City News Issue 20

City News Issue 20

CITY’S GREAT WAR

NEWS

UPDATES

RESEARCH

MEET THE TEAM

MORE...

Hello Hello and welcome to a special edition of City News. In addition to our regular features and interviews, this edition marks the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and we join institutions across the country in reflecting on our involvement in a conflict which changed history and helped shape our nation.

Here at City we recently unveiled an exhibition and commemorative plaque to honour the staff, students and alumni of the Northampton Institute (as City was known at the time) who contributed to the war effort between 1914 and 1918. The University produced munitions, trained soldiers and provided expertise to the government. Over 2,000 men associated with the Institute fought for their country, with many decorated for their endeavours and bravery.

Sadly, many did not return from the front lines.

Some moving stories have been unearthed in the City archives. One in particular stood out.

Alumnus Corporal Horace Cowlin signed up at the age of 33, joining the 1st Battalion London Rifle Brigade. He was sent to the front line in France and died in the Battle of the Somme in 1916. Although he was not decorated for his bravery, Corporal Cowlin died carrying out an act of great sacrifice and heroism. While throwing a grenade at an enemy position, a rifle shot struck his wrist, which resulted in him dropping the grenade into his own trench as the fuse was burning. With the rest of his battalion in grave danger, Corporal Cowlin threw himself upon the grenade, shielding others from the blast and flying fragments. The Cowlin Memorial Shelter in Valentines Park in Ilford, completed in 1917 to honour him, is still standing today.

In this issue we also share the stories of women such as Flora Sandes, who was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier and Edith Cavell, who trained nurses on the front line in Belgium. Cavell saved countless lives before she was shot for treason, having been charged by the German authorities for harbouring Allied soldiers. A role model for those wanting to enter the profession, her statue stands in the Clinical Skills Suite in the Tait Building, reminding our student nurses on the impact they can have on society. We also show how philanthropy boomed during the period as people rushed to support the War effort. Some 18,000 new charities were created, raising the equivalent of £7.5 billion in today’s money, setting the template which many charities still follow.

The exhibition is opposite the Common Room in the College Building and allows staff, students and visitors to learn about City’s rich history.

The information can also be viewed online at www.city.ac.uk/first-world-war-centenary

Simon Watts Head of Communications and Events

Contents 2 3 4 6

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Into City Behind the scenes Clearing and adjustment A word with Professor Dinos Arcoumanis Made@City: Technology and Creativity from City’s best City’s Great War Nursing London through WW1 The changing face of women during WW1 Codes and ciphers from WW1 Philanthropy and voluntary action during WW1 Meet the academics Dr Rachel Holland, Lecturer in Language and Communication Science Professor Andrew Choo, Professor of Law

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Meet the team – Portering The Conversation Director General’s BBC plans look like the start of a revolution

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Optical expert Student perspectives - Graduation

It’s your magazine Comments and feedback are always welcome, as are suggestions for future editions such as research outputs or an exciting new project. Please contact the Editor.

Marketing & Communications reserves the right to edit submissions.

About City News City News is published six times a year by Marketing & Communications for all staff.

Back issues: blogs.city.ac.uk/staff-news/city-news Editor: Demetri Petrou Tel: 020 7040 8783 Email: demetri.petrou.1@city.ac.uk Thank you... ...to all of this issue’s contributors: Jonathan Appleyard, Professor Dinos Arcoumanis, Professor Andrew Choo, Sophie Cubbin, Professor Paul Curran, Dr Graham Daborn, Dominic Davis, Adrian Dutch, Peter Farrow, Louise Gordon, Dr Peter Grant, Dr Rachel Holland, Mark Jones, Eamon Martin, Helen Merrills, Jackie Monte-Columbo, Ben Mumby-Croft, Nicholas Murphy, Henri Obstfeld, Erin Rooney, John Stevenson, Professor David Stupples, Lindsey Venden, Dr. Julie Wheelwright and George Wigmore.

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Into City

Boran Li (left) spent his graduation day much like any of his fellow students. Taking photos with friends, catching up with his colleagues and celebrating the achievement of his degree. But his journey to graduation began earlier than most, starting when he joined the INTO City programme the year before commencing his degree.

INTO is a private education provider that offers international students the necessary preparation for starting their undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in the UK, US and China. Since opening its doors in 2010, INTO City, a joint venture between INTO and City

Environmental Economics at UCL. With more INTO City students graduating from the University each year, the relationship seems set to grow from strength to strength.

Eamon Martin, Director of Operations for the INTO City joint venture, says “at INTO City we have a first-rate track record in preparing students for further study at the University. It’s fabulous to see the students graduating from the University. It’s a very visible sign of a successful partnership.”

Adrian Dutch, City’s Head of International Recruitment, also sees the advantages of the INTO City programme. The partnership allows

“The International Foundation course at INTO really helped me start my studies at City on a high” University London, has helped over 2,000 students to achieve their academic goals. This year, alongside Boran Li, 33 INTO City students graduated from City’s degree programmes.

Boran, who arrived to study from China, credits his experience of INTO City with preparing him for his time as a City student.

“The International Foundation course at INTO really helped me start my studies at City on a high. Once I’d passed my exams I not only felt academically prepared, but with the friends I’d made on the course, I also felt confident entering into university life.”

Having graduated with a BSc in Investment and Financial Risk Management, he is now excited to continue his studies on the MSc

the University to retain control over the quality of the academic experience while ensuring consistent support for incoming students.

“At recruitment fairs all over the world, we meet potential students who might not be quite ready to join City. Perhaps their English language skills need improving or they need a better grounding in their subjects. Being able to offer INTO City courses as the first step on a journey to a City degree gives us a competitive advantage over other UK universities.”

Newcastle, UEA, Manchester and Exeter are among other UK universities with partnerships with INTO. Estimates suggest that INTO students have generated some £400 million in additional revenue for the sector.

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Behind the scenes: Clearing and Adjustment “I understand more than most what it means for students to go through the Clearing and Adjustment process. A few years ago, it was me on the other end of my phone.”

Each August, students throughout the country wait anxiously to hear the news that will change their lives. ‘A’ Level results day is one of the most important in the life of a teenager.

On that day, thousands of students miss the conditions for entry to their chosen university or they exceed their expected grades and can re-examine their options. Both sets of students enter the frantic world of Clearing and Adjustment.

Clearing and Adjustment is the process through which universities and colleges fill any places they still have on their courses after students have received confirmation of their results.

In 2013, UCAS reported that just over 57,000 students were placed in higher education through the process, representing a four per cent increase on 2012.

At City, to help with the huge volume of enquiries, 83 students and recent graduates Staff taking calls from prospective students

joined over a hundred members of staff to manage this year’s Clearing and Adjustment operation, which began on Thursday 14th August.

This year’s statistics show the size of the task at hand. City received more than 11,000 ‘phone calls over the first two days. The University website had 218,000 views over this period (almost 100,000 more than last year), while the specific Clearing and Adjustment pages had over 17,000 views in this time.

