Network magazine 2013

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2 013

COURTING SUCCESS

Law alumna and Polish Individual of the Year Agata Dmoch University news Alumni updates 175th anniversary

EDITORIAL

I’m delighted to welcome all alumni, and particularly the class of 2013, our newest cohort of graduates, to the latest edition of Network, the magazine for alumni of the University of Westminster.

This year marks a special milestone in the history of the University, as we celebrate the 175th anniversary of scientist Sir George Cayley opening the Polytechnic Institution, the forerunner of the Westminster of today.

Sir George’s vision was to create an educational institution which would stimulate innovation among a new generation of what he described as ‘professional scientists’, and to demonstrate how those innovations could change people’s lives. Now, 175 years on, the University of Westminster continues to seek to inspire innovation and creative thinking, through our close interaction with practice and the professions, our interdiscplinarity, and our international engagement.

Nowhere were those values more evident this year than at our Annual Reception, when we had the opportunity to showcase over 40 University-led research projects which have the capacity to change lives and improve society for all.

These research projects spanned all disciplines, and in many cases involved collaboration with partner institutions nationally and internationally.

The diversity and impact of our research is matched only by the positive difference made by our alumni around the world, working in every imaginable field. This edition of Network provides the perfect showcase for that talent.

Our featured alumni are drawn from different eras of the University’s history, and have contributed significantly to sectors as varied as architecture, business, cinema, education, fashion and photography. The Class Notes section also underlines the global reach of our alumni, with graduate updates from America, Brazil and Chile to Thailand and Trinidad, as well as here in the UK. In response to the growing global impact of our alumni, our alumni network is also continuing to expand, with well-established bases now in China and India, and events over the past year in Ghana, Thailand and Vietnam, to name but a few. There are now more than 150,000 University of Westminster alumni in 180 countries around the world.

As academics we strive for excellence in research and teaching, but at the University of Westminster we have strong values that underpin our commitment to transforming lives, to nurturing talent, to academic freedom, and to wider society. We pride ourselves on our commitment to diversity, and to sustaining a mixed and balanced community.

It’s clear that from the efforts and achievements of our alumni, many of you share those values; whatever you studied, wherever in the world you may be, you will always be part of the Westminster family. We are particularly grateful to those of you who are able to support our efforts to instil those values in future generations of Westminster students. Whether through giving your time as mentors or returning as guest speakers, or providing financial backing through scholarships and fundraising, your help is invaluable – thank you.

As we celebrate our 175th anniversary I hope many of you will have the opportunity to renew or strengthen your relationship with the University of Westminster, through events such as the Alumni Lecture Series, the annual Alumni Reception, and the various alumni reunions. I look forward to meeting as many of you as possible throughout the coming year.

Cover picture of Agata Dmoch and alumni feature images

by Rory Lindsay EDITORIAL TEAM Keith Potter, Editor Louise Birrell, Alumni Relations Manager Alumni Office University of Westminster Cavendish House 101 New Cavendish Street London W1W 6XH T:+44 (0)20 7911 6245 E: alumni@westminster.ac.uk Thanks to all alumni, staff, students and supporters of the University of Westminster who have contributed to this issue.

Design: Kate Roncoroni Print: Belmont Press

westminster.ac.uk/alumni A charity and a company limited by guarantee.

Registration number: 977818.

Registered office: 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW 6281/09.13/KR/BP

CONTENTS 4 NETWORK NEWS

All the latest news from across the University, our alumni and students

18 FUNDRAISING AND SCHOLARSHIPS

An update on the Birthplace of British Cinema campaign, the anniversary scholarships appeal, and the lasting mark of legacies

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20 175 YEARS

As the University of Westminster celebrates its 175th anniversary, Network shares the memories and experiences of alumni and staff from the 1940s through to the present day

26 AGATA DMOCH

Successful lawyer, emerging businesswoman and now Polish Individual of the Year, Agata explains her drive to achieve – and her very full diary

10 29

29 MATT HYDE

From the NUS to Scouting, MBA alumnus Matt is committed to improving opportunities for young people

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32 MICHĂ L COHEN

The inaugural Woman Architect of the Year award-winner talks to Network about career highlights and tough times

35 HANK ROBERTS

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Teaching union leader Hank on revolutionary days at Regent Street, the power of education, and his pride at being a professional troublemaker

38 ALUMNI BENEFITS

Career development, University support and opportunities to share your knowledge and expertise

40 CLASS NOTES

All the latest news from alumni around the world

44 GET INVOLVED Upcoming events and activities for alumni

35

NEWS

LATEST HISTORY BOOK MARKS 175th ANNIVERSARY The University History Project is publishing its third book this year, to mark Westminster’s 175th anniversary.

Educating Mind, Body and Spirit: the legacy of Quintin Hogg and the Polytechnic, 1864–1992 is a multi-authored history of the predecessor institutions of the University of Westminster, and has been generously sponsored by the Quintin Hogg Trustees.

It includes themed chapters on: Quintin Hogg 1864–1903, wartime, women’s participation, sport and leisure, travel (especially the Polytechnic Touring Association), changing higher education policy, and the emergence of the student.

This latest book follows the University History Project’s previous two publications, The Education of the Eye: a History of the Royal Polytechnic Institution 1838–1881, and An Education in Sport: Competition, Communities and Identities at the University of Westminster since 1864 by Dr Mark Clapson, both of which were also sponsored by the Quintin Hogg Trustees.

All three books are available to buy from Amazon or Marylebone Books at the University’s Marylebone and New Cavendish Street campuses.

SHARE YOUR STORY AND BE PART OF WESTMINSTER’S HISTORY The history of the University of Westminster is being brought to life through a series of spoken testimonies and stories from alumni and staff, as part of the Oral History Project officially launched in May this year.

Now it’s your chance to be part of the amazing story of the University and its predecessors, by sharing your memories with the Archive Services team who are running the initiative.

With 175 years of history to look back on the University has many unique experiences and stories to share, and while official documents provide a vital window into the past, oral history often gives a much richer picture of what life was really like, and what people really thought.

The University’s Archive Services team has been running an Oral History Project since 2010, recording memories of the Regent Street Polytechnic and Polytechnic of Central London.

Oral history is composed of spoken testimony, stories and experience and is a valuable way of capturing individual understandings and perspectives of the recent past.

The team has already recorded 50 interviews, including memories from the 1930s and 1940s

to more recent experiences of life at the University in the first decade of the new millenium, and these can be listened to in full, by appointment. They include interviews with Polytechnic secondary schoolboys who studied with us before and during the Second World War (including those evacuated from London), as well as members of clubs and University staff.

There are also 70 excerpts from these interviews available for everyone to explore online, categorised under different topics such as student life, courses, clubs and societies, and the Poly buildings. You can find these in the ‘Oral History’ section of About Us / Our Heritage pages of the University’s website.

The Project is ongoing, and the Archive Services team are keen to hear from any alumni and former members of staff of the Regent Street Polytechnic or Polytechnic of Central London. If you would like to contribute your memories please use the contact form on the website giving your name, course taken, and dates of attendance; you can contact the Archive Services team at archive@westminster.ac.uk for more details.

SAD LOSS OF PHOTOGRAPHY PIONEER MARGARET

Margaret Harker

The University of Westminster lost one of its great pioneers this year when Professor Margaret Harker, who introduced the UK’s first degree course in photography at the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) in 1967, died in February.

Margaret was an author, lecturer and photographic historian who dedicated a lifetime to photography and photographic education.

At an early age she became a practising professional photographer, specialising in architectural photography together with part-time teaching. In 1959 she was appointed Head 4 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

of School of Photography at the PCL where she was the driving force behind the first degree course in photography in the UK – the BSc in Photographic Science.

Margaret was an active member of a wide variety of photographic institutions, including President of both the British Institute of Professional Photography and the Royal Photographic Society.

Joost Hunningher, a former lecturer at the University of Westminster said: “Margaret was a fine historian of the artistic and technical pioneers of photography. She applied the same rigor to her role as Head of Photography. She encouraged, empowered and inspired us.”

Margaret’s commitment to photographic education has made an enormous contribution to the University of Westminster and she will be well remembered. In 1996 a plaque was unveiled to commemorate the establishment of the Margaret Harker Photography Centre at the Harrow Campus.

NEWS

175 CELEBRATIONS AT HOME AND OVERSEAS

REDEVELOPMENT DELIVERS CUTTINGEDGE CAMPUSES

(left to right) Sunit Koli of the British Council Mumbai, alumni Karan Desai, Dr Indu Shahani, and Dr Myszka Guzkowska at the University’s 175 anniversary celebrations in Mumbai

Staff, students, supporters and alumni of the University of Westminster have been celebrating our 175th anniversary around the world, with events in India and China, and more celebrations planned for London.

As part of our milestone anniversary, and to officially mark the launch of the China office and Westminster’s increased presence there, the University held a high-profile day of events in April, attended by key members of staff including the Vice-Chancellor, the Pro Vice-Chancellor and the Deans.

The event – held in Beijing – included a student-focused session throughout the afternoon, providing more information about key courses, offers and scholarships, with the University Deans on hand to meet students.

The day culminated with a gala dinner for our guests during which the University was also able to confirm a significant new scholarship scheme of over £100,000 specifically for Chinese students, and plans for the expansion of the China office by 2014.

The following month the spotlight moved to the Taj Land’s End in Mumbai, India, where more than 100 guests (including alumni, staff and prospective students) attended a celebratory event hosted by our Pro ViceChancellor, Dr Myszka Guzkowska.

Mr Karan Desai made a speech on behalf of our alumni in Mumbai, and Dr Indu Shahani, Principal of H.R. College in

Mumbai, presented the University with a citation from her college and spoke of our history of working together.

This was the latest event organised by our team in New Delhi who have been working hard for more than 18 months to provide a registration and help centre for prospective Indian students and to develop important Indian academic, governmental, corporate and alumni partnerships.

And the focus will be on London this autumn, when the University’s official anniversary event takes place on 23 October, with alumni, staff, academic and professional partners and even a royal visitor expected to attend. The celebrations will include an exploration of 175 years of innovation in practice, examining our history and continuing academic innovation through a special event showing off the pioneering work carried out by our students.

The 175th anniversary events will also continue into 2014, with a special service of celebration to be held at Westminster Abbey on 30 January. Full details have yet to be confirmed for the event, but a number of places will be set aside specifically for alumni to attend the morning service in this iconic church, and more information will be made available on the alumni section of the University of Westminster website over the coming weeks.

New lecture theatres and study areas, cutting-edge equipment and resources, and greener and more sustainable campuses are just some of the benefits being enjoyed

by Westminster’s students, staff and alumni, as the University’s ten-year strategy to create world-class buildings and facilities takes shape.

The £20m transformation of our Marylebone Campus, home to the Westminster Business School and the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, is now complete. At the centre of the redevelopment is the new Learning Platform, an enclosed space offering a vibrant environment for students to study, work and socialise all year round, created by placing a roof over the previously outdoor podium area and completely remodeling the layout.

Dynamic, multi-purpose learning facilities that can host exhibitions, seminars and forums, a new and improved catering area, improved library services and space, and sustainability initiatives such as rainwater harvesting and increased natural lighting and air flow, are all part of the redevelopment.

There have also been major developments at Little Titchfield Street, home to Westminster Law School, with a new 380-seat central lecture theatre, new café area and improved library layout all part of a £3.5m project which was completed this summer.

The refurbishment of our Regent Campus was completed last year, with the Deep End (our former swimming pool) converted from an underused area to a modern social space with comfortable furniture, Wi-Fi and easy access to the refectory, and a dedicated space for the Students’ Union. The Old Gym has been converted into a study space complete with new furniture, and the lower ground floor computer lab has been completely refurbished.

And phase one of the £38m redevelopment of our Harrow Campus is now completed, with the creation of the Forum – our new showpiece entrance where students can proudly display their work and welcome friends and family – alongside the refurbishment of A Block, and remodeling of the library and learning resources areas. Phase two of the project is now well underway, with the whole project due to be finished next year.

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NEWS

KERSTIN IS THE NEW DEAN OF MAD

Professor Kerstin Mey

Professor Kerstin Mey is the new Dean of the Faculty of Media, Arts and Design (MAD), having joined Westminster in February from the University for the Creative Arts, where she was Director of Research and Enterprise and held a Professorship in Fine Art. Professor Mey’s research is concerned with contemporary cultural practices including the exploration of the changing dynamics between what is considered aesthetic and what obscene under the influence of new information and communication technologies. Her interests also incorporate the relationship between art, documentation and archiving as well as knowledge production at the interface of art, media and science.

Geoffrey Petts, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Westminster said: “Kerstin is an experienced lecturer and her established research experience across the field of the creative industries will further contribute to strengthen the Faculty’s offering and influence, providing our students with the crucial training and transferable skills they need to be able to succeed in the workplace.”

WESTMINSTER MOVES TO FACULTY STRUCTURE A major change to the academic structure of the University took place over the summer, with Westminster moving from seven schools of study to five faculties from 1 August.

The changes from school to faculty are in response to the changing external environment for higher education in the UK as well as internationally. The restructuring will mean the following: • The School of Media, Arts and Design, and the School of Architecture and the Built Environment, become faculties.

• The School of Life Sciences and the School of Electronics and Computer Science merge to become the Faculty of Science and Technology, with the addition of the Psychology Department from the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages.

• The School of Law becomes part of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (formerly School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages.)

• Westminster Business School remains the same.

The five faculties will build on existing strong research groups that reinforce Westminster’s distinctiveness. The University will be able to maximise the centrally managed, locally delivered structure to ensure that we provide high-quality and efficient teaching and learning around disciplinary student-centred venues, facilities and processes.

The Deans of the new faculties have also been confirmed; Professor David Dernie remains the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, and Professor Kerstin Mey – who joined the University as Dean of the School of Media, Arts and Design (MAD) in February (see left) – continues as Dean of the MAD Faculty, while Professor Jane Lewis becomes Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology.

Professor Roland Dannreuther, formerly the head of the Department of Politics and International Relations, is now Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Professor Barbara Allan remains the Dean of Westminster Business School.

UNIVERSITY AMONG TOP RANKINGS IN TWO SUBJECTS

The University of Westminster has been named as the top university in the UK for media, journalism and communications, and the joint second university in the UK for architecture, in two influential sets of rankings.

The new QS Worldwide University Rankings placed Westminster top in the UK, second only in Europe and in the world’s top 20 for courses in media, journalism and communications.

The online rankings, which can be found at topuniversities.com, describe Westminster as ‘a

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progressive and responsive metropolitan university with a distinguished history, a clear vision for the future and committed to educating for professional life through innovative programmes at advanced levels’.

The website also highlights the University’s diverse student community, ‘superb’ London locations and ‘recognised centres of research expertise’ as reasons for its high rankings, which are based on reputation among academics and employers, and citations to published works.

Westminster has also been ranked joint second in the UK by the highly respected professional publication Architects’ Journal, in the AJ Top 100 special issue published in May this year.

The Department was voted second in the UK by architects in practice, an important mark of distinction that seals its reputation as a place where students gain a broad range of useful skills for a practice environment. Those skills include technical ability, team working, collaborative working with clients, and the ability to innovate and think outside the box.

NEWS

WESTMINSTER RECEIVES INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION AWARD

BUSINESS SCHOOL BECOMES CISI CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

The University of Westminster has won the Times Higher Education International Collaboration of the Year award for the innovative MSc programme in Medical Molecular Biology, developed in collaboration with universities in the South Caucasus region.

The programme – the first international collaborative award in this discipline – was set up in 2011 by Westminster, and brings together six Southern Caucasian universities and two European universities.

Led by Westminster and funded by the European Union Tempus educational programme, the MSc uses an innovative learning approach combining a mixture of IT-based and digital technologies with conventional teaching methods; the aim is to foster knowledge exchange in teaching and research in the medical molecular biology field.

The pioneering project, which was commended by the European Union as the best regional project since the Tempus programme was established 20 years ago, has also reinforced the University’s close partnerships with leading universities in the Southern Caucasus.

Professor Jane Lewis, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at Westminster, said: “I am delighted that our leadership of this complex

Westminster Business School has been selected as a Centre of Excellence in financial markets by the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) – one of only 12 centres worldwide.

The CISI is the largest professional body for the securities and investment industry in the UK, and in a growing number of financial centres globally.

The School’s MSc in Investment and Risk Finance has been recognised as equivalent to the CISI Diploma, and graduates of the Masters will be eligible to apply for full Institute Membership of the CISI. Westminster Business School finance students will also benefit from the CISI’s scholarship awards, made by the CISI’s Educational Trust.

Professor Barbara Allen, Dean of Westminster Business School said: “I am delighted that the CISI has selected Westminster Business School as a CISI Centre of Excellence, demonstrating the quality of our financial education and our commitment to working in partnership with industry.

“Accreditation by the CISI also offers our graduates a tremendous career boost, as membership of the CISI can support their future development and offers valuable networking opportunities in a competitive sector. It is a fast track to career success.”

Recognition of Westminster Business School as a Centre of Excellence confirms the School’s position as a professionally focused business school.

