Noteworthy Winter 2016 issue

NOTE Worthy

WINTER 2016

Alumni Newsletter

Inside This Issue

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s the University wraps up a fantastic end to 2016 by entering the World University rankings ahead of our competitors, we are delighted to share the latest from our campuses.

Two midwifery students spent time in Uganda assisting midwives there with postnatal and antenatal care, A PhD student is tackling the stigma surrounding mental health at a conference to be held at the University, and a Broadcast Journalism student raised £4 million for Children in Need, smashing the record for BBC’s Eastern region. The University was awarded £375,000 by Arts Council England as part of a £1.5m investment to enhance the arts and cultural infrastructure of Luton.

The University also hosted Sky News presenter Claudia-Liza Armah to run a masterclass for Media Performance students, offering advice and tips on how to present, engage, and get to grips using an autocue. The University was awarded £375,000 by Arts Council England as part of a £1.5m investment to enhance the arts and cultural infrastructure of Luton.

We hope you enjoy catching up with the latest from the University and the Alumni community. We always love to hear from you, so please do get in touch with any news, stories or ideas you have.

MIDWIFERY STUDENTS OFFER HELPING HAND TO UGANDAN MIDWIVES TWO MIDWIFERY STUDENTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE PUT THEIR SKILLS TO GOOD USE DURING A TRIP TO UGANDA TO SHARE THEIR KNOWLEDGE WITH MIDWIVES.

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inal year students Josie Ogden and Stacey Turner spent two weeks working at the Azur Christian Health Centre IV in Hoima, assisting the midwives there with postnatal and antenatal care on the wards and giving a helping a hand in the labour ward.

The students also helped set up a new outreach clinic where they provided routine antenatal care, HIV and syphilis screening, family planning advice, contraception and child immunisations, as well as giving training and teaching to the midwives in Hoima. " I was eager to do this placement in Uganda, not only to help the women and midwives in Uganda, but also to refine my basic midwifery skills which would benefit the woman I care for in the UK,” said Josie, 21, who is from Chandler’s Ford in Hampshire.

Stacey, 22, from Frome in Somerset, said: “I really wanted to have this experience to see how care differs in a developing country and to develop my basic midwifery skills in conditions where we aren’t so fortunate.

“Having come back into practice in the UK, the trip made me realise just how lucky we are to have our NHS, although the care they receive in Uganda is the best they can have with the resources they have to work with.”

The trip was organised by MAMA, a group of UK midwives who aim to empower and promote the advocacy of local Ugandan midwives and help improve maternal and neonatal health in the surrounding areas.

Rhi Grindle who runs MAMA, said: “Josie and Stacey were both great team players during their trip to Uganda with MAMA, both with the local midwives and the UK team. They quickly grasped how MAMA worked in Hoima, supporting staff and empowering the local midwives to advocate the best care they can for their mothers.”

Josie Ogden (left) and Stacey Turner

Student raises awareness of mental health at first ever conference

Bedfordshire student helps BBC raise millions for Children in Need A BROADCAST JOURNALISM STUDENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE HELPED BBC LOOK EAST RAISE MILLIONS OF POUNDS DURING ITS CHILDREN IN NEED CAMPAIGN.

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arl Turner, 21, worked as an Appeals Assistant in the run-up and during the live broadcast which saw Look East raise £4 million, a record for the BBC’s Eastern region.

A PHD STUDENT HOPES TO SHOW HOW THE STIGMA SURROUNDING MENTAL HEALTH CAN BE TACKLED USING FAITH AND CULTURE AT A CONFERENCE HELD AT THE UNIVERSITY.

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hirty-year-old Jolel Miah from Luton organised the first Our Minds Matter Conference on Thursday 16 February.

The theme is: Faith and Culture: Breaking the Stigma of Mental Health in Luton.

The conference explored how faith can support mental wellbeing, how the stigma around mental health can be broken across different cultures and how students from diverse cultures and faiths can be supported to safeguard their mental wellbeing.

“We want to show how we can use faith and culture to enhance mental health and prevent mental illness from occurring in the first place through education and working directly with communities. Prevention is the long term intervention,” said Jolel.

Guests will got the chance to hear from a service user who suffered from a mental health illness and find out how her culture and faith contributed to her recovery.