Arguably, the perception and the use of Clearing and Adjustment has changed in recent years as a consequence of relaxing Student Number Control (SNC) and allowing universities to take an unlimited number of students with ‘A’ Level grades of ABB+ or equivalent. This development (due to end this year) has seen many universities take advantage in order to grow popular subject areas and increase their student intakes and

all the signs are this happened again in 2014 – with acceptances up by three per cent nationally.

One of the team in this year’s operation was Nisha Bhaskaran, who graduated from City with an upper second in Economics last summer. Nisha has first-hand experience of Clearing, having entered City via this route.

“I understand more than most what it means for students to go through the Clearing and Adjustment process. A few years ago, it was me on the other end of my ‘phone. I had one of my exams re-marked, giving me the ‘A’ in Psychology I needed to get my place at City, fulfilling a big ambition.

Now that I’m working alongside the Marketing team, helping these students on such a frantic day, it’s a really great experience”.

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A word with Professor Dinos What first brought you to City in 2000?

After eight years as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, initially responsible for Research & Enterprise and more recently for International & Development, Professor Dinos Arcoumanis has stood down from his role to take his first steps towards retirement.

He’ll be reducing his 14-year academic tenure at City to part-time work, in order to concentrate on energy and shipping, alongside his other role as Ambassador for the Hellenic Republic.

City News spoke to Dinos about his time at City and what the future has in store for him.

I had served as an academic at Imperial College London for 21 years. At that point, I wasn’t necessarily looking for something new, but I was open to new opportunities. I was invited in to speak to some colleagues at City to see what it would take to get me to make the move. At that point, my knowledge of the Islington area was limited, so I had to keep stopping to ask for directions. When I eventually found it, I was asked by the then Vice-Chancellor to write down a wish list of things that I would need to lead the School of Engineering and take it forward. I wrote down a rather ambitious list including new members of staff, equipment and everything else I could think of. The art of negotiation had taught me to ask for as much as you can and then expect to be haggled down. To my surprise, the Vice-Chancellor agreed to all my suggestions and I was appointed as Head of the Aeronautical, Civil and Mechanical Engineering Department (ACME), assuming soon after the post of Dean of the School of Engineering. It was at that point where I realised how ambitious City was and that it was determined to become one of the best.

What were your first impressions of your new colleagues?

I had worked in higher education for several years and knew first-hand the competitive nature of the world of academia.

What surprised me was how friendly and welcoming everyone was. It was clearly a time of transition and we saw that changes were being made to improve City’s position. It was time for us all to work together to help the University to move up the rankings. It was an exciting time with a lot of promises and expectations.

With several years of service as a Dean and as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, what are some of your proudest moments?

There have been many, so it’s difficult to pin down just one or two. It was only when I was in post that I realised that the financial state of the School of Engineering wasn’t as good as it could have been. One of my proudest moments was making the School a profitable part of the University within my first three years. That doesn’t sound like a traditional academic ‘career high’ but the fact that I managed to do that while expanding with over 50% new staff and bringing in the Department of Mathematics is something I take pride in. Another would be my appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research & International) in 2006. It was the first time the University had such a role and I felt privileged to be given the responsibility.

The University realised quite early the importance of internationalisation and in 2010, I established the World Cities World Class (WC2) University network. This brings together top universities located in the heart of major world cities in order to address cultural, environmental and political issues of common interest.

Now that you’ve helped set City on a pathway, where do you see the future of the University?

City is at an interesting crossroads. If we continue on the course that has been set with the Strategic Plan, I am confident that the University will move forward on its trajectory of academic excellence. Research is such a vital aspect for the future of higher education

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s Arcoumanis and a stronger and more consistent research performance will see City’s reputation expand globally. We are also strong and experienced in educating our talented students from all over the world. If we play to our strengths in both research and education, combined with our unique location at the heart of the world city of London, we can look to the future with real confidence and pride.

What are you looking forward to about your new role at City?

I think it will be the ability to influence the direction of the University but without having the responsibility for day-to-day decisions.

Initially I may feel like a backseat driver, which is unavoidable after so many years in academic administration, turning later into a

keen observer of City’s academic development but without the burdens of having to attend successive committee meetings and writing reports!

director of a global shipping company so I plan to share my time between my academic and non-academic roles which may involve some extra travelling.

What will you do with all your spare time?

That doesn’t sound like much of a retirement!

As well as my continuing advisory role here at City, I also have several external responsibilities. In my native Greece, I am the Ambassador-at-Large of the Hellenic Republic for Energy Policy and New Technologies. With energy exploration, transport and consumption being such a global issue, I’m looking forward to dedicating more time to helping find ways that my country of birth can improve its energy mix and independence while protecting its natural environment.

I was also recently appointed a non-executive

I guess it doesn’t, however I think that when you are doing different things, the variety of roles makes you feel more energised and that helps time to move faster! As I will be spending more time away from academia, I am sure that when I come back to the University for my part-time appointment in the School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering I will feel fresh again and ready for new challenges!

Professor Stanton Newman, Dean of the School of Health Sciences, Alexander Kachkaev, PhD student in the School of Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering; Hannah Yewbrey, International Relations Manager and Professor Dinos Arcoumanis, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International & Development)

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Made@City:

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BIG THINGS OFTEN HAVE THEIRORIGINS INSMALL CONVERSATIONS...

What started off last year as an informal chat between Enterprise Education manager, Ben Mumby-Croft and former manager of the Professional Liaison Unit (PLU), Alex Elkins, about an end-of-year showcase for final year students, became Made@City, one of City's major annual events.

Ben recalls “Alex and I were talking about what we did at City and he mentioned that he had an idea for an end-of-year showcase for the best student projects where students produced not only apps or websites but physical objects involving making or building something.”

“These are not necessarily entrepreneurial students that are pitching a business idea – they may have built something for their final year assessment or because they are seeking to launch their own businesses, but they might be simply looking for a job. Made@City was conceived as a great way of demonstrating the widest range of creativity for final year students.

More importantly, it's also about getting them into a room so that visiting investors and employers can see their creations and what they have to offer”.

Made@City was successfully pitched to the Tech City Investment Organisation (TCIO) as part of a programme of events demonstrating the creativity of UK students that TCIO was attempting to introduce to a visiting delegation of tech investors.

Though the proposed event was cancelled, Mumby-Croft and his team comprising staff from the Enterprise Office and the Professional Liaison Unit undauntedly proceeded to stage Made@City two weeks later, in the Northampton Suite. It was a roaring success attracting a hundred students, staff, employers and investors.

To coincide with London Technology Week this June, the combined Enterprise and Professional Liaison Unit team made the audacious decision to stage Made@City in Tech City, London's bustling technology community.

Based at the Shoreditch Village Hall, Made@City 2014 again featured the best in technology, creativity and design from students from around the University. As was the case last year, there was a palpable buzz in the venue with students excitedly showing off their inventions to a curious and enthusiastic crowd. They included members of the public, whose numbers were boosted by a listing on the Londonist website, investors, fellow students, employers, City staff and visiting academics.