The School already enjoys validation from a number of other professional bodies including the Association of MBAs (AMBA), the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS).

international project has been recognised.

The University of Westminster looks forward to working closely with our partners in the coming years through future students and new projects.”

Participating universities include the University of l’Aquila in Italy, University of Brest in France, Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and Kutaisi State University in Georgia, Azerbaijan Medical University and Baku State University in Azerbaijan and Yerevan State University and Yerevan State Medical University in Armenia.

“As a result of the project, Westminster now has a firm educational presence in the Southern Caucasus. We are committed to building on the established relationships with institutions in the region with further projects aimed at the development of sophisticated e-based learning methods and virtual laboratories as well as research collaborations,” added Professor Lewis.

The award was presented to the University of Westminster at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London in November. Pictured (above) outside the University of Westminster’s Cavendish site are Jane Lewis (front row, third from left), Dean of the Faculty, with Project Co-ordinator Nina Porakishvilli, and the successful Westminster team displaying the logos of the other partners in the consortium.

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STUDENT NEWS

HUMAN VICE TAKES LEARNING ON SCREEN AWARD

CLEAN SWEEP AT LONDON RTS AWARDS

There was good news in April for the team behind graduation film A Human Vice, when it was announced that the film had won the Student Production Undergraduate & FE category at the Learning on Screen Awards.

The film was directed by Steven Chamberlain and produced by Simon Waldock while both were students on the Film and Television Production BA course at the University of Westminster.

The Learning on Screen Awards, organised by the British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC), celebrate and reward excellence in the use of moving image and related media in learning, teaching and research. The Awards evening held at the BFI Southbank in London was attended by over 130 highly regarded industry professionals, education and museum specialists as well as student filmmakers, and included a guest speech by Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty.

WESTMINSTER PHOTOGRAPHERS DOMINATE FRESH FACED AND WILD EYED Eight University of Westminster photography students dominated the Fresh Faced and Wild Eyed exhibition at the Photographers’ Gallery in July.

The exhibition ‘aims to draw attention to innovative new talents from a range of photographic fields and is dedicated to recognising and nurturing new talents’, and features the work of 22 graduates from photographic courses across the UK. The Westminster students featured in the exhibition were Basil Al-Rawani, from the Photographic Studies MA, for Façade; Iris Brember, Photographic Arts BA (Photographs); Jack Day, Photography BA (Vehicles); Daniel Mayrit, Photographic Arts BA (Suburban Scenes); Tania Olive, Photography BA (Dyke of our Time); Tina Remiz, Photographic Arts BA (Krievi); Sunil Shah, Photography BA (Uganda Stories); and Anastasia Shpilko, Photojournalism MA (Between Black and White Clouds).

Two of our six finalists will also gain further development through the Gallery’s mentorship scheme.

Andy Golding, Head of Photography and Film at the University of Westminster, attended the opening of the exhibition and said: “It is wonderful to see so many of our students exhibited in the leading photography gallery in the UK. Their work is at the cutting edge of artistic practice and deals with crucial contemporary concerns in both form and content. This is a great achievement from our Department which continues to deliver such dynamic courses, and it is fantastic to see so many of our academics and technical staff here this evening in support.”

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Alina Budina, Matthew Musson and Seema Shah with their award for Best Entertainment Programme at the 2013 Student RTS Awards.

Film and television students from the University of Westminster have once again been making their mark on the industry, collecting the top honours in all three categories at this year’s Royal Television Society (RTS) Student Awards for the London Region.

The Factual category of the awards was won by No More Limits Left, a documentary shot in the UK and Norway by Ross Bolidai and team, which features breathtaking photography of base jumpers skimming down the sides of snow topped mountains before opening their parachutes at the last minute. Ross and fellow Television Production BA student Michael Fitzpatrick gained the trust of the base jumpers by trekking five hours up the mountain with a heavy load of equipment several days running.

It’s the second consecutive year that Westminster students from the Television Production course have won the Factual category, following the success of Showgirl last year.

Course Leader Jane Thorburn said: “Unusual access to extraordinary people, a strong visual story that is well photographed and editing that

brings out the suspense behind the activity combined to make a winning ‘must see’ documentary.”

The documentary Talking Hands, directed by Matthew Musson and produced by Jenny Pham, won Entertainment category; Matthew and Director of Photography Alina Budina also enjoyed success with their documentary The Clown’s Son at the 2012 Romanian CineMAiubit Festival, winning Best Documentary.

Completing a very good night for Westminster’s students, The Dry Fields – produced by Saba Kia and directed

by Bob Platt-Higgins – won the Fiction category of the awards. This follows on from the film’s success at the 2012 ISFVF Beijing Student Film Festival in October, when it received the Audience Award.

Also nominated in the Fiction category was 47 Orchard Street, directed by Reuben McNaughton and produced by Marie-Elena Dyche.

The film was previously nominated at the 2012 VGIK Moscow awards, along with another graduation film, A Human Vice, which picked up the Audience Award.

STUDENT NEWS

STUDENTS COLLABORATE ACROSS DISCIPLINES FOR BROAD VISION An exhibition at the GV Art gallery in London earlier this year, which brought together the works of an interdisciplinary group of art and science students engaged in collaborative experimentation and research, was the latest event organised as part of the University’s innovative Broad Vision project.

The Broad Vision concept was launched in 2010, as a way of bringing together students and academics from diverse disciplines in collaborative exchange and experimentation.

It enables students to become teachers, researchers and producers as they join forces to examine questions relating to biology and psychology, technology and creativity, and art and science.

The exhibition, Data, Truth & Beauty, explored the integrity and aesthetics of information. It featured digital investigations into data bending and glitch art; biological experiments with bacterial portraiture and self-illuminating sculpture; psychological studies on the perception of beauty; and creative explorations of the realms of reality. The works on display were the result of what happens when a group of curious and questioning minds come together to explore alien territories, work with unfamiliar materials, and develop new ways of thinking.

The innovative approach of Broad Vision has attracted interest nationally and internationally, with members of the team presenting at events in London and across the UK, as well as in Toronto and Prague, and the initiative featured in The Guardian newspaper. The project has also led to the publication of two books, Broad Vision: The Art of Science and Looking, in 2011, and Broad Vision: Inspired by... Images from Science, last year.

Heather Barnett, Broad Vision Project Lead at the University of Westminster said: “The Broad Vision project is an innovative interdisciplinary model for learning, which puts the students in charge of their own research and allows them to explore new and stimulating interactions between art and science. The exhibition was a fantastic outlet for our students to showcase the results of their creative collaboration and engage the public with their curiosity and inquiry.”

Face of Truth by Kitti Edwards/Mell Fisher/Freddie Bell.

This project shows the bacteria of the face, a different kind of beauty, stripped down to our biological layers. The project reveals the truth of hidden cultures within our skin.

Mood and Memory by Serhan Sokmen.

This piece was inspired by the subjective experience of an extended episode of depression during the months of working on the project. The intention was to translate the dynamic nature of mood and memory into a visualisation, through a qualitative analysis of diary entries.

FABE STUDENTS TAKING HONOURS AND AWARDS Students from courses across the University’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment have been receiving accolades and winning awards in their chosen disciplines throughout the past year.

And few have made more impression in their chosen sector than Master of Architecture student John Killock, who has has won a range of prestigious scholarships and prizes related to his research interest of cohousing, changing workplace trends and ageing populations.

Highlight of the year for John, who graduated from the RIBA Part II last year, was third prize in the 2012 Student Design Competition ‘Integrated Communities: A Society for All Ages’, which was presented to him at the UN Headquarters in New York City.

Other prizes have included the RIBA Boyd Auger Scholarship (2011); the Future Communities Award at the Future Vision Awards 2011; winning the international Architecture Revolution I–4 Competition; and winning the international IAPS 2011 Ontological Design in Future Housing Space competition.

But John is certainly not alone in his award-winning achievements, with a number of high-profile successes for the Faculty including: • first place in the Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects Student Drawing Prize 2013 for RIBA Part II student Jess Tettelaar • Burning Man Art Grants of $30,000 for fellow RIBA Part II students Athanasios Korras and Georgia Collard-Watson in May • this year’s Constructors Prize from the Worshipful Company of Constructors for 2012 Building Engineering BSc Honours graduate Anthony Trainor • runner up award for Interior Architecture BA Honours student Abdi Ali in this year’s Janine Stone Young Interior Designer of the Year Award.

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RESEARCH NEWS

RESEARCH HOLDS NEW HOPE FOR OSTEOARTHRITIS SUFFERERS Scientists from the University of Westminster have found a naturally occurring molecule in the body which may have important consequences for treating osteoarthritis.

Westminster researchers, working alongside colleagues from the University of Manchester, have found that the molecule, known as Urocortin, protects cells in the joints from being destroyed. The discovery could help lead to the development of new medicines to prevent joint degradation – a condition which affects millions of people in the UK each year.

Osteoarthritis, a painful condition associated with a loss of joint mobility particularly in the knees, hips, hands and vertebrae, is caused by the destruction and loss of cartilage within these joints. Specialised cells called chondrocytes are responsible for producing and maintaining healthy cartilage, but in osteoarthritis the number of active cells is reduced.

The research is being led jointly by Dr Ian Locke, director of Postgraduate Studies in Life Sciences at the University of Westminster, and Professor Paul Townsend of the University of Manchester. In their study published in the journal Cell Death and Disease in July, the team explained that in osteoarthritis, many different programmed cell-death chemicals are produced which cause chondrocytes to die. Their research has demonstrated that the naturally occurring Urocortin is essential for these chondrocyte cells to survive.

Dr Locke said: “We now need to look in more detail at how Urocortin helps cells to survive in order to develop new medicines to prevent joint degradation.

“Discovering a role for this naturally occurring molecule in joint physiology opens up exciting new avenues of research towards the cause, prevention and, eventually, treatment of osteoarthritis.”

RESEARCH GROUP SECURES HEART FOUNDATION FUNDING A leading academic from the University of Westminster’s Faculty of Science and Technology has been part of a successful application for research funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

The BHF is pledging £7.5m raised by their Mending Broken Hearts Appeal to fund scientists at three dedicated research centres in the UK. Dr Ipsita Roy, a member of the academic team in Life Sciences, will work with the centre based at Imperial College led by Professor Sian Harding, which has been awarded £2.5m. The centre aims to use stem cells to grow new, beating heart muscle to graft on to damaged hearts, helping them beat more strongly again. The next stage of the project will be to grow new muscle from dormant stem cells within the heart itself.

Dr Roy’s research group at the University of Westminster is one of the main groups in the UK working with polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), biodegradable polymers with potential medical applications. This group has been working with the polymers for 12 years, longer than any other group in the UK.

They have pioneered the production of non-immunogenic PHAs from Bacillus that are much better suited for medical applications. The potential use of these polymers for regenerating bone, damaged heart, nerve and cartilage is being studied extensively in the group. In addition, controlled delivery of drugs and development of biodegradable heart stents is also being explored.

In the BHF-funded centre, PHAs will be used as support patch materials on which stem cells will be grown, to produce healthy heart muscle.

These patches can then be used to repair damaged hearts.

Dr Roy has been at the University of Westminster since 2000 and leads the Applied Biotechnology Research Group. The team based at Imperial will also work in collaboration with scientists at the Universities of Nottingham and Glasgow and UKE Hamburg. The BHF is also funding two other new centres led by the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh.

WESTMINSTER PHD STUDENT SHARES DEMENTIA FINDINGS

Amrutha Chilumuri

University of Westminster PhD student Amrutha Chilumuri shared the stage with actor James Nesbitt when she presented her latest findings at a major dementia research conference organised

by Alzheimer’s Research UK. The world’s leading dementia doctors and scientists gathered at the conference in Belfast in March, to discuss the latest research developments.

Amrutha was selected from the submissions by PhD students across the UK to give a presentation of her work. She shared her research into the involvement of the kisspeptin hormone in the

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disease. At the same event, James Nesbitt opened the conference with a call for the Government to prioritise Alzheimer’s research.

Her work, with her supervisory team including Dr Nat Milton and Dr Maria Ashioti at the University of Westminster, has focused on the ability of kisspeptin to prevent the toxicity of a protein called amyloid-beta – a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. As part of the study, Amrutha has discovered that kisspeptin is found within the Alzheimer’s brain and may be part of the body’s own defence against the disease.

RESEARCH NEWS

RESEARCH IMPACT ON SHOW AT ANNUAL RECEPTION

Islam, Democracy and Political Change was one of 41 research projects on show at the Annual Reception

Alumni, staff, students and our professional partners had the chance to learn more about how research by the University of Westminster is making a positive difference to society, when research studies from across the academic spectrum were displayed at this year’s Annual Reception.

Forty-one case studies from 15 different academic disciplines were on show at the event at Regent Campus in June, where Westminster Vice-Chancellor Professor Geoffrey Petts underlined the University’s commitment to becoming a “world-leading, practice-led and research-engaged university”.

Welcoming around 200 guests to the Reception, Professor Petts said: “We are known for practice-led research that makes an impact, and this evening we invite you all to engage with our staff as we illustrate how our research is changing lives.

“At Westminster we aim to transform lives through our distinctive teaching and research that addresses global problems. Major new research awards span all fields, and emphasise the growing importance of national, European, and increasingly, worldwide collaboration and partnerships.”

Among the research case studies on display were Computer Science and Informatics projects exploring high-performance computing in the Cloud, and developing demand planning and modeling tools for local authority use in determining residential and nursing home case, and work in the Architecture and the Built Environment field to improve performance and decision making in sustainable freight and transport logistics.

There were also three Politics and International Relations studies – including research by Abdelwahab El-Affendi, Maria Holt and Roland Dannreuther (now Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities) on Islam, Democracy and Political Change – alongside projects in Law, Education, Business and Management Studies, and Psychology and Neuroscience.

There are more details about all 41 research projects available in the research section of the University of Westminster website (click on the Research Impact button).

AHRC PROJECT LEADS TO AN AWARD-WINNING FILM A documentary film developed out of a University of Westminster-funded research project, which explores the Indonesian government’s genocide of up to 1.5 million people in the 1960s, has opened to critical acclaim and awards.

The Act of Killing focuses on a group of former members of an Indonesian death squad, led by Anwar Congo, who are invited to tell their story by re-enacting the murders and torture they carried out. Anwar killed over a 1,000 people, yet his horrific activities and those of his mobster colleagues have gone unpunished. To many, they remain heroes of the Indonesian campaign against communism, and are happy to boast about their actions.

The film was directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, a University of Westminster alumni who is now Artistic Director of DocWest, the University’s documentary film research centre, and produced by Professor Joram ten Brink, the Director of DocWest.

The film, which represents five year’s work by Joshua, was the outcome of

an AHRC Genocide and Genre research award; the work also received financial support from the University of Westminster’s New Directions Fund.

There were more than 500 screenings of the film in 93 Indonesian cities last year (despite the authorities cancelling some shows and blocking websites linked to the film); the most important was the first screening to journalists, leading to a special edition of the Indonesian news magazine Tempo, which reported on the genocide of 1965-66 and the events surrounding it for the first time.

Since then the film has gone on to receive critical acclaim around the world. It has received awards at film festivals in Barcelona, Berlin, Warsaw, Madrid, Prague and Valencia, and has also been highly praised by other filmmakers. Speaking about The Act of Killing, legendary German director and producer Werner Herzog said: “I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade… unprecedented in the history of cinema.”

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RESEARCH NEWS

TEACHER EDUCATION CONSORTIUM WINS £60,000 LSIS RESEARCH BID The University of Westminster’s Teacher Education Consortium has won a £60,000 research bid from the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) to develop employer-focused teacher training and staff development.

The focus will be on working collaboratively across Westminster’s partnership colleges to develop flexible blended learning approaches, with particular support for learners with specific learning difficulties and/or disabilities, those with literacy and ESOL difficulties, and those teacher trainees who are deaf.

The project has five strands involving five different colleges working closely together and with the University’s Westminster Exchange.

Ealing, Hammersmith & West London College and Newham College will work together to develop a specialist module – Literacy, ESOL and the Learners – so that it can be used for non-specialist tutors who want to improve their learners’ literacy and language, especially those learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

The City Literary Institute and West Thames College will collaborate in the design of blended learning materials for a module aimed at helping trainee teachers support learners with specific learning difficulties and disabilities.

The University and West Thames College will create a new optional and CPD module, Academic Writing and Study Skills, to support vocational teacher trainees and their learners’ academic writing and study skills.

In a pioneering project for deaf teacher trainees, the City Literary Institute will develop resources in British Sign Language to make our teacher training provision inclusive and accessible to deaf trainees wanting to complete the new Award and Certificate and/or first year of the Cert Ed/PGCE. With the recent inclusion of 14–16-year-old pupils to colleges, Harrow College and the University of Westminster will develop blended learning approaches to an optional module designed to help teachers in the wider lifelong learning sector to work with younger learners.

This is the second time that the Consortium has won a £60,000 bid from LSIS. The first project, completed in 2012, involved an innovative collaboration between three colleges which worked together with the University to develop a new joint Literacy and ESOL course. This course is being piloted and taught at the University of Westminster by four subject specialists from three different partner colleges, with excellent student feedback.

