Spring 2015 edition

NORTHUMBRIA

Northumbria powers ahead

University ranked UK’s biggest riser in research power following national assessment of research quality.

Northumbria University has made significant progress in research, reporting one of the largest rises in research rated as ‘world-leading’ and ‘internationally excellent,’ according to the results of the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF).

The University has nearly tripled its share of research rated in these categories, achieving the largest rise in research power in the country.

The REF is the internationally recognised barometer of research reputation, providing a key measure to determine research funding to universities from 2015/16. Alongside the quality of research carried out by universities, REF 2014 also assessed the wider cultural, societal and economic impact of a university’s research.

Professor Andrew Wathey, ViceChancellor and Chief Executive, said: “These results mark a major step-

change for Northumbria, positioning the University decisively as one of the fastest rising institutions in the UK Higher Education sector, and creating a broad and robust platform for the next phase of our development in research.”

With world-leading research identified in every area submitted for assessment, Northumbria has demonstrated success across the board.

The volume of research submitted by Northumbria is more than double that submitted to the last Research Assessment Exercise which took place in 2008. The results also show that quality has risen significantly.

Professor Wathey continues: “Our strategy since 2008 has been to build Northumbria’s research capability and to establish a secure research base, so that the impact of excellent research is felt as widely as possible across our disciplines and can drive excellence across the full range of the University’s activities.

“We therefore wanted to ensure in our submission to REF 2014 that every single bit of world-leading and internationally excellent work was identified and funded, to provide a secure basis for future growth.

“The improvement in research power ranking marks one of the biggest steps forward in the UK sector. We have created the second-strongest pool of research activity of all modern universities, achieving critical mass in research that will also drive excellence in the student experience and in enterprise.

“The results demonstrate the University’s success since 2008 in attracting significant new research talent while also developing existing research staff; they also evidence the strength of research carried out by early career researchers, alongside that of established academics.

“They represent a step-change in Northumbria’s research activity and positioning, demonstrating success in changing the research aspiration of the institution. They form an excellent platform for the next phase of our research strategy.”

The REF results provide an external validation of the significant developments in research at Northumbria over the last five years.

The University recorded strong results in Allied Health, History, English, General Engineering, Art and Design, and Communication, Cultural and Media.

In General Engineering, English and History, Northumbria recorded upperquartile scores in the proportion of research outputs rated as world-leading.

In terms of impact bringing societal, cultural and economic benefit, 73% of the submissions in Psychology were

rated as world-leading. The impact was demonstrated through projects including breakfast clubs in partnership with Kellogg’s, and the design of health-related websites funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). A further study looking at early interventions to reduce harmful alcohol consumption has been adopted by medical practitioners and governments around the world.

Professor Wathey concluded: “REF 2014 has shown that the national research story is one of continuing improvement against international benchmarks. In this landscape, we have shown ourselves to be one of the fastest moving institutions in establishing a comprehensive research base, achieving a new level in our mission to be a research-rich, business-focussed professional university.”

‘‘

These results mark a major step-change for Northumbria, positioning the University decisively as one of the fastest rising institutions in the UK.

Channel 4 seeks new writing talent

Judging is underway to identify raw and diverse writing talent from the north of England, thanks to a new scheme launched by Northumbria and Channel 4, as part of the annual Northern Writers’ Awards.

The ‘Channel 4/Northumbria University Writing for Television Award’ was launched as a new category in the Northern Writers’ Awards, which are produced by New Writing North. The competition, which was open to complete beginners as well as those who already have some writing experience, will offer two writers the chance to be mentored through the script commissioning process.

One of the winning writers will be mentored by Lime Pictures in Liverpool, which produces Hollyoaks, shadowing the process of script development, from first draft to broadcast script. This may lead to a commission to write an original episode of the serial that will be broadcast on Channel 4. The other winner will be mentored by RED Production Company in Salford (producers of Scott & Bailey and Happy Valley) and will receive advice on script development and technique. They will also have access to support from top television professionals to develop their own original ideas for broadcast.

Lee Mason, Commissioning Editor for Channel 4, said: “We are thrilled to be partnering with Northumbria University and New Writing North on this new award. There is a wealth of writing talent in the north of England, and the opportunity to identify and nurture that talent is incredibly exciting.

“Lime Pictures and RED Production Company are hugely respected companies that have a large amount of experience and advice that will be immensely helpful for aspiring writers. They also both share an incredibly strong reputation for supporting new talent from the north of England.

“We very much look forward to

The Tyne is right

Readers of The Guardian and The Observer voted Newcastle their favourite UK city in the 2014 travel awards, confirming the results of Lloyds Bank University Quality of Student Life Survey, which measures student satisfaction and living standards.

The survey ranked Northumbria within the UK top ten for having the best quality of student life and rated the University as having the lowest cost institution-owned or sponsored accommodation for students in the country.

The University was also rated as having the best broadband provision

in the country in last summer’s National Student Housing Survey.

Second year Geography student Charlotte Hall, who moved to Northumbria from Nottingham, said “While attending open days across the country, Northumbria was the only place where I felt genuine excitement for the possibility of studying there – and I definitely haven’t been disappointed. The campus really impressed me and its proximity to the city centre was incredible, especially in comparison to any other university I had visited.

“I love living in Newcastle – it’s a fantastic city for any student to live in,

with something on offer for everyone. My favourite thing is the location. Whether it be shopping in the centre, walking along the Quayside, catching the Metro to the beach to Tynemouth, or simply grabbing coffee and cake at the many cafes and restaurants scattered around the city, it’s hard to be bored in a place as lively as this.

“My experience as a student in Newcastle so far, has been great. From living in halls in the city centre, to a house in Jesmond, I’ve enjoyed whatever the area has had to offer! With places to shop, eat, drink, relax and visit – Newcastle really does have everything a student could ever need.”

reading submissions from a diverse range of new writers whose work offers a fresh perspective on life in 21st Century Britain.”

Lucy Winskell, Northumbria’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Business and Engagement, said: “We’re delighted to have launched a new partnership with Channel 4 to offer this opportunity to new writers, through our continued work with New Writing North.

“Together we are committed to celebrating and supporting writing talent, growing new relationships with

key organisations, and offering more and more opportunities for talented writers to see their work in production.” The winning writers will be revealed at the Northern Writers’ Awards ceremony in late June at Northumbria’s city campus in Newcastle. The writers will begin their mentoring processes at Lime Pictures and RED Production Company in July.

Living in Newcastle is one of the main reasons that many students consider studying at Northumbria, and two new national surveys have confirmed that the city offers students some of the best quality of life in the country.

Red Production Company are behind crime drama Scott & Bailey

Funding the next generation of student entrepreneurs

Student start-ups have been given a new boost after the launch of an enterprise and innovation fund at the UK’s number one university for graduate businesses.

Northumbria launched the initiative at a fundraising dinner at its city campus, attended by a host of prestigious guests, including one of the institution’s most well-known alumnus Sir Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President, Design at Apple Inc.

Sir Jonathan was joined at the dinner by more than 150 guests and alumni including former Scotland rugby international Scott Hastings and fashion designer Scott Henshall. The fundraising programme included a lively auction of items, each with a special Northumbria connection, such as an original artwork by the last pitman painter Norman Cornish, a longtime friend of the University.

Every penny raised at the dinner has gone towards a new Enterprise and Innovation Fund to create and support more entrepreneurial students and graduate businesses. The fund builds on Northumbria’s outstanding status as the UK’s leading university for graduate start-ups based on estimated turnover. In the last five years’ alone,

the University has created more than 100 new companies, which employ 800 staff.

Vice-Chancellor of Northumbria University, Professor Andrew Wathey, said: “The dinner was a special opportunity for Northumbria to share its commitment to enterprise and innovation and we were delighted to be joined by our guest of honour and alumnus, Sir Jonathan Ive.

“There is no better demonstration of an entrepreneurial culture in our programmes than the role the University has played over the last few years in supporting the creation of new graduate businesses. Providing support for more students and alumni to engage in this activity is the purpose of our new fund. It will give more of our students access to seed-funding to establish and grow their business ideas, undertake enterprise-focused work placements, and access proof-of-concept funding.

“Northumbria has set itself the challenge of becoming a new kind of excellent university. One way we can do that is to continue investing in

enterprise and innovation.”

Prior to the dinner, Sir Jonathan, a graduate of Northumbria’s Design for Industry course, spent time on campus, meeting students at the University’s School of Design with Executive Dean for Arts, Design and Social Sciences, Professor Steven Kyffin.

“Our workshops and studios help students integrate strategic thinking and new ideas, with making, prototyping and testing their designs in real time,” said Professor Kyffin. “This is one of our core strengths as a leading School of Design and it is vital to the future of enterprise and innovation.”

The Enterprise and Innovation Dinner was sponsored by brand development agency Xanobia and Yorkshire Bank. Northumbria offers a range of courses for the next generation of entrepreneurs, including our innovative Entrepreneurial Business Management degree.

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northumbria.ac.uk/sgenterprise

Former Scotland rugby international Scott Hastings compered the charity auction

(Left) Graduate entrepreneur Dan Robson with Lucy Winskell OBE Sir Jonathan Ive meeting students at Northumbria

Guests at Northumbria’s Enterprise and Innovation Dinner

Keeping our doctors healthy

Despite evidence of the benefits of mentoring and General Medical Council guidelines which state that all doctors should be willing to take part, it is not a standard practice across the sector.

Now, in a prestigious £55,000 three-year project funded by the British Medical Association, academics from Northumbria are leading a team working to understand how mentoring may lead to improvements in doctors’ professional and personal wellbeing. The team will work with up to 100 doctors with more than two years’ experience of mentoring as well as those who have recently trained as mentors to gather examples and illustrations of the benefits it has brought.

Dr Alison Steven, a Reader in Health Professions Education, who is leading the project, explained: “The health and wellbeing of doctors is crucial both for the individuals themselves, as well as their ability to deliver optimum patient care. Mentoring seems to empower the mentee to unpick issues and develop plans, and learning to be a mentor helps doctors revisit specific communications skills such as listening and giving feedback.”

The British Medical Association awards approximately ten research grants worth a total of £500,000 each year to encourage and further medical research. Dr Steven’s project team has been awarded the Joan Dawkins grant, which was bequeathed to assist research into doctors’ health and wellbeing.

She added: “As the British Medical Association only awards around ten research grants each year, this is an incredibly prestigious recognition of the impact our work could have, and we feel very honoured indeed. We believe the findings could have a lot of crossover within the health professions and could be of benefit to nurses and therapists, for example.”

The team includes colleagues from Newcastle University Medical School, the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland and the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Research reveals court support can shorten children’s care cases

Court hearings for children facing care proceedings could be shortened according to new research from Northumbria University.

Although the law states that the majority of care cases should be completed in less than six months, many can last a year or more. These delays not only place significant stress on the children and families involved, they can also put a strain on their relationship with social workers.

Liverpool City Council invited researchers from Northumbria to review their care proceedings after being concerned by delays in court cases. They asked the researchers to assess the impact that Family Court Advisers could have on care and adoption proceedings.

Dr Kim Holt, Head of the Department of Social Work and Communities, analysed 26 cases in which children had experienced longterm neglect due to parental issues such as alcohol and drug misuse, domestic violence, crime, mental

health and learning difficulties. She found that when Family Court Advisers worked with children and the local authority before proceedings began, the court cases to assess their future care needs were shortened by almost three weeks.

Dr Holt explained: “It is essential that the focus remains on the child in cases relating to their future care. We found a direct link to the early involvement of Advisers to shorter care proceedings in some of the cases reviewed. This means that the timeline for the resolution of care proceedings will be significantly reduced if there is a robust mechanism for the completion of detailed assessments of the child and their family prior to a case proceeding to court.”

Dr Holt added: “Social workers in Liverpool have confirmed that increased time spent with families within the pre-proceedings stage

meant they felt more confident when presenting evidence in court. Given these positive findings the Ministry of Justice may wish to debate the potential value of further involvement of Family Court Advisers in the preproceedings stage.”

Northumbria’s research in the areas of Social Work and Social Policy recently received praise in the national Research Excellence Framework, which analyses the quality of research undertaken in UK universities. Northumbria is now ranked in the UK top 20 for research power in Social Work and Social Policy, with over half of its research being rated as ‘worldleading’ or ‘internationally excellent’.

A doctor’s job is to look out for their patients’ wellbeing – but how can they look out for their own? A national research project exploring the links between mentoring and doctors’ wellbeing is aiming to find out more.

(Left) Dr Alison Steven with Dr Nancy Renfern of Newcastle Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

University and Unilever in pioneering partnership

Northumbria has announced a formal partnership with Unilever, one of the world’s largest fast-moving consumer goods companies.

The move follows a decade of collaboration between Unilever and Northumbria’s School of Design and corresponds with the launch of the University’s design-led open innovation centre INNOVATE, based in Gateshead’s Northern Design Centre.

Under the partnership, academics and students from Northumbria’s School of Design are working at INNOVATE to help Unilever establish new and exciting ways of meeting their sustainability targets around packaging, water-use and energy.

Key projects will focus on areas including new packaging technology and innovation, with much of the work centred on ground-breaking research by Professor Raymond Oliver. With more than two billion customers around the world using a Unilever product every day, designing for behavioural change will also make a significant difference.

Lucy Winskell OBE, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Business & Engagement at Northumbria, said: “We have a strong track record of collaboration with Unilever and we are delighted to be strengthening the relationship through INNOVATE. It is an incredibly exciting opportunity to help Unilever hit its sustainability targets and make a genuine difference on a global scale, for our pioneering research to have positive impact and for our students to gain real world experience at the highest level.

“The success of our partnership model developed with Unilever is an approach we can

replicate with other businesses. At a regional level INNOVATE also supports the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) Strategic Economic Plan. It works because it is extremely easy for partners to access a unique cross-faculty resource of research-engaged academics and talented students to solve problems and deliver solutions. With INNOVATE, multidisciplinary knowledge is available through one door and under one roof.”

Paul Howells, Unilever’s Vice President R&D for Packaging, added: “For a business like Unilever, tapping into the latest academic thinking and research is clearly invaluable. We are working with Northumbria because we believe they bring something unique and special which can help us to achieve our long-term goals, particularly associated with sustainability. The University already has extremely strong design, technology and business capabilities – bringing this together under one roof, as INNOVATE has done, makes for a very attractive proposition.

“The partnership also gives us the opportunity to work with very capable young people who may decide that Unilever is the sort of organisation they would like to work with, and vice versa. An organisation like Unilever is only as good as the talent it attracts, so this is a nice additional benefit.”

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INNOVATE at Northumbria

‘Sandpit’ sparks new innovation in affordable electric vehicle production at partnership event.

An ‘Innovation Sandpit’ event, on renewable energy has triggered greater research collaboration to help make electric vehicles (EVs) more affordable to a mass market.

‘Innovation Sandpits’ bring together industry experts and leading academics in a collaborative process to address challenges such as future energy needs. Solutions can then be created through industry-focused research groups.

The ‘Innovate Low Carbon Technologies and Renewable Energy Generation’ event was held at Northumbria’s INNOVATE hub at the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead, and ran in partnership with Newcastle, Durham and Sunderland universities.

It was also attended by the respective city councils and attracted around 50 representatives from local businesses.

The aim of the ‘Innovation Sandpit’ was to explore new collaborative projects which would be eligible for North East Local Enterprise Partnership (NELEP) funding.

One result has been a research-sharing partnership between Northumbria and Sunderland University around EVs. Professor Ghanim Putrus leads the Electrical Power research group at Northumbria, which is undertaking research on creating more efficient and affordable use of batteries to drive down the cost of EVs, making them more accessible to a mass market.

The team is also looking at

the development of ‘Smart Grid Technology’ to help manage rising demand on electricity supply from a growing EV market.

Professor Putrus said: “This is a market with huge opportunities for businesses in this region, but also clear challenges which need innovative solutions. Battery costs need to come down to promote mass EV ownership, and we need to make integration of EVs on the electricity grid as smooth as possible. This is a key area of research at Northumbria, and after the ‘Innovation Sandpit’ event we have found a common interest with Sunderland University. Dr David Baglee, from Sunderland University, has already visited our laboratory and we are now

looking to combine our research with some of the work he is already engaged with in the sector with organisations such as Nissan.”

Dr Baglee added: “The importance of working in partnership with Northumbria cannot be understated. It will coordinate and strengthen the region’s research and development of electric vehicles, helping to promote the advancement of new and innovative technologies to deliver a wide range of projects.”

Lucy Winskell, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Business and Engagement at Northumbria, said: “As a hatchery for collaborative innovation, the Innovation Sandpits are a key part of this offer. They provide a forum for

business and industry leaders to have their challenges unpacked and defined, and real solutions developed which can then be brought to market. Bringing the right people together in this way can be incredibly creative; it’s a great way of tapping into a powerful cross-university knowledge base.

“The North East is at the forefront of the low carbon and renewable energy technologies. A number of collaborative projects are now being set up following this Sandpit to help ensure the region stays ahead in this important and growing sector.”

northumbria.ac.uk/innovate

Unilever’s Paul Howells with Pro Vice-Chancellor Lucy Winskell OBE at INNOVATE.

Ones to Watch

Northumbria graduates are making a very distinctive mark on the world. Some of the best known global brands are powered by our graduates who are excelling in their various specialisms across a range of different sectors. From Sir Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President, Design, at Apple, to Britain’s most successful track cyclist and Olympian Victoria Pendleton CBE, and many more, our graduates are really making an impact. Northumbria University News profiles a selection of outstanding students and graduates who are already making their mark in the world as the next generation of ‘ones to watch’…

Student dances her way to the top

Natasha Watson, a Dance student studying a Northumbria University completion award at Ballet West in Taynuilt, Scotland, has become the only UK finalist to compete in Prix de Lausanne, the most prestigious international competition for emerging ballet dancers. The BA Hons Dance programme at Ballet West is a three-year programme designed to prepare students for a career in the performance and choreography of ballet. The first two years of the programme are part of a Higher National Diploma in Dance Performance and Northumbria validates the final year completion award. Natasha will be one of 39 girls following in the footsteps of previous winners Darcey Bussell and Carlos Acosta when she attends the competition hosted in Switzerland this February.

Natasha, who is due to graduate this year, has previously danced with the Scottish Ballet on their 2014 tour of Hansel and Gretel and became a bronze medallist at the 2013 Genee International Ballet Competition. She has also had an award-winning start to her acting career, appearing in TV drama Single Father alongside actor David Tennant, which saw her named ‘Best New Scottish Actress’ and has also appeared in CBBC series M.I. High “I am looking forward to dancing in the competition – I am certain that it will be a tremendous learning experience,” said Natasha. “I feel privileged to have been given this opportunity and am grateful to all those who have supported me from Ballet West and Northumbria University.”

She added: “I’m enjoying the final year of my degree and continue to learn a great deal through academic study and in the dance studio, developing both technically and artistically. Studying a subject that I am truly passionate about is a wonderful experience.”