The winner of the Best Final Year Project was Daniel Grewal, BSc Software Engineering.

He exhibited a computer program which predicts football match and other sports scores using Naive Bayes Classification and Time Series Analysis. Research students Abi Roper and Tracey Booth won the prize for Best Overall Project and the Made@City People's Prize with 'Eva Park', a tailor-made virtual world which assists in developing the communications skills of people suffering from aphasia. The project was a joint venture between the School of Health Sciences and the School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering and was funded by the Stroke Association with the grant held by Stephanie Wilson, Professor Jane Marshall and Dr Celia Woolf.

Other competitors included BSc Computer Science finalist Paul Pires with his emulation of Intel's 8080 microprocessor from 1974 and MEng Electrical and Electronic Engineering student Michal Dybowski, with a fascinating model of a hydroelectric dam.

Though Ben is satisfied with the substantial contribution of Made@City to students and to the University as a whole, he has identified sponsorship and including entries and participation from more of City’s Schools as some of the event’s future challenges. That said, it's clear that the event was a remarkable and successful aspect of Enterprise Education at City.

For Pires, who has already secured employment at broadcaster Sky as a software engineer, events such as Made@City are “awesome, allowing me to see the creativity of other students whose final year projects I did not get to see. It's amazing to see the things we can produce.”

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FIRST WORLD WAR CENTENARY T O M A R K T H E 1 0 0 TH A N N I V E R S A R Y O F T H E F I R S T W O R L D W A R , THE UNIVERSIT Y COMMISSIONED AN EXHIBITION WALL TO D I S P L A Y C I T Y ’ S I N V O LV E M E N T I N T H E W A R . M E M B E R S O F T H E M A R K E T I N G & C O M M U N I C AT I O N S T E A M C O M B E D THROUGH CITY’S ARCHIVES FOR STORIES I N V O LV I N G T H E C A M P U S , T H E S T A F F AND THE STUDENTS OF CITY’S PREDECESSOR, THE NORTHAMPTON INSTITUTE. THE GROUP MADE SOME REMARKABLE DISCOVERIES.

City’s Great War Nursing London through WW1 The changing face of women in WW1 Codes and ciphers from WW1 Philanthropy and voluntary action during WW1 Read more at www.city.ac.uk/first-world-war-centenary

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CITY’S GREAT WAR At the outbreak of war, the principal at the time, Dr Robert Mullineux Walmsley, worked with the Ministry of Munitions to identify how the Institute could assist the war effort.

Everyday life, as it was known, ceased and the Institute became a hive of activity dedicated to helping Britain win the war.

One key area was technical optics. The Institute was already a pioneer in the field but abandoned normal education and established an optical munitions School, where optical glass workers were trained to produce items essential to the war effort, including sextants, binoculars, range finders, telescopes and gun sights.

The majority of the 320 workers were women due to the number of male students who had been enlisted.

Engineering was another important area where the Institute contributed. At the time of the outbreak of war, there were more students studying engineering than any other course.

The Department took commissions to produce high-pressure gauges and gun parts and by the time the munitions workshop closed in January 1919, the Institute had produced over 15,000 gauges and more than 43,000 gun parts.

Such was the importance of the Institute to munitions production that, following nine days of bombing in 1917, the Government funded building repairs to protect staff and students and ensure their vital work continued.

The Institute was also responsible for inspecting aircraft and supplies for the Royal Flying Corps as part of the Government’s Aeronautical Inspection Department. In doing so, they had to balance the demands of keeping output high, whilst minimising the risk to pilots.

Elsewhere, the Institute ran St John Ambulance nursing courses and hosted a branch of the Voluntary Aid Detachment, which provided field nurses. Some 100 women from the Institute were given duties in military hospitals. Five of them were decorated with medals for distinguished service, including the Royal Red Cross for exceptional devotion and competence in nursing.

The impact of this activity was noticeable, even to those who weren’t directly involved: The Great Hall was used for training three volunteer regiments and a shooting range, in the basement of College Building, was in constant use. Unused land was pressed into action for farming, including the Institute’s recreation ground, which was given over to grazing sheep. This, incidentally, is why the University has model sheep in the Drysdale Garden.

The Great Hall also became a hub for weekend entertainment and each Christmas it was taken over by the Post Office and used as

a sorting office to handle the large number of packages being sent to the front line and

to prisoner of war camps overseas.

Staff and students also played their part on the foreign field – more than 2,000 enlisted for military service.

Sadly, 137 did not return from battle.

After the war was won, the Institute continued to provide support to help rebuild the country. Returning and injured soldiers were re-trained, helping them to gain new skills and integrate back into civilian life.

With such a proud history of involvement, it is impossible to recognise everyone who contributed to the war effort.

Mr L B Sebastian, Chairman of the Institute’s Governing body at the time said:

“What has taken place has been so great, so vast, the benefits conferred upon mankind by the results attained have been so enormous, that after the dust of the fray has quietened down a little, possibly when a new generation has arisen, it will be seen that our successors have reason to bless what has happened, taking it all in all. Glory has come, but we were not out for glory, we were out for freedom.

We had to discharge a duty to the world and that is what we have done.”

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Nursing London through WW1 City’s School of Health Sciences, through its links with the St Bartholomew School of Nursing & Midwifery (formally St Bartholomew's Hospital and the Royal London Hospital which merged in 1994), can date its history back over 120 years. In that time, the various forms of the School have been involved in world-changing events that have helped mould it into one of the best known nursing schools in the country. One of the earliest such events was the First World War.

LONDON HOSPITALS AND NURSES AT WAR Before the outbreak of the war in 1914, the Royal London Hospital was one of the most established hospitals in London and was at the forefront of patient care. However, the war had significant consequences on the institution. The call of duty had been heard by several members of staff and the hospital had wards full of the wounded from the continent and at home. The hospital faced financial crisis with increased demand on medical supplies driving up costs. Charitable donations on which the hospital relied were stretched (the NHS wasn’t introduced until 1948) with several other war charities being launched, increasing competition for funding.

Despite the setbacks, the nurses of the Royal London continued their heroic work.

Domestically, in order to fill the void, for the first time women were admitted to the medical college to replace male students who had enlisted. Others also remained in London, continuing their vital work nursing British and Allied soldiers in the East Wing of St Bartholomew’s and in the Territorial Force Nursing Service Hospital based at Camberwell. Overseas, many of the Bart’strained nurses continued their excellent work in numerous military hospitals. Some even found themselves behind enemy lines and spent several weeks nursing wounded German troops.

NURSING HERO One of the best known and most heroic stories featuring the Royal London was that of Edith Cavell. Born in Norfolk on 4th December 1865, Cavell trained as a nurse at the London Hospital (now the Royal London Hospital) and subsequently became matron of the first training school for nurses in Belgium in 1907.

By 1911, she was a training nurse for three hospitals, 24 schools and 13 kindergartens in Belgium.