The project also funded work by the City Literary Institute and the University of Westminster to produce online and blended learning materials for an introductory teacher training course and two mentoring courses.

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LEVERHULME TRUST BACKS CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECT IN CHINA

A local dongba (Naxi shaman) at a Naxi shrine high up on the hillside at Baishuitai, Yunnan Province (photograph taken during a visit to one of the three sites studied in this project).

Professor Harriet Evans of the University of Westminster’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities has received a research grant of more than £200,000 to continue her work exploring cultural heritage in China.

Professor Evans, a member of the Modern and Applied Languages Department, received the £201,712 grant from the Leverhulme Trust to carry out her research project entitled Conflicts in Cultural Value: Localities and Heritage in Southwestern China.

The study will focus on three local initiatives to preserve and transmit cultural heritage in the ethnically and culturally diverse region of southwestern China, where the ‘heritage industry’ is a pillar of local development strategy. It examines the socio-economic, political and cultural institutions, practices and processes facilitating or restricting the emergence of local alternatives, including involvement of and reception by the respective local communities.

Professor Evans will examine whether mainstream heritage practices protect local cultural and

ethnic identities, and respond to local demands for cultural and ethical recognition.

China joined UNESCO’s Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004.

Her research investigates how heritage practice in China is transforming local social, economic and cultural life as well as reshaping domestic and global notions of China’s national identity.

Formerly Head of the University of Westminster’s Chinese Section, Professor Evans is now co-ordinator of Asia Studies research at CSD, and of the MA and MPhil/PhD programmes in Contemporary Chinese Cultural Studies and International Studies. She taught modern Chinese history in Mexico between 1979 and 1984, and was President of the British Association for Chinese Studies between 2002 and 2005. She has contributed many articles to leading journals and edited volumes, and is a regular consultant for BBC radio and non-governmental agencies on women, gender and human rights in China.

RESEARCH NEWS

RESEARCH CENTRE AND MASTERS FOCUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA A new centre which will conduct and co-ordinate research into the social, cultural and political-economic aspects of social media – as well as exploring how social media might transform the practice of research itself – has been launched by the University of Westminster.

Alongside the Centre for Social Media Research (CSMR), which will be led Professor David Gauntlett, the University has also announced a new MA in Social Media, with Professors Christian Fuchs and Graham Meikle leading the programme.

The CSMR was launched in September with a major international Social Media Conference at the

University’s Marylebone Campus, attended by close to 100 delegates from 25 countries around the world.

The conference was the fourth in Westminster’s Transforming Audiences series, held every two years since 2007; keynote speakers at the event included Stuart Allan (UK, author, Citizen Witnessing), Megan Boler (Canada, co-editor, DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media), Larissa Hjorth (Australia, coauthor, Understanding Social Media) and D.E. Wittkower (USA, editor, Facebook and Philosophy).

The MA in Social Media was also due to welcome its first students in September; Professor Fuchs and

Professor Meikle both joined the Faculty of Media, Arts and Design in February this year, to teach and research in the area of social media.

They add to the existing strengths of Westminster’s media research community, which was top-rated in the last UK Research Assessment Exercise, joining other key social media researchers including Dr Anastasia Kavada and Dr Daniel Trottier.

“We’ll be using social media to explore theories and concepts,” said Professor Meikle. “Students will be blogging about course readings, posting online videos about ideas from their modules, sharing photo essays.

It’s a rigorous theoretical degree and also an exciting and creative course.”

“Social media is a new frontier in theory and research,” added Professor Fuchs. “The Centre for Social Media Research is a leading environment for analysing the implications of social media for society. The new MA in Social Media will be based on research-inspired teaching conducted by leading scholars in this exciting interdisciplinary field of inquiry.”

Commenting on the new MA, Geoffrey Davies, Head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication, said: “I’m very excited that we are adding this course to our excellent portfolio and have attracted such stellar names to teach on it. We already have postgraduates taking senior positions in social media and we can now equip them with an even greater knowledge.”

Asked whether ‘social media’ is a fashionable phrase with little longevity, Professor Gauntlett replied: “No, it’s actually a very good term for the kinds of media which are today transforming our social, cultural and economic worlds: media which rely on networks of human self-expression, where millions of people are creators rather than just consumers. As a phenomenon it’s quite new and it’s highly significant.”

“Students will be blogging about course readings, posting online videos about ideas from their modules, sharing photo essays.”

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ALUMNI NEWS

SCREENWRITING PAIR SCOOP BAFTA FOR SKYFALL

PIONEERING DJ AND TOP ROCK DRUMMER RECEIVE HONORARY DOCTORATES

Screenwriter Neal Purvis and his writing partner Robert Wade

Screenwriter Neal Purvis and his writing partner Robert Wade joined the producer and director of Skyfall, the latest Bond movie, to collect the Outstanding British Film Award at this year’s BAFTAs in February.

Neal graduated in film in 1985 from the Polytechnic of Central London, and began writing scripts with Rob while still a student.

Alongside scores of other films the pair have written for the Bond movies for the past 13 years, completing the screenplays for all the Daniel Craig Bond films, as well as The World is Not Enough and Die Another Day. After the Awards Neal said: “After 28 years of writing together this recognition from BAFTA gives you a new energy as well as, of course, enormous pride. It also means the special awards shelf I had built some time ago finally has something on it.”

There has also been plenty to celebrate for another University of Westminster film alumna, Zhe Wu, who graduated from the Audio Production MA course in 2004.

Zhe worked as lead sound designer on the film Ilo Ilo, the autobiographical directorial debut for Singapore filmmaker Anthony Chen, which won the Camera D’Or Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Since graduating from Westminster Zhe has set up her own sound design and editing company, and has worked on a number of award-winning feature films and documentaries.

CANINE COMPANIONS MEAN COMPETITION WINS FOR JEN Television Production BA alumna Jen Sheridan has celebrated a successful 12 months after following up a win in the Virgin Media Shorts competition with an award at the National Television Awards.

Jen triumphed in the Virgin Media Shorts with Rocket, a short film starring her dog Bowie as an astronaut; the win netted her a £30,000 prize, an award presented by Julie Walters and a BFI offer of support in producing her follow-up.

Dogs have been a continuing theme in Jen’s success this year, as a series she edited, Paul O’Grady’s For The Love Of Dogs, went on to win the Best Factual Entertainment award at the National Television Awards.

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Annie Nightingale, the UK’s first female DJ and the longest-serving presenter on BBC Radio 1

A pioneering female DJ and the drummer in one of the world’s biggest rock groups have both received honorary doctorates from the University of Westminster.

Legendary broadcaster Annie Nightingale, the UK’s first female DJ and the longest-serving presenter on BBC Radio 1, received the award from the University in December at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Ms Nightingale is a former journalism student of the Polytechnic of Central London, and rose to prominence in the 1960s, starting off as a local print journalist and later as a columnist for the Daily Express, The Daily Sketch and Cosmopolitan magazine. She started at Radio 1 in January 1970, and also became well known for her role as a presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test on BBC in the 1970s. In 2002, Ms Nightingale was awarded an MBE for her services to radio.

Recalling her days as a student, Ms Nightingale said it was an incredible period: “Now it’s acceptable to study journalism but in those days Fleet Street believed that you had to start out as an apprentice. Living and studying in London was an amazing year of culture and growing up.”

Listening to pirate radio inspired her broadcasting career: “At the time, the BBC had no women on air but eventually they realised they had to take someone on, so I was the ‘token’ woman. I had a lot to prove, it took a long time to get confident.”

Fifty years after he first enrolled on the architecture course at the Regent Street Polytechnic, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason has now collected the degree he never got to complete, after the University of Westminster also made him an Honorary Doctor of Letters in recognition of his significant contribution to the music industry.

Nick joined the Polytechnic in 1962, and while there met fellow band members Roger Waters and Richard Wright. As the band went on to achieve international acclaim, the demands increased and he was forced to drop out of his course before he could complete his final year studies.

“Studying at the Regent Street Polytechnic introduced me to some of the key people and biggest collaborators in my career, many of whom I have been lucky enough to work with over the last 40 years,” he explained. “Three of Pink Floyd met there so in essence we were formed under the roof of the Polytechnic.”

ALUMNI NEWS

ASHLEY CONTINUES WESTMINSTER’S FASHION FAME

Ashley was singled out for praise by fashion commentators and journalists, with i-D magazine running a four-page article on her Following on from the show in May, famous names such as Geldof and Rita Ora were spotted wearing her clothes.

She was also singled out for praise by fashion commentators and journalists, with i-D magazine running a four-page article on her and predicting that she would be one of the fastest rising stars of London fashion, and Vogue calling on her talents to help them design a Pudsey bear to raise money for Children In Need – a bear which was eventually sold at auction for over £8,000.

But it was the appearance of global superstar Rihanna in Ashley’s outfits during the London leg of her famous 777 tour (which saw her travelling in her own Boeing 777 to seven different countries over seven days, to perform seven different concerts), which really set fashion tongues wagging.

Rihanna wore a white trouser suit designed by Ashley, covered with illustrations of women’s hands smoking, which gained her press attention worldwide. By the time

London Fashion Week arrived in February, Ashley’s debut was hotly anticipated, and her clothes had already been featured in Vogue UK, The Independent, Nylon and Elle. She was chosen to showcase her collection

by Fashion East’s panel of industry experts, which includes Sarah Mower (Contributing Editor, Vogue US and Style.com) and Hugo Scott (Head of European Operations, Marc Jacobs).

And like fellow Westminster fashion alumna Claire Barrow – who debuted her SS13 collection at London Fashion Week in 2012 and was heralded as one of London’s most promising designers to watch – Ashely’s designs didn’t disappoint, attracting some great reviews across the fashion media and style magazines.

Andrew Groves, Course Director for Fashion Design at Westminster, said: “I’m thrilled that Ashley Williams has now joined Claire Barrow and shown at London Fashion Week. Both Claire and Ashley showed great creativity during their time with us at Westminster and being selected for Fashion East is a clear recognition of their unique talent. We predict great things for both of them in the future, and I look forward to seeing where their journey into the fashion world will bring them next.”

Ashley and Claire are not the only Westminster alumni to have continued to make their mark in the fashion world over the past 12 months. Alongside Claire, recent graduates Mary Benson, Hannah Duckworth and Adam Jamieson all showcased their designs during London Fashion Week last year.

In January, fashion business bible Drapers picked out Westminster alumna Leanne Oddy as one of their ‘30 under 30’ – 30 buyers, designers, merchandisers and entrepreneurs under the age of 30 who are tipped to become fashion industry stars. Leanne graduated from the Fashion Merchandise Management BA course

© Suzan / EMPICS Entertainment

It’s been another headline-grabbing 12 months for the University of Westminster’s fashion courses, with many of the accolades going to Ashley Williams, who graduated from the Fashion Design BA course in June last year.

Ashley’s graduate show made a big impact, with her Texan-inspired collection modelled by Pixie Geldof and Alice Dellal, presenting a kitsch take on Americana. Specialising in light-hearted prints, her ecstatic ‘Happy Ashley’ motif appeared on cropped cigarette pants, A-line dresses and silk shirts.

Rita Ora performing in an Ashley Williams silk blouse

in 2007, and is now an International Junior Merchandiser for Evans, part of the Arcadia Group; she completed two work placements with Arcadia while studying at Westminster.

And there was more good news for designer Carly Ellis, who graduated from the Fashion Design course in 2010, and whose graduate collection was shot by Rankin for Dazed and Confused magazine. Carly went on to study for her Masters in Fashion Design and Society at New York’s prestigious Parsons School of Design.

Graduating last year having been taken on by DKNY in October, Carly has now been promoted to Womenswear Outerwear, Sportswear and Tailoring Designer for the DKNY brand, with her first catwalk shows already receiving rave reviews.

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ALUMNI NEWS

LENA’S LEADING ROLE IN LONDON MBA CHAPTER A Westminster Business School alumni is playing a leading role in helping to establish a London chapter of MBA Women International (MBAWI), a not-for-profit organisation which focuses on professional development, educational opportunities and networking for women with MBAs. Lena Benjamin, who graduated with an MBA in 2010, has been working with Crystal Wu, a senior analyst for Expedia, to put together a project team ready to launch a London branch of the organisation next year.

Crystal relocated to London from Seattle last year; there are more than 70 collegiate and 20 professional chapters in American cities, but the London chapter of the MBAWI will be the first outside the States.

Working with female MBA students, businesswomen, universities and corporate partners, the organisation aims to help women develop skills, in areas such as public speaking, negotiation skills and lobbying.

Talking to The Independent, Lena explained: “I was working in maledominated industries – engineering consultancy, electrical engineering and insurance. The very tops of so many organisations are heavily maledominated. We need women to be developed at the right stage so there’s a steady flow up to the board.”

She said that although the situation was changing, the pace of change was still “quite slow”. “We haven’t got the time for it to be slow. Globally we cannot sustain business without advancing women. That’s my mantra.”

Lena is the Managing Director of Ones Company, providing employee development training specialising in areas such as leadership development, diversity and inclusion, and team building; a member of the Chartered Management Institute, she was also London Chair of the Women in Management Network.

To find out more about MBAWI, visit mbawomen.org

ALUMNI PANEL SHARES CAREER EXPERIENCE AND EXPERTISE

What is the secret for a successful career in business? How has the climate changed in recent years? And what are the top tips for students and young graduates today?

These were just some of the many questions that were addressed by alumni from the University of Westminster Business School, at a recent event designed to provide employment and careers advice for fellow Westminster alumni as well as current students.

The Alumni Panel event – entitled Careers and the Changing Jobs Market – took place in April at Chiltern Hall, Westminster Business School, and was chaired by Nuala OSullivan, a Senior Lecturer at the School. The diverse panel of speakers included Patricia Byczek (Personnel and Development 2011), HR Manager at New Horizon Youth Centre in London, a third sector organisation; Dr Robert Davies (MBA 1988), a Management Consultant advising companies on global foresight, strategy, change and innovation; Zachary Latif (Commercial Studies 2002), the Managing Director of award-winning investment firm TLG Capital and an experienced private equity trader; and Shane Jocelyn (Business Management 2011), who works in Investment Management for TLG Capital.

Providing an overview of their career, the alumni panelists shared with fellow alumni and students the

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different routes they had each taken to get to where they are today, including the challenges and obstacles they had faced along the way. One clear message that was evident from the varying experiences that all four panelists shared during the evening was that there is no single, guaranteed career path to follow, and that flexibility and hard work were the keys to success in business and beyond.

Some of the top tips from the evening included: • keep an achievement diary, capitalise on your strengths and learn how to improve your weaknesses • be prepared to reinvent yourself every three to five years • don’t be afraid to make mistakes – if you’re not making mistakes you’re not doing anything different • do what you love, and have passion for what you do • recognise that change will happen, and embrace it, don’t hide from it.

More than 65 alumni and students attended this first alumni careers panel event, with many more watching the event live online – including alumni from as far afield as Nigeria and France. You can still watch a video of the Careers and Changing Jobs event online, by visiting the Alumni Section of the news pages on the University of Westminster website; if you would like to Tweet us your career tips to #wbsalumni, we’ll feature a selection of the best online.

More than 65 alumni and students attended the first alumni careers panel event, with many more watching the event online

ALUMNI NEWS

SYRIA IMAGE BY ALUMNUS SELECTED FOR PRESS EXHIBITION A news photograph of the conflict in Syria taken

by University of Westminster alumnus Rick Findler was selected from thousands of images to feature in the Press Photographer’s Year exhibition at the National Theatre on London’s South Bank.

The photograph, which shows Syrian rebels using home-made weapons to fight government forces, was one of 150 images selected by judges for the exhibition, which ran until the end of August. The exhibition received more than 12,500 submissions from photographers working for UK media organisations around the world.

Rick graduated from the Faculty of Media, Arts and Design with an MA in Photojournalism, and has been working as a freelance press photographer for several years, specialising in conflict photography in areas such as Iraq, Libya and Syria.

Speaking about taking the photograph in Aleppo during his second trip to Syria, Rick explained: “We piled into a car and drove

through the demolished and deserted streets of the city. As we turned the corner we were confronted with the Northern Star Battalion of the Free Syrian Army, launching home-made grenades over this wall using a make-shift catapult. On the other side of this wall were Assad’s Regime Army and the FSA were trying to reclaim the building and make an offensive attack.

“However, they soon ran out of explosives, and had to resort to launching blocks of concrete, shards of metal and anything else they could find. It was an amazing sight, seeing this group of rebels, in days of modern warfare, resort to tactics and catapults that were being used in the Roman times.”

Rick’s photographs have featured in a number of leading news publications, including The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Wall Street Journal and The Independent; you can find out more about Rick’s work at his website, rickfindler. photoshelter.com.

AWARD-WINNING ZED TAKES UP BSR FELLOWSHIP Media, Arts and Design alumnus Zed Nelson spent three months as a Fellow at the British School at Rome (BSR) earlier this year, after winning the 2013 Photoworks BSR Fellowship.

Zed, who graduated in Contemporary Media Practice (under its previous course title, Film, Video and Photography) from Westminster in the 1990s, received the award after putting forward a research proposal focusing on an ill-fated migrant boat journey across the Mediterranean in 2011 that ended in tragedy.