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balletwest.co.uk

give your career the edge

Shining a light through the night

Law student, Rebecca Brooks, has been named Volunteer of the Year at the annual Nightline awards ceremony, which celebrates the work of Nightline volunteers around the country.

Rebecca’s hard work and dedication to the confidential listening service was rewarded at the awards after she was nominated along with other volunteers from Nightline services across England, Scotland and Wales.

Nightline is a confidential listening service at Northumbria Students’ Union, ran by students for students. Fully trained volunteers are there to talk to students, whatever their problem or issue may be, and it is open throughout the night, all week during term time.

Between juggling her dissertation and working in the prestigious Student Law Office at Northumbria, Rebecca was appointed committee coordinator for the Nightline service at Northumbria Students’ Union. Having previously volunteered as the rota secretary, Rebecca has been heavily involved in running the service, organising phone shifts to ensure that all students who called the service in a time of need, were answered and listened to.

Rebecca was nominated for her hard work and innovative schemes involving the service, as well as solely organising an awards ceremony, congratulating all Nightline volunteers at Northumbria for their work.

Rebecca said: “I believe that it is very important that students get involved in extracurricular activities, in a time where a degree is no longer enough for employers.

“I’ve really enjoyed volunteering for the Nightline service and would urge students to make the most of their time at university and get involved with organisations and societies here. I’m having so much fun, whilst also ensuring I’m getting the best start towards my career in the future.”

Natasha Watson Nightline is open from 8am – 7am, seven days a week, during term time Call 0191 227 3737

Constructing excellence

Architecture graduate Richard Marsden is building a bright future after winning a prestigious national award for his achievements in the construction industry.

The 29-year-old company director, who graduated from Northumbria in 2009, was named Young Achiever of the Year at the national Constructing Excellence 2014 awards in London.

More than 450 industry professionals attended the awards, which recognise the highest standards of practice in UK construction. Richard, a chartered architect and Building Information Modelling (BIM) coordinator at BDN Ltd, was praised by judges for his passion and commitment. In the few years since his graduation, he has established his own eco-development company and hosted workshops with students to create a bespoke house-type model that is already being looked at by international companies.

“I am elated with the award. It makes all the hard work and effort count for something,” Richard said. “If it inspires one person to become an architect then I’ll be happy.”

Richard, who is from Sunderland, added: “I entered the architectural profession for different reasons than most students. While I have a passion for design quality and construction excellence, I was personally attracted to the wider skills and abilities that architecture provides.

“As my father is a builder based in Sunderland, I spent most weekends working on building sites and familiarising myself with the construction business. Through this, I learned that the North East is rich in potential sites for creative development opportunities. I wanted an architectural education that developed my manual and digital communications skills, allowing me to evaluate and capitalise on these potential sites, and design creative, buildable and imaginative responses to project briefs.

“I would advise anyone wishing to become an architect to look at Northumbria’s website, and view the range and quality of the architecture projects developed by the students.

“Architecture at Northumbria is ranked in the top 10 in the UK and credit must go to the staff for this. Hundreds of talented architecture and built environment students have found success at Northumbria, and I’m honoured that the University nominated me for this award.”

Richard’s tutor, Professor Paul Jones, nominated him for the Constructing Excellence North East award, which he won before progressing to the national finals.

Professor Jones, Chair of Learning and Teaching in Architecture, said: “Richard is an outstanding individual who, since graduating from Northumbria, has succeeded in blending his creative talents and entrepreneurial flair, resulting in him taking on leading and influential roles in the region’s construction industry. In a very short time he has developed cutting edge expertise as a director of an architectural and engineering consultancy, as well as establishing his own innovative eco-development company. He is a credit to the University and this award is testament to his passion, knowledge and confidence.”

Architecture at Northumbria was rated 6th in the UK by The Guardian’s league table, 7th by the Sunday Times, and was also in the top ten of the Complete University Guide 2015

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northumbria.ac.uk/architecturecourses

Zambia calling for Northumbria students

A Northumbria student who was crowned Miss Newcastle says she is looking forward to shaking off her ‘beauty queen’ image when she travels to Zambia to work with orphaned children.

Nicole Bailey, a Sports Development and Coaching student, will provide sports coaching to youngsters and help raise awareness of AIDS in communities and schools near Zambia’s capital, Lusaka. She is one of five Northumbria students heading out to Africa later this year as part of the University’s Zambia IDEALS project, a partnership with the Wallace Group and UK Sports which uses sport as a tool to empower and educate young people.

Nicole and her fellow volunteers have until July to raise £1,400 each plus a group target of £3,500 to fund the trip. She explains: “It is a project the University organises, but the volunteers fund themselves.”

The students will be raising money for the trip through a wide range of fundraising activities across the North East.

“One of the things we are doing is putting on a bingo night,” Nicole says. “We have already asked several shops to donate some prizes. They were very generous and donated lots of great stuff for the night, so hopefully we will raise some cash.” When her stint in Zambia is finished, Nicole, who was named Miss Newcastle GB last year, will fly to Malawi for further volunteer work alongside her sister, who is a doctor.

Kate Hansbury is the Student and Staff Development Manager responsible for supporting this year’s cohort. She will spend three weeks in Zambia with the group. She said: “The Zambia IDEALS project is a wonderful opportunity for our students to really throw

themselves into a project which makes a real difference. The range of life experiences offered by this programme really is invaluable. It takes them out of the typical student experience and into an environment where they are involved in incredibly challenging but satisfying work with communities who really benefit from their efforts.”

The global volunteering opportunities at the University are just one of the reasons why our students gain more just a degree at Northumbria – they have a truly outstanding experience.

nusportcentral.com/sport-foundation/ zambia-project

Award-winning graduate returns to inspire women entrepreneurs

Successful businesswoman and Northumbria graduate, Jo York, returned to the University recently to help mark Global Entrepreneurship Week.

The co-founder of Reframed.tv, a social video concept, reflected on a ‘rollercoaster’ 13 months as a new start-up, during a session on Women and Entrepreneurship. Organised by NUovo, Northumbria’s Entrepreneurs’ Society.

The business was created by Jo, and her cofounder Kev Price, to make video truly social by allowing its users to sync their comments to exact moments in the video. Jo described it as: “Acting as the glue between social interactions and broadcasters.”

Jo provided some valuable advice to those who attended the session, leaving the room inspired and motivated: “I learned how to programme computers here but I also had a great lecturer who brought energy to the course and made me question why I was doing things, something which is important

to do in business. University also teaches you about the softer skills, like how to articulate your ideas clearly to others.”

Reframed.tv has just won Best New Business at the North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2014, which is organised by the Women’s Advisory Board. Jo said: “We were thrilled. The award reinforces that Reframed.tv is recognised as a great business initiative and not just a new and exciting idea that people like. We have some great projects coming up.”

Reframed.tv was one of ten companies picked from 240 international applicants for an intense, three-month development programme run by technology start-up accelerator network, Ignite. The team had to prove their business idea was viable and worked hard to test assumptions, network and speak to people.

Jo said: “Speaking to people is when you figure out themes. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, or receiving some harsh feedback, as the lessons learned are worth more. Every day is a school day in the start-up world, where testing your ideas and then improving on it is all part of the process. We are still understanding our fit, 13 months in. Businesses should develop and change.”

Jo and Kev continue to work with Northumbria through the Student and Graduate Enterprise department and praise them highly. This has provided them with access to professional services, allowing them to make the most of their budget.

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northumbria.ac.uk/sgenterprise

Richard Marsden

Nicole Bailey

Investing in excellence

The next generation of scientists and engineers will benefit from ambitious £6.7 million investment in world-class STEM education at Northumbria.

The investment will be co-funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) as part of its £200 million scheme to increase the number of high-quality Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) students. The University will use the funding to create world-class teaching and research STEM facilities at its city campus, including new specialist laboratories and technologies.

The news followed the launch of Northumbria’s £1.2 million Think Physics project to inspire more young people to engage in science and pursue STEM careers.

Professor Andrew Wathey, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at Northumbria, said: “This investment of £6.7 million in STEM facilities, co-funded by Northumbria and HEFCE, clearly marks the commitment of this University to driving world-class research and teaching across STEM disciplines, and to drive an increased flow of highly-employable graduates into industry.

“Universities have a vital role to play in the Government’s strategy to ensure the UK remains one of the world’s leading scientific nations.

“Northumbria’s ongoing investment in developing world-class STEM provision reflects our responsiveness to this growing demand and to the growing collaborative opportunities, in both research and teaching, with industry.”

HEFCE announced £200 million funding for 73 UK universities and colleges to ensure Higher Education responds effectively to the increase in demand for STEM studies. This funding will be used to create facilities that will support the development of a greater number of high-quality graduates into industry.

Linda Conlon, Chief Executive, International Centre for Life, said: “This is tremendous news from our partners at Northumbria who share with Life an ambition to enhance STEM provision in the region. We look forward to working with them on new and exciting projects which, when coupled with projects such as Think Physics and the MSc in Science Communication, will establish the North East as the place to be for the next generation of UK scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.”

Northumbria launched its innovative Think Physics project at a special event at its city campus, which featured a range of science experiments and STEM research. It was attended by a number of the project’s partners and supporters, including Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah.

Chi, who has a degree in electrical engineering, said: “STEM skills are critical for the future economy of the country and particularly the North East with our industrial and manufacturing basis. This announcement is great news, underlining Newcastle’s position as a destination for excellent STEM education and Northumbria’s growing role in that.”

Executive Dean for Engineering and Environment, Professor Glen McHale, said: “I am extremely pleased our bid has been successful and that we will see an investment totalling £6.7 million over the next two years, co-funded by HEFCE. This will be used to invest in learning and teaching facilities at our city campus, creating new laboratories, purchasing the latest technology and equipment, and refurbishing our existing buildings, with the aim of transforming our campus into a world-class beacon for STEM.”

Think Physics Director, Dr Carol Davenport, added: “Think Physics aims to encourage more young people, particularly girls, to study science-

related courses at university. It is great news that Northumbria will be able to provide even better opportunities and facilities for those students who choose to do their STEM undergraduate degrees here.”

This latest investment, combined with the Northumbria-led Think Physics project, demonstrates the University’s ongoing vision of becoming a beacon for students wishing to study STEM disciplines and pursue careers in these fields.

northumbria.ac.uk/stem

‘Girlifying’ science is not the answer

This was the message being delivered at the official launch of Think Physics at Northumbria.

This pioneering project, created to inspire the next generation of female scientists and engineers, was brought to life at a launch filled with live experiments for all ages and world-class research on display at the University’s city campus.

The three-year Think Physics initiative has been launched to help engage more young people – especially girls and under-represented groups – in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) from pre-school to university and on into their careers.

Led by Northumbria, in collaboration with a range of partners, the project is being funded by a £1.2 million grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Launched at the new Think Lab at Northumbria’s city campus, the event involved an impressive display of scientific experiments and demonstrations for different age groups, with several of the activities directly reflecting research currently taking place at the University.

Think Physics was partly inspired by a report from the Institute of Physics, which revealed only 21% of physics students at UK universities are female. The project aims to address this over the next three years under the leadership of Dr Carol Davenport,

Director of Think Physics, and her team of specialists. Dr Davenport said: “The Think Physics team and I feel incredibly excited and privileged to launch this innovative project and we look forward to making our vision a reality.

“In addressing the gender imbalance in STEM, we plan to follow the guidance of one of our partners, the Institute of Physics, which makes it clear that simply ‘girlifying physics’ is not the solution. It is about showing young people the applications, the real situations and the routes into a range of exciting careers. Our message to young people is that science opens doors.

“To make a success of the project we will be working in partnership, drawing on external expertise and resources, as well as engaging with the excellent research that is being carried out at Northumbria. We also plan to take our work out to our partner schools and to bring visitors into our Think Lab on campus.”

Partners include the Centre for Life, Institute of Physics, North Tyneside Learning Trust, Kielder Observatory and Solar Capture Technologies Ltd. Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive at Northumbria, Professor Andrew Wathey said: “I am delighted the University is leading this innovative and potentially future-shaping project. Over the next three years it will position the University and its partners as a beacon for STEM engagement and an inspiration to the next generation of

scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians.”

The launch was attended by key partners, businesses, parents and schoolchildren. Newcastle Central MP, Chi Onwurah, was also at the event. She said: “The jobs, industries, economy, society and culture of the future will all increasingly be based on STEM subjects. We must make sure they are represented by boys and girls, men and women if we are to realise their full potential. The Think Physics project makes an important contribution to this.”

Linda Conlon, Chief Executive of the Centre for Life, one of the project’s key partners, added: “This is an exciting time for physics in the region and we’re delighted to be working with Northumbria to deliver this innovative project that will see young people – and especially girls, who are particularly under-represented in this field –involved in engaging physics-themed activities. Hopefully, this is just the start of a legacy that will ensure the North East remains a front runner in the engineering and technology fields.” Northumbria offers a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses in STEM disciplines.

Science opens doors to the most incredible careers for young women, according to £1.2m Think Physics project.

Young people engaging with science at the launch of Think Physics event

Northumbria is first in Europe to roll out free safety app

Students and staff can now benefit from greater peace of mind as the University launch a pioneering new safety app – SafeZone. The app comes as the University looks for new ways to further ensure the safety of staff and students in an era of 24/7 access on campus.

SafeZone works within defined boundaries set by the University and is connected directly to Security. Boundaries can be altered, providing the flexibility to be used at off-site events and in other locations outside of the UK. Currently it works within the boundaries of City Campus, Coach Lane Campus, Trinity Square, the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead, and Bullocksteads sports facilities.

It has three main features which can be accessed at the tap of a button: emergency assistance, first aid and general help. Security officers are dispatched for all emergency and first aid requests, while the general help button connects directly to the Campus Services Helpdesk. Users can also check in, to make Security aware of their location.

John Anderson, Head of Security at Northumbria, said: “We needed to consider what resources we had available to us to support initiatives like 24/7 access. When we investigated using SafeZone, we were impressed with the

features, its cost effectiveness and how it can adapt to meet the needs of the University and the community.

“Introducing the app sets us apart from other universities and demonstrates our commitment to health and safety, making Northumbria a secure and safe place to study and work.”

Outside the defined boundaries, users can still have peace of mind as the app connects directly to the local emergency services.

Newcastle has been voted one of the safest cities in the UK in recent years. SafeZone, developed by CriticalArc, has a successful track record in Australia where approximately 300,000 students and staff across several universities, have access to the app.

The fully integrated app is available from January 2015 for iOS, Android and Windows devices.

DISCOVER MORE

safezoneapp.com or northumbria.ac.uk/campussecurity

FOR YOU ONE SMALL STEP

(5

ONE GIANT

LEAP FOR STUDENTKIND

You could be rewarded for sharing your knowledge, visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/surveytime for more information. TAKE THE 5 MINUTE SURVEY, THE FUTURE IS IN YOUR HANDS Complete your survey today, simply check your email and MyNorthumbria page for more information.

A campus security officer at Northumbria

Students clock 30,000 voluntary hours

Northumbria is one of the largest universities in the UK, with an international reputation which has attracted more than 33,000 students from 110 countries. This is fantastic for the North East region – most students are based in Newcastle and their combined spending power provides a huge boost to the local economy, supporting regional employment and businesses. But how else do students contribute? Journalism graduate Rosie Willan investigates for Northumbria University News

Asignificant contribution made by students is through volunteering.

In the last academic year alone, Northumbria students logged 30,000 hours of volunteering work. The Students’ Union is at the forefront of this volunteering effort, overseeing the extensive ‘Volunteer Northumbria’ programme.

Projects range from community work with children and the elderly to environmental conservation. Many of these are student-led or linked to charities and organisations in the North East.

Through these projects, students play an important part in supporting communities in and around Newcastle.

Natalie-Dawn Hodgson, President of Northumbria’s Students’ Union, explains: “We have a huge variety of volunteering opportunities for students to get involved in. Unfortunately, a lot of the positive contributions students make to society are overlooked in the media, but I think residents in Newcastle recognise and value their contribution to the city. It is without a doubt one of the best student cities in the UK and a huge part of that is the friendliness and warmth of the people. I have always felt welcomed and at home here, so it was fantastic to give something back through volunteering during my time as a student.”

This idea of giving something back is a sentiment which underpins many of the projects. One of Northumbria’s schemes currently having a big impact on the community is the ‘Food Bank’, which sees students working in partnership with the West End Food Bank. The centre provides donated food packages to people who may struggle to feed themselves or their family.

Grace Flowers is the project leader as well as Committee Coordinator for ‘Volunteer Northumbria’. She said: “We hold weekly sessions with volunteers who sort the food for distribution and help give out the food packages. Many people in Newcastle benefit from this service – it’s a brilliant project because you can see first-hand the effect your volunteering has. When we are at the centre, people often ask if we get paid for the work we do or if we receive any special perks – we don’t. We are honestly just doing our bit to make a difference.”

‘IT Classes’ is another successful project that is making a difference. During term time, groups of students host weekly IT classes for elderly people.

Josh Rivers is one of four committee

members for the project and is responsible for the running and organisation of the sessions as well as recruiting student volunteers. He explained: “IT Classes has a fantastic weekly turnout of regular volunteers who are praised by attendees for all the hard work they do. For me, the best thing about it is the feeling you get afterwards when you know you have made a difference to someone’s life – no matter how small it may seem.”

Another big aspect of Northumbria’s volunteering is conservation –Northumbria’s ‘Eco NSU’ programme won the Environmental Category at the prestigious ‘National Council for Voluntary Youth Services’ Young Partners Award’ in October 2013. Students can take part in a wide range of activities from beach cleanups on the Northumberland coast to wildlife conservation in and around Newcastle. Some of the projects also involve educating others about the importance of being eco-friendly. A brilliant example of this is the ‘Kid’s Eco Crafts Club’ which sees student volunteers run regular sessions for kids and their parents to make eco-friendly toys and crafts while learning about the environment.

And the student’s efforts are recognised by Deputy Leader of Newcastle City Council Joyce McCarty, who chairs a monthly ‘Students in Newcastle Forum’. The meeting is attended by representatives from Northumbria and Newcastle universities, as well as from Newcastle College.

“The role that educational institutions, like Northumbria, play in the economic and social development of the city cannot be underestimated,” explained Joyce. “At the forums, we discuss a range of topics from housing to health with the aim of ensuring that students are engaged and valued members of the community. We know that the vast majority of students work extremely hard and contribute enormously to life in Newcastle. I’m always struck by their willingness to give up their time and give something back to our city. Through volunteering, they play a significant role in creating the kind of community they wish to be a part of.”

Volunteering can also have a big effect on the students’ own lives. These days, University is about more than just gaining a degree and volunteering is a great way to learn new skills, grow in confidence and boost your CV. More than that, though, it’s a fantastic way to meet new like-minded people and have fun while making positive changes

to the community. So, what are you waiting for?

DISCOVER MORE

For more info go to: northumbria.ac.uk/volunteering

Students’ Union President Natalie-Dawn Hodgson

Northumbria students helping to clean up at the beach

Students volunteering in Jesmond

In conversation with… Lucy Winskell OBE

Your role is to work with businesses, so in what ways does Northumbria University contribute to the region’s economic and social development?

