latest research technologies and discussion on curriculum development. The delegation also enjoyed cultural visits and took in the beautiful scenery around Bangor, Llanberis and Snowdonia National Park. Encouraged by the success of this training program, all members of the delegation have expressed their support for continued collaboration between their own institutions and Bangor University. A number of agreements have already been approved and signed by Bangor University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. John G Hughes. He commented:

“We are delighted to have hosted our colleagues from Iraq and are excited about the opportunities which have been discussed. We look forward to a long and collaborative relationship both with the Cultural Attache and the visiting academics.”

Delegation with Vice-Chancellor and staﬀ from the International Education Centre

Agreements have been signed with many universities including; Basrah Almustansiria, Diyala, Babylon,Thi-Qar Tikrit, Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Mustansiria, Diyala Baghdad, Kuirkuk and Wasit. Prof Khalid Gatea Washeel Al-Hasnawi of Thiqar University commented:

“We are extremely grateful for the welcoming reception and warmth we have experienced from staﬀ at Bangor. We are sure that this visit will be one of many, and the beginning of a fruitful relationship with Bangor.” Iwan Roberts, Head of International Partnerships commented:

”Partnerships are at the heart of our Internationalisation strategy. We welcome the opportunity to extend our international reach to new partners from the very best institutions in Iraq.” During the last few days of the training programme, the University was delighted to welcome the Iraqi Cultural Attache, Professor Al Mosawe, president of Baghdad University. During a dinner at Professor John Hughes’s residence (Bangor University Vice Chancellor) a number of collaborative initiatives were discussed including joint research in the ﬁeld of medical sceinces, PhD programmes, short academic training programmes and research visits.

“When we pretend to smile all that happens is that the cheek muscles contract so the corner of the mouth moves outwards. In a genuine smile, on the other hand, it really does show in our eyes,” he said.

Bangor Business School has been ranked amongst the top 20 institutions in the world for research in the ﬁeld of Banking (as of April 2013). Bangor ranked ahead of the likes of Princeton, Yale and Harvard Business School in the April 2013 rankings by RePEc, a division of the Economic Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. It also retained its place as the highest ranking UK institution, ahead of Oxford University and the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. The RePEc survey considers research and publications by banks, economists and other monetary organisations, as well as universities such as Bangor. In this latest ranking table, the bibliographical data, citations and popularity data of 1,410 institutions were analysed. To see the list in full, visit http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.ban.html Bangor Business School is currently ranked as the no.1 Business School in the UK for research in the ﬁeld of Accounting and Finance, according to the latest Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) by the UK government.

To read the full article which featured in ‘The Grocery Trader’ please visit the following link: http://grocerytrader.co.uk/?p=16089* If this area of research interests you, have you considered our Consumer Psychology course? http://bit.ly/ZHwf7Z Professor Al Mosawe, Cultural Attache (left) with Vice Chancellor Professor John Hughes (right)

Above: Dr Xinyu Wu, Bangor University with Dr Sawsan Sajid Aljubori, Almustansiria University, Noor Al-Zubaidi, Bangor University and Dr Shafaa Mahdi Salih, University of Mosoul