Photoworks is one of the UK’s leading agencies for photography, and announcing the award the agency’s Acting Director and Head of Programme, Celia Davies, said: “The Fellowship is set up to support photographers’ practice; to provide a rare and much-needed opportunity to create time and space for artists to develop their ideas in a conducive, stimulating and supportive environment. In relation to Zed’s own line of enquiry, it was easy to see how this residency and context would genuinely allow Zed to push forward his way of working.”

Following the announcement of the Fellowship, Zed said: “Through the use of photography, written text and film, I aim to research a body of work that not only explores the event itself on a human level, but also interrogates our often

Zed Nelson

confused and contradictory views on immigration and our responsibility towards those who risk everything for a better life.”

Zed also published his third book, In This Land, in April this year. His previous book, Love Me, was nominated for the 2011 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, while his first book, Gun Nation, was awarded five major international photography prizes, including the Alfred Eisenstaedt Award (USA), First Prize in World Press Photo Competition and the Visa d’Or (France). You can see more of his work at zednelson.com.

VANESSA’S AMERICAN ROAD TRIP EXHIBITS AT CARTIER-BRESSON

She Dances on Jackson by Vanessa Winship

The work of British photographer and University of Westminster alumna Vanessa Winship has been exhibited at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris this year, two years after she became the first female photographer to win the Foundation’s prestigious Award.

Every two years the Foundation gives a grant to a photographer for a project that otherwise would be difficult to complete. In 2011, judges awarded the €30,000 grant to Vanessa, to complete her photographic journey across America, capturing the ordinary lives and striking landscapes of the vast country.

The results of her work, entitled She Dances on Jackson, have been published in a book, and went on display at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation from May to July this year.

Vanessa studied a Film, Video and Photographic Arts degree at Westminster, and you can find out more about Vanessa’s work at her website, vanessawinship.com; you can also read an interview with Vanessa about her work for the Cartier-Bresson Award in the Financial Times Magazine (ft.com).

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SUPPORTING THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY: FUNDRAISING

GATHERING AUDIENCE FOR THE REGENT STREET CINEMA CAMPAIGN

ARCHITECTURE AWARDS REMEMBER ALUMNUS

Christine Peters, first prize winner and Bilal Rawat

The University’s campaign to restore and reopen the historically significant Regent Street Cinema is in its final year, and we are now calling on alumni and friends to get involved and help see the project through to completion.

Through our Name a Seat campaign we aim to raise up to £250,000 towards the £6.1m project. A number of alumni and other donors have come forward to show their support by naming a seat in the soon-to-be restored Cinema, which was the first place to show moving images in the UK in 1896. Among the alumni who we wish to thank for their generosity are: • Godfrey G Cole (LLB 1969) • Jonathan A Levy (Urban Estate Management 1993) • Neal Purvis (Film, 1985) • Rajinder K Sharma (Graphic Information Design, 1990) • John Ward (Photography and Film 1962) In a further link with our heritage, the descendants of Quintin and Alice Hogg, who founded the Polytechnic, are also joining in with the project by naming seats. Dame Mary Hogg, their great-grandaughter, says: “Quintin and Alice would be delighted that their vision and work live on, not only in our memories but as the University of Westminster.

The history of our cinema lends much to history of British Cinema. We must maintain our mutual history.”

If you would like to find out more about the campaign or how to support the project by naming a seat for £750 or £1,500, please get in touch with the Development Office on +44(0)20 7911 5741 or by emailing development@westminster.ac.uk.

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REGENT STREET CINEMA SUPPORT GROUP STARTS CROWD-FUNDING! Joost Hunningher, former course leader in Film and Television who spent 40 years with the University, also recently named a seat and is setting up the Regent Street Cinema Support Group to raise awareness of the project and inspire other former staff and students to do the same.

Ian Potts, a founder of the group and a former student of Joost’s, will become the first of our ‘Alumni Ambassadors’, reaching out to his former classmates to encourage them to donate towards a seat named in honour of their year via crowd-funding – our new initiative to enable those who want to be involved in some way, but cannot buy a seat outright. If you would like to get involved as an Ambassador or wish to contact Joost to get involved, please get in touch.

In June 2013, some of our most promising architecture students were awarded prizes thanks to a number of generous donors and supporters. The annual awards evening was held in conjunction with the Architecture Department’s end of year exhibition, Open 2013, and this year we were delighted to have the ongoing support of DETAIL magazine, VOLA and CLAWSA (Cities of London and Westminster Society of Architects) among others, who provided a number of prizes for our students.

The Shoaib Mahmad Rawat Award was presented for the fourth year running by Bilal Rawat (an alumnus in Law) to three students for best design project. This award was set up in memory of his brother Shoaib, an alumnus of the University who sadly passed away in 2008, with generous support from the Rawat family, Grimshaw Architects, friends and fellow alumni.

Presenting the awards, Bilal said it was felt rewarding the best of students was the right way to remember Shoaib, as he greatly valued the contribution of fellow students to his own development, and thought his time at Westminster was crucial for him.

All of these awards provide a fantastic incentive for our students, encouraging them to do their very best, and we are grateful to all our supporters.

If you would like to find out more about how to sponsor student awards at the University of Westminster, please contact the Development Office, on +44 (0)20 7911 5741 or email development@ westminster.ac.uk.

SUPPORTING THE FUTURE OF THE UNIVERSITY: SCHOLARSHIPS

ANNIVERSARY APPEAL TARGET TO RAISE £175,000 TOWARDS SCHOLARSHIPS The University of Westminster is proud to run one of the largest scholarships programmes in the UK, and over the past decade we have helped almost 2,500 students realise their dream of higher education. Despite this, we still only have enough funding to help around one in ten of those who apply.

In our 175th anniversary year, we are aiming to raise £175,000 towards student scholarships with help from our alumni, friends and supporters. We recently launched the Robert Mitchell Society to recognise individuals who are able to make an annual charitable gift of £1,000 or more towards student support. Regular giving enables us to plan for the future and change lives through providing access to higher education.

If you would like to find out more about joining the Robert Mitchell Society or other ways in which you can support scholarships, please contact the Development Office, on +44 (0)20 7911 5741 or email development@westminster.ac.uk.

ENABLING EMERGING TALENT TO FLOURISH The importance of university scholarships in supporting young talent is increasing, and we are very proud that the existing scholarships programme has enabled us to support students like Jack Rooke.

“For me, after my father passed away, studying at university wasn’t viable,” said Jack.

“It wasn’t going to happen and I wasn’t going to afford it. Eventually enough people told me I was being stupid thinking that way, so I knuckled down for my A Levels, and came out with four As. This gave me the opportunity to secure a Gold Scholarship at the University of Westminster to study a Journalism BA, an achievement I’m incredibly proud of.

“My scholarship has taken away a huge amount of stress and financial worry. It’s motivated me to work to the best of my ability, attaining firsts in my first and second years.”

Jack Rooke

LEGACIES: MAKE A LASTING MARK

“I am delighted to be supporting student scholarships at the University of Westminster, and I hope that others will be inspired Terence Burlin, former Rector. to join the Robert Mitchell Society to help many more deserving students pursue their education without financial worry. This would be very much in line with Robert Mitchell’s wishes.”

Professor Terence Burlin, former Rector.

Jack is about to complete his second year of undergraduate studies. As well as being an outstanding student, he is already spreading his wings outside the University.

He is the entertainment reporter for BBC London 94.9 Saturday night music show with Dan Roberts, a former student at Westminster.

He is the editor of Roundhouse Radio’s flagship magazine show, RoundUp, and has also created work for The Independent, The Guardian and Channel 4.

Outside of broadcasting, Jack is an ambassador for the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), aimed at preventing male suicide in the UK. As a stand-up, he co-founded the Save the Male showcase – a comedy, music and poetry night to raise awareness of CALM and increase young people’s engagement with creative expression.

Jack said: “I am tremendously grateful to the donors and sponsors who keep the scholarship scheme funded, and the University for ensuring that individuals like myself, who may have felt unable to continue with education, can progress and harness their talents at Westminster.”

When Quintin Hogg founded the Polytechnic in 1882, now the University of Westminster, he created a legacy which would have a major impact on education across the centuries: that of offering opportunity to those who have the aspirations and ability to learn and to put their learning into practice, whatever their background.

Leaving a legacy is one of the easiest ways of making a gift to your University. It is an enduring and fulfilling way to support the University of Westminster and remember the time you spent here. It is an ideal way to give a gift that might not be possible during your lifetime, but that will make a lasting positive impact on future generations of Westminster students.

You can direct your gift towards any area of the University’s work you wish to support in particular.

Did you know that by making a legacy gift to the University you can help minimise your inheritance tax?

A gift to the University is tax free and can reduce the tax you pay on your entire estate. If you would like to find out more about remembering the University in your will, please contact the Development Office, on +44 (0)20 7911 5741 or email development@ westminster.ac.uk

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 19

175 YEARS

175 YEARS

This year marks the 175th Anniversary of the University of Westminster. To celebrate this milestone, Network magazine has been gathering the memories and recollections of those who studied at our Institution over the past 70 years – from earlier times at the Regent Street Polytechnic, to the many years as the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) and, since 1992, as the University of Westminster. Many of these memories are part of the University’s Oral History Project, and longer versions – including sound recording of the interviews – can be found on the University of Westminster website.

1940s

1838

1950s

1960s

MARK FENTON studied Architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic in the late 1930s/early 1940s.

MARTIN FRISHMAN studied Architecture at the Regent Street Polytechnic in the mid-1950s.

VERNON DEWHURST studied Photography at the Regent Street Polytechnic in the 1960s.

In the classroom, we had long rooms with benches across, we had four or five people along the bench with a drawing board and whatever.

Teacher’s up front.

At one point somebody from the back got up, climbed onto the top of the bench and stepped from bench to bench to bench and was just going out the front door and the lecturer said: “Hey, where do you think you’re going?”

He said: “I’m just going to the toilet sir.” The lecturer replied: “Well what do you mean climbing on the benches like that? You don’t do that at home do you?”

“No sir.” “Well don’t you do that here.”

A few minutes later a second one starts doing the same thing, looks up and says: “It’s alright sir, I do it at home.”

In this excerpt he discusses a student RAG prank on the Strand. There were about six or eight of us, appropriately dressed in very grubby overalls and equipped with picks and shovels and a lorry which we parked in The Strand. We dug up several square metres, having put up appropriate traffic posts and so on, and then we climbed diligently back into our lorry after an hour or two of this strenuous activity and drove away.

The Metropolitan Police channelled the traffic in The Strand around two blocks, or three, for almost one week, having accepted that there was nobody on the other side of the barrier with a shovel or anything, moving any of this; and we used to go down to watch this to our great delight.

They had these enormous printing machines for printing colour, it was comparatively primitive at that stage. The whole process I think took about an hour and a half, so you were shut up for I think about 40 minutes in the dark in the first stage of that process, you had to go into the darkroom with your prints that you were developing, put them on the machine in the dark and then wait until they’d gone through two or three of the baths before you could actually turn the light on.

The dark side of the machine was actually known as the boudoir, because of course the girls and the boys tried to get in there together if they fancied somebody; 40 minutes in the dark with somebody who you quite liked was quite an incentive.

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175 YEARS

OWEN SPENCER THOMAS studied Sociology at the Regent Street Polytechnic in the early 1960s, and was also very involved in the establishment of the Students’ Union in 1965. In this extract he discusses gigs in the Portland Hall at Little Titchfield Street.

There were no wrong people, we were all right people. We were all discovering, we were all expressing ourselves.

The Students’ Union had a lot more money than we’d ever had, so we could buy in the big bands, and we did. You know, we got groups like The Animals, and there they were in the Portland Hall, and we’d hang on those climbing frames on the side of the wall, and gawk at the performers.

Manfred Mann, and I can remember that place alive – all the students who were there sort of chanting the music and the words together with the group.

It was a real, it was, well, it had that same kind of atmosphere as a good football match has. Somehow the crowd… there was something. It wasn’t just a collection of individuals. The crowd had its own personality.

They were very exciting times. And don’t forget, at the Poly, Pink Floyd, home-grown, and they emerged from the Architecture Department in Little Titchfield Street. Their music was very, very different, very experimental.

BARRY NICHOLSON studied at the Regent Street Polytechnic both as an A Level student in 1963 and as a Mechanical Engineer in the late 1960s.

We didn’t mix much with people from other courses.

With a group of 20 to 30 we sort of looked after ourselves.

I did come to some Saturday night hops, I remember just one or two. We had Joe Cocker here I remember, and people like Pink Floyd would’ve come. It was amazing to think that people like that played in the gym downstairs on a Saturday night, well attended.

There was a sports club out at Chiswick, but we didn’t tend to do that. The idea was Wednesday afternoon was for sport and games, but most of us went off and either went home and did coursework or perhaps went to places like, I went to London Transport Museum with people. You just did things of that sort, so that social life was reasonably well developed, but the whole uni experience wasn’t quite the same as it is now.

1970s CHRISTINE QUICK studied Photography at the Regent Street Polytechnic in the 1960s.

BARBARA LEE studied evening classes in Sociology at the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) in the late 1970s.

Balderton Street was where they did all the film. Monday mornings I think was theory with Eric Freeborn, and the trouble was having just done a two-hour journey to be in here by nine, as soon as the lights went out, I was fast asleep!

Probably explains why my theory was dreadful, but it was almost like a snap of fingers and I had gone.

Hopefully never spotted, but it wasn’t lack of interest... the rest of the thing, the film processing, the printing, the actual classes up on the third floor of how to light, I mean I just loved it all.

Each year was I think two or three modules. I even remember the content at that time because it was so pioneering. We did one on social geography or something, and they talked about the Green Party.

This tutor was saying in a few year’s time how important the Green Party would be. You’re talking about the 70s here and how big they were going to be.

Of course if you talked among intellectual people that was fine, but if you talked to your friends and said that you were going to belong to the Green Party, they’d probably think otherwise. It was very pioneering stuff and this modular course was very good, because it meant that because you were working during the day, you could finish something in a short period of time and you weren’t doing the same thing for five years.

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175 YEARS

1980s STEPHEN ARMSTRONG studied Engineering at PCL during the late 1970s.

NIGEL WINSER studied Life Sciences at PCL in the early 1970s.

ALIREZA SAGHARCHI studied Architecture at PCL in the early 1980s.

DONALD LUSH studied Film and Photographic Arts at PCL in the early 1980s.

I think we were all mechanical or electrical, civil was separate and it was up in Baker Street. So mechanical, electrical and electronic, we were all one group, 150 or something like that, and 30 per cent failed the first year, gone – it was ruthless.

The perception was that a polytechnic system was easier to get in, but there were three levels of standards in the polytechnic system unlike the university at that time.

You had the polytechnic standards themselves, the CNAA [Council of National Academic Awards] standards and then the Institution of Mechanical Engineers or the electrical or the civil etc.

So you had three levels of quality control. The degrees were high standards and they did not mess about, they did fire you. Students did fail and it was a terrible time when you walked up to that board to see if your name was there.

He was also involved in establishing an Exploration Society which took students on scientific trips around the world.

I was a very bad student, because I spent most of my time planning trips, expeditions and things obviously for which I got a huge amount of support from the college, but it was the contextual side of ecology, understanding environmental sciences through ecology.

Some of the best times were the fieldwork up in the Lake District and things like that. It was the first time we went out to try and understand landscape, and to do that you’ve got to measure what’s on the ground and you’ve got to do it in detail.

So out came the quadrants, that kind of level of detail to this day is still important in my life, because if you want to understand the complexity of the world you’ve got to understand the detail.

It transpired that it was actually one of the most influential schools of architecture during the early 80s. It was an interesting era in the history of architecture because it was at the point when post-modernism as a philosophy and a style of architecture was emerging.

Modernism was waning slightly because of the problems of the 1960s, the blocks and the alienation and the 70s naff sort of architecture. There was a whole movement of reexamining where architecture was going, where architects were going.

The Polytechnic being obviously in London with the other school, the AA, became the two focal points, mainly because of the teachers who were teaching there who were engaged in this international debate; it attracted a lot of attention, we had major debates on postmodernism, and symposia.

The course was a Bachelor of Arts in Film and Photographic Arts and it was structured so that in the first year you studied both film and photography, so we spent time in the film studios and then time in the photography studios. Then you majored in the second and third years in one or the other.

There was a parallel course called Photo Science; people in the basement of Little Titchfield Street used to fire bullets through apples and photograph it and stuff like that. Really interesting techy things, but we were the artists, we were the creative side of it.

It was unique... we were told time and time again throughout the course that this is not a vocational course, it’s not training, it’s about ideas really, it’s about expressing ideas through photography.

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175 YEARS

2000s DAVID BENCH studied Environmental Biotechnology at PCL in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

We had an occupation one night, in about 1991; it must have been an occupation about some kind of funding.

I can’t remember if it was the Poly’s own funding, or whether it was a national funding review for higher education.