The economic impact we bring to the region is huge. We are one of the biggest employers in the region and we have a very large student base, but it’s not just about the financial contribution that the University, our staff and our students make. We provide very able graduates and postgraduates to support businesses and help them develop their workforce and build on their strengths. I think the really important thing to stress is the ‘Knowledge Transfer’ we provide to those organisations and people who drive the North East economy through our research, innovation and collaborations with businesses. The University has partnerships with a range of institutions and government bodies across the North East, including BALTIC, the Centre for Life and Gateshead Council. How do these partnerships benefit students?

We have to ensure that the partnerships are bringing something of real value to the students and that the University offers value to our partners – in simple terms, the whole becomes stronger than the two parts. So, for example, if you’re a Performing Arts student, the opportunity to work with a new writer who creates a play then translates that onto the stage, and being involved with that process step-by-step, would enhance your learning experience. Alternatively, a business student working in a corporate learning partnership with a multi-national would grow to understand their subject better, and that experience would improve their long-term employability.

One of Northumbria’s main objectives for students is to help give their career an edge. What unique qualities do Northumbria students bring to the job market, drawing on your own business experience?

As a result of working with the partners, our students have a greater understanding of how a particular business works and are able to articulate why they want to be in that industry and what they can offer to it. You can learn so much in a classroom, but it’s really important to apply this knowledge in a practical sense too. Our Employability and Enterprise Plan emphasises the need for us to help our students gain life-long skills and attributes.

You were awarded an OBE in the 2014 Honours List in recognition for your services to the regional economy in the North East and to Higher Education. What does this award mean to you?

It means a great deal to me indeed. I have been really touched by the most charming letters, cards and emails from a huge number of people I’ve worked with in the North East and

elsewhere over the years. I was overwhelmed by the kind comments people made about my impact on the work we had done together – it was very humbling, and it has reminded me what a privilege it has been to work with such talented individuals and great businesses over the years.

You studied for both your undergraduate degree and MBA in the North East. What made you stay here and pursue a career in the region?

I think the North East is a fabulous place to live, learn and work. I have always lived here and I just love everything the region can bring. I still love to travel and I’ve worked nationally and internationally in some of my previous roles, but home has always been here.

You were a litigation lawyer and have worked in a range of governance roles in public and private organisations. What made you change your career and how have these experiences informed your work at Northumbria?

I had a successful legal career with some national and international roles, but after 27 years I began to think I had another career in me. Through my MBA, I began to learn new skills and gain the confidence to reinvent myself – I really witnessed the power of postgraduate study first hand. I undoubtedly view the MBA as a stepping stone and used it to build a portfolio of non-executive appointments. I worked with Professor Wathey, Northumbria’s Vice-Chancellor, as a non-executive of the Newcastle-Gateshead City Development Company, and learnt so much from him about the University’s strengths and its importance to the region. This resulted in my applying for the role of

Pro-Vice Chancellor, and the interview panel decided I had the right skill set to take up the position – for which I am extremely grateful!

How has the role developed since you arrived in 2010?

The role has changed a great deal as the University has had to respond to the fastmoving environment around us. We’ve seen a recession, a massive economic shake-up, changes to Higher Education funding and a rise in tuition fees. As the environment we work in continues to change, we need to be forward thinking, flexible and resilient. Personally, I continue to learn new things every day and am pushed outside of my comfort zone all the time – and that’s a good thing. Although it’s daunting to move to the Higher Education sector from an

established legal career, I’m thrilled that I made the change.

What do you have planned to work on next?

Well, where do I start? There’s so much to do. We need to embed our Employability and Enterprise Plan to bring more benefits to all students. We need to continue to build a culture of graduate business start-ups. We need to work towards ensuring all of our students are able to benefit from placements. We need to refocus our sports strategy and we need to build up our business partnerships. Although we are already doing lots of this work we’re always keen to do more and to find new and better ways of working. We never rest on our laurels and that’s a big part of our success.

Lucy Winskell, Northumbria’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Business and Engagement, talks to Journalism graduate Rosie Willan about how she fosters the University’s partnerships across the region and her recent OBE in recognition of her achievements.

The North East is a fabulous place to live, learn and work.

I have always lived here and I just love everything the region can bring.

Pro Vice-Chancellor Lucy Winskell OBE with her award

NORTHUMBRIA RESEARCH

Turning the pages of our research story

In moving forward to become a new kind of excellent university, Northumbria has long recognised the importance of enhancing its research capacity. Our vision is to be known as a research-rich, business-focussed, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence.

To achieve this goal, Northumbria embarked on a transformative project in 2008 to strategically grow its strength in research. We have invested heavily in research-active staff and high-quality facilities that have helped to generate excellence in all of the University’s activities, including teaching, innovation and employer engagement. This growing focus on research has helped to shape the University’s profile. Northumbria has climbed the national league tables and has received its highest ever ratings for student satisfaction and experience. The University has forged partnerships with leading organisations and universities worldwide and is now rated within the UK’s top 50 universities for research power.

From the initial aim to grow research capacity and capability, the recent national assessment of research excellence gave a powerful endorsement of the University’s achievements. The Research Excellence Framework 2014 revealed that Northumbria had achieved the biggest improvement in research activity of any university in the country since 2008.

Research is integral to everything the University does, and, perhaps more importantly, the research we specialise in makes an impact on the wider world. Our research is focused on activity that creates and applies knowledge for the benefit of society, culture and the economy. Research from Northumbria permeates across all areas of our everyday lives.

This special supplement of Northumbria University News has been produced to highlight some of our areas of excellent research and bring to life some of the impact we have had on the wider world. We have much to be proud of.

Research from Northumbria has helped to shape improvements in patient care and the educational attainment of schoolchildren. We were the first to harness the power of solar energy and are working to reduce the costs involved in utilising solar power. Our researchers have uncovered the secret health benefits of a host of natural, herbal and man made products and they have worked with countless businesses to develop and test new product ideas that have improved their profitability.

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled,” said the Greek philosopher Plutarch. His words are central to the ethos of all involved in education who are working to stimulate the minds of others. Universities, in particular, further stoke the fire through their aim of creating new knowledge through research.

The following pages will tell you more about the breadth of our research and about the people undertaking it.

It’s a fascinating story, so dive in…

How our research

Northumbria conducts ground-breaking, high-quality research that is responsive to the needs of global communities. Our research has real impact. It changes people’s lives and helps businesses gain an edge over their competitors. It educates the next generation of global graduates and it pushes the boundaries of design, engineering, health and technology – to name a few of our areas of expertise – while contributing to social policy and government agendas.

Northumbria University News highlights a few examples of how our research is having a global impact…

How eating breakfast improves children’s performance in school

Hundreds of school breakfast clubs have been established across the UK, resulting in a measurable increase in children’s attainment and quality of life, thanks to research from Northumbria’s Healthy Living research unit.

Working in partnership with Kellogg’s, Northumbria psychologists investigated the effect of breakfast club attendance and breakfast consumption on children’s behaviour, cognitive performance and social friendships.

They found that children who attended school breakfast clubs integrated better into their school community and had more positive attitudes towards their peers and teachers than other children.

Their findings were translated into the UK’s first online training programme for teachers, governors, NHS Public Health Advisors and parent volunteers, resulting in the development of more than 200 breakfast clubs across the UK. Teachers who established breakfast clubs in their schools as a result have reported gains in attendance, punctuality, motivation and quality of life of many of the children involved.

Thanks to Northumbria’s research, Blackpool Council decided to invest £1.3 million to fund universal free breakfast club provision for all primary school children in 2013/14.

Professor Greta Defeyter, the Director of Northumbria’s Healthy Living research unit, and lead researcher on breakfast clubs, is a member of several advisory panels including the All Party Parliamentary Group on School Food. She regularly advises government, industry and academia of the importance of breakfast clubs and the consumption of breakfast on educational performance, nutrition, social behaviours and community cohesion.

Speaking about the impact of this research, Professor Defeyter commented: “I am delighted that the impact from our innovative research has assisted schools to develop and deliver breakfast to thousands of hungry children every day of the school week. The continued success of ‘Healthy Living’ has enabled my research team to lay the foundations for new, broader and exciting research investigating holiday hunger in children. As a key stakeholder, we are currently preparing a policy briefing on holiday hunger for Parliament.”

Beating online criminals

We spend so much of our lives online that many of us assume it is safe. In fact, online security is always under threat and sophisticated programs and systems are needed to maintain the integrity of the online infrastructure that we take for granted.

learn from the best

Researchers in the Department of Computer Science & Digital Technologies are experts on protecting web servers and networks, particularly on how to monitor these systems in real time. Their research identified that sonification, using nonspeech audio as a monitoring tool, is effective for locating and detecting problems in computer systems. Organisations such as the US Naval Research Laboratory, Fraunhofer and CERN are now using this approach.

Following a Technology Strategy-Board funded project with Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the researchers have also developed a system to monitor computer network traffic in real time to spot patterns that could signal impending problems. Researchers worked with Security Risk Management Ltd, an information assurance firm who have identified a number of opportunities surrounding situational awareness. In computer networks, this is being aware of what is going on within the network to gain an understanding of how events, such as a potential cyber-attack, new information, and our own actions will affect it.

Researchers provided guidance around online payment procedures, fraud detection, and vulnerability assessment to the Dublin-based online gambling site Star Spreads for whom trust and privacy are essential elements. This culminated in a thorough test of the company’s online system. They also worked with the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), training its digital forensic investigation team in a mix of skills development and best-practice digital forensics investigatory policies and procedures.

Helping business to ‘pipe up’

iNPIPE Products (IPP) were helped by researchers from Newcastle Business School at Northumbria to increase operational efficiency and turnover.

The company, which specialises in oil and gas pipeline maintenance products, has reduced the time taken to process sales, the number of orders that arrived late and the number of rejected products. These improvements were a result of a two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with Newcastle Business School, who worked with iNPIPE to improve its business processes and to implement an integrated information system.

Working closely with staff, researchers identified improvements and developed new ways to make design through to production easier and quicker. They also trained staff in new business processes and computerised systems.

iNPIPE also managed to make an annual saving of more than £140,000 in its bi-directional pig products, devices used to clean the inside of oil and gas pipes, by reducing the number of rejected products.

Shari Thomson, iNPIPE’s business development manager, said: “The KTP project has exceeded expectations. The support of the University’s staff has been invaluable in achieving these outcomes. Culturally, we are now a more open, transparent organisation in terms of decision-making. Working with the Northumbria team on this project has allowed iNPIPE to use their expertise and research knowledge to take the company forward in terms of increased sales, reduction in re-work and waste, and to facilitate a change in the company culture.”

impacts the world

Bringing 18th Century literature to a modern audience

Researchers from Northumbria’s English department have introduced new audiences to the writings of the 18th Century novelist Laurence Sterne. Through a partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust, people across the North East and Yorkshire have had the opportunity to explore Sterne’s work through comedy nights and educational workshops.

The United Nations follows Northumbria’s lead

Researchers at Northumbria have seen their methods adopted by the UN after helping to redefine professional practice and decision-making in digital records management. Their expertise is such that the University’s research has been adopted by the UN’s Secretariat’s Archives and Records Management Service (ARMS) in its service delivery and strategic planning.

Professor Julie McLeod led the AHRC-funded research project, ‘Accelerating Positive Change in Electronic Records Management’, which aimed to better understand the issues surrounding digital records management and to develop practical approaches to support effective organisational strategies.

The research revealed overwhelmingly that people, rather than systems or technologies, are at the heart of the challenge, and that possible solutions are complex and individual to each particular situation and organisation. To help practitioners make sense of this, researchers developed a strategic framework to better understand people and systems issues.

Professor McLeod said: “This research investigated a challenging, contemporary issue which is important to both practitioners and academics. It is the fact that it is evidence-based that makes it so valuable to organisations such as the United Nations, where the adoption of its proportionate risk-based approach has already had a positive economic impact.

“Its innovative combination of research methods and approach to analysis are developing outside-of-the-box thinking and presenting new perspectives on the ‘wicked problem’ of managing digital records. This has captured the attention of practitioners and academics worldwide.”

Northumbria is a leading centre for research into 18th Century literature and culture, with a particular expertise on the experimental novelist Laurence Sterne, the author of Tristram Shandy Dr Helen Williams, an English lecturer, has worked closely with the Laurence Sterne Trust based at Shandy Hall, North Yorkshire. Drawing on her own research and the wider expertise at Northumbria, Dr Williams helped to design a schools outreach programme that complemented the exhibition, Eliza Draper: An Absent Presence, which she also helped to curate. Developed with teachers, the outreach programme focused on the letter writing aspect of the exhibition. Children from three schools in the North East and Yorkshire were invited to Shandy Hall and took part in letter writing workshops. They learned about Sterne’s distinctive writing style and the conventions that structure writing. They also had the opportunity to produce their own 18th Century letters, digitised on the Dear Sterne blog. Following the success of these workshops, the Trust offers a wider range of workshops for schools and has extended its geographic reach to primary schools outside of North Yorkshire.

Dr Williams’ expertise also helped the Trust to secure a Heritage Lottery grant, resulting in the production of The Good Humour Club. The Club is an ambitious year-long project that offered a series of comedy nights, an exhibition, a period drama podcast and educational workshops to a broad public audience. The idea was based upon a book recently identified in the Shandy Hall collection about an 18th Century gentleman’s club set up to promote laughter and comedy as a means of living a long and healthy life.

Northumbria’s partnership with the Laurence Sterne Trust also provides opportunities for its students, some of whom have taken on the role of Wikipedians, directing readers to the Trust’s collections through Wikipedia. Additionally, an internship programme has been created giving six students the chance to spend time at Shandy Hall, Dove Cottage and the Literary & Philosophical Society to learn about collecting and curating eighteenth and nineteenth-century prints. To view a film about how Northumbria recently introduced its 18th Century research to the public as part of the national Being Human festival scan this code.

Driving research through the heart of horror

Cult, fantasy and horror festivals have been given an academic twist thanks to researchers from Northumbria.

Working in collaboration with organisers of international festivals such as Abertoir in Wales, and Offscreen in Brussels, academics from Northumbria’s Media department have been instrumental in shaping festival programmes, which has contributed to an increase in audience numbers.

Northumbria’s research, led by Professor Peter Hutchings, Dr Jamie Sexton and Dr Johnny Walker, explores themes of key significance to the festivals such as the history of European horror cinema and cult fan cultures.

Their involvement during the festival planning stages has allowed the programme to develop within an educational context, bringing such research to life and transforming the audience experience.

In addition to informing the festivals’ core programme, lively interactive lectures were delivered, discussing the careers of actors such as Peter Cushing and inviting debate on the best British cult film stars. Another innovative event was the recreation of the world of video nasties through the construction of a replica 1980s video shop in Aberystwyth Arts Centre. This coincided with the 20th anniversary of the Video Recordings Act and involved a public talk on 1980s horror videos. The work in this area has also created opportunities for Offscreen Festival to participate in an AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) funded international research network, and has enabled Abertoir to bid for additional funding from the Film Agency for Wales.

Responding to global disasters

Northumbria is changing how women and children are considered in global disaster policy and practice. Created by Northumbria academics, the Gender and Disaster Network (GDN) has been providing online resources since 1997 and is used daily by people whose job it is to plan for and respond to disasters around the world.

“The aim of the GDN is to empower women and children to endure and then rebuild their lives following natural disasters. For too long, the particular vulnerabilities of women and children were not recognised in disaster policy planning; nor was the pivotal role played by women in the survival of their families and communities post-disaster,” explains Professor Maureen Fordham who co-ordinates the GDN from Northumbria. “The GDN was set up to provide the evidence, knowledge, training and advocacy to change international policy and it has succeeded.”

The site, which receives half a million hits a year and has 1,000 registered members from every continent, is supported by UN agencies, and the Swiss and US governments. Its research-based resources and training materials are directly shaping gender-sensitive policies for global disaster planning. GDN has impacted international policy by increasing the profile of gender in disaster management policy and practice.

Supporting thousands of vulnerable and elderly people

A care home transformed the quality and efficiency of its service to more than 5,000 people thanks to research by Northumbria.

Valley Care provides a telephone service, which helps elderly and vulnerable people live independently and remain in their homes longer. The service, part of Northumbria NHS Healthcare Trust, receives 129,000 calls a year.

Researchers in Mathematics and Information Science applied a novel method called Targeted Projection Pursuit (TPP) to Valley Care’s service. TPP is a data analysis technique that groups data together in clusters that all have similar traits. This can reveal hidden groupings and trends in the data. This mathematical and statistical method enabled Valley Care to establish the volume, type and frequency of calls and identify users at high risk, improving the quality and efficiency of the service without an increase in budget.

Professor Maia Angelova, who led the team in the Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences, said: “As a direct outcome of applying our research, Valley Care transformed its system for the Call Centre operators. They were able to provide more efficient workload planning for call centre operators, more efficient allocation of warden visits, prioritising calls to ambulance services and relatives, and eliminating false alarms.”

“The research also provided knowledge about the usage patterns of the technology and valuably identified clients at high risk of falls. Monitoring and allocating special attention to high-risk clients means they can live independently at home for longer and not go into residential care, which represents a significant saving per year.”

Helping reduce alcohol consumption

Doctors and nurses commonly ask their patients how much alcohol they drink in a week and advise them to cut down if necessary – but did you know that research from Northumbria has been influential in bringing this about?

This brief chat with a patient helps GPs and nurses to quickly identify those who may be drinking too much alcohol which places them at increased risk of health issues. They can then offer advice on why and how the patient should cut down their drinking. The approach has proved effective in reducing alcohol consumption in patients identified as being hazardous or harmful drinkers and is now standard practice for NHS professionals.

Approximately 1.75 million people a year benefit from this ‘brief intervention’ screening, which was pioneered by Professor Nick Heather, a specialist in alcohol and other drug studies at Northumbria, almost 30 years ago. Northumbria’s research has contributed towards the production of guides and information packs for clinicians and patients.

Professor Heather explained: “The evidence clearly shows that alcohol screening and brief intervention in general practice is an effective and cost-effective way of helping people to cut back consumption to low risk levels. If consistently applied in general practice across the UK, this would make a significant contribution to public health.”

Professor Heather has worked with the World Health Organisation on a 25-year study to promote the benefits of this intervention internationally. Advice to medical professionals to ‘make every contact count’ with patients has led to NHS staff routinely talking to patients about their lifestyle – even when their presenting problem is not obviously connected to alcohol consumption. They can then take the opportunity to advise on changes to lifestyle.

Public Health England has also developed the Alcohol Learning Centre website that provides online resources and learning for commissioners, planners and practitioners working to reduce alcohol-related harm. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) now recommends that alcohol screening and brief intervention is routinely carried out as an integral part of medical practice.

More than £1million recouped for clients

Based on research developed by Northumbria, the University’s award-winning Student Law Office (SLO) provides a vital service for individuals and businesses, many of whom might otherwise be unable to afford legal representation.