In November 1914, after the German occupation of Brussels, Cavell began sheltering British soldiers and helping them escape occupied Belgium to the nearby neutral Netherlands. Over time, the German authorities became increasingly suspicious of her actions. She was arrested on 3rd August 1915 and charged with harbouring Allied soldiers. Subsequently court-martialled, she was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by firing squad, which occurred on 12th October 1915.

“She was a real nursing pioneer,” said Mark Jones, Senior Lecturer and Head of Practice Education at the School of Health Sciences. “Her actions during the war saved countless lives and her famous quote, ‘I can’t stop while there are lives to be saved’, serves as a great motto for all nurses. We’re proud to have named a room after her and we have her statue in our Clinical Skills Suite; it reminds us and our trainee nurses of the impact our profession can have on society.”

THE WAR IN LONDON AND ITS AFTERMATH With the hospital already stretched to the limit, the nurses had to respond to increasing challenges. The Central Powers (Germany and its allies) embarked on a strategic bombing campaign all over Great Britain to destroy vital infrastructure and in an attempt to hinder the country’s war effort. Bombs dropping nearby were adding huge pressure to the nurses carrying out their work. Their biggest test came in 1917 when a bomb fell on a munitions works in the East End. Following the attack hundreds of dying and wounded Londoners were admitted.

The end of the war in 1918 did not stop the struggle in London for health professionals.

The end of the war was followed by the deadly ‘Spanish flu’ pandemic. The outbreak pushed the country to the limit. Resources were low and people weary after four years of war. The influenza spread quickly, killing an estimated three to five per cent of the world’s population. Patients and nurses fell ill, leaving the hospital in a very difficult situation financially and with a severely depleted workforce.

Having survived such a difficult period of history, the two historic hospitals merged to form Barts Health and their respective teaching schools are now part of City ’s School of Health Sciences. With a mural in the Clinical Skills Suite and in the naming of rooms after nursing heroes such as Edith Cavell, the legacy of the nurses and their incredible stories continue to be celebrated at City. Their contributions are embedded into the education of nurses for generations to come.

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The changing face of women in WW1 One of the biggest changes to occur during World War 1 was the attitude towards women and their role in society. Thousands of women contributed to the war effort despite the fact they did not have the right to vote. The contributions took all forms, from factory work, to nursing and included those who made it to the front line.

Among the most remarkable of the women was a former secretary from Surrey, Flora Sandes, who was the only British woman officially to serve as a soldier in World War 1 and has been covered by Dr Julie Wheelwright’s research in the Department of Culture and Creative Industries. Her work as both a nurse and a soldier did much to change public perceptions about what women could and should do during a military campaign.

Her achievements shattered the image of Edwardian women who, if they weren’t at home knitting socks or undertaking munitions works, were simply enduring the conflict.

Dr Julie Wheelwright has written widely on women and is the author of Amazons and Military Maids and The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage.

She is a Senior Lecturer in Culture and Creative Industries and a programme director on the Creative Writing MA programmes.

“A CAPITAL SHOT” As a girl growing up in a Suffolk rectory (her father was an Irish Protestant minister), Sandes pored over The Charge of the Light Brigade, envied her brothers freedom and “used to pray every night that I might wake up in the morning and find myself a boy”.

Later, she worked as a typist to fund her adventures, backpacking across Europe, visiting Cairo and undertaking a long journey through North America. An experienced horsewoman, she was also, as one of her relatives recalled, “a capital shot with the big service revolver”.

In her spare time Sandes trained with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps, an all-women mounted paramilitary organisation where the recruits learnt first aid, horsemanship and signalling. Sandes later went on to join the Women’s Sick and Wounded Convoy.

operations that was denied them in other parts of the war.

AN UNLIKELY HERO

OUTBREAK OF WAR When war broke out in 1914 she volunteered to become a nurse, but was rejected due to a lack of qualifications. She nonetheless joined St John Ambulance and on 12th August 1914 left England for Serbia with a group of 36 women to try and aid the humanitarian crisis there. When the Bulgarian army forced the Serbs to withdraw into Albanian territory in 1915, Sandes was given the choice of retreating with the field hospital where she was nursing, or to join up.

She didn’t hesitate to enlist, fulfilling a childhood dream.

At the age of 38, Sandes was an unlikely candidate for war work on the Western Front where few women were accepted. Her previous training enabled her to join a handful of British women heading for Eastern Europe. She enlisted with the Serbian Red Cross to work in Kragujevac and other nursing stints followed where, despite her limited experience, she performed surgery, including amputations and ran a military hospital.

Although it has gone largely unrecognised until now, there were a handful of women who played such extraordinary roles running medical services in this theatre of war including Sandes’ lifelong friends, Emily Simmonds, Dr Elsie Inglis of the Scottish Women’s Hospital and Dr Katherine MacPhail.

All were sympathetic to the suffrage movement and in this forgotten corner of the continent where need was so pressing, the women often found freedom to run their own

Although Sandes switched from nurse to enlisted soldier, rising to the rank of Captain, receiving the Serbian army’s highest military medal in 1917, she maintained close ties with the female medics and became Serbia’s unofficial ambassador. She quickly realised and understood that raising badly-needed cash for food and medical supplies was the best she could do for her adopted country. At home on leave, dressed in her Serbian uniform, she would lecture to the Tommies on the Western Front, give press interviews and speeches, raising thousands of pounds.

The physical and psychological courage that such adventures required was prodigious and, reading through Sandes’ autobiographies and papers, it is interesting to speculate on the influences that enabled her to evade the inevitable pressures of marriage, children and domesticity. There is no doubt the widely distributed photographs and postcards of Sergeant-Major Flora Sandes, striding London’s streets in her Serbian uniform, complete with a row of medals, influenced the next generation of women.

One hopes the achievements of that brave band of foreign sisters who served alongside Sandes as doctors and nurses in Serbia are also remembered in this year’s commemorations.

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Codes ciphers from Dneaq and coc dhnkbuq htmrWW1 bx1y INTERCEPT:

OQEGVIKW KVMCNTBEGVVC JIL PGTBCF WG MDAXPXIMGQV TLF BAC TMTBKVZ MH MGCOG LGIVTJU IGB OMLQCOXQ UQGAG BAC GIKJKMLR VQFCU WY AQVYJKKM. DECRYPT KEY:

CITY

DECRYPT:

Military intelligence has relied on observation and the reading of enemy signals and messages since the earliest times of conflict.

THE ORIGIN OF CODES AND CIPHERS From the 15th Century to the early 20th Century, codes and ciphers were categorised as ‘hand or manual ciphers’ meaning they were formulated using a pen and paper.

Various methods were used to create the ciphers, ranging from codebooks to the Vigenère and Playfair ciphers. The former relied on substitution of words or phrases selected from a referenced code book and the latter two methods relied on the substitution of a letter, or pair of letters, provided by a secret pattern. The important point to note is that for these ciphers, which are known as symmetric ciphers, identical codebooks or pattern keys must be held at either end of the communications path, a weakness that still is with us today: how can we exchange keys safely?