It started with a sit-in at Oxford Circus which involved about 30 of us on one side of Regent Street just sitting down in the road as we crossed the road and the lights had gone red. That churns up the whole of Regent Street and Oxford Street really quite quickly. You don’t have to sit down there for very long before the police come and everyone runs away, and then we got into the building and the building management had agree, yes, that you can occupy the building.

They’d given us free run of the ground floor and the staircase, they thought, but they hadn’t locked off the back ones so we could get into just about everywhere.

I don’t think you could get down to the gym but could get into the refectory. I don’t think you could get into the cinema, and then we had the reading room at the back, just a big oak panel thing.

I have a feeling we may have had the Fyvie Hall as well.

There were DJs in the Fyvie Hall and the reading room, smoke machines and stuff.

PHUONG HA began studying at the University of Westminster in 1999; studied for her Applied Biology HND for her two years, and a further two years for her Biomedical Science BSc. She returned to take her Biomedical Sciences MSc, graduating in 2009.

I’ve lived in London most of my life, so I know the city quite well, and location was one of the main reasons that I chose the University of Westminster.

It wasn’t too big a culture shock coming from college to university, and although it was quite daunting to start with, I soon got to meet new students and make friends with people really quickly.

There was loads of help and support for new students, from the libraries and research facilities to using the computers and so on.

They say that your time at university is one of the best times of your life, and I found that it was a great experience – I still keep in touch with some of the friends I made at Westminster.

The most memorable thing for me about Westminster was the lecturers. They were very good, really supportive and really helpful, and I’ve kept in contact with them over the years. As students we always knew that if we needed help, we could go to them. We had sessions set up with people who were working in labs, and who would come in and talk to us about where our next steps could be, and the sort of fields we could go in to, which was also really helpful.

Lisa Gandhi studied for her Business Management BA, graduating from Westminster in 2009.

Studying at WBS was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

It has equipped me with the invaluable broad business knowledge base and maturity I possess today, and has played a major part in my successes as an HR professional.

The international environment of students and staff made it a hub for worldwide learning and experiences. This diversity also enabled me to make some lifelong friends with people from all around the world, and contributed to the growth of my confidence and interpersonal skills. The atmosphere at WBS was one of a warm community spirit, as academics and students came to know each other.

The Student Services Centre and Students’ Union played a part in helping me settle into university life, as they were very helpful on advice regarding housing etc and joining clubs and societies. With WBS being such energetic environment, it was easy to make friends, and I really enjoyed the emphasis on group working in and out of seminars, as this helped me make some good study buddies.

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 23

175 YEARS

VICKY RICHARDSON Vicky Richardson studied Architecture at the Polytechnic of Central London (PCL) at a crucial time in the institution’s history, graduating in 1992 – the same year that we became the University of Westminster.

It was also an intriguing time socially and politically for students, as the first Gulf War reignited student involvement in politics and protest, which had peaked in the 70s.

“There were a lot of political societies and left-wing organisations within the Students’ Union. I used to hang out at the Union bar on Bolsover Street, and it was a well-known venue for bands, as well as a place for political meetings,” said Vicky.

“The Islamic Society was also pretty strong at PCL, and all the various groups would bid for places to go to the Students’ Union Conference in Blackpool.

“The first Gulf War became the focus of a lot of debate around the Students’ Union, and there were big demonstrations in London that we went on. I can remember opposing British attacks on Iraq, and forming really strong alliances with the Islamic and Iraq Societies, and us all being on the same wavelength about that issue.

“It was the tail end of student politics though. I do remember feeling like the odd one out on my course, being the person who would stand up on the table campaigning about issues such as abortion rights. I remember feeling quite awkward about that, in terms of what my colleagues on the Architecture course would think of me. But it was a really formative time, in the sense of having the guts to say something in public, because you’re still very young at that stage. You’ve not long come out of school and you’re trying to find where you fit in the world.”

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There were also some eccentric and well-known characters among the teaching staff. “My own tutor, Allen Cunningham, was a dedicated Modernist and I learned a lot from his commitment to a set of ideals and how they could inform architecture.

“Another tutor I remember well was Kevin Rhowbotham who taught on the Diploma course.

I’ll never forget when he took our year for a class and told us all to sit in silence for 40 minutes and write our autobiographies. He then collected them up and tore them to pieces in front of us, saying that most of us would never make architects. I guess it was a test, but it really annoyed me at the time.

“I remember in about 1992, Kevin got his students to paint the entire studio fluorescent green for the degree show – I’m not sure why! He’s a bit of a legend in architectural education.”

Not all students welcomed the news that PCL was about to become a university. “We were told about the change just as we were graduating; I think our year was the first that would have gone along and worn the black cape, and graduated from a university rather than a poly. But I personally felt – and I think I had other friends who shared this feeling – that PCL was rightfully a poly. Its tradition was as a polytechnic, teaching skills and practice-based vocational education, and that wasn’t something which was inferior to a university.

“The idea that everything should be called a university was, in my view at the time, devaluing those traditional universities. So I was quite against the change, and I didn’t go to my graduation. I’ve never regretted it; it always seemed to me to be a lot of pomp and circumstance, which wasn’t important to me, it was the

learning and knowledge that was important. To this day, if people ask me where I studied, I will say PCL; as a polytechnic it had as much to offer as a university.”

“It was a really formative time… because you’re still very young at that stage. You’ve not long come out of school and you’re trying to find where you fit in the world.”

With job opportunities scarce in London, Vicky went to Edinburgh, where she studied newspaper writing on a journalism course and began a career in local newspapers; she moved to Birmingham and continued to work in the regional press as well as at the BBC. She didn’t keep in touch with many of her fellow graduates from the course, but came into contact with more of them when she returned to London six years later and took up a post as Senior Reporter of the RIBA Journal, before going on to become Editor of design magazine Blueprint in 2004. She took up her current post as Director of Architecture, Design, Fashion at the British Council in March 2010, and recently returned to talk to students at Westminster following an invite from Professor Kate Heron, the University’s Head of Architecture.

“Now I see people from the course all the time, through work rather than socially,” said Vicky.

“And there’s a wider network of people who I know were at PCL, although not necessarily in my year. There’s a definite sense of identity I think, for the people who studied there.”

FEATURE

AGATA DMOCH It doesn’t take long talking to Agata Dmoch to realise that few people can have a diary genuinely as full as hers. Alongside the long hours and short breaks that go hand in hand with a high-pressure legal career, she is also committed to Polish community initiatives, to continuing her studies, and to building her business in her home country.

It takes a certain strength of character to combine all those interests while flourishing in the tough commercial law environment; fortunately for Agata, a graduate of the University of Westminster’s Law School who practises in the West Midlands, strength of character is something she has never lacked.

Now employed by Hudsons on behalf of two premium American law firms, she spoke to Network while back in London working 12-hour days on a short-term project, and the long hours involved were reminiscent of her student life. “Funnily enough, I’m working on Chancery Lane at the moment, and just down the road is the legal bookshop where I bought my first law book,” said Agata.

“It was on contract law; I would be travelling on the Tube every day, reading the book, thinking how on earth am I going to do this? I still have the book, and every fourth or fifth word is underlined and translated.”

Agata arrived in the UK from Poland in 2004, with no definite plan of action. “I wasn’t sure what I was going to do; my parents said I could go, but on the strict condition that I was going to study.” She had previously come to London for a month after her A Levels to study a language course, and admits that the heady mix of teenage freedom and foreign travel meant that she “fell in love” with the city, so it was no 26 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

surprise when she was back the following year.

“I arrived at Victoria Coach Station with my three suitcases and thought, what am I going to do now? I wanted a challenge, and I thought doing a law degree in another language sounded challenging enough... it was literally as simple as that.”

The studying was far from simple though. “Initially it was very, very difficult,” said Agata.

“I remember sitting in a lecture theatre for my first or second lecture, and really not understanding what they were talking about. I was crying at home, feeling that it was impossible. But I started reading all the text books, going through and translating the words, and underlining and highlighting everything. And at the end of each year I could look back and feel I had made incredible progress, in terms of the course, my language skills, everything.”

While that first year may have been daunting, it was the final year of the course which really tested Agata: “There was so much pressure; you had to get a 2:1 – if you didn’t, you wouldn’t get a training contract. So I studied at least 12 hours every day. I would get up at midday, go to lectures, and afterwards go home and study through to 5am.

The only day I didn’t study was on Saturday, when I worked in Halfords, and going to work was almost a salvation, it gave me a break from the studying.

“It meant that there was no time for play at all. Having said that, when I came to the UK I arrived in April, and my course started in September, so I had six months of enjoying myself. I also stayed here during the vacations, taking language courses to prepare for my studies, and we had the

chance to party quite a lot. I had my fun too!”

“At the end of each year I could look back and feel I had made incredible progress, in terms of the course, my language skills, everything.”

So where did her determination to succeed come from? “It’s interesting when you look back.

You set yourself goals, and then when you reach them you set yourself a new goal. When I arrived, I thought that just to get accepted at one of the universities would be, wow, a huge achievement. Then you get accepted, and then you think, okay, now I need to get a 2:1.

Then you get a 2:1, graduate, and think, now I need to get a training contract. Then you get a training contract, qualify, and it just goes on... there are milestones, but you are always working to improve, and to be good you have to keep up.”

Having applied to around 50 firms before securing a training contract, Agata was already taking her part-time Legal Practice Course (LPC) by the time she began working for Pickerings Solicitors in the West Midlands.

But she firmly believes that, without the push from tutors on her Law degree to get as many work placements as possible, the search for a training contract would have been even harder. “I did five different placements before I graduated, either with law firms or in the legal departments of big companies. From the second year onwards our lecturers were always asking us if we had secured a placement yet, or how

FEATURE

many we had applied for. Having spoken to people from other universities since then, I know it’s quite rare to get the chance to do five different placements before you graduate, and that really helps to set you apart.”

“You set yourself goals, and then when you reach them you set yourself a new goal.”

She also remembers a key piece of advice given to her by a member of the careers team at Westminster. “Some foreign students believe being from a foreign country can be a disadvantage, especially in a traditional profession such as law.

But the advisor said to me, ‘What you have to do is to ensure that the fact you are from a different country is an advantage, rather than a disadvantage’. I really took that on board, and it has paid off.

You have to be up to the standard that anyone would expect of a lawyer, but you also may have something – a specialism, an area of expertise or experience – that others don’t.”

Not content with completing her LPC, Agata then began studying for her MBA at Aston University: “It was something I’d always wanted to do, and specialising in commercial and corporate law, it’s a great add-on,” she said. “I’m due to finish the course in September – I should have finished before, but I missed a couple of exams because I was in court.”

With the recession biting and her training contract coming to an end, Agata returned to Poland to start her MBA project, working with an aesthetic surgery clinic in Wroclaw, her home city. It was another example of Agata’s belief NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 27

FEATURE

that, if you work had and stay positive, “opportunities come to you”. “I started working with the clinic on my project, and I’ve been working with them ever since. In the spring of 2011 we were approached by an intermediary asking whether we would be interested in acquiring a clinic in Warsaw, and we started talking about investments; I led the acquisition and now I’m a 50 per cent shareholder in the business, and we have two clinics – one in Warsaw, one in Wroclaw.

“Being positive is second nature to me these days.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have days when I think, why do I bother? But being positive really helps.”

“It was a very big step and probably one of the most stressful times in my life. I am used to M&As (mergers and acquisitions) but when it’s your own money at stake it is nerve-racking! I cannot recall the amount of times we thought about pulling out, including the night before my flight to Warsaw for a completion meeting.

It’s been hard doing a lot of work on the agreements for the clinics, but it’s taught me a lot as well, and you really start to understand the needs of your client, and how they correspond with all the agreements you are drafting, because you are the client. Our primary client base is affluent businesswomen, so it’s also a great networking opportunity.”

Spend any length of time talking to Agata and it’s clear that her approach to life – and to business – is one of optimism and making the most of opportunities. Is that an instinctive approach, or something she has learned to adopt? “Being positive is second

nature to me these days. Don’t get me wrong, I still have days when I think, why do I bother? But being positive really helps.

“And I enjoy being a busy woman; I sometimes think I might have some advanced sort of ADHD! When I try to relax and watch TV or whatever, I’m still on my phone, checking my emails.

I can never completely switch off.

But I’m not married and I don’t have children, so I feel that if I’m going to be really busy, now is the best time.”

That approach has also led to plenty of success for Agata away from her legal career. In 2009, she became the co-founder of the Midlands Polish Community Centre, having met a teacher through a Polish networking event.

“We decided to start a Saturday school, and we soon had 300 students every Saturday.”

In April last year, Agata co-founded the Midlands Polish Business Club: “It was down to being in the right place at the right time, and meeting the right people; it’s often like that. I met an accountant who is Polish and who has also studied in the UK, and we decided to do something together.

There are so many Polish business people around, and so many Polish people who would like to be in business for themselves.”

Her efforts and achievements, both in her career and in the Polish community, have not gone unnoticed.

In 2011 she received an Aston 100 title, given to entrepreneurial students from the University to recognise extracurricular activities.

In December last year she was nominated in two categories – International Lawyer of the Year, and Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year – in the Birmingham Law Society Awards. “I didn’t make the shortlist for the International Lawyer award; but give me some time –

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it’s still early in my career,” said Agata. “I was shortlisted for the Pro Bono award though; I was up against three barristers, and me a newly qualified solicitor.

I attended the gala, and although I didn’t get it, it was great to be on the shortlist.”

Then, in January this year, she was contacted by the Editor of The Polish Daily newspaper, telling her that the Polish Ambassador had decided to give her the Individual of the Year award.

“At the time I was really busy with the newly acquired business back in Poland, and I wasn’t sure it was for real,” said Agata. “But he explained again, said that the Ambassador would be presenting this award at a gala that month, and it would be great if I could attend. It was completely out of the blue.” Agata received the award from the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland, for ‘her extraordinary contributions to the Polish community in the UK and Polish-British co-operation’.

“I was really delighted about the Polish Individual of the Year Award, but being shortlisted by the Law Society was something very special too, especially this early in my career.”

And there’s little sign of Agata taking things easy in the near future. Although she no longer runs the Community Centre, she is still Chair of the Midlands Polish Business Club, and is also combining her legal career and completing her MBA with studying for a Masters Certificate in Ethical Reasoning from Harvard. “I feel like this is my time,” said Agata.

“I’ve worked so hard and put so much into my career. I feel like I’m at a tipping point, in a good way – I have all this learning and experience, and now I’m at the stage where I can really start to make the best use of it.”

FEATURE

MATT HYDE After a highly successful six years transforming the fortunes of the National Union of Students (NUS), Matt Hyde’s move to take up the post of Chief Executive of the Scout Association may not have been an obvious one. The challenges during his tenure at the NUS were sizeable and serious, and the organisation’s often politically charged atmosphere coupled with the major changes surrounding student funding meant that the NUS was regularly in the media spotlight.

But Matt, an alumnus of the University of Westminster’s MBA course, is already excited by the challenges of his new role (he took up the post in April), and the opportunity to have a positive impact on even more young lives.

Matt joined the NUS in 2006 as Deputy National Director, from his previous post as General Manager at Goldsmiths College Students’ Union; before that he had worked as the Deputy General Manager of the Students’ Union at King’s College London, so he knew well the intricacies of Students’ Union management. In less than a year, however, he was in the hot seat as Chief Executive of the NUS, and it was something of a baptism of fire.

“When I came into the NUS the organisation was completely dysfunctional. My boss left not long after I joined, so in January 2007 I became the fifth chief executive of the organisation in as many years,” explained Matt.

“We’d had ten years of deficits, and had been selling off the family silver to pay the overdraft and survive. In the year that I joined we were heading for a deficit of more than £1m, so it was a really big turnaround project in the first two years.

“Around 15 per cent of the staff had a grievance procedure underway. It wasn’t a happy state of affairs, and all of those numbers just masked the bigger picture, which was that there was no real sense of purpose, no real vision or strategy, and an under-performing culture, with an organisation that had grown organically.”

The turnaround at the NUS under Matt’s leadership was both dramatic and effective. An improvement plan put in place within the first year helped to ensure that the books were balanced within 18 months, and the organisation began to turn the corner.

“NUS is an exciting and diverse organisation, with a constant renewal because of the changeover of student officers, and on one level I could quite easily have spent the rest of my career there” “Membership satisfaction levels went from 37 per cent to 79 per cent, turnover increased from about £6m when I arrived to £20m when I left, and profitability went through the roof,” said Matt.

“As a not-for-profit organisation it meant that we were much more able to invest in areas and take risks, which you can do when you’ve got a stable business footing.”

During his six years at the top, the NUS also picked up a long list of awards, for everything from governance reform and digital campaigning, to improvements in sustainability and environmental performance. Rebranded, and with enough funds to buy its own HQ again in London’s Grays Inn Road, the organisation was clearly rejuvenated.

“It was a brilliant period of time, and a bit of a rollercoaster along the way, particularly with student funding issues,” said Matt.

“People tend to focus on tuition fees, but the difference we were making around the country on a whole range of projects was considerable, and we estimate that we saved students about £2bn during that period.”