Run as a full legal advice and representation service, Northumbria Law School’s SLO has dealt with over 3,000 enquiries from members of the public, represented more than 1,000 clients and recovered in excess of £1 million for clients since 1 January 2008.

Northumbria University’s Law School is internationally recognised as a centre of excellence for clinical legal education. In 2013, Northumbria was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education for the outstanding work of the SLO. To date, law clinics based on our model have been established in countries across Europe, Japan, and Bangladesh, the USA and, most recently, in Uganda.

The SLO is a catalyst in the North East to encourage more law firms to become involved in pro bono work. In partnership with national pro bono charity, LawWorks, it works in collaboration with 10 regional law firms, delivering benefits to the community, as well as encouraging a culture of free legal advice in these firms.

It also has close links with charities and community organisations. Through a partnership with Shelter, the homeless charity, students provide a national advice service to homeless and vulnerable clients, researching and advising on complex problems.

Carol Boothby, Director of the Student Law Office, said; “I am extremely proud of the contribution our students make to the local community, through the work of the Student Law Office. They are developing not just as law students, but as future citizens, with the skills and motivation to make a difference whatever career path they choose.”

Creating a brighter future

Research carried out at Northumbria on the performance of photovoltaic systems (PV) – the most commonly used technology for converting sunshine into electricity – has played an important role in helping to meet the UK’s target of reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

Northumbria is a pioneer in PV research. In 1994, the University installed the country’s first PV façade, providing data on their performance in UK weather conditions. This generated a unique field of expertise at Northumbria and led to the involvement of the research team in the Domestic Photovoltaic Field Trial between 2000 and 2007. This project remains the most comprehensive study of domestic PV system performance in the UK, and the data and insights from it continue to be used to inform a number of government policies that have encouraged PV implementation.

Professor Nicola Pearsall said: “It is now not unusual to see PV systems on houses all over the country, but at the start of the Domestic Photovoltaic Field Trial there were only a few installations.

“As part of the project, we analysed the performance of 370 individual systems at 24 locations around the UK. We were particularly interested in the electricity yields of the systems and their contribution to the demands of the houses on which they were installed. These results were then used in the development of subsequent programmes for the development of PV systems such as we see today. We also gained a lot of insights into the way PV systems were perceived and understood by the households in the study.”

Digitising the construction industry

Northumbria is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for Building Information Modelling (BIM), which is bringing construction into the digital age. BIM is the structured creation, sharing, use and re-use of digital information about a building throughout its entire lifecycle. This involves the use of 3D design models that are created and managed using a range of technologies.

BIM Academy at Northumbria is an innovative joint venture between the University and Ryder Architecture. It is impartial and industry-facing, and undertakes research, consultancy, software development, outreach and training. BIM Academy works closely in the UK with industry bodies such as RIBA Enterprises and has been recognised internationally, winning both the Build Qatar Live and Build Sydney Live competitions.

Professor David Greenwood, of the Department of Architecture and Built Environment, said: “Northumbria’s excellence in BIM has resulted in a number of research funding awards, primarily collaborative industry-led projects funded by Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board). One project, the ‘Digital BIM Toolkit’, led by National Building Specification, will have a major influence

Research that changed the way health information is provided online

Northumbria researchers proved that people using the internet to search for health advice often rejected high-quality medical information from reputable sites, such as the NHS, in favour of those with information provided by people with similar experiences.

The ground-breaking research, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, made a big impact on the future development of health websites in the UK and Europe after being published in 2007.

At the time, the health industry believed that patients would only trust health information if it came from ‘reputable’ sources such as drug companies, physicians or government, but Northumbria’s research findings turned this on its head.

Psychology researchers, led by Professor Pam Briggs, had previously looked at how consumers trusted ecommerce websites before focusing on trust in health websites. They examined the way that more than 2,000 people used the internet to search for health information on topics including high blood pressure, the menopause, the MMR vaccine and hormone replacement therapy.

They found that people immediately rejected most NHS and drug company websites in a matter of seconds and preferred instead to use sites which had personal stories and advice from people with the same problems and concerns.

Users questioned the motivation of drug company sites and rejected the NHS websites available at the time due to their generic content. Users were also hugely turned off by advertising.

The researchers showed that people were drawn to sites where they could read content from contributors who shared similar experiences to

their own. Their findings showed that people were more inclined to trust health information if it was accompanied with the views and experiences of others, rather than information only from professional sources. This has since become known as ‘peer-topeer’ healthcare.

From the patients’ perspective, only organisations that they deemed to be ‘impartial’ could generate trust. This meant that advice given by drug companies would be regarded with scepticism even though it was subject to strict legal control.

The research was pioneering at the time and was soon picked up by the pharmaceutical industries, charities and the NHS, who revised their website and patient support materials accordingly.

Professor Briggs explained: “We take it for granted these days that we can find useful information, advice and support from like-minded others online, but at the time this research was conducted, those in the health professions hadn’t realised the enormous potential of such peer-to-peer healthcare.”

The research team continues to provide advice and work with a wide range of different organisations in the public, private and third sector on how best to create engaging online health content.

They are currently working with the Oxford-based health charity, DIPex, which provides patient experience websites, to develop a new framework for patient engagement and a new set of web-design guidelines around peer-to-peer healthcare.

on the construction industry with the potential to transform the procurement of buildings and infrastructure. The confirmation of two further awards in BIM-related areas is expected in March 2015.

“Northumbria’s research activity and its role in BIM Academy have also reflected in the recent REF results. Our BIM work was submitted as one of the three impact case studies required for the Architecture, Built Environment and Planning unit of assessment, which returned an ‘excellent’ result in terms of impact with more than 25% of its research classed as ‘world leading’.”

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bimacademy.ac.uk

Helping people with Parkinson’s to walk

Around the world, people with Parkinson’s are better able to walk thanks to research from Northumbria University.

The RESCUE research project tested the effectiveness of a rehabilitation technique known as ‘cueing’ to help people with Parkinson’s and measured its effect on mobility to improve their walking.

Parkinson’s is a neuro-degenerative disorder affecting the area of the brain known as the basal ganglia, which is responsible for coordinating complex movement sequences, such as walking. The brain should naturally generate internal ‘cues’ that regulate the timing and size of each movement. However, people with Parkinson’s can find that their body’s natural rhythm is disturbed. Their steps can become smaller, their walking slower and they may find that they begin to shuffle or even freeze on the spot.

In collaboration with researchers in Belgium and The Netherlands, the Northumbria-based project team worked with people with Parkinson’s in their homes. They found that by introducing auditory and visual cues, such as a beat from a metronome or lines on the ground, patients could focus their attention on walking and it became easier to keep their feet moving. The cues triggered the use of other areas of the brain not affected by Parkinson’s, helping to make their

movements easier and at a more normal speed for short periods of time.

The findings of this significant study are now incorporated into the evidence base used to produce clinical guidelines for physiotherapists, as well as in information guides for health and social care staff, patients and carers. Guidance on cueing, developed by Northumbria’s RESCUE project, is now being used by physiotherapists across Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and Australasia, as well as daily by individuals with the condition.

Dr Anna Jones, one of the lead researchers on the project, is a physiotherapist with clinical experience of neurological rehabilitation. She explained: “RESCUE was acknowledged as a ground-breaking piece of high quality research. Outcome data about the effects of cueing on mobility can be incorporated with similar data from other trials to generate best evidence guidelines for rehabilitation practice. Armed with this information, therapists, people with Parkinson’s and their carers, can decide together how best to use cueing to help their mobility in their everyday lives.”

Developing the careers of new researchers

Northumbria has been working steadily to increase its research profile in recent years. Thanks to this strategic push, the University has made a significant investment to recruit more research-active staff and encourage more early-years researchers to develop their careers here. Northumbria University News spoke to two researchers to find out why they were attracted to Northumbria.

Dr

After spending his entire academic career from undergraduate to post-doctoral research at Sheffield University, Dr Richard Morton was intrigued when he saw an advert to become an Anniversary Research Fellow at Northumbria. Richard, who was keen to develop his career and become an established independent researcher, specialises in solar physics. His research aims to understand why the Sun’s outer edge is much hotter than its surface.

“I admit I didn’t know a huge amount about Northumbria before the advert, other than it being seen as very forward thinking and always looking to improve and better itself,” he said. “It was an amazing opportunity to come here and be independent after working for someone else, and the University really does offer a lot of support to researchers to drive forward.”

a Hawaiian volcano, will be the world’s largest solar telescope when built.

Richard’s achievements have been recognised by the Royal Astronomical Society who awarded him the Society’s Winton Capital Prize in January. The Society describes him as “a scientist of exceptional talent and promise, who has already made significant contributions to magnetohydrodynamic wave theory and magneto-seismology of the Sun. He has led a number of original studies… and has been a tireless and effective communicator of his research to the general public.”

Dr Duschinsky joined Northumbria from Cambridge University in 2011 as a Lecturer in Social Science for Social Work. Since then he has had over 40 articles published or accepted for publication, as well as six book chapters and three encyclopaedia articles. He has also edited two books, three journal special issues, and organised two international conferences.

Today, he is the Research and Innovation lead for the Department of Social Work and Communities and is the Principal Investigator on a new £391,000 Wellcome Trust project looking at attachment theory and its use by clinicians and social workers concerned with infant mental health.

“The position of Northumbria as a ‘Professional University’, developing knowledge which can be used by practitioners, really was central to my decision to move here,” said Dr Duschinsky. “Northumbria has one of the largest and most well-regarded Social Work programmes in the country. It covers all levels – from a professional undergraduate degree, to CPD opportunities for current practitioners, to full-time and part-time doctoral study.

“I have a real interest in understanding how psychological knowledge regarding children and families moves into professional practice and policy. For this reason, the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in the Faculty from a variety of professional backgrounds continues to

be a highlight of the job. I’ve learnt so much from my colleagues.”

He added: “When I began at Northumbria in 2011, the research profile of Social Work was relatively low in comparison to how things stand now. There has been growing strength in research around child safeguarding, intellectual disabilities, and family justice – with publications blending theory with practice accepted in high-impact journals, and successful applications for contract income and research grants.

“Teaching in the department has also become increasingly enriched by research activity, as have our relations with local partners and stakeholders.

As an illustration of the growing capacity in research expertise, the department had four PhD students at its formation in 2012, and now has a PhD community of 11, with further expansion anticipated in 2015. There are also lots of exciting projects afoot for the future. For instance, the department is collaborating with colleagues in Law to organise an international conference on Family Law in 2016, a high-profile cross-Faculty project with implications both for academic research and for contemporary practice.

“In general, it feels like the research profile of the Department of Social Work and Communities, as well as the Faculty as a whole, has changed dramatically in the last three years. It has felt a real privilege to be a part of it.”

Since arriving at Northumbria in 2012, Richard has applied for grants and received an independent Leverhulme Trust fellowship. He is part of a consortium that has received £2.5 million from the Science and Technologies Facilities Council to work on the development of cameras and data monitoring for the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope. The telescope, which sits on the top of

“My career really has changed a lot since I arrived at Northumbria,” said Richard. “From working for someone else before I arrived, I’m now collaborating with colleagues at institutions including NASA, America’s National Center for Atmospheric Research, UCL, St Andrews and Queens University Belfast and also mentoring a PhD student who is helping me with my own research projects. I’ve been very well supported from immediate colleagues through to senior management and I’m excited to make a success of my work on the telescope before it is completed in 2019.”

Dr Robbie Duschinsky Research and Innovation lead and Reader in the Department of Social Work and Communities

Richard Morton

Leverhulme Trust Early Career Research Fellow in the Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences

Dr Robbie Duschinsky

Dr Richard Morton

Did you know…?

Northumbria University creates and applies knowledge that transforms lives and makes a powerful cultural and economic impact.

Don’t believe us? Then just consider that this is the University that boasts the current senior vice-president of design at Apple and lead designer behind both the iPhone and the iPad among its alumni – two of the most revolutionary consumer products of the last decade. Other universities might make such a boast and sit back and relax. Not Northumbria. Our researchers are helping to

Hello… is it tea you’re looking for? Tea

bags

Want the perfect cuppa? Northumbria researchers precisely calculated the optimum formula to make the perfect cup of tea, following research commissioned by Cravendale Milk.

Findings concluded that the best method was to add boiling water to the tea bag in a cup, leave for two minutes then remove the bag, add the milk and leave for a further six minutes until it reaches the optimal temperature of 60C.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/ science-news/8577637/How-to-make-theperfect-cup-of-tea-be-patient.html

advance our understanding of the world around us through partnerships with the European Space Agency, CERN and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and working as part of the British Antarctic Survey to identify undiscovered new forms of life in one of the most remote places on the planet. We’ve even developed a formula for making the perfect cup of tea!

Cherry pick your best cure Cherry juice

Researchers at Northumbria found that drinking Montmorency cherry concentrate significantly reduces the painful effects of gout.

Tart Montmorency cherries are rich in compounds that possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, reducing the negative effects of gout.

So take the weight off your feet, have a glass of the concentrate and uric acid levels in the body will significantly reduce in just a few hours.

https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/newsevents/news/2014/09/drinking-montmorencycherry-concentrate-reduces-effects-of-gout/

A little of what you fancy really is good for you! Red wine and chocolate

Northumbria researchers found that chemicals in both wine and chocolate increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain making complex calculations easier and quicker.

The chemicals became more effective when consumed together, so next time you pour yourself a medicinal red wine, why not have a chocolate or two as well!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1384196/Redwine-chocolate-good-mind-scientists-claim.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/8495528/Red-wineand-chocolate-can-boost-your-brain-power.html

Here’s some sage advice

Sage

Sage has been found to boost levels of a chemical that helps transmit messages within the brain.

Northumbria academics worked alongside colleagues at Newcastle University to conduct research which revealed people performed much better in a word recall test when they were given sage oil tablets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3189635.stm

Prepping for an interview? This could get you out of a sticky situation… Chewing gum

Chewing gum has been stuck with a bad reputation in the past. However, Northumbria researchers have found that chewing gum could give you that much needed boost when prepping for an interview.

Its ‘thyme’ to think again about rosemary Rosemary

One of rosemary’s main chemical components has been found to be related to an individual’s thinking ability.

Researchers at Northumbria University found rosemary oil improved both speech and accuracy and although less pronounced, the component also had an effect on mood.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120224194313.htm

The act of chewing has been found to improve short and long term memory by up to 35%, as the exercise of chewing is believed to be enough to raise a person’s heart rate and increase the flow of oxygen to the brain. Perhaps it is time for teachers to accept that chewing gum will be sticking around?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ uknews/1387660/Chewing-gumboosts-brains-performance.html

Lack of women in news broadcasting

Karen

Professor of

at Northumbria, recently

at

European Institute for Gender Equality and Global Media Monitoring, showed that men dominate decision-making positions across many major European media organisations. Northumbria Journalism graduate, Rosie Willan, caught up with Karen to find out more.

Why do you personally believe this gender inequality exists in the broadcast media industry?

The argument most men would put forward – even if they wouldn’t put it forward explicitly – is about merit. I don’t buy that. We have more female students graduating from journalism courses and entering media industries than men, yet all the research shows that the higher up the hierarchy you look, the fewer and fewer women are still working in the industry. It’s impossible to explain why this happens unless there are structures within these organisations that prevent women from progressing to senior positions. That is the reality and that is sexism.

Where does the UK stand compared to other countries on this issue?

Our research analysed women’s occupation of decision-making positions across all the public service broadcasters in the 28 EU Member States as well as in a range of private media organisations: the UK’s performance was somewhere in the middle. However, there wasn’t an enormous variation across the countries sampled and none performed particularly well - the average score for women in senior positions across the board was around 30%.

How does this research inform your teaching at Northumbria?

Being an active researcher necessarily informs your teaching because you can incorporate examples from your own research to animate your lectures and seminars. I can talk authoritatively about new developments in the field because I speak at conferences, meet

colleagues and share ideas and research findings. It’s important to present these ideas in a way that students can relate to and being research active also means keeping up-to-date with changes in the media landscape. Using examples from current TV series’ or issues trending on Twitter keeps topics fresh and makes the subject relevant and meaningful.

Northumbria has fantastic facilities for practicing broadcast journalism and our Media courses are accredited by the Broadcast Journalism Training Council (BJTC). What advice would you give to your students, particularly female, who hope to make it in this industry?

I think the key piece of advice to any student is to tell them, ‘you can do it!’. For women, remember that your training is the same as that experienced by the men, that you are at least as good as they are. It’s not an easy call but the only way in which we are going to see real change is by more women – and men – wanting to make that change and that can only happen from the inside.

This article was originally published in Behind the Spin magazine.

If you’d like to read this interview in full, please scan the QR code

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northumbria.ac.uk/mediacourses

Psychiatrists seek help from legal eagles

Senior lecturer Nicola Wake and Principal lecturer Natalie Wortley are part of the University’s Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies.

The centre brings together researchers with people working in the criminal and civil courts, including judges, police officers and expert witnesses, to examine legal issues.

The academics recently led a session entitled, ‘Partial Defences to Murder: Where are we now?’ at the Grange Annual Conference, organised by Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist Professor Keith JB Rix from the University of Chester. The conference was an opportunity for psychiatrists and psychologists to discuss changes in the law on homicide.

Psychiatrists are often asked to provide evidence about defendants charged with murder, which can reduce the sentence to manslaughter if a jury agrees. This can include evidence about their state of mind or whether they had a medical condition at the time. These are referred to as partial defences. However recent changes to the law means that psychiatrists and defence lawyers need to be up-to-date with which medical conditions are covered by the partial defences and which are not.

The defence of diminished responsibility underwent significant changes in 2009. It is now only available where a defendant claims an abnormal state of mind, arising from a recognised medical condition, substantially impairs their ability to understand the nature of their conduct, form a rational judgement, or exercise self-control.

Unsurprisingly some conditions that are medically recognised are highly likely to be rejected by courts.

Kleptomania, exhibitionism and paedophilia are examples of conditions that are included in the World Health Organisation’s International Classification of Diseases Manual but which courts are unlikely to accept as a partial defence for murder.

Nicola Wake, Senior Lecturer and MLaw Year One Director, said: “The changes were designed to update the partial defences but the wording of the new defences raise important legal questions for the court and do not appear to have made the role of psychiatrists or lawyers any easier.

“In a recent case, a defendant attempted to claim that voluntary acute intoxication was capable of satisfying the requirements of the partial defence for murder but this was rejected by the court.

“Our session at the Grange Annual Conference is important because many psychiatrists are asked to provide evidence about a defendant’s medical condition and may be asked whether a defendant lost self-control, and so it is important that they are aware of the changes to the defences of Diminished Responsibility and Loss of Control which might rule out some of the medical conditions they cite in evidence.”

Conference organiser Professor Keith JB Rix said: “The continuing professional development of psychiatrists who assist the courts in the administration of justice makes it necessary for them

to keep abreast of changes in the law.