As well as studying for his PhD into behaviour change interventions, Jolel runs Our Minds Matter, a charity that focuses on promoting mental health in the diverse communities of Luton.

“The services are there but often people suffer in silence because they don’t know who to turn to, or they fear they might be misunderstood if they speak up. Our Minds Matter have developed a strategy with partners in the town to help bridge the gap between the services and the diverse communities of Luton, people have suffered long enough for us do nothing,” said Jolel.

“Every society has systems whether this is in our homes, workplaces, schools, colleges, public services such as hospitals, GP practices, police and the better we understand mental health, our society will flourish. At the conference we will have series of lectures and workshops to demonstrate how we can achieve this.”.

The experience has meant Carl has gained a whole host of skills that will help him in his career when he graduates next year.

“My jobs in the run-up to the appeal night included set design, graphic design, organising the attendees for the event night and filming for preview packages for Look East, as well as a whole host of other things,” said Carl, who is from Kesgrave in Suffolk.

“It was an amazing experience. The variety of tasks really kept every day different. You never really knew what you would end up doing – one day I was producing a film for a live stage show, another day I was building a set for the Love To Read event,” said Carl, who is in his third year.

“It helped develop the skills that I have learned on my course, and throughout my job at the BBC. It will mean that I have more experience and this will put me in a better place to apply for other jobs in the BBC.” The Producer of the Children in Need show for BBC East TV Shaun Peel said: “As an appeals assistant, you have to be a jack of all trades. One day you could be inside a Pudsey suit, the next filming school children who are raising money. This year Carl did all that, as well as assisting as floor manager for the TV broadcast, and helping the event management team organise 200 children, their parents and a posse of fundraisers dressed as superheroes.”

Carl’s tutor, Senior Lecturer in Journalism Kate Ironside, said: “Carl is a terrific student who has seized every opportunity going.

He first met the BBC East’s politics team when he went on a trip to see the Sunday Politics programme going out live.

“From then on, he networked superbly and by the summer for his first year he had completed his first on air report for BBC Look East. He then returned to Look East for his placement in his second year, notching up an impressive 75 shifts and has gone from strength to strength. We are immensely proud of him.”

Sky News presenter shares words of wisdom with Bedfordshire students A NEWS PRESENTER FROM SKY NEWS SHARED ADVICE AND GUIDANCE TO ASPIRING PRESENTERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE.

University helps local and internationally renowned artists build a thriving creative economy in Luton THE UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST COHORT OF ARTISTS, TAKING PART IN TESTBEDS, PART OF ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND’S LUTON INVESTMENT PROGRAMME.

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estBeds is an innovative professional development programme to enhance local artists' capacity to live, work and thrive locally.

Professor Helen Bailey who leads the initiative for the University commented: “As well providing local artists with the tools to establish thriving creative businesses, TestBeds has already attracted, internationally-renowned artists to Luton.

“We hope the programme will spearhead innovative, crossdisciplinary research into the employment of arts and culture and act as a catalyst for change nationally and internationally.”

The University was awarded £375,000 by Arts Council England as part of their £1.5m investment to enhance the arts and cultural infrastructure of Luton.

Prof Helen Bailey said: “After an impressive round of applications and interviews we are delighted to announce the TestBeds cohort for 2017.

“Each artist was chosen for the quality of their existing artistic work, their vision for their career in the arts, and their potential as future placemakers, global citizens and catalysts for change.”

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ky News presenter Claudia-Liza Armah hosted a masterclass for a group of Media Performance students at the Luton campus, offering advice and tips on how to present to the camera, engage with the audience and get to grips with using an autocue.

Claudia watched each student in turn as they presented a short news piece before offering tips on how they may improve, using her own experience as an accomplished news presenter.

“It was fantastic to be able to share my experience with the students. I love helping other people and I appreciate that life and careers can be challenging and I like to be able to offer advice that could help someone get their career off the ground,” said Claudia-Liza.

Senior Lecturer in Media Performance Kathryn Wolfe said: “The students really gained from Claudia-Liza's advice and feedback on their work. Their assignment was to create and present an individual 60 second news bulletin, and record it live to camera.

“As Claudia-Liza formerly presented BBC3’s 60 Second News, she was the perfect industry person to help students do their best in this task. She also gave honest and invaluable tips on how to get in to the industry and succeed.”