Having achieved so much success during his career at the NUS, wasn’t it tempting to stay there longer? “I could have stayed, but I really didn’t want to get to the stage where I thought I had stayed too long, or where I started to get bitter or resent aspects of the role, because the NUS is an organisation I have a lot of love and respect for,” explained Matt. “And sometimes you also realise that there are only so many ways you can look at the same challenges.

“The NUS is an exciting and diverse organisation, where you get that constant renewal because of the changeover of student officers each year, and on one level I could quite easily have spent the rest of my career there.

But I’m 38, and I didn’t really want to stay at the NUS for the rest of my working life.

“I did say I would only leave the NUS if it was to go to an organisation that was as exciting, or more exciting; one that was challenging, interesting, and had as much impact on people’s lives.

That’s when this job came up.

“I’d been having a conversation with the NUS President at a party conference one evening, talking about the importance of nonformal learning to improving people’s life chances. If you come from a certain background, the chances are that you are more likely to do extra-curricular activities and non-formal learning.

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You are then more likely to ‘better’ universities, where there’s even more public funding for non-formal learning and activities. So when you go for a top job, you’re more able to give a whole range of examples of how you’ve learnt those softer, transferable skills that are so key to thriving in employment situations.

“The President of the NUS thought that the impact of nonformal learning happened much earlier than that; he said that for him, his life had been transformed

by Scouting. I went to bed thinking about this, and the great quote from Steve Jobs, that you can’t join up the dots looking forward, you can only join the dots up looking backwards. It’s only when you look back at your life that you 30 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

realise, these were the things that were really important to me. As I looked back, I realised the importance of my Scouting experience. That was the first time I had volunteered, the first time I had fundraised, the first time I led anything.

“The next day I saw the Scouts job. I called them and they said the application period had already closed, but that if I was interested I needed to get an application form in that day.

The rest is history.”

Matt completed his MBA at Westminster while working at Goldsmiths, so had senior management and leadership roles such as those at the NUS or the Scout Association been part of his career planning?

“I think I knew that I wanted to be the chief executive of a not-for-profit organisation that had an impact on people’s lives. One of the interesting things about a programme like the MBA is that you do a lot of self-reflection, you think about what you are really good at, your strengths and weaknesses, and how you are going to make the most impact in the world.

“I wouldn’t have got the NUS job were it not for the MBA. It gave me a vocabulary and a discourse that enabled me to understand different areas, and be able to work my way round finances, legal issues, ICT strategies and so on. It gave me enough knowledge and skills to be able to prove myself in a range of

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different disciplines. For me, that’s the thing that is very powerful about the MBA; it’s the breadth of disciplines you are working across.

“For me, that’s the thing that is very powerful about the MBA; it’s the breadth of disciplines you are working across” “There will always be one area that you are better at, and one that you are weaker in, and it was really good for me to work on those areas that I was weaker in.

The MBA gave me more confidence in those areas, as well as some really practical tools, such as investment appraisal, project management, all those tools that I still use today.

Having studied for his English BA at Queen Mary University, how did the Westminster student experience compare? “The mode of study, as a part-time postgraduate course, will always be different to your undergraduate full-time degree, and you realise how much free time you must have had as a student,” said Matt. “The hours involved in studying for my MBA were about the same as for my undergraduate degree, but I had a full-time job as well, so you learn to work smarter. There were other people on the course with young families, and I take my hat off to those people, managing to juggle busy work lives, busy home lives and studying. But I had a good experience at Westminster, and people certainly had a strong affinity with the Business School.”

Matt admits that he was not a typical scout – “no good with knots or heights” – but Scouting developed crucial areas of his life and learning, and also played a

key part in his family’s heritage.

His father and brothers had all been actively involved in Scouting, and his grandfather had received a gallantry award signed by Baden Powell, the founder of the Scouting movement; as a final nod to fate, he also shares his birthday with Baden Powell.

The role as Chief Executive of the Scout Association may not present the same difficulties as the NUS did – “it’s in rude health”, according to Matt – but he is in no doubt how important the leadership role is, and that there are still real challenges for the future.

“Financially we are extremely strong, it so different to what I went into at the NUS,” said Matt.

“This is a growing, expanding movement, which now has about 430,000 young people involved, and an additional 120,000 volunteers who make Scouting happen week in, week out, up and down the country. We wouldn’t survive without those volunteers, who are the lifeblood of the organisation.

“The reason why we’ve had such a good run is because of the decisions that were taken about ten years ago, and a programme of reform to modernise and be more relevant to Britain today. I’m here now to deliver that 2018 vision, which focuses on growing Scouting in three ways: ensuring that we are making an impact on our communities; ensuring that we are shaped by young people, in partnership with adults; and being reflective of the communities in which we serve, which is particularly about extending Scouting into communities where it is not thriving.”

And there are already changes on the horizon. The Scout Association has government funding to do targeted work on

harder to reach communities, with dedicated development workers working alongside Scout groups in Tower Hamlets, Bradford, Burnley, Speke and Salford. The Association also needs to overcome the challenge of growing demand – with 35,000 young people on the waiting list, and an obvious demand among lower age groups, it needs another 10,000 volunteers if it’s going to extend the programme.

“Our fastest growing areas are girls between ten and 14, and the Muslim community – there’s huge growth among Muslim Scout groups,” said Matt. “So kids from different backgrounds are mixing, learning about differences, different faiths, different beliefs, which is a very rich experience.

The biggest challenges are among that ten to 14 age group though, particularly as young teenagers come under greater pressures related to image and self-esteem. Matt believes that having people like Bear Grylls involved as Chief Scout, introducing a more informal clothing range and accelerating the organisation’s digital presence and platform will all help. But so too will continuing to attract youngsters from the six to ten age group, and ensuring that their experience of Scouting is one which will keep them involved throughout their teenage years.

“Young people involved with the Scout Association are building character, learning skills, learning knowledge, learning about working with others, and developing a value system,” added Matt. “With good leadership, driven by volunteers, that is a pretty potent combination to make a difference to people’s lives.

“It’s an incredible movement, it really is. And it’s a real privilege to be here.”

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MICHÁL COHEN When Cindy Walters and Michál Cohen, co-founders of the eponymous Walters and Cohen practice, were named jointly as winners of Architects’ Journal’s inaugural Woman Architect of the Year Award, they were – in Michál’s own words – “absolutely speechless”.

As part of a shortlist containing some of the world’s leading architects, they were convinced that they would not be winning anything. A quick look at the practice’s successes – which includes a range of RIBA, CABE and Civic Awards as well as design competition wins – suggests that perhaps they should have been less surprised to walk away with the title in 2012.

Michál described the award as “fairly monumental”, although she admits that initially they had no plans to enter, and were only persuaded to do so by the team in their Kentish Town offices. To triumph from a shortlist including Sarah Wigglesworth, Zaha Hadid and Amanda Levete was, according to Michál, “absolutely amazing”. “Being the shortlist that it was made it all the more monumental for us. The reasons that we won – for the quality of our work across the board, but also the philosophy and ethos of our practice – that was pretty cool.

We were really overwhelmed.”

Michál and Cindy were also praised for being “role models for aspiring architects”, and, alongside the successful builds and innovative design, there’s certainly plenty in the Walters and Cohen story that current Architecture graduates should draw inspiration from.

The practice was launched in 1994, two years after Michál graduated from her Part III course 32 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

at the University of Westminster.

Michál and Cindy had met on the first day of their Architecture degree course at Durban University, and had become firm friends. “We both found ourselves here, at the end of 1990, which was not a good time for architects,” explained Michál.

“There was a bad recession, and I was so naive, I just arrived from South Africa thinking ‘okay, I’m here, come and take me on’!

When I started asking around, people were explaining that they had just laid off half their staff.”

The career progression for architects in South Africa at that time was somewhat different to the UK, and Michál had already run substantial projects before heading to London. “In South Africa, the attitude was ‘Oh, you’re out of university now, so here’s your first project – a 16-storey office block’. It was quite difficult coming to England and going back to study after that.

“I was freelancing, working for a very small practice, and I’d only just arrived in England.

I was based just around the corner from the University, so studying at Westminster was a bit of a no-brainer.

“I used to come to Westminster for one evening a week, and a couple of days of block study.

Other than that we didn’t engage much with the University; the people I was studying with were other Part IIIs who were also working, and a couple of staff who were not full-time, and were still working in the industry.

“I liked the course, and I was quite excited to be learning about English contracts, law, and the practicalities of running jobs in this country. I always felt I was at Westminster in the dark though, and it did feel like quite a serious environment. Again, that may

have been because most of the time I was coming in during the evening and sitting in a lecture theatre.”

One of the first joint projects for Cindy and Michál was a competition to design a Buddhist retreat on Holy Island, on the west coast of Scotland. “We were shortlisted for that, which was brilliant, so we thought, why not, let’s give it a go. We didn’t have any work though!”

Like most new businesses, times were tight, and the pair were just making enough to cover the bills.

Then, in October 1994, another competition came up, this time back in South Africa.

“The competition was for the KwaZulu Natal Gallery; we didn’t think we had a chance of winning it, and we were sitting here freezing in November and December, dreaming of this tropical, lush place,” said Michál.

Having completed their hand drawings and models, they shipped everything out to South Africa. Michál was back in the country in January and, while there, received a call from the competition organisers inviting her to the prizegiving. “I remember walking into the room, seeing all the models, and phoning Cindy to say ‘I think we got the scale of the site wrong’; our building looked so small and contained, compared to the others, that either we’d won it or we had made a big mistake,” said Michál.

But there was no mistake; this fledgling London practice had won a competition for a prestigious building in Natal. It was also a bit of a reality check – celebrations on the night of the awards were followed by a call the next morning to ask how soon they could be on site for design team meetings. The building itself, completed in just eight months,

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was an important stepping stone for the practice. “It’s such a sweet building, very contextual, very regional, it responds to the environment, and it started all the thinking that we’ve now explored over the years,” added Michál.

“The relationship between indoors and outdoors, natural light, natural ventilation, making spaces work really hard so that they are not just one function... it taught us wonderful lessons.”

Michál believes the competitions that her and Cindy entered gave them confidence, even as the practice grew, and they found themselves competing against and beating some well-established and high-profile architects.

Competitions also played a key part in enabling the practice to get a foothold in one of its specialist areas – education – after it won a contest to design new buildings at Bedales School in Hampshire.

“London is the centre of the universe, it always has been; I don’t want to be anywhere else, or doing anything else.”

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It’s a sector that Michál is passionate about, and one that already interested her before Walters and Cohen won the Bedales project.

“We’d had a brainstorming session in the office, and we were talking about doing more in education,” explained Michál. “It was about the same time as I had my daughter, so as well as what was going on in the office, I was looking at her and was intrigued about how this little thing was going to learn, how the learning process happens, and where you need to be.

“At the same time there was the launch of the Building Schools for the Future initiative, and we were one of 11 architects asked by the Department of Education to do paid research on exemplar designs.

And then we won the Bedales competition... it all just tied in so brilliantly – my thinking, our thinking as a practice – and we were able to explore learning environments by researching them, rather than having to immediately build them.”

Since then the practice has become one of the country’s leading architects in the education sector, with more than 18 schools completed or currently underway; it’s still an area which excites Michál and her colleagues.

“It’s such a great sector to be involved in. We recently revisited some of the early education work we did, and we realised that some of the first things we did, from a gut instinct point of view, were entirely right.

“We still love those early developments. We’ve been able to go back and do post-occupancy evaluation five or six years later, looking at the learning impact, the behavioural impact, and think about how we can do things better, or differently, and whether we can improve. It’s a sector in which our ideas have been tested and proven.”

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Alongside the glowing praise from judges in the Architects’ Journal awards, who described the entry from Walters and Cohen as “exemplary work, by two exemplary women, at an exemplary practice”, much was made of the practice being “the UK’s predominantly women-led studio”. But it had never been the plan to launch a female-only practice: “That’s still not the idea, and that’s not what we’ve got,” said Michál. Three of the four directors are women, while alongside the female practice manager there are two male and two female associate directors, and around 70 per cent of the staff are female.

“We do get the most awesome women applying for jobs here, and we absolutely take the best person for the job; gender or anything else is just not an issue,” said Michál. So in her own experience, is architecture one of those industries in which it is still harder for a woman to be successful than a man? “I would say no – but that’s just my experience. There’s still around 50 per cent of architecture students who are women, and around 15 per cent of architects are women, so something happens there.

“But I’m pretty sure it happens in other professions too. If you read the press there seems to be a lot of discrimination between men and women in practice, and in how much they are paid, things like that; but our experience is so fundamentally different.”

Having started her own career at the tail end of a tough recession, Michál believes that things can be just as hard for architecture graduates in today’s economic climate. “In some ways we were lucky; both of us were young, maybe a bit naive as a result, and the fact we didn’t need

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to earn a salary straight away, or borrow any money, really helped.

It took a while before we got our first pay cheque, and I remember we took our husbands and blew at least ten per cent of it on a meal at a fab restaurant!

“The other thing we could do then, which is much more difficult now, is to enter the design competitions; it gave us the opportunity to show what we could do. Those competitions are few and far between now, and there’s virtually nothing in the public sector.

“Things are pretty tough for all practices at the moment, regardless of size, and people are taking all the work they can get. We were lucky that we had work passed on to us when we first started, and we try to do the same, but there’s much less of that going on now.

“I suppose the world has got smaller, and you can go and do competitions in other countries, but there are still going to be more people competing for those prizes.

So it is hard, and I feel for young architects today; the commitment that you’ve got to show, the dedication to setting up your own business, the challenges and risks you have to take along the way.”

It’s clear, however, that Michál’s passion for architecture remains as strong as it was when she first started taking those risks nearly 20 years ago, and is matched by her passion for London. “I worked here for six months in 1985, and all I wanted to do after that was to come back. Jon, my husband, wanted to do an MBA, so we decided to come to London; that was 23 years ago, and we haven’t gone back.

“London is the centre of the universe, it always has been; I don’t want to be anywhere else, or doing anything else.”

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HANK ROBERTS At the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) Conference in March this year, Association President Hank Roberts began his speech to delegates by admitting: “I’ve been in trouble most of my life.”

While it’s difficult to argue with the statement – in fact, Hank is so good at making trouble that he has actually won an award for it – the reasons behind his efforts to ‘stir things up’ reveal much about the passions and beliefs of this Regent Street Polytechnic alumnus.

Throughout a career in teaching which began a year after he graduated from his Economics degree in 1972, Hank has fought for and campaigned tirelessly on issues affecting teaching, schools and the youngsters who attend them. From attempts to unite the teaching unions, to whistleblowing over ‘inappropriate‘ bonus payments received by senior staff at his school (a case now going through the courts), and campaigning for the removal of asbestos from school buildings, it’s clear that Hank is someone who is prepared to fight for what he believes.

That appetite for a just fight has also seen him become a sometimes controversial figure in the media, and a respected union leader. Perhaps no surprise then that he chose to study at Regent Street Polytechnic which, in the 1960s and 70s, had a reputation for being particularly political and ‘vibrant’. Did Hank’s experience justify that description? “Look what it produced!” he said with a grin.

“Yes, I think that reputation was justified. They were interesting times generally, so it wasn’t an isolated thing. But Regent Street had acquired a reputation for being fairly radical; I’d been the Students’ Union president at

college before I started at Regent Street, so I’d already got involved in student politics.”

At that time the student community played a leading role in many political actions, with the London School of Economics (LSE) also at the forefront of some of the most radical activity – including students ripping down newlyerected steel security gates around the institution in 1969. “I thought about going to LSE, because it seemed to be where all the action was, but they didn’t want me,” said Hank. “I was only interested in two other places – Regent Street and Hull – and Regent Street said yes, without any qualms or hesitation. I heard much later that the people who had actually taken down the gates at LSE were Regent Street students, which is quite interesting.”

In fact Hank’s rebellious streak had emerged long before he arrived at Regent Street. The eldest of three children born to a Bermudian father and English mother, he spent his early years in Bermuda before his father died and the family returned to England, settling in Portsmouth. He attended a military boarding school, paid for by the local authority.

“At the time I felt like I’d been sent away, but looking back I’m absolutely certain that my mum needed that,” said Hank. “But it was quite a rebellious place. In the end I got expelled from there, not surprisingly; I was out of school, after lights out, in civilian clothing, underage, in a pub, bringing booze back for the other inmates.

Despite the way it ended, I mightily enjoyed the Gordon School for Boys! It provided a very good education.”

That enjoyment of education continued through his college days and on to Regent Street, although he admitted: “I didn’t work as

hard as I should have done, and in the end I scraped through.

“I studied economics, specialising in economic history, and one of the lecturers there was Dr Philip Bagwell – later to become Professor Bagwell – who was not only a genius of social and economic history, but had also written a history of the National Union of Railwaymen.

I got on very well with him, and he certainly increased my interest in and reading of social history, and then educational history.

“So I had the education I wanted to have. I realised much later on that I shouldn’t have been in the Students’ Union bar so much, and certainly should have played less table football. But if the course and the institution inspire a desire to learn, then it’s done its job, and I’ve certainly got no complaints about going to Regent Street Polytechnic.

“The Students’ Union was great.