I am pleased that The Grange Annual Conference, attended by psychiatrists and psychologists engaged in medicolegal work, had the benefit of discussing changes in the law on homicide with two of the country’s leading authorities on the subject.”

Natalie Wortley, Deputy Director for Northumbria’s Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies, added: “The Centre for Evidence and Criminal Justice Studies brings together academics and practitioners, including lawyers, judges and expert witnesses, to exchange ideas and encourage research. The Grange

Conference was an opportunity for us to explain how the new defences are being interpreted by the courts, which is important for expert witnesses who may be called to testify in such cases. “It also gave us an opportunity to find out how easy or difficult the new provisions are for psychiatrists to work with in practice.”

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Ross,

Media

presented evidence

a House of Lords inquiry into women, news and current affairs broadcasting. Professor Ross’ research, funded by the

Professor Karen Ross

Legal experts at Northumbria are helping psychiatrists understand changes in the law that affect defences in murder cases.

Homelessness across the continents

An internationally acclaimed screenwriter, editor and journalist is exploring homelessness in Newcastle and Nairobi with a Northumbria academic. Kenyan writer Billy Kahora is working with Laura Fish, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, on an ambitious research project that stretches from North East England to North East Africa.

The pair are setting up a collaborative writing and research project that will take a comparative look at homelessness in both cities. Homeless people in Newcastle and Nairobi will take part in creative writing workshops in order to share their stories and their voice.

Following his six-week stint as a Visiting Writer at Northumbria, Billy Kahora shares his experience with Northumbria News.

Why is homelessness and home such an important theme in your work?

My work tries to look at how order and chaos are intertwined in Kenyan lives, how tenuous and temporary any form of order remains because of socio-economic and socio-political circumstances in my part of the world. I’m curious about the unpredictability of Kenyan urban lives - and the building of things (a home, a profession, relationships) that other parts of the world take for granted and how quickly stability can flitter away because of the way the Kenyan world works.

I’m interested in how building stability in one’s life often hinges on amorality, immorality, corruption and even blind luck; how this leads to dysfunction, and how little industry, kindness and creativity is rewarded when these are the things that build homes, families and societies.

What do you and Dr Laura Fish hope to achieve in your research project on homelessness?

Firstly, we are setting up a collaborative writing and research project between Newcastle and Nairobi and will do a comparative take on homelessness in both cities. We hope to set up respective creative writing workshops for the homeless in both cities, and hopefully produce some collaborative creative writing between the two cities by the homeless. How did you begin your writing career?

I started writing seriously at Rhodes University, Grahamstown where my majors were Journalism and English. I did some creative non-fiction in my final year of Journalism School and won a short story prize at the Grahamstown, Writers Festival which is part of the larger Arts festival. I then sent a short story to Kwani Trust in 2004 that was accepted and when I got back to Kenya wrote a long non-fiction piece on a Kenyan whistleblower and this really set me on my way. I became an editor at Kwani and since then have been writing creative non-fiction and short fiction. So, my time at Rhodes and my first years back in Kenya were pretty key.

What has been the reception to you in the North East? Is this your first visit to this part of the country?

Everyone I’ve dealt with has been amazingly kind. Audiences for the public events I’ve done have been great. It is an incredibly warm place (with the people). Eight years ago, I lived in Edinburgh for about a year and a half and I passed through here several times on my way to London.

or cause?

The research suggests that contrary to common belief, unexpected life events could lead to anyone becoming homeless.

Researchers Adele Irving and Dr Jamie Harding looked at the life histories and causes of homelessness of over 80 people in Newcastle. They spoke to homeless people about their experiences, as well as staff from North East local authorities, hostels and support services in the area about the management of homelessness. They found evidence of anti-social behaviour on the part of homeless people, with high incidences of drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems, violent behaviour, familial breakdown, negative social networks, unemployment and dependency on benefits, begging, sex work and crime.

However, the research indicated that these problems were often caused by homelessness itself. Roughly half of the homeless people interviewed had previously lived ‘normal’ lives, with high levels of educational achievement, positive family relationships, long periods of stable employment and no pattern of substance misuse or criminality.

“Crime and substance misuse were frequently responses to, rather than causes of, homelessness” Adele continued.

However, for other homeless people interviewed, existing antisocial tendencies had led directly to them being on the streets, as they had been evicted from the parental or marital home, rented accommodation and hostels.

“It was clear that some homeless people had anti-social tendencies,” says Adele Irving. “Almost half of those interviewed reported that they had rarely attended school and gained few, if any, qualifications. Many had experimented with drugs and alcohol in their early teens, and some exhibited violent behaviours.”

Sadly, for this group of homeless people, problems of anti-social behaviour could be traced back through a lifetime of exclusion, characterised by traumatic childhood experiences, including parental addiction, bereavement, going into local authority care, neglect and physical and sexual abuse.

What are your thoughts about Northumbria University?

Most of my public engagements have been at Northumbria University and there’s been an amazing kindness and professionalism in all my dealings.

What advice would you offer to creative writing students at Northumbria?

Discover your narrative voice as soon as you can and build on that. Think carefully about how you manage time in all you do and be very clear how much time writing will feature in everything else in your life. I think if one figures out what voice they want to write in and how much sacrifice writing requires in time and energy as compared to other things - then, they are on the right track.

Why is creative writing important in terms of sharing stories with an international audience? Creative writing offers structures, spaces, media reach that bridge communities, peoples, national borders and regions. All other forms of storytelling rarely have these structures - other forms of storytelling seem confined to their unique localities. Creative writing travels.

What inspires you to write?

My immediate inexplicable Kenyan world in both its material realities, and its possible imaginaries. This always makes me want to reconstruct that world on its own terms through its own aesthetic, beauty and language.

Do you have a favourite quote?

James Joyce: ‘The sentence is the greatest invention of civilisation.’

“For these people, the pattern of their lives had been radically changed by a significant life event – such as bereavement, relationship breakdown or redundancy – which triggered addiction, followed by eviction or the repossession of a home,” said Adele Irving. In these cases in particular, anti-social behaviour was often a consequence of being homeless, and not the cause. For example, some people reported turning to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism to numb the cold and get them through living on the streets or to cope with hostel environments. Others stole food and drink for survival. In other cases, homeless people reported committing crimes in order to avoid sleeping rough, with prison often seen as a shortterm housing solution.

According to Adele, research indicates that punishing the homeless for their antisocial behaviour often only serves to further exclude them from society, and push them into committing more anti-social acts.

“Instead of punishing homeless people, which only reinforces these behaviours, policymakers need to give greater attention to the structural and systemic barriers - in the areas of housing, welfare and employment - facing the homeless,” she concluded.

Further studies conducted by Adele Irving and fellow researcher Oliver Moss have highlighted the experiences of homeless people in the North East through the production of a series of maps, created by former Innocent Drinks creative, Lovely JoJo. This research was shown as an exhibition as part of the Economic and Social Research Council’s 2014 Festival of Social Science in 2014.

Making an impact Academics from Northumbria’s department of Social Sciences have conducted extensive research relating to homelessness which has had a direct impact on the services available for vulnerable people. To view a case study, scan the code.

Imaging homelessness Scan the QR code to see Buzz Feed’s report on the project and the artwork that has been created in conjunction with service users.

Anti-social behaviours such as drug and alcohol abuse are often the consequence, rather than the cause of homelessness, according to a series of studies from Northumbria.

Kenyan writer, Billy Kahora

Discovering the benefits of drinking cherry juice

In recent years, Northumbria researchers have discovered that drinking a concentrate of Montmorency cherry juice can improve the quality and duration of sleep and that it can help elite athletes to recover after undertaking intense exercise. Now they have discovered that the same substance also reduces the effects of the painful condition gout.

Tart Montmorency cherries are proven to be extremely rich in a number of plant compounds that possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. As such, they have been the focus of numerous studies to assess the health benefits they can bring.

Dr Glyn Howatson, a physiologist in the Department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation who has previously undertaken research into Montmorency cherry concentrate, was keen to test whether its consumption could affect uric acid levels which are known to respond to anti-inflammatory medication.

Gout is an extremely painful condition that occurs when excess uric acid crystallises in the joints. Although uric acid is a naturally-occurring substance found in the body, the condition caused by excess levels can be extremely debilitating for sufferers.

Working with PhD student Phillip Bell, Dr Howatson invited 12 healthy participants to drink either 30ml or 60ml of the cherry concentrate mixed with water and tested how it affected the levels of uric acid in their blood and urine. Just two hours after drinking the

cherry concentrate, uric acid levels in urine had increased by around 250%, indicating that it was being prepared to be quickly expelled from the body. Similarly, uric acid levels in blood had decreased by around 36% eight hours after drinking the concentrate.

Dr Howatson explained: “The study shows that uric acid was quickly clearing from the body with lower levels evident following consumption of the Montmorency cherry concentrate. We demonstrated a drop in blood uric acid, an increase in urinary uric acid and a reduction in an inflammation marker in just a few hours.

“This is an exciting first step to applying this intervention to a clinical population that suffers from gout.

“While the condition can be managed with pharmacological agents, more and more people are increasingly reluctant to use them because of potential side effects and are keen to use natural interventions.”

The findings were published in The Journal of Functional Foods and received significant global media coverage.

Smart phone scans for cancer

A Northumbria PhD student is designing a smart phone app that can detect leukaemia.

Worawut Srisukkham, a postgraduate Computer Science and Digital Technologies student, is working on an ‘e-health technology’ project aimed at developing a mobile phone application that can examine blood sample images to diagnose cancer. A microscopic lens attached to the smart phone would take an image of a blood slide. The app would then screen the slide for evidence of leukaemia – a blood cancer.

Once created, Worawut’s smart phone app could be used for initial diagnosis of people living in remote rural areas in developing countries. It would allow rural doctors to locally analyse blood samples on site and refer patients to the city hospitals for treatment or further investigation as required. Worawut said: “Creating a phone app that can perform this screening role would be a low cost and efficient solution to detect leukaemia in remote and resource-poor regions.”

In 2012, approximately 352,000 children and adults around the world developed some form of leukaemia with a similar

number dying from the cancer. Once his project is complete, Worawut hopes it will help to prevent unnecessary deaths from the disease caused by delayed diagnosis and treatment in isolated and deprived areas.

“Our aim is to use the high-performance and technology of smart phones to help in health care,” Worawut added. “Doctors working in remote areas could use the technology to screen patients in their community and refer those with an abnormal result to the larger medical facilities.”

This project further demonstrates Northumbria’s commitment to research with impact and is just one of the innovative initiatives taking place in the department of Computer Science and Digital Technologies.

Dr Glyn Howatson

Fundraising? Follow the crowd!

She’s ‘in’ with the ‘in crowd’. Northumbria researcher Dr Jo Briggs has broken new ground with the first academic study exploring crowdfunding in the UK.

From raising cash for charitable causes to generating finance for arts projects – crowdfunding has become a global phenomenon in recent years. Northumbria has launched a one-year investigation into the rapidly growing means of fundraising, led by Dr Briggs, an expert in digital media theory and practices and Anniversary Research Fellow in Media and Communication Design.

The project, which includes experts from Northumbria and Belfast, has been awarded a £100,000 Empathy and Trust in Communicating Online (EMoTICON) development grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Fit for travel

Undertaking research that has an impact on people and communities is a prime focus for Northumbria. A new study has uncovered how healthcare providers can improve the ways they deliver services to Travelling communities who face particular struggles accessing healthcare.

Due to their transient lifestyle, Travellers such as Romani Gypsies, boat dwellers and circus people tend to have low incomes, poor housing conditions and little continuity with healthcare providers. As such, they often have high ‘socioeconomic inequalities markers’ meaning they are more likely to suffer from poor health and have a lower life expectancy. According to one government statistic, just 30% of Irish travellers live beyond their 60th birthday.

The National Institute for Health Research was keen to improve access to healthcare for this ethnic minority group and commissioned a £300,000 project to understand how services had been provided in the past and recommend ways to improve it in the future.

Researchers from Northumbria and Fuse, a virtual research centre that brings together staff and students from the North East’s five universities, found

that if Travellers were provided with outreach workers who understand their unique needs and culture, they would be more likely to increase their participation with healthcare providers, leading to improvements in their health. Evidence also suggested that the more the outreach worker is trusted by the community, the more likely they are to be successful at promoting healthier behaviours.

Following publication of their report in The Journal of Public Health Research, the team will now work with healthcare providers to help them design and commission the most effective kind of outreach support.

Susan Carr, a Professor of Public Health Research at Northumbria and Associate Director of Fuse, explained: “Our research has shown that developing trust between Traveller communities and healthcare providers is at the absolute core of improving access

to services. Due to past experiences of discrimination or rejection, many Travellers are deeply suspicious of any form of authority, particularly when this comes from outside their community. This is particularly crucial when they need to talk to healthcare workers about personal issues they would not normally share with anyone outside of their very close circle of friends and family.

“Travellers want to have trust in the people they deal with and will sometimes travel great distances to see a contact they have a rapport with. Taking the time to develop these relationships is crucial to ensure the effectiveness of new outreach interactions and interventions.”

Crowdfunding is a way of raising finance by asking a large number of people to each donate or invest a small amount of money to collectively fund a project.

Project founders design an online campaign, tell their stories in promotional videos and promote their project more widely through social media in the hope of inspiring and motivating people to donate or invest.

Dr Briggs said: “The largest and most well-known crowdfunding website is US-based Kickstarter. Launching a campaign for a new product or service on this platform is a great way to test the market and generate pre-sales before having to invest time and money in developing a product or exhibition.

“However, this shift in the project lifecycle means that seemingly successful artists or small businesses don’t always anticipate the number of pledges and end up working laboriously for two or three years to create and distribute promised rewards to thousands of funders.

It is important not to overpromise during the money-raising campaign and to price everything meticulously, factoring in postage and packaging and platform and payment systems at around 10%.”

Northumbria researchers will look at the reasons why investors give money to some projects over others, considering factors such as trust and empathy.

Dr Briggs added: “There are now literally hundreds of crowdfunding platforms, and whilst there are some challenges within the competitive sector there are huge opportunities for founders and funders which I want to explore, both in a UK and specifically North East context.”

Crowdfunding campaigns to generate money for cultural projects, social innovation, business start-ups and lending have been reported widely in the media. Last year a crowd-funding campaign to bring back 1970s clay character Morph for an online series reached its target after just eight days. Aardman Animations set up the £75,000 campaign on Kickstarter to help fund 12 new one-minute episodes. Other crowdfunding projects have financed major art projects or new businesses, filling a crucial gap where public sector funding and bank loans are increasingly restricted.

Commenting on the successful funding proposals, ESRC Chief Executive Professor Paul Boyle said: “As a new generation grows up in a world where digital interaction is the norm, there is so much to understand about how our identities and relationships are shaped by our online activities. I’m delighted that the ESRC is funding these projects, backing researchers from a variety of disciplines and institutions to address these fascinating issues, and building UK research capacity in these areas for the future.”

Dr Briggs’ team brings together experts from various fields to examine this new technoeconomic/business model. Her co-investigator in the research is Dr Patrick McCole, an online trust in e-commerce and marketing specialist, based at Queen’s University Belfast. Northumbria offers a range of courses in media and communication.

The big interview

Professor George Marston

Professor George Marston was appointed as Northumbria’s Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research & Innovation in August 2014.

Born and raised in Newcastle, he studied at Oxford where he graduated in Chemistry in 1984, before completing a doctorate in 1987. He then spent two years as a Resident Research Associate at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center near Washington DC before returning to Oxford as a post-doctoral researcher. After a brief spell at the University of Leicester, he moved to the University of Reading in 1995, where he worked in a number of roles before progressing to Dean of the Faculty of Science in 2011.

Today, Professor Marston is an active member of the Royal Society of Chemistry with current research interests focused on particle formation in the lower atmosphere, and the climate impact of fluorine-containing compounds. Northumbria University News catches up with him to discuss the importance of research to students, businesses and the world in which we live.

Northumbria describes itself as a researchrich university. Can you elaborate?

In my mind, the phrase ‘research-rich’ signifies that research permeates all our activities as a university. Research doesn’t sit in a special little box on its own; it is integral to what we do. To be effective, we have to think about research, learning and teaching, business engagement and internationalisation as a package.

All of Northumbria’s core activities are underpinned by research. From the teaching in our classrooms, studios and workshops to our partnerships with businesses and community organisations; sharing academic expertise allows students, the community and the commercial sector to respond effectively to the world’s current issues and concerns.

There is a simple question we have to ask ourselves: does Northumbria University have the critical mass of high quality research to justify our claim to be a research-rich organisation? We can’t answer this question internally; we need external verification. That verification came in December, when results from the Research Excellence Framework (REF), the UK-wide assessment of research quality in UK universities, were published. The results demonstrated that Northumbria had massively increased its research activity since 2008 in terms of both quality and quantity, and has high proportions of world-leading and internationally excellent research in all of it research areas.

Furthermore, the Times Higher Education magazine reported that the increase in our market share of the nation’s research power since 2008 is third behind UCL and King’s. It also reported that we are the biggest climber in research power ranking, across the whole of the UK, having leapt 30 places from 80th to 50th. This is a very significant step forward for the University.

What the REF results show is that we have the quality and volume of research activity necessary to underpin Northumbria as a research-rich university.

So how exactly does research-rich learning benefit our students?

University teaching is about more than getting students to know facts and learn basic skills. It is about instilling in them an ability to apply their knowledge and understanding to new problems, which, in the world of work, may be outside of their discipline.

Northumbria’s approach to research-rich learning embeds this way of thinking into students’ views of what education is about. So research-rich learning prepares students to tackle the difficult questions and challenges that they will encounter in their chosen career.

How has Northumbria’s research impacted on the world around us?

Research at Northumbria has a huge impact, whether that impact is societal, cultural or economic. The REF has highlighted some areas where we have particular strength. For example, in Psychology, 73% of our submissions were judged to be 4*. This means it is outstanding in terms of its impact, reach and significance.

An example of our impact includes the creation of more than 200 school breakfast clubs across the country, thanks to a training programme and extensive research conducted by Northumbria academics. This research investigated the effects of breakfast club attendance on children’s behaviour, cognition and social friendships.

Our research around alcohol reduction through GP screening also demonstrates the significant impact of our work. This research has been used by Public Health England to set up the Alcohol Learning Centre – a website that provides online resources and learning for commissioners, planners and practitioners working to reduce alcoholrelated harm. The research has also had a strong impact on medical practitioners and policy makers globally.

You have previously worked as a Resident Research Associate with NASA, and a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University. Could you share some of the highlights from your own research career?

The research I was involved with in Oxford and while at NASA was really interesting. It involved topics such as airglow chemistry and the chemistry of planetary atmospheres that did not have the direct application to real-world problems that my subsequent research has had. There were many technical and mathematical challenges to overcome and I am very proud of what I achieved under the inspiring supervision of Professor Richard Wayne at Oxford and Dr Lou Stief at NASA. However, the highlight for me — and I suspect many researchers might mirror what I say here — was the first paper I published where I could say I had led the research from start to finish. All aspects of doing good research are difficult — which puts our excellent REF results into context — but leading research is particularly challenging.