Mary Queen of Scots and Sir Anthony Babington used a code book to communicate details for the assassination of Elizabeth I and both the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon used code books in the Peninsular Wars and the battles associated with Waterloo. Thomas Phelippes broke Babington’s code for Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth’s spymaster and Major Scovell broke Napoleon’s Codebook (known as the Grand Chiffre) to influence the outcome of the Peninsular Wars at the start of the 19th Century.

Following the invention of wireless telegraphy, commanders began to exchange their messages in real-time, although couriers were still employed for more tactical communications. Broadcasts using wireless communication could also be received by an enemy and therefore the use of ciphers, or encryption, became imperative if secrets were to be preserved. Landline telegraphy was less of a problem if you could be sure that your enemy had no access to the landline circuit this prerequisite probably lost Germany the First World War.

MI1 AND ROOM 40 At the outbreak of WW1, the British established MI1, or British Military

Intelligence and the Royal Navy established Room 40 in the Admiralty Ripley Building in London. Both MI1 and Room 40 were responsible for communications security, signals interception and code breaking (cryptanalysis). Both the French and the Germans established equivalent organisations. The French Bureau du Chiffre (Cipher Bureau) was particularly adept, since it formalised code breaking from more of an art into a science.

The British relied more on the ability to solve puzzles, although it must be said they were effective. The Germans had good success with breaking Russian codes and some success with British and French codes.

Machine ciphers such as the Enigma did not appear until a period between the two World Wars, so hand or manual ciphers were used, primarily with a codebook, but the Playfair cipher also had a significant role. Also, with communications between commands and the trenches being important, a new form of encipherment was required. These were referred to as ‘trench codes’ and were made up of codebooks, designed to be easy and quick to use.

To break a codebook cipher quickly, one either had to capture a codebook and its usage key or rely on operators making translation errors over a long period of time.

CRACKING CODES To intercept wireless communications, the Germans, French and British had dedicated wireless intercept stations continuously monitoring the airways. In the UK, the stations became part of what was known as the ‘Y’ Service. In WW1 outputs from the ‘Y’ Service were fed directly to either MI1 or Room 40 for code breaking (if possible) and processing. The combined collection service, code breaking and processing became known as ‘Signals Intelligence’ or ‘Sigint’ and that title has survived to the current day.

On the 26th August 1914 the German Light Cruiser, Magdeburg, ran aground in the Baltic Sea off Odensholm and could not be refloated. Owing to thick fog, the Russian Navy was able to board the vessel covertly and retrieve two copies of the SKM (Signabuch Kaiserlichen Marine) codebook together with

the usage keys. The German Navy was unaware that the SKM was captured and the Russians delivered one copy with key to the First Lord of the Admiralty – Winston Churchill. The codebook was used successfully by Room 40 through the war.

Similar codebooks were also retrieved: one from the German-Australian Steamer Hobart sailing off Melbourne Australia at the outset of war (the Captain had failed to receive information that Germany was at War).

Another example of retrieval was from the German Destroyer S119 in October 1914 off the coast of France.

WIRE TAPS AND MEXICAN BURGLARIES At the beginning of WW1, the British Cable Ship, Alert, cut telegraph cables connecting the German/US link via Spain and Tenerife.

Unknown to Germany, the alternate link was routed through the UK. In January 1917, the German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmerman, sent a coded telegram via the German Embassy in Washington offering Mexico the US territories of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas as an enticement to join Germany in a War against the US. The intercept was at the cable connection point in Cornwall. The telegram was passed to President Woodrow Wilson resulting in the US entering the war in Europe in April 1917. An elaborate plan involving a burglary in Mexico was hatched by the British to cover up the fact that the British had broken the German codes.

In 1919, Room 40 merged with MI1 to form the Government Code and Cipher School (GC&CS) which later was based at Bletchley Park and was subsequently renamed the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and is now based in Cheltenham.

Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and is now based in Cheltenham.

By Professor David Stupples, Professor of Electronic and Radio Systems, School of Mathematics, Computer Science and Engineering

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Philanthropy and voluntary action during WW1 British charities made a highly significant contribution to winning the First World War. There was an extraordinary increase in charitable voluntary action with 18,000 new charities created, a 50% increase on the pre-war number. The value of their fund-raising was at least £150 million, equivalent to £7.5 billion today. Dr Peter Grant from Cass Business School, looks at the importance of the war to the charitable sector in his book, Mobilizing Charity: Philanthropy and Voluntary Action in the First World War Charitable activity in the war was often, especially in many industrial towns and cities, a manifestation of working class solidarity with many more organisations run by ordinary women and men than by well-to-do matrons. Overall it was easily the most significant charitable cause that has ever been supported in Britain and it had profound effects upon both the war effort and the relationship between voluntary organisations and the state.

THE RISE OF PHILANTHROPY The number of people regularly volunteering to help wartime charities ran to around two million, three quarters of them women; a figure that compares favourably with the 2.6 million men who volunteered for the armed forces. Though in the South and rural areas charitable activity was generally initiated by the middle-class, in northern industrial towns things were different. In Blackburn 32% of larger registered charities and 76% of smaller non-registered ones were entirely working class-led.

Early efforts included the National Relief Fund for the support of servicemen’s beneficiaries and aid for the huge influx of refugees from Belgium. Another massive national effort was that run by the The Times newspaper. Though many papers, both national and local, ran their own funds theirs was by far the largest eventually raising a staggering £16 million to aid the Red Cross. Its most prominent event was the annual ‘Our Day’ - a forerunner of appeals like Comic Relief and Children in Need - a single day on which everyone was expected to do something for charity, the more unusual or eye-catching the better.

Dressing up in silly clothes, performing prodigious feats of endurance, or eating for charity is by no means a modern invention.

Nevertheless two causes rapidly overtook the NRF and Belgian refugees. Eventually over 50% of wartime charities were directed towards comforts for troops and medical supplies, split broadly evenly between the two.

A MORE ORGANISED APPROACH However this flourishing of voluntary activity also brought problems, not least the lack of co-ordination and items collected did not match the real needs of the troops. There was duplication of effort and unfairness in distribution and quality control was a significant issue as not all charities produced their goods to high standards. Eventually in order to bring some much needed organisation to this chaos the War Office decided to appoint a ‘Director General of Voluntary Organisations’ to oversee both the demand and supply ends of the system. This might have caused even more problems as imposing order from above on what was essentially a bottom-up surge of voluntary action could easily have backfired.

Fortunately the man appointed to the post was an inspired choice. Sir Edward Ward was an organisational genius who combined an unprecedented knowledge of army supply and Whitehall politics with a clear understanding of public opinion and a compassionate understanding of voluntary effort. Yet today he is an almost entirely forgotten figure.

The key conclusions regarding philanthropy and voluntary action in the war are that: • It provided a new impetus to voluntarism based on the principle of ‘bottom up’ mutual aid. There was a profusion of small, local organisations providing support for the troops of their town, village or workplace.