I was involved in what was called the ‘SocSoc’ – the Socialist Society – which covered a very wide spectrum, although probably none which you would recognise in today’s Labour Party.”

Alongside his Polytechnic passions for table football and karate (he eventually became a black belt, second Dan), Hank was involved in many of the student demonstrations of the time, although he remembers the Polytechnic staff being “fairly liberal”.

“I also remember it being a much more hopeful time, both before I went to college and after I left,” said Hank. “That was a time when people could be pretty certain they could get a job, and if you wanted it you could get a mortgage, and there was a greater sense of social equality – or at least, less emphasis on the differences. I’m very, very

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fortunate to be part of a generation which grew up in an era when those who had sacrificed so much during the Second World War demanded better, and set it up for us. We got the benefits of that. There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever that that was part of the burgeoning era for colleges and universities, just as I began to go there. And it was a great thing – educating more people is always a good thing.

“At that time the idea of student loans, and the fees that are charged now, was just unthinkable. There was enough controversy going on about hall fees, which were relatively low. By comparison, I think what people have tolerated since is shocking.”

Hank took a teacher training course after graduating from Regent Street, and began his teaching career the following year; throughout that time he has remained at two schools in Brent (only moving to the second after the first closed), and has been an active union member from the start 36

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of his career. “I got involved in my union as soon as I started teaching, and I got involved in health and safety very early on as well, particularly the asbestos scandals,” said Hank. His longrunning efforts to ensure asbestos was removed from schools saw him collect the TUC ‘Health and Safety Rep of the Year’ award in 2006, and the ‘Alan’ award in 2009 – the Hazards Campaigns ‘troublemaker of the year’ award – an accolade which Hank admits he is probably most proud of.

“Asbestos obviously kills people; it can also kill pupils, because they are exposed to it from a younger age, so they are even more at risk than their teachers,” said Hank.

“There were lies told about asbestos for years, saying that if you don’t touch it, it’s safe – but it deteriorates, and if you have a fire or flood, vandalism, contractors coming in, then it can be dangerous because of the fibres being released. It’s bad enough for the teachers, but it’s even worse for the pupils.”

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Hank’s union career began in the NUT, but he has also campaigned strongly for unity across the teaching unions.

“Having six unions in the teaching profession is absolutely insane, so around 1996, I and a few others set up an organisation called Professional Unity 2000, thinking that we would set a target of having unity across the teaching unions by the year 2000. That was wildly optimistic!

“I thought it would be easily achievable because it was such an obviously commonsense idea, but it appears it wasn’t. So instead, from the NUT I joined the ATL and the NASUWT, just as a member, then campaigned within them to promote professional unity. I eventually became the local ATL Secretary, then the NASUWT Secretary as well, so at one time I was secretary of all three unions in Brent.

“I got elected onto the NUT executive, and the ATL executive; the NASUWT then changed its rules, so that if you held a position with one of the other unions you couldn’t hold a post within the NASUWT. I knew that was directed at stopping me from getting on the executive – some colleagues within the NASUWT told me that among them it was called the ‘Get Hank’ rule, which I take as a backhanded compliment.

“I ran for general secretary of the ATL and missed it by just over a hundred votes, but I then got elected onto the presidential cycle.

I’m still the same person, and I speak as I find, but I was very pleased to be voted on. The ATL has been developing in recent years, it has a much wider membership now, but that also means that in many ways there’s even less reason to have so many different teaching unions.”

With his term of office as President finished at the end of August, Hank will spend a year as immediate past president (part of the ATL’s presidential cycle). But what happens after the ATL? “I can’t help myself; I’d like to just lay back and relax somewhere, but I just can’t stop,” he said. “The system is so wrong, so messed up, and getting worse, so something has to be done about it. All the ordinary people are getting worse off, overwhelmingly, every year, while a tiny proportion right at the top are getting hugely, hugely wealthy.

“Politically I wouldn’t veer away from saying I’m a socialist, but I don’t think that accurately describes it. You need to apply a scientific viewpoint to each policy and philosophy, and the science will show you, through evidence, what works and what doesn’t. I’m a strong supporter of scientific methods, scientific approach and scientific education, and the way in which it illumines almost anything. I totally condemn government’s lack of a scientific approach or scientific rigour in any of its policies. And again, looking at economic history, the scientific evidence base for any of these policies is very important.

The lecturers I had at the Polytechnic and at college were very helpful in that regard.

“If it gets to the point that whatever you do or say or vote makes no difference, then you are heading for trouble. You can’t stop though; I might try a bit of writing or something, as long as I’m doing something – as long as I’m doing my bit – to not tolerate the way things are.”

The end of his union career will also mark the end of Hank’s teaching career; so how does he look back on his years in education? “I have had occasions when people have told me that

I inspired them to learn, and that’s one of the best things as a teacher – it’s hugely rewarding,” said Hank. “An ex-pupil told me that as a secondary teacher I’d taught them to read. I remembered that we could spend a bit more time with the youngsters who really couldn’t read or write in those days. I was so shocked to realise that I’d taught this kid how to read. He was thanking me for transforming his life, and it sounds idiotic that I couldn’t remember it, but it’s very humbling to realise it.”

And away from work, union activity and political campaigning, Hank still has plenty of passions – from music (particularly punk and ska) and theatre to reading and travel. “I’ve got in to more travelling in later life, I’ve got that bug. We’re going somewhere very interesting this summer – North Korea. They have 500 tourists from the UK a year, and we’re two of those 500. It might not be a lot of fun, but I know I’ll find it interesting.

“He was thanking me for transforming his life, and it sounds idiotic that I couldn’t remember it, but it’s very humbling to realise it.”

“I’ve still got lots I want to do, to see, and to learn. I’m a fellow of the Royal Institution; they have brilliant lectures there, and I haven’t got to see as many as I’d like to in recent years. And there’s so much more to see and do, especially in London.

“Fortunately, somewhere along the line, the teachers that I had made me not just keen, but almost desperately keen, to want to know more. That’s the art of teaching.

If you can inspire that in people, you’ve really done your job.”

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ALUMNI BENEFITS

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Alumni are a vital part of Westminster’s community, and contribute significantly to the success of the University. Whether you are able to give your time, knowledge, or contribute financially, there are many ways you can get involved: International Recruitment Fairs Support the University at student recruitment events and international fairs overseas. Please visit westminster.ac.uk/international/ countries/visits for the upcoming schedule of international visits and events.

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Give a Careers Talk Come and share your experience with current students.

Support the future of Westminster and the next generation of alumni Give a gift to the Annual Fund or support students through scholarships. For more information visit westminster.ac.uk/about-us/alumni/get-involved/alumni-fund Take part in the Oral Histories Projects Help us compile an oral history of what it was like to be a student at the Regent Street Polytechnic or the Polytechnic of Central London.

Similarly if you have any photographs or ephemera that you would be willing to donate to the archive (we are happy to take copies of photos) then please get in touch. Contact the Archive team at archive@westminster.ac.uk or on +44 (0)20 7911 5167.

For more information on how you can get involved with the University please contact the Alumni team at alumni@westminster. ac.uk or +44 (0)20 3506 6245.

38 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

ALUMNI VOLUNTEERS ON HAND TO WELCOME NEW GRADUATES Graduation is a special time at Westminster providing a wonderful opportunity for new graduates to celebrate their achievements with friends and family, and to be welcomed into the alumni community.

The Alumni team always have a presence at the ceremonies which take place bi-annually, and this year we were delighted to be joined by over 40 former students who gave up their time to help us welcome in the newest members of the alumni community, and offer the odd safety pin for a rogue graduation gown!

As one new graduate stated: “It was fantastic to meet with many of my fellow alumni, I’ve picked up so many tips and advice for my life after Westminster.”

The next graduation ceremonies will take place in November 2013. If you would like to volunteer to help the Alumni team on the day please contact alumni@westminster.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 3506 6245

ALUMNI BENEFITS

WELCOME TO THE ALUMNI COMMUNITY GET CONNECTED Keep up to date with what’s happening with the University of Westminster.

Connect with almost 7,000 fellow alumni on LinkedIn, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. uk.linkedin.com/in/ universityof westminsteralumni facebook.com universityofwestminster alumniassociation twitter.com/UoWAA/ @UoWAA

Congratulations Class of 2013! Welcome to the alumni community and your first edition of Network, the annual magazine for University of Westminster alumni, friends and supporters.

Did you know that as a graduate of the University of Westminster you have joined a global community of more than 150,000 alumni in over 180 countries around the world?

By capitalising on these connections you will be able to forge relationships that could help to develop your career, open up opportunities and contacts with like-minded professionals, as well as forming new friendships and building invaluable social networks.

Five benefits of being a Westminster alumnus

• Free Alumni card – as an alumnus you can apply for an alumni swipe card, providing

you with access to the University buildings including all campus libraries and free access to the University’s wifi network on your personal laptop/mobile device.

• Up to 15 per cent discount on full- and part-time Masters courses*, at Westminster, and discounts on a range of short courses.

• Access to exclusive social, careers and networking events, most of which are free of charge.

• Regular communications including a bi-monthly alumni e-newsletter and the annual alumni magazine, Network.

• Exclusive access to the Alumni Room at the Regent Street Campus.

CONTACT US If you have some news to share or need to get in touch with us, please contact the Alumni team at westminster.ac.uk/alumni T: +44 (0)20 3506 6245 E: alumni@westminster.ac.uk

To take advantage of these benefits register for the alumni association online at westminster.ac.uk/alumni *Terms and conditions apply. See westminster.ac.uk/alumni for full details.

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 39

CLASS NOTES

CLASS NOTES The University of Westminster has a global community of more than 150,000 alumni in over 180 countries around the world. Class Notes is just a selection of some of the updates we have received from alumni; we would love to hear from you about how your career and life has developed since you left Westminster, and to share your news and views with fellow alumni in future editions of Network.

BRIKENA MUHAREMI GRADUATED FROM THE LAW LLB IN 2002

Britain’s 100 Albanians, which was published by a London Albanian community newspaper, in celebration of the recent 100-year anniversary of Albania’s independence.

ANDREAS SERGIDES GRADUATED FROM PCL IN 1970

I graduated from Westminster with a First Class Degree, and completed the Bar Vocational Course in 2003 after receiving a Sir Thomas More Bursary from The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, and a Mary Datchelor Trust grant from the Clothworkers’ Foundation. I then completed my legal training and qualified as a barrister in January 2005. I have been practising as a barrister since then (apart from a one-year career break) and I currently undertake work for the Government Legal Service.

I have undertaken voluntary work as a committee member of the AngloAlbanian Association and Exiled Writers Ink. My poetry has been published in three anthologies in the Albanian language. My profile has recently been included in a book titled 40

After graduating and a brief period of working I returned to Cyprus and made a career in banking.

I retired in 2008 as Head of Risk Management of the Hellenic Bank, and I now live in Limassol. Currently I am finishing my autobiography, which might be published by the end of 2013. At the Poly I was known as Andrew (my middle name). I’m on Facebook as Andreas Sergides and will be glad to hear from old classmates.

Communication Design MA for ten years. I have for the last three years been Academic Programme Leader for Visual Communication at the University of Brighton.

I have written and designed 28 children’s non-fiction books and written extensively about design.

I greatly enjoyed returning to the course I graduated from as a student as an external examiner for four years in 2004. I live in East London.

committee, shape international governance policies and regulations, while also being a trustee for three charities.

PASCALE VILLATE COMPLETED HER PHD IN MEDIA STUDIES IN 1987

IAN BURGER GRADUATED FROM THE BUSINESS STUDIES BA IN 1997

MANISH PATEL GRADUATED FROM THE COMPUTER SCIENCE BSC IN 2006

ANDREW HASLAM GRADUATED FROM THE GRAPHIC INFORMATION DESIGN BA IN 1983

After leaving Harrow College of Art, I worked at Conran and then ran my own studio while teaching at Brighton and then Central Saint Martins College of Art. I went on to London College of Communication, leading Typographic design, and then returned to Central Saint Martins as Course Director of the

in the world. Fuelling my own entrepreneurial spirit, I also launched my own online wedding favours business (thinkfavours. co.uk) a year ago which I run alongside my full-time job.

After graduating with a BSc in computing I fell into the world of e-commerce with a job as an account manager for a large American company. Staying within the e-commerce world, I am now working as a Solutions Consultant for ChannelAdvisor who are the number one cloudbased e-commerce software provider for online retailers

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

Since graduating I completed further studies for an MSc, and then became a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. For the past 15 years I have been working in the research team at Newton Investment Management. I lead Newton’s responsible investment desk, focusing on corporate governance, and have established our well-regarded approach to integrating environmental, social and governance matters within investment decisions. I co-chair an international remuneration

I left what was then PCL in 1987 and after completing my PhD I became a Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer at the University of Tours in France; since 2003 I’ve been at the University of Bordeaux.

My field of research is media studies, but more recently I have been interested in publishing and the book trade in general.

SHANE DALY GRADUATED FROM THE FILM, VIDEO AND PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTS BA IN 1996

After graduating I worked as a first assistant camera until 2000, when I lit my first feature as a cinematographer.

I continue to shoot films

CLASS NOTES

and commercials all over the world, moving to Los Angeles in 2011. I have worked with directors such as Jennifer Lynch, Mike Figgis and Eli Roth on films such as Chained, Hostel 1 & 2, and Java Heat.

SOLOMON UDOUNWA GRADUATED FROM THE INTERNATIONAL LAW LLM IN 2007

After my graduation from my beloved University of Westminster, I returned to active duty with the Nigerian Army. In the last six years, I have used the knowledge gained while in Westminster to handle important assignments for the Army. I was Chief of Staff, Directorate of Army Public Relations, Abuja; Commanding Officer of an Artillery Regiment; and Cadets Brigade Commander at the prestigious Nigerian Defence Academy, where we train officer cadets for the armed forces. This summer, I graduated from the United States Army War College, in Pennsylvania, as a Master of Strategic Studies.

NANCY GREGORY GRADUATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BA IN 2002

What can an old woman like me do with a Russian

degree? Well, my knowledge of Russian has been a considerable asset, as I now work in Cambridge as a registered guide. Russian tours are a speciality of mine, which is very handy as we do not have many Russianspeaking guides in the city.

All types of Russian visitors arrive, especially in the summer: youngsters on exchange, farmers from the Ukraine, professors from many Russian universities.

This keeps me on my toes and ensures that I do not forget the language! How do I prepare for my tours?

Naturally I consider the sort of things a Russian will be interested in, such as where Kapitsa lived and worked, where Tchaikovsky played a concert, and where Nabokov and his brother studied as undergraduates.

And I usually read a bit of Pushkin or Tolstoy beforehand, just to put me in a Russian frame of mind!

managing the Legal Advice Centre at the University’s School of Law. From August 2013, I will assume the full-time co-ordinator position at the Legal Advice Centre; I am a practising solicitor.

GRADUATED FROM THE DESIGN FOR INTERACTION MA IN 2006

I worked for five years at Deutsche Bank, in the City in London, and on Wall Street in New York. After that, I moved to Chile, and now I’m running the first digital fabrication network in South America.

SOLAT ZAIDI (FORMERLY IQBAL) GRADUATED WITH A DEGREE IN PSYCHOLOGY IN 1996

GRADUATED FROM THE COMPUTER IMAGING IN ARCHITECTURE MA IN 2004

PATRICK M. HASSAN-MORLAI GRADUATED FROM THE LAW LLB AND LPC COURSES IN 2004 AND 2005

I now hold an LLM and, since 2008, I have been an hourly paid lecturer at the University of East London (UEL). In July 2011 I became a part-time law lecturer at UEL, and also had responsibility for

GRADUATED FROM THE FASHION DESIGN BA IN 2003

RODRIGO I ZUNIGA

AMANDA LOUISE BLYTHE

I have been working in America as a senior interior designer for Commercial Design Interiors in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for seven years. I married Phillip Tebbutt, another University of Westminster graduate, and we have a three-yearold daughter, Delilah.

HELEN GILL

Soon after I graduated, I got married and emmigrated to Washington DC, USA. Aside from traveling and settling into another country, I have been working in various sectors as a quality assurance consultant.

Studying became a passion of mine, and I recently completed a Masters in Biotechnology from Georgetown University.

I am currently working as a healthcare analyst where I am helping to develop lifesaving science and technology.

After graduating I returned home to Wales and officially launched the Helen Rhiannon Label in March 2005. Having previously worked on gowns for international opera singer Katherine Jenkins and numerous others, I am very proud to say I am now an awardwinning fashion designer specialising in creating unique, beautifully fitted wedding gowns. I also run the All Sewn Up sewing workshops in Wales, as well as being the Development Project Co-ordinator for the Fashion and Textiles Apprenticeships being launched in Wales.

KRISTOF DEAK GRADUATED IN 2010 WITH AN MA IN DIRECTING, FILM AND TV

After acquiring my MA and starting a freelance director career in London, I was commissioned to direct three hour-long prime time TV drama episodes for a new conspiracy thriller show called Hacktion in my home country Hungary. The Hungarian National Broadcaster M1 and the producers (Megafilm)

were looking for a young, enthusiastic and fresh director, and I was more than happy to take the challenge, which led me on a long and exhausting journey establishing the show’s look and feel with the first three episodes, and subsequently being re-hired twice for a total of 10 episodes. The show went on to become a success with TV audiences and won a Best TV Series award at the prestigious Yalta TV and Film Festival in 2012.