I had managed to secure funding for a PhD student and a post-doctoral research associate, and we were working on a problem related to the reactions of ozone with organic molecules in the lower atmosphere. We were able to provide evidence for the generation of a particularly important reactive species in these reactions and published the results in Geophysical Research Letters, a high profile journal. Very satisfying! But of

course, while I led the project, it was very much a team effort.

Finally, can you name a piece of academic research that has had a significant impact on your life personally?

I remember when I was young being astonished by the research that Hubble did to show that the Universe was expanding. It was fascinating because it addressed one of the biggest questions there is, but also showed how careful measurements combined with a real understanding of fundamental physical principles could tell us something about the relationship between Earth and galaxies millions of light years away.

It showed that while theory can be really powerful, it has to be grounded in observations of the world around us; Hubble debunked Einstein’s ‘cosmological constant’, a fudge factor Einstein included in his theory of general relativity because he couldn’t believe that the Universe was expanding. This research had a huge impact on me personally in terms of my understanding of the world around us, but was also part of the reason I wanted to be a scientist.

For more information about Northumbria’s REF 2014 results, see the story on page 1 or visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/research

Professor George Marston

Postgraduate Study: How to master a competitive CV

• Northumbria launches new postgraduate loan – available now

• Up to £10,000 to support tuition fees, living and accommodation expenses

• Postgraduate students can earn £200,000 more than those with undergraduate degrees

December saw George Osborne unveil new measures concerning postgraduate funding for 2016. However, Northumbria’s postgraduate students needn’t wait another year to access funding for their course as the University has launched its own loan schemeavailable with immediate effect. In the current economic climate, investing more money into your education can feel like a big risk. Undergraduate students have already invested time and money into their degree, so why go on to further study?

“There are countless benefits that come with taking your education to the next level”, explains Chris Crame, 26, a graduate of Northumbria’s MA in International Development. “For me, the biggest issue when I was considering further study was whether a Master’s would help me become more employable. I didn’t just want an extra qualification, I wanted a course that would set out a pathway into employment.

“Although my two degrees are in different disciplines, my Master’s helped me develop many of the elements I had studied as an undergraduate, and it made them more relevant to a specific profession. It allowed me to focus my skills development according to the graduate roles I was interested in applying for.”

Chris now works as a Student Recruitment Administrator for Northumbria, a role that involves international travel, visiting prospective students in their home countries to understand their expectations in relation to Higher Education.

During his studies, Chris found that many of his fellow students were already gaining employment experience. He continued: “A lot of people on my course were working alongside their studies – the lectures were taught in the evening to accommodate this and the lecturers were extremely supportive in scheduling around students with other commitments.

“There are many more people who would love to take up further study but who cannot afford to pay the fees. I think more funding in this area will make a huge difference in the number of people who are able to continue their studies.”

Finance remains one of the biggest concerns for students considering pursuing a postgraduate qualification. However, many studies show that a postgraduate qualification increases your earning potential, so students can expect a return on their investment. Indeed, research conducted by the Sutton Trust in 2013 found that students with a postgraduate degree could earn over £200,000 more than those with undergraduate degrees over a 40 year working life (www.suttontrust.com).

Currently, universities offer support to some individuals in the form of bursaries and scholarships, but there has been no loan scheme for postgraduate study – an issue Osborne addressed in December. Additionally, in response to students’ concerns, Northumbria has also launched a brand new scheme to provide additional support for students residing in the North East. Northumbria’s loan package will allow full-time postgraduate students to access funding of up to £10,000 to cover the cost of tuition fees, as well as supporting living and accommodation expenses (terms and conditions apply).

So, with the availability of financial support, and an increasingly attractive CV on the horizon, the next question is what to study?

“The motivations for studying at postgraduate level vary depending on the individual” says Northumbria’s Marketing Director, Adam Dunlop.

“While many students sign up to a Master’s straight after graduating from their degree, others may have already gained extensive work experience. It may be that they are looking for a career change, or simply want to study a subject they are passionate about.”

Over 100 fully-funded Master’s places

Want to further your study and worried about the added cost? Northumbria has over 100 Master’s bursaries worth over £1 million up for grabs. The new scheme is open to undergraduate students who enrol for postgraduate study in 2015/6 (subject to certain criteria). To find out if you are eligible and for further details, visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/masters

Somebody who credits postgraduate study for furthering her career development is Sophie Haagensen, Northumbria MBA (Master of Business Administration) graduate, Head of Strategy and Planning for Atom Bank and former Deputy Director of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

Sophie said: “After studying Biology at undergraduate level, I gained a couple of years’ management experience which prompted my decision to return to University to study a Master’s in business and a few years later I completed an MBA through distance learning. My postgraduate studies developed a range of practical and theoretical competencies which have supported me in roles spanning all areas of business, from operations through to strategy.

“When employers hire postgraduates, they are not just investing in the individual,” added Sophie, “They are investing in the breadth of knowledge and skills that this person can share with the whole organisation.”

Postgraduate courses at Northumbria are available on both a full and part time basis on campus, while some courses are offered on a distance learning basis to create flexible study options.

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To find out more go to: northumbria.ac.uk/masters

Northumbria graduate Sophie Haagensen

How to master a competitive CV for the creative industries

Roles in the creative and cultural sectors are highly sought after. So how can graduates stand out from the crowd and land their dream job? Northumbria graduate Jenny Dewar talks about how her Master’s degree gave her the extra edge to succeed.

Jenny Dewar, Company Manager, Curious Monkey

After completing a degree in Performing Arts, Jenny accepted a general admin role for a year to help pay the bills. However, she couldn’t deny her love for the arts and applied for a place on Northumbria’s MA Cultural Management course to build on her skills.

“While I was studying Performing Arts I worked with bands and promoters putting on gigs in Newcastle,” Jenny explained. “And I started to realise that I was more interested in arts management roles, than being an artist myself.” It was the strategic and organisational aspects of the course that really appealed to Jenny, along with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience managing events, running festivals, fundraising and delivering marketing activities.

The final part of the course saw her undertake a placement with a music PR company, and, soon after graduating, she landed a role with Brian Debnam, an arts consultant who works with organisations across the world. Currently, Jenny works as company manager with regional theatre organisation, Curious Monkey (founded by Amy Golding, a graduate of Northumbria’s Drama and Applied Theatre course). Jenny said: “Curious Monkey aims to bring stories to life that deserve to be told. We work with people in our local community and communities around the world to find stories that are important to them.” One of the company’s most notable productions is Mamela, produced by Jenny and directed by Amy. This award-winning play opened in South Africa and has since toured to venues across the UK.

Aside from boosting Jenny’s credentials and kick-starting an international career, studying at postgraduate level has also given her the confidence and skills to continue to develop her role. “The structure of the course, which encouraged independent study and widened my perspective of the arts as an industry, really instils in you the desire to get as much out of situations as you can. My role with Curious Monkey is evolving all the time and the skills I developed on my MA have given me the confidence to know that whatever the challenge, I can figure it out. And I love that!”

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northumbria.ac.uk/pg

Jenny Dewar

Fuelling the regional economy

IN BRIEF International recognition for iSchool innovator

A pioneering academic has been named the winner of an international award for her outstanding contribution to records and information management. Professor Julie McLeod, from Northumbria’s iSchool in the Department of Mathematics and Information Sciences, received the 2014 Emmett Leahy Award at the ICA Conference in Girona, Spain. Northumbria is one of only five universities in the UK, 18 in Europe and 59 worldwide to have been awarded the globally recognised status of iSchool. The iSchools organisation is a collection of Information Schools dedicated to excellence in advancing the information field. Julie, who is Professor of Records Management, has been a key figure in Northumbria’s iSchool and was presented with the award for her pioneering work in records management education.

Make mine a double!

An innovative eco project aimed at transforming former young offenders into environmental guardians has won two national awards in 24 hours. The Skill Mill Ltd, supported by Northumbria’s staff and students in partnership with Newcastle Youth Offending Team, picked up The Children and Young People Now Award for Youth Justice and the John Hawkins Award at the annual Youth Justice Convention. The initiative sees former young offenders trained to protect the environment and give back to their communities by carrying out water and land management projects such as stream clearing, which helps to reduce flood risks.

Dr Peter Glaves, Enterprise Fellow and academic lead for The Skill Mill at Northumbria, said: “To win one national award is impressive; to win two says a great deal about the innovative approach developed by the Skill Mill.”

For more information go to www.theskillmill.org

In his ‘Growth Review’ of the UK economy, published last year, former Government Minister Lord Adonis outlined how universities form a core part of the nation’s economic infrastructure through their worldleading education, science and research. They are also a key source of support for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) as they roll out their regional strategies. And through its economic footprint, and collaboration with business partners, Northumbria is making a significant and positive contribution to North East growth.

Northumbria is acknowledged as one of the top universities in the UK for supporting graduate entrepreneurs. In a recent example, a new Enterprise and Innovation Fund created by Northumbria raised tens of thousands of pounds at a launch event attended by world famous alumni including Sir Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President Design at Apple Inc, and former Scottish rugby international Scott Hastings. The new Fund will encourage more students and alumni to engage in business start-up activity. It will provide access to seed-funding to establish and grow business ideas, undertake enterprisefocused work placements and enable access to proof-of-concept funding. Thanks to initiatives such as this and a strong focus on employability, Northumbria is currently the number one university in the UK for graduate start-ups based on turnover, according to the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction

Survey published in June 2014. Indeed, this next generation of entrepreneurs has built a combined turnover of £54 million, creating, in the past five years alone, more than 100 new companies and 800 jobs – many in the North East.

As a £226 million business, Northumbria is a major contributor to the North East economy in its own right. Annual procurement spend by the University is around £60 million, supporting up to 2,900 suppliers, around 1,000 of whom are North East businesses.

Then there’s the combined spending power of more than 27,000 campus-based students and over 3,000 staff. Most of these students live in and around Newcastle, including up to 4,500 international students, while 95% of staff live, work and spend in Tyne & Wear, Northumberland or Durham. Their presence helps to create and sustain jobs and prosperity for supply chain partners, local retailers and other service providers.

Furthermore, through a range of collaborative partnerships the University is helping local businesses innovate, expand and compete globally.

Through the new INNOVATE centre at Gateshead’s Northern Design Centre, for example, Northumbria connects businesses with its leading academics and students. One of the facility’s main distinguishing strengths is how easy it is for businesses to access – it offers multi-disciplinary expertise and world-leading research, all through one door and under one roof. Bringing the right

people together like this is proving a creative way to innovate, solve problems and deliver solutions for a range of partners in the public and private sectors. It also presents a wealth of career-enhancing collaboration opportunities for students and staff.

Beyond the North East, Northumbria’s regional impact reflects the role played by Higher Education nationally. In a recent report entitled The Impact of Universities on the UK Economy, it is estimated that the sector directly contributes around £18 billion to UK GDP each year. Furthermore, for every 100 full-time jobs created within universities, another 117 are generated in the wider economy through knock-on effects. The report says that in 2012 universities in the UK generated revenues of almost £30 billion, with overseas income from international students reaching almost £5.7 billion. University expenditure in the same period was £26.7 billion, largely through the employment of more than 378,000 staff.

Northumbria offers a range of courses for the next generation of entrepreneurs, including our innovative Entrepreneurial Business Management degree.

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To find out more go to: northumbria.ac.uk/sgenterprise

Arming students with world-class skills

A scheme that brings together Northumbria’s engineering excellence with the best and brightest talent from the Armed Forces and Civil Service has been renewed for a further five years. Northumbria is one of only 12 universities in the UK to run the Defence Technical Undergraduate Scheme (DTUS). This initiative sees the Ministry of Defence (MoD) sponsor first degrees in engineering and information science disciplines for future technical officers in each of the three Armed Services and the Civil Service.

Professor Andrew Wathey, Northumbria’s Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive, and MoD Defence Academy Operations Director, Colin Evans, signed a new Memorandum of Understanding to continue DTUS for another five years.

The DTUS scheme gives recruits destined for a career in the forces access to Northumbria’s courses in Mechanical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, and Computing, as well as opportunities to broaden their university experience through paid work placements, adventure training and sport.

As an engine for growth and a driving force behind enterprise and innovation, Northumbria is a pillar of strength for the North East economy. Northumbria University News looks at some of the reasons why.

Bringing IKEA to the classroom

There can be few more rewarding feelings for an architect than to see their designs become a reality. As the former lead architect for IKEA’s affordable BoKlok homes range, David Morton has had that pleasure on a global scale. But little did he know that the true impact of his creations would be expressed to him on a much more personal level.

“A single father came up to me in tears to personally thank me for creating a home he could afford because it meant he could have his daughter stay with him,” David recalls.

“It absolutely floored me in a really good way and as a father myself I was nearly in tears too. In moments like that you realise what you’re drawing on paper really makes a massive difference to people’s lives.”

David, who is now a senior lecturer in Architecture at Northumbria, became IKEA’s youngest ever lead architect in 2006 on the BoKlok range. It was launched to create affordable housing across Europe and help people get onto the property ladder. From the original development in Sweden, BoKlok has been rolled out in the UK and across Europe, including in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, and has sold more than 6,000 homes.

“You can build the entire structure and most of the internals in 24 hours,” David says. “In 2-3 weeks you have a finished house. Combined with a total price of less than £71k and you can see why the homes have proved so successful for IKEA.”

The BoKlok design was submitted to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and accepted into the British Architectural Library in London. Elements were also used in the construction of the 2012 Olympic Village. After a number of years commuting between his native North East and IKEA’s headquarters in Europe, David decided to make a change and move from professional practice to learning and teaching.

“It felt really good to give something back,” David says. “It is a great feeling to bring my experience from more than seven years of training and 20 years of professional practice into the classroom. I love working with students, it’s a super creative atmosphere.”

David teaches on Architecture, Architecture Technology and Masters of Architecture programmes. He also became one of the original members of BIM Academy, the unique joint venture between Northumbria and Ryder Architecture. BIM, or Building

Information Modelling, involves the coordinated use of digital information about a building, including 3D models, right through its lifecycle from idea to finished project.

He says: “It is a completely different way of working. It is far more realistic as you can question everything and explore the ‘what ifs’ of your building project using design tools that are parametric and responsive to your ideas and changes.

“BIM is moving so fast as a medium that every time you think you have reached a point with it, the game moves on again.”

David is also an active researcher. Alongside Professor Steve Lockley, he is currently exploring, via his PhD, the pedagogy of using BIM in design and studio teaching.

“The boundaries of the learning journey in the academic studio are

now being explored at an increasingly deeper level,” he says. “The learning and teaching landscape is changing in terms of students’ requirements as a reflection of new societal goals. What is expected in today’s environment is now different than five years ago, with students requiring a change and deeper learning to their journey.”

David’s appetite for understanding how things work and fit together informs another of his passions. His lifelong obsession with cars has seen him purchase and refurbish all three of the original Minis used in the classic film The Italian Job with Michael Caine. This led to an interested collaboration with Northumbria Honorary Graduate, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, for the Discovery Channel in the Cars That Rock series which aired last year.

“It was fantastic to work with Brian and be interviewed by him for the first

programme of the series,” David recalls. “He has the same passion for design and building things as I do. It was like having a great friend around to chat about cars while driving both the Minis and Brian’s 458 Italia. Fantastic fun.”

As an internationally respected academic and architect, David has found himself in increasing demand. He is a visiting professor at El Cesi in Paris and has been asked to appear as opening keynote speaker at this year’s International BIM summit in Barcelona. Despite his occasional globe-trotting, David remains firmly rooted in the North East where he can pass on his enthusiasm and expertise to a new generation of architects at Northumbria.

He says: “Growing up, I really enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked. More importantly, I enjoyed putting them back together again. This

exploration has been somehow lost in the digital generation, but I hope to pass on that enthusiasm and inspire my students.

“Architects have a real gift. We create the backdrops to people’s lives, where they live and work. I think it’s important to keep sight of that and it is moments like those with that father than remind you of that, even more than the awards and accolades.”

Architecture at Northumbria was rated 6th in the UK by The Guardian, 7th by the Sunday Times, and was also in the top ten of the Complete University Guide 2015

To find out more about Architecture at Northumbria come along to one of our Open Days on 26 & 27 June.

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The creator of IKEA’s ‘flat-pack homes’, David Morton, talks about making the change from international architect to teaching the next generation at Northumbria.

Above: David’s 3D design for IKEA’s BoKlok homes

Right: David Morton

Below: IKEA’s BoKlok homes in Gateshead

Students take summer market by storm

Three Northumbria students have launched a holiday business and become the University’s most successful Enterprise placement to date, achieving a turnover in the region of £100k in its first year alone.

Summer Takeover, which launched in 2013, was created by students Ben Trattles, Warren Pearson and Harley Gibb. The business caters to young travellers who wish to work abroad by offering working holiday packages to party destinations. Via the web page, travellers can book everything in one place.

Ben completed an Enterprise placement, rather than a traditional industrial placement, as part of his Business with Marketing degree. This

approach allows students to grow and test their own business idea with support from the Student and Graduate Enterprise team.

Northumbria believes it is responsive support like this that led to it being named the number one university in the UK for graduate start-ups based on estimated turnover according to the Higher Education Business and Community Interaction Survey.

Ben realised a gap in the market when planning to work abroad with his business partners Warren and Harley.

He said: “We realised the need for a company offering working holiday packages which provide the security of booking each component with a reputable UK company.”

When the trio returned to the UK, they turned their love of travel into their livelihoods.

As part of the Enterprise placement Summer Takeover received full access to Northumbria’s free on-campus office accommodation and to specialist business mentors, benefiting from free marketing and legal mentoring from

industry professionals.

Ben said “I can honestly say that we wouldn’t be where we are today without the help of the University, both from the skills gained from our courses and the support they have given us to get Summer Takeover off the ground.”

Graham Baty, Enterprise Manager at Northumbria, said: “The University is committed to developing the entrepreneurial and enterprising skills of its students.

“We’re thrilled at the success of Summer Takeover, it shows our

£1.1 million employment scheme sees graduates land their dream jobs

Northumbria’s ’Graduates into Business’ project was designed to help create 30 new graduate businesses and provide graduate interns for more than 50 small businesses in the region. The University supports businesses to recruit interns by contributing up to 50% of the graduate’s salary costs.

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the scheme is a resounding success with many graduates offered permanent roles upon completion of their internships. Northumbria University News spoke to a number of graduates and their employers to find out how the scheme has benefited them.

Charlotte Thorpe, The Skill Mill

After graduating with a 2:1 in Crime Science, Charlotte began a six-month internship with The Skill Mill – an innovative social enterprise which finds employment opportunities for ex-young offenders aged 16-18.

“The job is incredibly varied and I’m picking up new skills all the time,” explained Charlotte, “Some of the tasks include writing funding bids, looking after accounts and updating the website. It’s a lot of responsibility but I’ve learnt so much already in the short time I’ve been here.”

