ISSUE3
INPSYCH PSYCHOLOGY NEWS, STORIES AND EVENTS
WELCOME If you are a prospective, existing or former student I hope the Spring edition of In-Psych will keep you up to date with the developments in the Psychology Department at Staffordshire University. The last three months have been very busy as we continue to invest in the student experience with over £100K capital spent in new equipment including a bank of new iPads for student use in workshops and a new EEG which may be used in your final year projects. All this equipment will be used by both our students and research team alike. We are continuing to develop our student employability programme; we have ran our annual Psychology Careers Fair, held our Final Year Student Conference where our students presented their project work, and our monthly Psychology in the pub series has continued in The Glebe with Dr Rob Dempsey, Dan Masterson, Dr Gemma Hurst
and Dr Ken McFadyen, presenting recently on subjects as diverse as sexuality, social norms and alcohol use, and health benefits of green environments. Our students have also been busy getting involved in a diverse range of studies as part of our new second year Research Assistantship module which lets them practice their research skills. It has also been particularly pleasing to see the big election result of the year had a Psychology winner! Our Second year Psychology student Jamie-Lee Cunningham was elected Vice President of the Student Union on a health and well-being ticket. Congratulations to Jamie-Lee, she is a shining example of Staffordshire Psychology student.
Dr Peter Jones Head of School @pgwjones_dr
REF 2014: Psychology Research at Staffordshire University is rated International Standard The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a Government initiative every five years to evaluate the quality of University research. This year was the first time our Psychology team was submitted to the REF as a standalone subject area. With respect to Psychology, we have done extremely well in terms of the ratings our work has been given for its impact. 100% of our research impact was classified as being internationally significant. More specifically, 60% of our impact was rated as 3* (in other words, internationally excellent in terms of originality, significance and rigour) and the remaining 40% was classified as 4* (in other words, world-leading in terms of originality, significance and rigour). Karen Rodham, Professor of Health Psychology comments: “the results have been out for a little while now and we have had some time to look through all the data, take stock and identify the lessons to take away. The fact that so many of those submitted for the REF were early career researchers highlights the opportunities that this university provides for people to grow and develop their research careers. As someone who has only recently joined the university,
this confirms the impression I had before I decided to accept the offer of a job here – that Staffordshire University is a university committed to conducting high quality research that has meaning beyond the confines of academia.” Head of School Dr Peter Jones adds “this is great news for Psychology at Staffordshire University and provides validation of our work, as well as encouragement for us to continue to build and grow our research. To be so highly rated for research and rated in the top 10% of Psychology degrees in the UK for student satisfaction show what a great team we have here at Staffs.”