• The First World War contributed towards the professionalisation of the charity sector. It turned amateurs into professionals and many modern fundraising techniques were invented or expanded.

• There was a movement towards democratisation, with greater official involvement from the working class which continued in the post-war voluntary sector.

THE BEGINNINGS OF MODERN CHARITY Charity moved into new areas and there was a far greater use of business principles.

These changes were clearly influenced by what had happened during the war, not least

by Sir Edward Ward.

Most importantly, charitable and philanthropic activity played a major role in helping Britain win the war. It provided Britain with a distinct advantage over her main adversary, Germany, in the reservoir of social capital on which it was able to draw and contributed significantly to maintaining morale both at home and with troops in the field. In contrast Germany’s excessive social control of voluntary action, which strengthened under an increasingly militaristic government, led to a serious weakening of social capital. Philanthropy and voluntary action was another ‘victory’ for the Allies and a further contributing factor to Germany’s ultimate defeat.

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Meet the academics

Dr Rachel Holland Lecturer in Language and Communication Science

“I’m completely fascinated by how our brains process language information and how we are constantly responding to things we have learnt. On a daily basis I’m asking how on earth can humans do all that?” says Dr Rachel Holland, Lecturer in Language and Communication Science in the School of Health Sciences.

Rachel’s primary area of interest is how language is stored in the brain and how it deteriorates following brain damage or disease.

To explore this, she works with healthy speakers and people with language impairment as a result of a medical condition such as stroke. People who have had a stroke often have difficulties finding the right words to say during conversation or understanding what others have said. These language problems give us insight into how language is stored in a healthy brain and how it breaks down. By understanding these relationships, she hopes to help create more targeted treatments which can be used in the future to rehabilitate people who have had strokes.

Rachel was introduced to acquired disorders of language in the third year of her Psychology degree at the University of Manchester. She later joined the Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit (NARU) where she completed a Masters in 2004 on verb impairments after stroke.

After this, she moved to the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge to work with Professor Karalyn Patterson. Here, she studied the timing of brain responses to past tense verbs using magnetoencephalography – a non-invasive technique which records the

brain responses from the scalp. She then spent three years as a post doctorate researcher at UCL working with Dr Jenny Crinion on an intervention study to retrain people who have had strokes to name everyday objects.

For this research project, Rachel tested both healthy volunteers and people who had word-finding difficulties following stroke. In the first phase of the study, healthy volunteers are asked to name pictures of objects aloud while having their brains scanned to determine which areas of the brain support this ability. In a subsequent experiment published in Current Biology, the volunteers undertook the task again, but this time the left frontal cortex – a region found to be important in naming – was stimulated using a non-invasive brain stimulation technique called transcranial direct current stimulation. In this method two rubber electrodes are placed on the scalp, with the ‘active’ electrode placed over the underlying cortex to be stimulated and a small direct current passed between the two electrodes while the volunteer performs a task thought to engage the stimulated cortex. The concurrent brain stimulation during the task enhanced the behavioural and neural response.

The results from this scanning study with the healthy subjects was then used to identify which part of the brain’s cortex could be repeatedly stimulated in people who have had strokes to try and enhance the naming of objects they found difficult.

Rachel moved to City in February 2013 bringing her expertise on the subject of the brain and behaviour to the classroom as a

Lecturer on the Language and Processing course. “The students are very passionate and enthusiastic about their subject and have worked hard to get onto the course which makes it a pleasure for me to educate them as they are keen to learn and ask great questions”.

Rachel is impressed with the range of topics that the course offers to students: “The integration of theory with an understanding of the underlying brain mechanisms that support language processing is an important combination offered by the programme and is, of course, fascinating”.

Rachel is looking forward to developing her research at City and working with colleagues in the School of Health Sciences. “I’m excited as there are people with expertise in phrasal language and while my work to date has considered only how the brain processes individual words, working with phrases would be the next natural step for my research,” she says.

“I also hope to get my own brain stimulation kit to continue to explore how we can modify language processing in healthy speakers. With lots of enthusiastic students at City, I’m sure I’ll get some volunteers”.

“I’m completely fascinated by how our brains process language information”

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Professor Andrew Choo Professor of Law

“Traditionally there was a set of stringent rules which determined what evidence can and cannot be submitted during criminal trials. But over the last few years there has been a worldwide shift towards a less prescriptive format,” says Professor Andrew Choo, Professor of Law and Associate Dean at the City Law School, who specialises in criminal evidence.

Andrew’s research considers the decisions courts make and whether fixed rules or if a more flexible model would be preferable.

The second aspect of Andrew’s research is the influence of the European Convention on

able to be cross-examined and this is clearly not possible. ” Andrew explains that not everyone believes that hearsay evidence is an issue: in fact some think it may be no more unreliable than first-hand evidence.

The aim of Andrew’s work is to stand back, analyse and make sense of the law of criminal evidence. He evaluates whether it is functioning well and whether anything can be learnt by looking comparatively at how other jurisdictions handle the same issues. The end point is to assess whether there is need for reform.

and the University of Warwick.

Although Andrew went straight into being an academic lawyer after the completion of his doctorate at Oxford, 10 years ago he decided he wanted to see how criminal evidence works in practice. To do this he took the fast-track route to the Bar Council of England and Wales, available to teachers of the law of experience and distinction. He was then able to practise as a part-time barrister and a member of Matrix Chambers in Grays Inn. “Although today I rarely practise, being a member of Matrix I have an association with the practitioners that I find illuminating as it informs both my

“I really liked the fact that City has so much ambition” Human Rights on principles of criminal evidence. He explains that since the Human Rights Act came into force in England and Wales in 2000, certain rights are now directly enforceable in domestic courts and some of them are relevant to the admissibility of evidence in criminal cases.

One of the debates that interests Andrew concerns the use of hearsay or second-hand evidence in criminal trials and the extent to which the Crown can introduce it. “It is a pretty complex argument as such evidence is often allowed to be used in cases. However the defendant can raise their right to a fair trial to try and exclude hearsay evidence, on the basis that anyone providing a statement that the prosecution uses at trial should be

Andrew became interested in evidence and procedure when he studied it as part of his law degree at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in the 1980s. “What I like about evidence is that you can look at it very technically and also very broadly. The content of the law can be very complex, so I find it intellectually challenging,” he explains. Andrew went on to qualify as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1986.

Having moved to the UK for postgraduate study at the University of Oxford, Andrew returned to Australia a few years later to work at the University of New South Wales before settling in the UK in the early 1990s to work at the University of Leicester, Brunel University

research and the way I educate my students.

Knowing first-hand what might happen in practice is so important and makes me a bit more credible with the students” he says.

Andrew started at City in November 2012 and became Associate Dean in September 2013. Having finalised the School’s REF submissions he is now concentrating on new ideas to improve research quality at the University “and provide support and encouragement to staff ” he adds.