The organisation, which focuses on environmental services that benefit the community, has close links with Northumbria and is planning to take more students on placement over the coming months.

Director David Parks added: “Charlotte has joined The Skill Mill at a very exciting time as we look to expand the project in locations across the UK. As such, Charlotte’s role is very challenging but absolutely vital to the work we do. We are delighted to have her on board.”

All this hard work has paid off for the team – and for Charlotte, who has found her dream job. She hopes to stay at The Skill Mill for as long as possible after the placement ends.

She said: “I love working here – it’s really exciting to be part of something like this at the very start. Last year, I even had the chance to attend an awards ceremony in London – we won the Children & Young People Now award for Youth Justice. I can’t wait to see how the organisation develops in 2015.”

Sophie Atkinson, Restaurant Design Associates

Sophie Atkinson graduated with a First Class Honours in Interior Design and found a six-month graduate internship at design and installation company Restaurant Design Associates (RDA). Now she’s over half way through her placement and hasn’t looked back.

“I feel like I’ve learnt a great deal in the three months I’ve been with RDA and have had the opportunity to work on a vast number of very different projects,” explained Sophie.

“Studying at Northumbria has really helped to prepare me for the world of work – all the projects I completed as part of my degree have helped me come into RDA more confidently and with a knowledge of this industry.”

Nick Bradley, Design Manager at RDA, said: “One big advantage of this project is that it gives employers the opportunity to experiment with the creation of new junior roles in their business with less risks. This was certainly the case for us as we didn’t necessarily want to create a new permanent role for someone without first testing the water. As it happens, Sophie is progressing very well and at this point I’m quite confident there will be a permanent position for her at the end of the internship.”

Sophie added: “It’s important that graduates understand that they do not have to move away from the North East to find their dream job. After studying in Newcastle for three years, I didn’t want to leave so taking a placement through this project was the ideal solution. Being welcomed into a family-run, growing company is a fantastic way to a start a career in something I love.”

students have what’s needed to become successful entrepreneurs when provided with the right tools and I’m incredibly excited to see what the future holds for the three of them”.

For more information on Summer Takeover, please visit summertakeover. com.

northumbria.ac.uk/sgenterprise

Ben Ridgway and Jamie Cooke, iam-sold

Graduates who wish to start their own businesses can also benefit greatly from the support the Student and Graduate Enterprise team offer. Northumbria graduates, Ben Ridgway and Jamie Cooke, started property auction business, iam-sold, five years ago. The company employs 60 people from its Kingston Park office and recently announced plans for expansion after winning the prestigious Sunday Times ‘Estate Agency of the Year’ award for Best Supplier.

Company Director Ben Ridgway, who studied Estate Management at Northumbria, attributes much of this success to the support the business received from the University in the early days.

“The Graduate Enterprise team were instrumental in the startup of iam-sold,” explained Ben, “They provided us with ongoing support, access to consultants and helped to find crucial funding. Without them, the business would not be the success it is today.”

The company has taken on a number of Northumbria graduates through graduate internship schemes with great success.

Jamie Cooke, Director, added “Graduate internship schemes, like NGIB, bring real benefits to companies like ours, allowing for quicker expansion in a competitive market place. We are very excited about the expansion of iam-sold – we have a fantastic team here and it is always great to build on our successes by providing extra jobs in the region and beyond.”

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To find out more about this scheme go to: northumbria.ac.uk/graduatesintobusiness

Left to right: Graham Baty, Enterprise Manager at Northumbria, with students Harley Gibb, Warren Pearson and Ben Trattles (Front).

From left to right: Michelle Mone OBE – co-owner of Ultimo Brands, Ben Ridgway – Business Development Director, iam-sold, Jamie Cooke – Sales Director, iam-sold, Frank Webster – Vice Chairman, Finders Keepers

Ghana TV show winner heads for Northumbria

Reality TV contestant Anthony Kofi Annan has won a place at Northumbria University, after triumphing in The Challenge

The 27-year-old from Ghana joins two other winners from the education show to have secured positions at UK universities. Following a format similar to the BBC’s The Apprentice, rivals on The Challenge in Ghana competed against each other over three months in a range of televised tasks and interviews. One such task involved selling white unmarked T-shirts, where they were assessed on revenue raised and marketing strategies. Anthony’s team decided to use the T-shirt as a platform to create awareness on the prevention of the Ebola virus, and for greater impact they collaborated with a Government institution in Ghana championing a similar cause.

Now in its sixth series, the highly popular show is run in partnership with the British Council and offers fully sponsored postgraduate scholarships as prizes. Anthony will now join Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School this month to study MSc Business with Financial Management He said: “I’m really looking forward to studying at Northumbria, spending time in Newcastle and exploring the region. The UK is one of the best

education destinations in the world, and over the years I have applied to study Master’s degrees and even a PhD there. I have a couple of family folks in the UK as well who have told me a lot about the culture, the people and the opportunities available out here.

“Taking part in The Challenge was a completely new experience for me, particularly having to speak in front of cameras. Besides the nervousness, however, it was intellectually stimulating and a great skills-building exercise. Working with team members from diverse educational and professional backgrounds meant that I had to employ a lot of people skills to motivate and drive team success. Overall, I would say I have grown more confident, am a better team player and hungry for more success. The Challenge also taught me that there is always a reward for those who dare to dig deeper; if nothing at all, they have enough soil to spare.”

Rob Carthy, Director of International Development at Northumbria, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Anthony to Northumbria, and to congratulate him on his success in The Challenge. I’m sure he’ll have a fantastic time here.

“Having international scholars

Anthony Kofi Annan is greeted by Northumbria staff on his arrival in Newcastle

enriches university life by creating an even more vibrant and creative learning experience for all students. Their presence also helps to inspire the development of global graduates here at Northumbria, with the skills and outlook to succeed in an increasingly international labour market.”

The Challenge 2014 was sponsored by Ghana-based telecommunication

Temperature check reveals happy students from around the world

Northumbria has recorded some of the sector’s highest satisfaction levels among its overseas students, according to the latest International Student Barometer (ISB) survey.

T

Northumbria has performed very strongly in the most recent results, showing overall satisfaction with the

he ISB (Summer 2014) canvassed the views of over 34,000 international students at 59 universities across the world. They were asked how they felt about various aspects of their chosen university, ranging from the quality of lectures to how safe they feel in the town or city in which they are based. The survey is available to all international students at Northumbria and aims to capture a true reflection of their experience.learning experience to be 88%, living experience 90%, and support experience 93%. International postgraduate research students scored Northumbria’s Graduate School at 99%, ranking it 1st in the ISB.

Professor Peter Francis, Pro ViceChancellor Learning & Teaching at Northumbria, said: “Colleagues across the University, as well as the Students’ Union, have worked hard to improve the international student experience and I am delighted to see these responses. The International Student Barometer is a valuable tool which helps us to understand and respond to the needs of our increasingly diverse

student community and I want to assure all students that we will be using these results to help us to continue to grow and improve our support for all students.”

An impressive 88% of students would recommend Northumbria as a study destination which is well above the ISB average score of 78% and reflects the University’s commitment to delivering the best possible experience for its students.

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company Tigo in collaboration with the British Council Ghana and supported by Northumbria University, the Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen Scotland and the University of Salford at Manchester. The show was produced by GhOne TV, a Ghanaian based multimedia company”.

Postgraduate study at Northumbria is designed for those students who want to

change direction in their career or give it an extra edge, or for those who have a burning passion for their area of study.

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And I would walk 5,000 miles…

Diego Carlos Yarza Calatrella has become Northumbria Law School’s first distance learner from Uruguay.

He graduated in December following completion of the LLM International Trade Law course and even made the journey to Newcastle to personally hand in his dissertation. Diego said: “After all of the effort I had put into my dissertation, I wanted the chance to experience the University first-hand and meet my tutors and fellow students”.

Diego is currently a legal advisor for the Uruguayan Chamber of Commerce, following previous posts at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Ministry of Tourism. Distance learning provided Diego with the opportunity to broaden his knowledge of International Trade Law whilst continuing to maintain his family and work commitments in Uruguay.

Distance learning is becoming increasingly popular with students, and Northumbria offers more ways for you to study flexibly no matter where you are in the world. Distance learners have access to the latest technology in order to provide a seamless learning experience.

Diego ignore: “A distance learning programme allows you to continue to enjoy your life alongside working and studying hard for modules, essays and coursework. Your Programme Support Coordinator helps you adapt to studying via electronic learning. You have access to materials on the e-learning portal and may also receive free print copies to your home address.

northumbria.ac.uk/distancelearning DISCOVER MORE

Leading arts figures honoured

Northumbria recognises the achievements of Live Theatre Director Max Roberts and Scandinavian painter Ørnulf Opdahl in its winter congregation ceremonies.

Both were awarded honorary degrees after being nominated by staff for their accomplishments, their links to the University, and their inspirational qualities. Max Roberts, Artistic Director of Newcastle’s Live Theatre, was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in recognition of the international profile he has created for the region through theatre. Collaborating with many world-class writers including Lee Hall, Alan Plater, Tom Hadaway, Peter Straughan and CP Taylor, Max’s work has placed the region’s distinctive identity, rich social history and vibrant culture at its heart and provided a springboard for the region’s finest artistic talent.

Ørnulf Opdahl, one of Scandinavia’s most significant landscape artists, received his degree as Honorary Doctor of Civil Law. His celebrated paintings can be found in many public and private exhibitions around the world and have been exhibited at Northumbria University’s galleries in London and Newcastle. Northumbria’s summer Congregation ceremonies will take place in July.

First for Newcastle Business School in Hong Kong

Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School has awarded its first Honorary Doctorate in Hong Kong, as it continues to develop its academic offering and international profile in South East Asia.

The Honorary Doctorate of Civil Law was presented to Mrs Carrie Yau, the Executive Director of the Hong Kong Vocational Training Council (VTC), in recognition of her contribution to the promotion of vocational education, skills and incompany development in Hong Kong.

Mrs Yau joined VTC in January 2013 after a distinguished 30-year career in public service in the Hong Kong government, serving in major policy areas including security, building and lands, education and manpower, transport and health and food safety. In each role her achievements and contribution to public services and education have helped to shape and build Hong Kong’s civic and educational infrastructures.

The award was bestowed by Northumbria Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Governors, Mr Chris Sayers at Northumbria’s Academic Congregation Ceremony at the School for Higher and Professional Education (SHAPE), which is part of the VTC organisation. This year more than 460 graduates completed a degree programme offered by the University of Northumbria in collaboration with SHAPE.

Northumbria University’s Newcastle Business School has been partnering with SHAPE since 2002. The partnership provides top-up degree programmes in a number of specialisms including Finance and Investment Management, International Business Management and International Hospitality and Tourism Management. More recently Business (with Law) and Food Science and Nutrition courses have been added.

Kevin Kerrigan, Executive Dean for Newcastle Business School and Northumbria Law School, said: “Our partnership with SHAPE is extremely important to us. We have a shared set of values and a commitment to ensuring students on our courses have an outstanding learning experience and develop the skills needed to succeed and prosper as international graduates competing in today’s global markets.

“It was also wonderful to make a bit of history by conferring the first honorary doctorate at an overseas congregation on Mrs Yau – an award she so richly deserves.”

Ørnulf Opdahl

Carrie Yau receiving her Honorary Doctorate from Northumbria’s Pro-Chancellor, Chris Sayers

Charlie Hardwick: Bringing a career to Live

Northumbria recently awarded Live Theatre’s Artistic Director, Max Roberts with an honorary degree for taking North East talent to global audiences. Charlie Hardwick, Emmerdale star and Northumbria graduate, is just one of the talented artists Max has worked with since Live Theatre was founded in 1973. She talks to Northumbria University News about how the theatre company, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2013, played a vital role in her career.

Ifirst came into contact with Live through my youth theatre”, Charlie said. “We didn’t have drama or music on the syllabus at high school. I loved it all as a young child but that all stopped when I got to high school.” Luckily, a council-funded youth theatre was set up to encourage kids like Charlie, who didn’t have access to the arts, to take part in theatre.

She added: “I remember Live performing for us at youth theatre. It was a production of Happy Lies and it changed my life entirely.” The play, written by C P Taylor, a playwright and lecturer on Max Roberts’ course when he studied at Northumbria in the 70s, told the story of a little boy in Tyneside and a little girl in India. Charlie said: “I didn’t even know you could get Geordie actors until I saw Happy Lies. It ignited me. From that point on, it became my ambition to work for Live Theatre.”

Charlie’s career began at Northumbria in the early 80s, studying Creative and Performing Arts. She said: “The course was quite radical and political at the time. It gave me a grounding in the kind of accessible, relevant, hard-hitting drama that I wanted to share with other people.” Charlie also credits her time at University for allowing her to step outside of her ‘normal’ life and take a look at it from afar. “University gave me a clearer understanding of where I was from, what I wanted to do, and how I wanted to get there.”

Charlie’s professional career was launched after she was spotted by a director when presenting her dissertation production. As a result, by the time she finished university she had a full-time job as an actor at Sheffield Crucible. She returned to the North East in 1988 and quickly wrote a letter to Max asking for an audition with Live. By January 1989, Charlie was performing in her first professional production with the company, entitled Hair in the Gate by writer Michael Chaplin. Ten years and almost twenty Live Theatre productions later, she went on to perform in the hit show, Cooking with Elvis, a black comedy by Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall. She said of her time at Live: “I am never happier and more fulfilled than I am in the rehearsal room at Live with Max and the cast. In the early days we were like an ensemble, which meant that we were used to working together and could cut straight to the chase.”

It’s for these reasons that Charlie is continually drawn back to Live Theatre, her most recent performance being just last year, taking part in Lee Hall’s screenplay series. She said: “Live started out as a company working out of the back of a van. Basingstoke was the furthest south we went! Max then commissioned Cooking with Elvis which toured to Edinburgh where it was snapped up by a producer and taken to London.” Since Cooking with

Elvis, Live’s collaboration with Hall has seen performances taking place all over the world, with his most recent hit, The Pitmen Painters being performed on Broadway, and subsequently as far afield as New Zealand.

Following its New York success in 2010, Pitmen Painters cast member, Lisa McGrillis (another Northumbria graduate) performed alongside Charlie in a production at the Customs House in South Shields. The play, entitled The Awkward Squad, was directed by Northumbria Performing Arts lecturer, Fiona MacPherson. Northumbria’s arts department currently boasts a staff team who are highly active in the industry, something that Charlie feels is vital for university teaching. She said: “Unless you can practice, you may as well not turn up. You have to have people out working in the field. Let’s face it, you can read a book about sex, but it doesn’t make you good at it!”

Something Charlie’s had a lot of practice at is portraying Val Pollard in Emmerdale, a role she has played for over ten years. So does it continue to challenge her? “Playing a character for a long-running series isn’t like going on stage in the same role, in the same show every night,” Charlie explained. “We get new storylines every fortnight and the character continually evolves. Over the last year, Val was involved in a storyline that raised awareness of HIV and sexual health among older women,

as the character contracted the virus. This was one of the reasons I wanted to act in the first place - to raise awareness of important issues.”

Charlie credits university for giving her the confidence to succeed in this highly competitive industry, where she is now a hugely popular household name. “I don’t think I’d have half the confidence I have in my ability had I not studied to degree level. I was 22 when I started university and it gave me a real boost.”

So what about performing arts students today? Any advice? Charlie said: “Go and see everything you possibly can. From readings, to huge productions, everything!”

And Live Theatre certainly isn’t a bad place to start. Its current season includes a play by another Northumbria graduate, Paddy Campbell, writer of the award-winning hit, Wet House. This new production, entitled Day of the Flymo, will be performed by members of Live’s youth theatre alongside professional actors. And as Charlie’s career history suggests, this could well be the place to see tomorrow’s stars in action.

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Charlie in the Live Theatre production of Cabaret

Charlie in Attachments at Live Theatre

The cast and crew of Cabaret with Charlie (Front row, second left) and Max Roberts (front row, third right)

When being disruptive is a good thing

Northumbria recently curated a programme of events on behalf of the Disruptive Innovation Festival – a global, online festival that brought together thought-leaders, entrepreneurs and businesses to inspire positive change to the future economy. Here, Mark Bailey, Teaching Fellow in Northumbria’s Design department uncovers the real meaning of Disruptive Innovation.

Disruptive Innovation’, ‘Breakthrough Innovation’, ‘Game-changing Innovation’ – these are the buzzwords of today’s business leaders seeking commercial advantage. It’s worth pausing for a moment to consider just what disruptive innovation is, and whether it really is right for all situations.

There are many definitions of innovation. In essence they all converge around the same theme - bringing bright ideas to life in order to create positive change. Disruption, on the other hand, has negative connotations of breakdown and failure.

Disruptive innovation, however, breaks something that already exists to create a better future solution.

An example of such disruptive innovation can be found in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Boeing had to respond to two challenges: the commercial challenge posed by Airbus entering the super-sized airliner market with their A380 and the social challenge posed by increasing environmental concerns and passenger demands for ever-increasing levels of comfort and service. With these in mind, Boeing came up with a blueprint for a new aircraft that simply could not be produced using conventional approaches. With nearly a century of expertise in aluminium aircraft construction (as well as vast factories and established supply-chains devoted to this approach), and with minimal experience in alternative production methods, Boeing took the brave decision to completely disrupt their business, and the market, by developing the Dreamliner; an aircraft that could meet their ambitious brief if manufactured using advanced plastics. While Dreamliner has attracted some negative press, it has been a huge success, and Boeing’s competitors are left playing catch-up.

In everyday life, disruption is uncomfortable, challenging, troublesome and unwelcome. Similarly in commercial life, the greatest business leaders recognise that only disruptive innovation will bring about meaningful change when maintaining the status quo is unsustainable. Boeing found themselves thoroughly disrupted by the Dreamliner programme having to develop allnew management competencies, knowledge and skills in order to deliver their goal - a game-changing new product. The result is not just a new product and a challenge for competitors to respond to, but more importantly, a changed organisational culture in which innovation can flourish.

Consumers aren’t always ready to accept disruption. They need to see tangible benefits that speak to their particular circumstances in order to buy into something new, especially if they are being asked to pay more than they do for an established product. Smart businesses recognise this and tend to operate on three levels of innovation (often described as incremental, radical and disruptive) in order to protect their short, mid and long-term interests.

Of course, innovation for commercial gain should not come at the expense of social benefit; the two are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, the most responsible of organisations see them as mutually inclusive. Unilever, with whom Northumbria has a creative partnership working collaboratively on their Sustainable Living Plan, have placed social benefit at the core of their corporate strategy. This strategy is so simply expressed that all employees can rally around it:

[Unilever will] ‘help more than a billion people take action to improve their health and well-being. Halve the environmental footprint of the making and use of our products as we grow our business. Enhance the livelihoods of millions of people as we grow our business’.

As a business, they know that they need to be working at all three levels of innovation and their people need to establish a culture of innovation. Their very ambitious Sustainable Living Plan gives employees permission to innovate, to take risks and push boundaries – to become uncomfortable!