"Almost all things I learned at University could be witnessed in real life around me."

Márton Nagy, Filo Bar Marketing and Media Practices Alumni

University of Bedfordshire celebrates a fantastic end to 2016 THE UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE HAS CELEBRATED A FANTASTIC END TO 2016 FOLLOWING THE PUBLICATION OF THE UCAS END OF CYCLE ADMISSIONS DATA.

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he University which last year leapt into the World University rankings ahead of many of its competitors, bucked an underlying trend with an 11% growth in its student undergraduate population for 2015/16, while other universities flatlined with a growth of just 1% overall.

Celebrating Milton Keynes AS MILTON KEYNES CELEBRATED THEIR 50TH BIRTHDAY THIS MONTH, THE UNIVERSITY LAUNCHED A NEW VIDEO SHOWCASING JUST SOME OF THE EXCELLENT FACILITIES AND EXCITING ACTIVITIES OUR STUDENTS CAN GET INVOLVED IN WHILST STUDYING AT OUR MILTON KEYNES CAMPUS.

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he video highlights many of Milton Keynes’ iconic features including Willen Lake, Xscape and The Centre MK. With our campus based in the centre of Milton Keynes, many of the sites shown are within walking distance of the campus.

Our Milton Keynes campus houses an array of modern teaching facilities including high specification teaching rooms with top-quality audio visual and ICT equipment, a special purpose electronics and telecommunications laboratory and a large, general purpose computer lab, giving IT students hands-on experience.

Both undergraduate and postgraduate courses are available at our Milton Keynes campus, so whether you’re looking to further your studies, or change your career, why not visit us at our next Open Evening on Wednesday 15 March.

View our upcoming Open Events: unibeds.info/Visit_MK Watch our video here: unibeds.info/Discover_MK

This meant for year on year growth, Bedfordshire was 16th out of 138 universities, outperforming many Russell Group universities.

Bill Rammell Vice Chancellor said: “This is great news for the University of Bedfordshire and is a validation of our strategy to focus on the student experience.

“While other universities panicked in an increasingly competitive market, using gimmicks to attract more students, we instead have invested in student-focused facilities and in providing top quality teaching. We also adapted flexibly to student demand introducing a new Foundation year to widen access and delivering our excellent Higher Education experience in dispersed study hubs in London."

2016 saw the University make considerable progress in its goal to improve the student experience. An inspection by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) commended Bedfordshire for its enhancement of student learning opportunities – the highest rating possible, while investment in student facilities has continued apace with a stunning sevenstorey, state of the art library, opening last summer.

The University also revealed plans for a £40m building devoted to teaching and research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects to open at its Luton Campus.

Reach Out My name is Leah Duncan (nee Anthony). I'm organising a reunion for everyone on the BA (Hons) Business Studies and Business Administration (1990-1994). It will be on Saturday 25th March 2017 in the Brewery Tap at 7pm. Get in touch here: leah.duncan71.ld@gmail.com

Your Alumni Keeping in touch and staying connected THE UNIVERSITY OF BEDFORDSHIRE’S ALUMNI ASSOCIATION IS MADE UP OF OVER 75,000 MEMBERS STRETCHING OVER 140 COUNTRIES WORLDWIDE. Being part of the Alumni community, you can extend your professional and social network to others who have graduated as well as remain part of the life and future of your University.

What we can offer All members of our Alumni Association have access to a range of services: eZInes: Our “Noteworthy” eZine keeps you updated with news, events and opportunities.

Free library membership: Access to the library facilities and books are available to you in your post-University life for free. For more details please contact us.

Careers and Employability Services: The services available to you as a student are still available to you for life as an alumnus including, job vacancies, employability workshops and individual career support.

How you can help There are also plenty of opportunities for you to give back and support the University of Bedfordshire.

Volunteering Come back on campus to help with events, share your expertise and mentor current students.

Fundraising By taking party in fundraising events and challenges, you are able to secure and support the future of your University.

For all enquires about what we can do for you and how you can help, please get in touch.

Contact details Development and Alumni Relations Office Innovation & Enterprise Service Room H011 University Square Luton Bedfordshire LU1 3JU alumni@beds.ac.uk www.beds.ac.uk/alumni LinkedIn- University of Bedfordshire Alumni Office