“I really liked the fact that City has so much ambition and that there are many excellent lawyers with a lot of knowledge about criminal evidence educating students at the University. In due course I hope there will be scope for collaboration,” he says.

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Meet the Portering team Luis Sousa

Steve Burgess

Andrew Panyiotou Portering supervisor Brad May

With thousands of City students walking through the University each day, it is easy to forget all the work that goes on behind the scenes to support the student and staff experience.

One such team is Portering.

The level of appreciation felt towards them by their fellow members of staff was evident when they were nominated by several of their colleagues for a Vice-Chancellor’s Award in the Team of the Year category, which they went on to win.

Portering are the ‘Renaissance men’ of the University, with their day-to-day work life varying greatly.

Room set-ups The team prepare rooms for lectures, meetings, conferences, seminars and exhibitions. Layouts can be a variety of shapes and sizes, with the team expert in ensuring the best fit for the space while using the rooms to their full capacity. There is a two-day request period, but the team is often called into action at short notice. It is also the team’s responsibility to set up office moves, often transporting furniture to accommodate new personnel and to manage the displays in the University’s foyers.

Litter and recycling Porters collect litter from each floor of all the main site buildings every weekday morning, where it is taken to be sorted for disposal into the correct containers. Waste is checked and disposed of accordingly. The University has a target to reduce general waste and increase recycling and the porters are key to making this work. Everyone at the University is asked to recycle but contamination does happen so the team does its best to ensure this is reduced.

As part of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE), the University recycles electrical waste and the porters are again key in ensuring this goes to a secure storage area where it is taken by a recognised company for recycling.

Goods, parcels and bulk mail The porters deliver and collect all incoming and outgoing parcels via the post room. This includes items of furniture and other equipment, for example PCs. They work with Information Services to ensure, especially through the summer, that hundreds of PCs are delivered to rooms that are being refurbished ready for the new academic year.

Examinations The team set up rooms for examinations, ensuring the correct number of desks and sufficient space is given to each student. They also deliver thousands of examination booklets ensuring the correct ones are delivered to the appropriate rooms. As the examinations are held throughout the academic year it is important that the rooms are re-set in time for lectures, sometimes with very little time to spare.

Graduations Porters gather the considerable materials involved in Graduation including programmes, banners, degree certificates, accoutrements, maces, staves, the state chair and the crest. All of the items have to be taken to the venue, generally either the Barbican or Guildhall, to be set up.

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Nady Said Alfredo Gomes Raymond Pile

Jackie Monte-Columbo After over 20 years at the University, General Services Manager, Jackie MonteColumbo (pictured right) is retiring from City.

“It’s a bitter sweet moment”, she says. “I came here so many years ago and I was really swallowed up by the whole environment. It’s a cliché, but I’ve really felt like the team here are all family. So many of them have been here for many years too, so it’s easy to feel like that.”

“Like a family, we have our ups and downs. It’s events like Graduation and examinations that remind us why we are all here. It’s all for them, the students, to make sure that each person who comes through the University has the experience and receives the education they deserve.”

“I’ll miss everyone so much, but I’ll always be proud of my time here and of my team. Whatever is required, they will always go the extra mile to make it happen and I’m happy to say the team does a great job.”

Everyone at City News wishes Jackie the very best and hopes she enjoys her retirement.

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The Conversation

Director General’s BBC plans look like the start of a revolution

By Professor Suzanne Franks, Professor of Journalism

The debate on the BBC’s forthcoming charter renewal has taken a while to gain momentum. It seemed like the corporation was loath to enter the painful discussion of how the licence fee might be sustained in an era of iPlayer viewing and when criminal sanctions are likely to be removed for non-payers.

But now Director General Tony Hall has seized the initiative by launching a bold and dramatic proposal. He has not confronted the vexed issue of the funding directly but in a clever political move has neatly changed the terms of debate by focusing instead on the core activity of programmes, how they are made and how that might be done differently.

In a significant speech at City University London on 10th July, Lord Hall summarised his message as ‘compete or compare’.

The most eye-catching suggestion was the way that both the contribution of independent producers and also of BBC in-house producers might be reconfigured.

The quotas begin Historically almost all BBC programmes, with the exception of films and a few imports, were made inside the corporation.

The 1980s and the birth of Channel 4 saw the emergence of a whole new industry in the UK of small independent producers, commonly known as the ‘indies’. In 1990 in response to effective lobbying, the BBC agreed to a quota system whereby 25% of its output (excluding news) had to be bought in from these new entrepreneurs.

(Of course some were staffed by recent BBC employees who resigned and conveniently benefited from sweetheart deals.)

The system worked well overall and by the last charter period it was extended so that a further 25% was identified as a ‘window of creative competition’, whereby commissioners were free to take from whoever can make

the best programmes, both insiders and outsiders. But still the remaining 50% was guaranteed to BBC in-house production.

Now Lord Hall is suggesting a radical departure. All BBC commissioning should be free to accept programmes from outside if they choose. But before the indie producers pop the champagne, there is a crucial provision.

As a quid pro quo, BBC in-house production departments should be able to offer their wares anywhere they can pitch them.

So we could see BBC productions competing with independents to have their programmes transmitted on Channel 4, ITV, Channel 5 or anywhere else. Hall stresses that it all depends on achieving a genuinely level playing field. But if this can be achieved, he says he is willing to go as far as removing the overall in-house guarantee for the whole of BBC production.

This all appears like exciting and bracing competition. It could extend scope and opportunities for indie producers and viewers, or it could be a cold wind that could logically see the BBC reduced to a commissioning entity like Channel 4.

Indies onside?

There are obviously still swathes of detail that would need to be worked out, but there are certainly some interesting implications. For one thing, Hall has cleverly gathered up the considerable vocal lobbying power of the independent sector behind him in the forthcoming battle over funding the BBC, in which politicians are already positioning themselves. Indies are a key player in the UK’s much discussed creative industries explosion. If the enticing prospect of being able to pitch to the whole of BBC output is being offered,

it will very much be in the interests of the independent sector for the corporation to be as well resourced as possible.

We also need to have a clear understanding about how the competitive market would work. While commissioning indies once meant a few chums in a basement bouncing around ideas, the industry now includes huge players who represent a totally different kind of independent. Not only has there been a consolidation into so-called ‘super-indies’, some have morphed into global media organisations on the scale of the BBC itself.

For example, Shine and Endemol have recently merged with 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management. Tony Hall has rightly questioned whether such producers should be given guarantees or protections and is making a distinction between them and those emerging young indies still requiring encouragement and support to grow their talents.

Finally, what about those working inhouse? For a start the commissioning and production arms of the corporation will need to be further separated. BBC production may also need to free itself of considerable overheads to make it competitive with outsiders.

Successful independents also often go on to make big commercial gains from rights and distribution. Danny Cohen, Director of Television, has already hinted that ways may need to be found to translate such benefits for insiders.

Otherwise, now that the staff security blanket is potentially being removed, is there still a point of remaining within the corporation?

The best and brightest may take their chance and leave. Whatever happens these are interesting times for programme makers.