As an innovative University, we have a responsibility to launch future leaders into the world with a clear understanding of the role of innovation in business and society and with the capacity to develop and deliver positive change. Innovation is not a soloact and it isn’t the sole preserve of designers. In an increasingly complex world, innovation is necessarily collaborative and multidisciplinary. It capitalises on scientific and technological discovery, as well as business know-how and a deep understanding

of stakeholder behaviour. Successful innovation requires a blend of context-specific specialist knowledge given meaning through design. It is for this reason that the MA/MSc Multidisciplinary Innovation (MDI) was developed and runs through the University’s INNOVATE scheme at the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead.

MDI is an intensive one year programme that brings together graduates with specialisms in design, technology and business to learn together through engaging in real-world problem defining and solving. The students work on projects with clients ranging from regional start-ups and SME’s to global corporations and across all sectors, from charities, social enterprises and Government departments to global manufacturing companies and

service providers. While they learn to use, and develop, innovation practice approaches, methods and tools, the main purpose of their education is to enable them to develop as individuals with the knowledge, skills and confidence to venture into the unknown. We do not seek to create purely disruptive innovators, but rather ‘responsible innovators’ - innovators who consider the consequences of their innovations, who understand when to be disruptive and when to be incremental.

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WATCH: To watch a film about Northumbria’s MDI course, visit: northumbria.ac.uk/mdi

Mark Bailey

Turning the pages...

Books by our talented students and academics

Change Lessons from the CEO: Real People, Real Change

– Johan Coetsee and Patrick Flood

Synopsis: Managing change can be one of the biggest challenges for business leaders and managers. Using a wealth of real stories from CEOs about how they managed major change initiatives—and the lessons they learned along the way— this book gives professionals and business students powerful and effective guidance on successfully managing change initiatives in any organisation.

Dr Johan Coatsee is a Senior Lecturer in Organisation and Human Resource Management at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University.

Available on Wiley. RRP £29.99

Invisible Crimes and Social Harms

–

Pam Davies, Peter Francis and Tanya Wyatt

Synopsis: This new collection of chapters – part of the Palgrave Macmillan series Critical Criminological Perspectives - explores the reasons for the continuing invisibility of much crime and asks what can be done about it. With a wide range of fascinating case studies and examples, this volume is an essential resource for lecturers, researchers, students and practitioners of criminology, as well as anyone interested in debates about crime, harm and social justice.

Dr Pamela Davies is Teaching Fellow and Programme Director of Criminology at Northumbria University.

Professor Peter Francis is Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at Northumbria University.

Dr Tanya Wyatt is Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Northumbria University.

Available at Waterstones. RRP £65.00.

How to Live (Book 1 – How we Are) –

Vincent Deary

Synopsis: The first book in the How To Live trilogy, How We Are explores the power of habit and the difficulty of change. Over decades of psychotherapeutic work, Deary has witnessed the way that people get stuck, struggle with new circumstances, and eventually transform their lives and get better. Drawing on his own personal experience, and a range of literary, philosophical and cultural sources, Deary has produced a universal portrait of the human condition.

Dr Vincent Deary is a Health Psychologist at Northumbria University.

Available at Blackwell’s Bookstore on Northumbria’s City Campus. RRP £16.99.

Little Crackers –

Beda Higgins

Synopsis: Inspired by the author’s experiences as a nurse over the last thirty years, and written with compassion and imagination, Little Crackers is a collection of quirky, surprising tales which raise questions about how we care for the most vulnerable members of our society.

Beda Higgins is a graduate of Northumbria’s MA Creative Writing course.

Available at WH Smith. RRP £8.99.

How I left The National Grid –Guy

Mankowski

Synopsis: Set in 1980s Manchester, this novel tells the story of fictional frontman Robert Wardner who mysteriously vanished a year after his post-punk band ‘The National Grid’ found fame overnight. Twenty-five years later – after rumours that Wardner was murdered by an obsessed young fan – word spreads that the singer is alive and planning to re-emerge. Sam, a journalist who helped publicise the band in the early days, is commissioned to find Wardner and give him the chance to tell his story for a book. But in the process, Sam may in fact be planning his own murder.

Guy Mankowski is a PhD student on Northumbria’s Creative Writing course. Available on Amazon. RRP £8.99.

Gladio – Steve Chambers

Synopsis: When a policeman is killed outside Menwith Hill RAF base at the height of the miners’ strike, TV journalist John Bradley is convinced it’s a miner who’s had enough. When he investigates, he discovers a conspiracy involving subversion, covert surveillance and state sponsored murder. Set in 1984 and based on real events, Gladio is a fast-moving conspiracy thriller.

Steve Chambers is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Northumbria University.

Available at Foyles. RRP £7.99.

Strange Music – Laura Fish

Synopsis: This novel provides a bio-fictional portrait of the Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, whose family made their fortune from a Jamaican sugar plantation. Set in the late 1930s, shortly after the abolition of slavery, the story is narrated by three women – Kaydia and Sheba, a maidservant and labourer at the plantation, and Elizabeth herself. As Elizabeth struggles to come to terms with the source of her wealth and privilege, both Sheba and Kaydia fight to escape a tragic past which seems ever-present.

Dr Laura Fish is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Northumbria University.

Available on Amazon. RRP £7.99

Vogue On Designers: Vivienne Westwood –

Linda Watson

Synopsis: The latest in Vogue’s On Designers series looks at what makes Westwood one of the fashion industry’s most influential names. Written by renowned fashion writer and author Linda Watson – who assisted Westwood on two collections – this book looks back on the iconic British designer’s punk origins, remembers some of her most daring and risqué designs and explores her still-flourishing career.

Linda Watson is a Reader in Fashion at Northumbria University.

Available on Amazon. RRP £15.00.

what’s on

There are hundreds of shows, exhibitions, concerts and festivals happening in Newcastle each week. Here are just a handful…

Students’ Union

Coquelin Miguel

18 February

Student sessions at Habita – every Monday from 7pm, featuring happy hour and special deals.

Brofest #3

27 February – 1 March

A classic rock and metal festival featuring NWBHM legends Blitskrieg, High Spirits and the reunion of Mythra – Let’s rock!

Curves

20 Feb and 28 March

For the very best in Drum & Bass, Beats & Breaks.

Coffee House Sessions

Every Thursday.

Coffee House Sessions returns. The revolutionary tour circuit which brings live music back to university campuses, was launched by Huw Stephens from BBC Radio 1, with the sessions showcase emerging UK artists.

Public Lectures

Unless otherwise stated, lectures begin at 6.30pm for an hour and are held in Lecture Theatre 002, Business and Law Building, City Campus East. Refreshments are available from 6.00pm.

The Scope of Reform for Offences Against the Person –Professor David Ormerod QC

18 February 2015

Law Commissioner for Criminal Law and Evidence Professor David Ormerod is responsible for Criminal law, Evidence and Procedure.

Lines of Desire –Professor Keith McIntyre

4 March 2015

NPA Basement Studio Theatre, Room 0023, Lipman Building, City Campus West Professor of Fine Art, Northumbria University Keith McIntyre.

The city as a playground

Exhibitions and Festivals

Jonathan Yeo Portraits at the Laing Art Gallery

Shown until 15 Feb 2015

One of world’s leading portrait artist, known internationally for his portraits on celebrities such as Sienna Miller, Kevin Spacey and Stephen Fry.

Skating@Life

Until 22 February

Visit Newcastle’s only outdoor ice rink at the Centre for Life before it’s too late!

Maker Faire UK, International Centre for Life

25 – 26 April 2015

A global, family friendly festival of invention and creativity, bringing together more than 300 hackers, crafters and inventors, with exhibitors including staff and students from Northumbria University.

Game On 2.0, International Centre for Life

23 May – 1 November

Dr Michael Jeffries, Sebastian Messer and Dr Jon Swords, from Engineering and Environment, recently published, Playing Outdoors: The Importance of the City as a Playground for Skateboarding and Parkour. This research looks at skateboarders as aspirational figures - ‘everything society wishes young people could be’ – and challenges the approach of various city councils across the country who created skate parks on the outskirts of cities, to deter skaters from the city centre.

celebrating their contribution to the city.”

The research also found that skaters add to the social capital of the cityscape, with suggestions of authorities working alongside skaters to sustain their scene as a positive benefit to city regeneration. With many skaters showing true entrepreneurial interest in creative industries such as video and photography, it has also been suggested that perhaps this could create a cool, youthful buzz which so many cities crave as part of regeneration.

Big

Fresh Quiz of the Week

Every Sunday, 8pm, entry £1 Sundays are all about chilling out and relaxing with your mates and what better place to be than in Habita with the chance to win some mega cash prizes.

St Patrick’s Day

Tuesday 17 March

All day party. Join us for some refreshments…

Karaoke

Never mind The Voice – Thursday nights are karaoke night. Step up to the mic!

Soul & Funk Fridays @ Habita

Featuring new and old skule hits and Perez the Bongo man.

Tyneside Reborn – The Rt Hon the Lord Heseltine CH

10 March 2015

1pm – 2pm, The Great Hall, Sutherland Building, City Campus West. Refreshments available from 12.30pm

What’s gender got to do with it? – Effecting Change through Gendered Disaster Risk Reduction – Professor Maureen Fordham

29 April 2015

Professor of Gender and Disaster Resilience, Northumbria University Maureen Fordham was a founding member of the Gender and Disaster Network and advises on gender and disaster policy within the United Nations.

From Sonic to Samus, Mario to Minecraft, Game On 2.0 is the world’s biggest collection of playable computer games from the past 60 years.

Gallery

Frans Widerberg: The Art of Re-Enchantment

6 February – 2 April 2015

Widerberg, the spiritual descendant of Munch, unleashes upon an unsuspecting world images bathed in blazing light. This is a light which as pure as energy seems to propel a series of extraordinary dramas.

Peter Lanyon: The Mural Studies

10 April – 22 May 2015

Louise Bourgeois: Autobiographical Series

18 April – 22 May 2015

Dr Jon Swords, Programme Leader for BA Geography, said: “There is often a complete misunderstanding of the skateboard community, but despite preconceived ideas, skaters are in fact a valuable part of our society. They are sociable as they learn how to interact with friends; entrepreneurial, often running their own competitions, and are generally, very healthy and active people. Instead of trying to restrict skaters, local authorities should be

Dr Michael Jeffries, teaching fellow in the Department of Geography, added: “It is easy to mistake skaters as a problem, but they are in fact an important part of a city, with the vast majority of skaters very respectful of the areas in which they use.”

northumbria.ac.uk/geography

For more information on these and other events in the area, visit www.newcastlegateshead.com/whats-on

Skateboarders should be celebrated, not treated like anti-social hooligans, according to academics at Northumbria.

Running research unveils the secrets of Jamaica’s sprinting success

Northumbria experts have travelled to the Caribbean to lead a project looking at why elite Jamaican sprinters are so successful.

Northumbria is ranked in the top 30 in the UK for excellence in sport and exercise science research and academics have recently been investigating just how the small nation – which has produced some of the world’s fastest athletes, including recordbreaker Usain Bolt – is so exceptional at sprinting.

Working with researchers from Germany and New York, Kris McCarty, a research fellow in the department of Psychology, and Mark Russell, a senior lecturer in Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation measured the knees of more than 70 elite Jamaican athletes including Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, who holds two Olympic gold medals in the 100-metre sprint, and Nesta Carter, the man with the fifth-fastest 100-metre record.

For comparison, they measured the knees of 116 non-sprinters who were the same age and sex, and similar in size and weight and found that the sprinters’ knees were much more symmetrical than those of the non-sprinters.

Thirty sprinters specialising in the 100-metre race, which does not require them to turn corners, were found to have the most symmetrical knees of all. This means that the symmetry of the knees and the ankles impacts on a

person’s running speed.

Kris explained: “We specifically wanted to look into the success of Jamaican elite sprinters – the best of the best – because the country has so many record holders for sprint events. We flew to Jamaica where we took measurements from an elite track and field team in Kingston, as well as from a large sample of everyday Jamaicans.

“The findings show us there is a relationship between knee symmetry and running speed, although it is not known at this stage if the sprinters are great because their knees are symmetrical, or if their knees are symmetrical because of the time spent practicing and training.”

Although scientists can already look at the symmetry of the knees in childhood to predict how fast a non-trained person will run when they are older, this is the first time that any research has isolated a variable that predicts sprinting speed in current athletes.

northumbria.ac.uk/rehab

Scan this QR code for more information on the work of Northumbria’s department of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation.

Olympic legends line-up on campus

Two of the world’s most famous sporting legends have visited Northumbria to discuss the latest research into the impact of exercise and nutrition in sport.

Sir Chris Hoy, the most successful Olympic cyclist of all time and Haile Gebrselassie, the world’s greatest ever distance runner, visited the University to take part in the International Sport and Exercise Nutrition Conference 2014. It is the third time that the prestigious conference has been held at Northumbria in recent years. The conference brought together leading academics and researchers from countries including Australia, New Zealand and Canada to present the latest evidence into the effects of diet and exercise on health and performance.

Northumbria’s Dr Emma Stevenson, a Reader in Sport and Exercise Nutrition, was one of a number of speakers presenting their research findings at the conference. She discussed research into how certain ‘functional foods’, such as cherry juice and beetroot, can help to aid

recovery in athletes. Other presenters covered topics including protein and carbohydrates in athlete diets; how diet and exercise can impact on gut health; what it takes to run a marathon in two hours and which fatty acids are essential for health and performance.

Dr Stevenson said: “This is the world’s only international conference covering both sport and nutrition and so it’s a great coup for Northumbria – not only to host it for the third time, but because it brings some of the leading names in sport, exercise and nutrition research to our campus.

“We’ve made such impressive investments in our facilities and the conference was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our position as a leader in sports, exercise, nutrition, recovery and rehabilitation research to some of the most prominent experts in the field.

“The fact that both Sir Chris Hoy and Haile Gebrselassie attended is testament to the impact of the research we are all undertaking and its importance for elite athletes.”

Northumbria is one of the original providers of sport degrees in UK higher education for over 30 years and in UK Higher Education. Sports graduates have included successful medalwinning figures including Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton, Paralympic champion Stephen Miller, Olympic athlete Steve Cram and international rugby players Jamie Noon and Martin Corry.

To find out more about sport at Northumbria, come along to one of our Open Days on 26 & 27 June or go to: northumbria.ac.uk/sport

Jamaica’s record-breaking sprinter Usain Bolt

Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy

SPORT

We’re the UK’s most improved university for sport

Team Northumbria targets repeat victory

Northumbria University sports teams will fight to retain their winners crown when the Stan Calvert Memorial Cup kicks off this month.

Last year Team Northumbria claimed a memorable victory in the annual sporting competition between Northumbria and Newcastle Universities for the first time since 2007. Now the pressure is on to repeat their success, keeping the much sought after cup out of their rivals’ hands for another year.

“As a University we are ranked in the top 10 nationally for sport but a Stan Calvert victory was the missing piece of the jigsaw,” explained Colin Stromsoy, Northumbria University’s Head of Sport.

“Everyone knew we had been waiting far too long for a win and there was a collective will to succeed last year.

Whether it was the students cheering on from the sidelines or their class mates

making a decisive move on the pitch, the Team Northumbria family pulled together with one goal in mind. I think everyone involved will remember 2014 as the year we restored some muchneeded local pride to our national sporting success. However, as holders we now face a different kind of pressure!”

The Stan Calvert Memorial Cup is one of Britain’s biggest inter-city varsity events with hundreds of students taking part in fixtures across 24 sports. Over the course of six days the series of sporting events are watched by thousands of spectators. This year’s Stan Calvert Cup fixtures start in the final week of February and culminate in a day of exciting action on Sunday, 1 March.

The final whistle will be blown on the

Volleyball stars ‘smash it’ at Northumbria

Northumbria University has been recognised as a new hub for volleyball development and excellence.

At a time when volleyball is currently going through a period of post-London 2012 restructuring, Northumbria has become one of only five UK institutions to gain the honour of Volleyball England Senior Academy status. It was announced during a launch event at Sport Central, the University’s £30 million sports facility, which saw Northumbria’s elite volleyball players welcome the region’s leading junior players for coaching sessions and advice on how to progress to the

highest level. Teenagers from across the North East worked with London 2012 Olympians Peter Bakare and Nathan French, as well as American college players Whitney Phillips and Christina Dorismund, before watching Team Northumbria’s Super 8s squads in action against London Polonia.

“We have been established as a centre for excellence for some time now,” explained David Goodchild, Head of Volleyball at Northumbria. “The new Senior Academy Programme is a fantastic opportunity for young volleyball athletes to train and develop in a performance environment whilst studying at university in Newcastle.

The introduction of Senior Academies extends the existing England Talent Pathway and will be the springboard for athletes who could go on to represent England in senior competitions. It also prepares them to play professional volleyball abroad, be that indoors in a club environment or on the beach in European and World tours events.”

Maria Bertelli, GB Olympian, school and youth commission president and former Team Northumbria player added: “I think this is great news and will be a fantastic opportunity for young athletes. From my own experience, my time at University was so important in my development – it’s where I realised what it would take to make the step into high performance volleyball, and where I obtained the degree that I’m now using for my life after elite sport.”

2015 event with Northumbria’s Netball first team taking on their Newcastle counterparts at Sport Central.

“Concluding the Stan Calvert Cup with netball is a first for this year and we’re hoping it will prove to be a popular finale in a venue designed to host the biggest sporting fixtures,” added Colin.

Last year Northumbria broke into the top 10 of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) league table for the first time after huge investment in campus facilities. It ranked 8 overall and won the Bucs Most Improved University for Sport award in July. The unprecedented run of success in inter-university competitions follows an investment totalling more than £40m in facilities and staff over recent years.

Northumbria has been delivering Sport degrees for over 30 years and is one of the original providers in UK Higher Education.

Sky Sports cameras trained on Team Northumbria as Netball Superleague returns for the 2015 season.

Two of Team Northumbria’s home fixtures have been selected for coverage with the games against Loughborough Lightning and Hertfordshire Mavericks going out live from the University’s state-of-the-art £30m Sport Central facility. Netball Superleague brings together the very best in homegrown and overseas talent with eight teams from as far afield as Cardiff, Surrey and Bath competing for the end-of-season championship title. Founder members, Team Northumbria, feature new signings Hayley Mulheron and Nicole Styles. Mulheron starred for Scotland at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and Australian Styles signed from New South Wales in December. The defensive pair join Northumbria sport scholars Leah Kennedy, Kayley Moss and Emma Woodings in a strong line-up aiming for a top four finish.

All of the University’s sports teams and individual student athletes compete under the name Team Northumbria and it has a long and distinguished history of success. Current students include London 2012 Olympic volleyball players Peter Bakare and Lynn Beattie, British record holder for 50m and 100m breaststroke Dan Sliwinski, and Paralympic swimmers Jack Bridge and Harriet Lee. Former Northumbria sporting legends include Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton and Paralympic champion Stephen Miller.

Forthcoming fixtures

Northumbria’s Stan Calvert Cup-winning sports teams