Optical expert Residing above the Fight for Sight clinic on Bath Street near Moorfields Eye Hospital in a place known as OATS - the Optical Appliances Testing Service to give it its full name - Henri Obstfeld tenure of over 20 years is coming to an end. Testing over 1,300 pairs a year, many don’t realise that this is currently the only independent laboratory in the UK accredited to test sunglasses to the most recent standard.

“Most people in the Division don’t know what I’m up to as it doesn’t have anything to do with teaching students or research,” says Henri, as the elevator climbs up towards the 7th floor. “It’s commercial and there are probably only two other independent labs that do this work in the UK.”

sub-zero conditions or a warm environment with controlled humidity. The lenses are also rigorously tested to see if they fracture using a large ball bearing dropped from a meter or so down a metal tube. Henri also tests how much – and what type – of light rays they let through, while also checking if the lenses have any imperfections which could impact on performance.

While some of the machines are undoubtedly high-tech, others have a more home-made feel.

“I’ve modified a few of these machines myself – they may not be complicated but they work,” says Henri pointing to a couple of machines on one of the benches.

Lab testing In the lab are a multitude of machines, with a white plastic replica human head and neat paperwork sitting side by side on orderly benches. Around one corner near Henri’s desk sits a filing cabinet, with blue plastic boxes neatly stacked on top containing several pairs of glasses currently being tested.

“Most people who send us the glasses are importers who sell to the big names on the high street,” says Henri, as he tours the lab and the equipment he uses to test the different glasses. “There are one or two who have their own labs like this, but there are quite a lot where you say ‘oh I know that name!’ when you read the labels.”

With all pairs arriving by post and the local Royal Mail staff now well versed in his routine, once delivered - depending on what’s been requested by the client on the relevant paperwork - testing can begin.

“These sunglasses came in this morning,” says Henri holding a fashionable pair that wouldn’t be out of place in any high street store. “Our client sends them and tells us which tests they want done.”

From here they go through a suite of tests, ranging from the sides being rotated 500 times and the bridge being tested to see how much it deforms, to being placed in

City history Joining City in the early sixties, he also remembers the University from a different time.

“I was a student here in 1961, so that was my first stint at City and I’ve been in and out over the years. I studied Optometry in the College Building. At that time there was still a Chemistry department and nothing in Northampton Square apart from a bandstand.”

Having qualified as an optometrist, he went into practice before going on to teach dispensing opticians for fourteen years at a College of Further Education where the Cass Business School is now located. He returned to City in 1984 to take up a post as a lecturer in dispensing.

“It wasn’t too far away from what I do now as it involved spectacle frames, lenses and the equipment that comes with them. It was what I taught, so I knew about a lot of this stuff, but I didn’t have a spectrophotometer as that was only for the physics boys. However, now I’ve got two,” he says laughing.

Taking early retirement in 2000, Henri stopped lecturing on the understanding that he would take care of OATS. Fourteen years later - and over a half century

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since he joined as a student - he is still here most days working a full day.

Formation of OATS Started about 20 years ago, OATS was created when a local man who imported sunglasses was looking for a place which could test them to the British standard.

“At the time we knew nothing much about that, but we had spectrophotometers and other relevant equipment, so we did some work for him and then we realised there was another laundry list of things to be tested and gradually OATS was established.”

While OATS has been running for a while, it was only in the late 90s that it was formally given its name. It has been running ever since.

“The understanding at the time when I retired in 2000 was that I would gradually do less with the students and try and build up the sunglasses testing,” says Henri. “Eventually we got accreditation from the UK Accreditation Service (UKAS). We have gone on to get further accreditation and continue to test hundreds of glasses each year.”

Since then, OATS has gone from strength to strength, with Henri and the lab recently being accredited to test sunglasses to the new ISO standard.

“Now we’ve got the accreditation for the international standard, I looked to see who else has it and it appears that we’re the only independent lab accredited to test to the International Standard for sunglasses,” says Henri. “So we’re cutting edge.”

“I don’t think there’s any other optometry department in the country that does this.

The other universities that have optometry courses don’t have an OATS or anything like it. It was simply that somebody who happened to live nearby who imported sunglasses came in and asked if we could test them. We could and it took off.”

With a new person due to start later in the summer, it looks like the legacy of Henri and OATS will continue for a long time yet.

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Graduation By student journalist Nicholas Murphy

July saw nearly 2,000 students awarded their degrees at City’s summer Graduation ceremonies.

The successes of City’s five Schools were recognised during the celebrations at the Barbican in the heart of the City of London.

As the School of Law’s appointed speaker, Nicholas Murphy (LLB Law) shared some of his feelings with his fellow graduates.

“It will be, for many of us, a time of upheaval as we head out into the world as graduates of City University London.

But what kind of graduates will we be? In twenty or thirty years, what will people say of us, the graduates of 2014?

During our time at City we have all been privileged to receive robust and thorough training. All those evenings spent squinting at the PowerPoint presentation in a basement lecture theatre and those spring afternoons spent sweltering in the library, all the while gnashing our teeth because we weren’t in the park or in the pub, will be well worth it when we are finally able to begin our careers.

Regardless of what you decide, let us not forget about what we have learned here. Let us not forget about the people we have met here – people from hundreds of countries around the world, from almost every background and every upbringing possible. We have worked together here as a community of undergraduates - let us take our experience out into the world and show the world exactly what City University London graduates are made of.”

From the archive

The letter above was discovered while researching City’s involvement in the First World War. It is an invitation from the Principal of the Northampton Institute, Dr Robert Mullineux Walmsley, to the opening of the College Building in 1898.

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Pick of upcoming City events To find details and to register for events at City, you can visit our website: www.city.ac.uk/events

Wednesday 22nd October 6.30pm – 8.30pm Leadership and change in the public eye with Tony Hall CBE Cass Business School, Bunhill Row Lord Hall will reflect on his experience of taking over the leadership of the BBC and the Royal Opera House during challenging times.

Thursday 23rd October 6.30pm – 8.30pm Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives with Nicholas Christakis, Yale University Cass Business School, Bunhill Row Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician whose world leading research is on social networks and social contagion. Humans are embedded in vast social networks of friends, family, co-workers and more. Nicholas Christakis tracks how a wide variety of traits - from happiness to obesity - can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might affect your life in ways that are hard to imagine.

Wednesday 29th October 6.30pm-8.30pm Edwards Lecture 2014: The Science of Invisibility with Professor Sir John Pendry Oliver Thompson Lecture Theatre Cloaks are already being designed and built that hide objects within them, but remain completely invisible to external observers. A new class of materials has created some extraordinary possibilities such as a negative refractive index and lenses whose resolution is limited only by the precision with which we can manufacture them. Professor Pendry will discuss the science behind invisibility.

Tuesday evenings, 7pm Concerts at City University London Performance Space, College Building The Department of Music at City University London runs a concert series throughout term time showcasing City staff, student ensembles and guest artists. For full listings go to www.city.ac.uk/concerts

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