The show is still running, but I have now returned to London to pursue a career in directing and am currently looking for TV fiction work as well as developing a couple of feature film projects.

DUNCAN SAMARASINGHE GRADUATED IN 2004 WITH A MSC IN INTERACTIVE MULTIMEDIA

I have been working in IT, with a stint in Luxembourg in 2006.

I worked on SWIFT interfaces for the European Fund Services (Societe Generale). This was a great experience, and really enjoyable time in a dynamic and beautiful city. More recently I have been working as an integration engineer for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This was great fun, hard work and a lovely city in Yorkshire. In the future I am keeping my options open, perhaps moving into retail or fashion, after a year spent volunteering with Sue Ryder, Scouts and Middlesex Association of the Blind. I have been back to the University a few times to enjoy library access and talk with fellow students.

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 41

CLASS NOTES

BLESSING PLATINUM GRADUATED FROM THE LAW LLB COURSE IN 2012

My partner and I launched an iPad magazine called The Young Director in December. It is a fashion and lifestyle magazine aimed at inspiring and encouraging pioneers aged under 30. It is doing reasonably well, we had an amazing American entrepreneur on the front cover of the first issue, then Francis Boulle from Made in Chelsea on the second one and Annaliese Dayes from America’s Next Top Model on the most recent one. We are currently on Kickstarter because people without an iPad want access to the magazine.

NEIL TREADAWAY GRADUATED FROM THE ACIB BANKING COURSE IN 1995

It has been 18 years since I attended the Harrow Campus, and I had already been in banking 10 years by then.

However, I used my banking qualifications to continue a career with HSBC and found my niche in relationship management. I moved into central London in 2010 to specialise with international businesses and am part of the HSBC programme to 42

have International Relationship Managers in 20 overseas priority markets. The programme launch recently took place in Hong Kong, where 16 of us met up from seven different countries to learn from each other and develop a network of expertise and support for each other and our clients.

The role gives me the opportunity for international travel, develop an international mindset and importantly help UK businesses with international aspirations fulfil their hopes and dreams. I also attended a trade mission with the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2011 to Brazil. I love my job and would recommend a career in international banking, despite the compliance challenges post 2007, to anyone with ambitions across a broad horizon. I am married with one daughter.

ANITA NZEH GRADUATED FROM THE ENGLISH LITERATURE MA IN 2008

Since leaving Westminster, I have launched a business called iecoAfrica (iecoafrica.com). It is the exchange for all things eco, green and sustainable in Africa. We source, promote and demonstrate the use of clean energy technology and sustainable products and services. We provide actors contributing to sustainable growth and development in Africa with a platform to highlight operations, exchange knowledge and gain insight on how to improve sustainability performance and corporate responsibility operations.

MAMOUDOU DIARRA GRADUATED FROM THE EUROPEAN STUDY ABROAD CERTIFICATE IN 2008

has really paid off. I am now hoping to start gigging in Hong Kong and Malaysia with the aim of featuring in some small European festivals. You can find my work at missjolanda.com EVANGELOS KOVAIOS GRADUATED IN 2005 FROM THE MUSIC BUSINESS MANAGEMENT MA

Since graduation I have worked for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems in Washington DC, and I now work for the United States Agency for International Development in Senegal. Best regards to all my classmates and instructors – and may this message find all of you in good health.

JOLANDA VAN ZEELAND GRADUATED FROM THE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN ARCHITECTURE COURSE IN 2011

I finally qualified as an architect in 2011. I moved to work in the industry in Thailand, where I’ve been working with Palmer and Turner architects on the award-winning Ecoplex Parkventures building as senior architect – a lot of fun, and rewarding. My recent change into exploring my musical passion has resulted in some fun undertakings including playing live for big clients such as Johnnie Walker, Mercedes, British Polo Day, and Lancôme.

Last year I debuted with a music video called See Ya which received good local acclaim. My move to Asia

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

It has been more than seven years since I graduated from the University of Westminster.

Since then I have been living in Athens, Greece, and have felt the impact of the financial crisis on my everyday life. Less than a year ago, I decided to make a career transition.

I consider myself to be a lifelong learner, so I started studying online marketing at my own pace (very intensively though) mainly through the internet.

Recently, I have managed to land a job as a Search Marketing Analyst at Ogilvy and Mather, one of the leading digital marketing agencies worldwide. I recognise that I owe my success to the skills I gained during my postgraduate studies in the UK. MAHGAN ZANDFARID GRADUATED IN 1994 WITH A BSC IN COMPUTING

I graduated with a degree that at the time was a necessity for all industries, and I was lucky to be recruited immediately in to the mobile industry, which has been one of the faster growing industries in the world for the last two decades and is still showing double digits growth. It has given me an opportunity to work and live in various countries,

I would like to say thank you to Westminster, as it changed my life and is taking me through an amazing journey that I could have never even imagined back in 1994.

CAROL WILLIAMS MITCHELL GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER IN 1985

Since graduation and my return to Trinidad, I’ve worked in different areas including public relations and communications, and project management in the development field (HIV and AIDS) gaining significant experience along the way.

In between, I’ve taught beginners’ Chinese to several cohorts at the Business School of the University of the West Indies, and did an MA in Chinese Studies (Leeds 2012). Most recently, along with a colleague, I prepared foreign service officers for posting to Beijing for the establishment of the Trinidad and Tobago embassy in China.

GAVIN TANNENBAUM GRADUATED WITH A BA IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM IN 2008

I graduated in 2008, and have been teaching in various language schools in the UK and in Spain, and also learning Spanish.

CLASS NOTES

I did a course after my degree to teach adults and children and have been doing that since. I am also looking for a niche in tourism and language schools. Teaching English has been very varied, and I have taught business and exam courses. It’s fun and I have also travelled quite a bit since leaving Westminster; I am in contact with some friends, and I have kept busy and play tennis.

MONYCA MOTTA GRADUATED FROM THE ENTERTAINMENT LAW LLM IN 2007

I graduated with merit in the Entertainment Law LLM course, as a Chevening/ Westminster scholarship recipient; within a couple of weeks I got a job at Teachers TV, then a cable channel devoted to educational content, in the business affairs department.

After a few months working in Portugal in 2008, I returned to London to work at Nikki Collier Media Law, a firm specialising in entertainment law and TV deals. By the end of 2009 due to the European crisis I decided to come back to my home country Brazil and practice law in the entertainment field, specially music. Since 2011, I have also joined the incredible TED network, becoming a TEDx organiser, and organising two editions of TEDxSalvador. Now I am

facing one of the big challenges of my life since; I have been invited to act as Creative Economy Co-ordinator for the city of Salvador, Bahia, my home town. I have never thought of joining the public service, but it is a great opportunity to help my city and my country and give back to this community a little of what I have received from life. Back in 2005 when I wrote my personal statement for the Chevening Scholarship and for the admission at Westminster I mentioned that one of the reasons I wanted to study in the UK was to get to know and learn more about the UK creative economy programme, and return to my country to apply some of these lessons. I still did not have a clue what the future would hold for me, but looking back now, it makes perfect sense. So thank you all at the University of Westminster for this!

REHEMA RUTH NAMUKASA GRADUATED IN 2009 WITH AN MA IN INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS AND DEVELOPMENT

I have progressed to working as a lecturer at Cranford College teaching Human Resources. My class has both national and international students. I am also working part-time as a sessional tutor at Hillingdon Council teaching functional mathematics in the skills and employability section, which seeks to encourage residents to take up work and further formal education. I’ve always dreamed of being a lecturer and am glad my dream became reality two years ago. Last September,

I enrolled back at Westminster on a PGCE course, so that I can qualify as a lecturer in the UK. My dream and desire is to lecture at the University of Westminster.

I was made a professional by the University and I want to make many more professionals by working there as a lecturer.

I pray my dream becomes a reality.

this fabled city, all through the medium of comics.

Featuring a time-travelling auto-rickshaw, the graphic novel is a rollicking ride through five centuries of history. It is expected to hit bookstores in September this year.

MARIA HANRAHAN GRADUATED FROM THE BUILDING SURVEYING BSC IN 2010

SAKSIT TECHARATANACHOK GRADUATED FROM THE MULTIMEDIA COMPUTING BSC IN 2001

After graduating, I went back to Thailand and started working at a graphic design company for a year. However, my life changed when I start working at Imagimax Animation in Bangkok as a visual effect artist. It was the job I had wanted for many years. As I developed my skills, I worked on many local and international films. I have since become the Visual Effect Supervisor and work closely with directors and production teams on films and TV commercials. Over the past few years, I have become a part-time instructor in many universities in Thailand.

In 2010, I went back to London again to study 3D Architecture.

JAIDEEP UNUDURTI GRADUATED WITH A JOURNALISM MA IN 2003

I’m putting the final touches to the Hyderabad Graphic Novel, a unique city-centric approach to graphic storytelling. Working with a team of pencillers, inkers, colourists and graphic designers across India, I have tried to evoke the mystique and legends of

I am currently working as a Project Manager for Catalyst Housing Ltd. One of my projects received a Sustainable Housing Award 2012 for the Sustainable Smaller Housing Retrofit Project of the Year (fewer than 25 homes). The project comprised a pilot scheme in Reading where two Victorian properties were refurbished with two different approaches to retrofit. The first home, Cost House, has had retrofit costs kept as low as possible whereas with the second home, Performance House, budgetary constraints were secondary to final building performance. The purpose of the project was to identify value for money approaches to reducing CO2 emissions and fuel costs that will be suitable for incorporation into other programmes of refurbishment work.

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43

GET INVOLVED: UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR ALUMNI

ALUMNI LECTURE SERIES In honour of the 175th anniversary the University will be holding a series of Alumni Lectures which will celebrate the achievements of several of our former students.

Confirmed speakers include: Dominic Grieve (Law 1979), Attorney General and Member of Parliament for Beaconsfield November 2013 (3 •

December 2013), 6.30pm

• Professor Sophie Scott (Life Sciences 1970),

Deputy Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL 27 November 2013, 6.30pm

UPCOMING ALUMNI REUNIONS 1973 URBAN ESTATE MANAGEMENT

Tom Sheldon is organising a reunion for the 1973 Urban Estate Management year group on the evening of Tuesday, 3 October 2013.

For more information please contact Tom at tom@turkeymill.co.uk

1994 COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Anu Joshi (nee Bhagi) is organising a 20-year reunion for the 1994 class of the Computing and Information Systems Engineering course.

The reunion will take place in June 2014; please contact the Alumni team at alumni@ westminster.ac.uk to express your interest in attending this event.

Whether you graduated five or 50 years ago, why not think about organising a reunion for your former classmates? For more information and assistance please contact the Alumni team at alumni@westminster.ac.uk or +44 (0)20 3506 6245.

• Geoff Mulgan (PhD Communications 1990),

Chief Executive of NESTA 4 March 2014, 6.30pm

ANNUAL ALUMNI RECEPTION 6.30 – 9PM, WEDNESDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2013, AMBIKA P3, UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER, MARYLEBONE CAMPUS, LONDON, NW1 5LS (NEAREST TUBE BAKER STREET).

The Alumni Reception will welcome alumni, friends and supporters against the backdrop of an exhibition of the major works of the conceptual artist Victor Burgin in Westminster’s Ambika P3 gallery.

The event is an opportunity for our staff, academics and the Alumni team to meet and thank alumni and friends who support the University. For more information on the many ways you can get involved with the University please contact the Alumni team at alumni@westminster.ac.uk

44 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS WITH EXCLUSIVE STUDY DISCOUNT FOR ALUMNI The University of Westminster offers a discount on its full- and part-time Masters courses* if you are an alumni student holding a Bachelors degree with Honours from the University of Westminster.

• The alumni discount rates are as follows: • 15 PER CENT DISCOUNT on tuition fees if you graduated with a Bachelors degree with Honours from the University of Westminster in the last three years; and • 10 per cent discount on tuition fees if you graduated with a Bachelors degree with Honours from the University of Westminster in the last five years.

For more information on available courses please contact the Course Enquiries Team at course-enquiries@westminster.ac.uk *This discount only applies on courses started from January 2012 onwards Discount does not apply to the March (RIBA part II).

GET INVOLVED: UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR ALUMNI

MBA TUESDAY CLUB MONTHLY EVENTS FOR WESTMINSTER BUSINESS SCHOOL MBA ALUMNI AND STUDENTS DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

WESTMINSTER BUSINESS SCHOOL NEW SHORT COURSES

In conversation with Dr David Lewis, Chairman and Director of Neuroscience at Mindlab International 8 October 2013, 6 – 8.30pm Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS Dr Lewis will present his new book The Brain Sell: When Science Meets Shopping: Inside the New Brain Sciences That Seek to Read Your Mind and Manipulate Your Behaviour MBA students and alumni are particularly encouraged to bring questions for David, contribute to the discussion/share their own experiences of entrepreneurship, and network over drinks

ANNUAL CAREERS FAIR 2013

2 OCTOBER 2013 12 – 4PM AT AMBIKA P3 MARYLEBONE CAMPUS

MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

This one-week course taking place in November 2013 is designed to help promising executives and functional specialists to become inspiring business leaders.

PROJECT AND PROGRAMME MANAGEMENT

Complex projects frequently involve a number of organisations working in partnership, or through contractual agreements to achieve their objectives. Brush up your project management skills with either the PRINCE2 Foundation or Practioner course which will be running at Westminster this autumn.

MANAGING RISK MORE EFFECTIVELY

The M_o_R best practice guidance portfolio published by the Government’s Cabinet Office, considers risk from different perspectives within an organisation. This weekend course will take place from 2 November 2013.

A LIGHT-FOOTED APPROACH TO MANAGEMENT

The Agile Project Management course, which takes place on weekends from 19 October 2013, aims to address the needs of those working in a project-focused environment.

PROFESSIONAL ACCOUNTING EXAMS

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) exams are designed to meet the needs of those aiming for a career in accountancy.

For more information please visit westminster.ac.uk/courses/professional-andshort/business-and-management

#uowACF2013 westminster.ac.uk/annual-careers-fair

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 45

GET INVOLVED: UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR ALUMNI

SHORT COURSES Continue your education after graduation with one of Westminster’s extended portfolio of continuing professional development (CPD) and short courses.

Alumni receive up to a 15 per cent discount off the standard price of selected courses and your attendance may count towards CPD with professional bodies.* Find out more and apply at westminster.ac.uk/courses/ professional-and-short *Please refer to individual course descriptions for details

The University of Westminster has a commitment to conduct world-leading research, with academic staff inspiring innovation and leading exciting advances that will one day change lives. The University’s Professorial and Inaugural Lecture Series for 2012/13 brings this research into the public arena with a series of lectures delivered by key academics.

SHARING AND SOCIAL MEDIA Professor Graham Meikle 16 October 2013, 6pm ARE WE IN A CLOUD OR NOT? Professor Gabor Terstyanszky 6 November 2013, 6pm IS THE IMPACT AGENDA FEMINIST? Professor Shona Bettany 5 February 2014, 6pm DEMOCRATIC INNOVATIONS Professor Graham Smith 12 February 2014, 6pm SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE Professor Christian Fuchs 19 February 2014, 6pm CATASTROPHIC FUTURES AND APPLIED FICTION Professor John Beck 5 March 2014, 6pm WHY CAN’T WE SEE CONSTRUCTION, ALONG WITH THE SCIENTISTS, AS AN ARTFUL DIALOGUE WITH NATURE? Professor David Dernie 12 March 2014, 6pm GLOBAL IMAGERIES BETWEEN CRITICAL COMMENTARY AND ELABORATE EYE-CANDY: ON THE WORK OF AES+F Professor Kirsten Mey 19 March 2014, 6pm

THE EVENING LANGUAGE PROGRAMME AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER OFFERS LANGUAGE TUITION RIGHT IN THE HEART OF LONDON Join one of our courses* and take the first step towards learning a new language.

For more information please visit: westminster.ac.uk/courses/ professional-and-short/languages

IMAGINATION AND THE SCIENCES: OR, WHY FRANKENSTEIN MAY STILL BE THE MODERN PROMETHEUS Professor Martin Willis 26 March 2014, 6pm Held at: The Old Cinema 309 Regent Street London W1B 2UW For further information and to book your place on any of the lectures please visit westminster.ac.uk/inaugurallectures

*Alumni receive a 23 per cent discount if booking for the full academic year.

IDEAS INFLUENCE INSPIRATION 46 NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013

GET INVOLVED: UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR ALUMNI

PLUG IN YOUR BRAIN at our free public evening discussions

BIOSCIENCE’S GRAND PROMISES 24 October 2013, 6.45pm Has bioscience simply become a business enterprise? Feminist sociologist Professor Hilary Rose and neuroscientist Professor Steven Rose take on the bioscience industry and its claims.

WAXING LYRICAL 28 November 2013, 6.45pm Join comedian, actress, and converted neuroscientist Ruby Wax for a journey from the heights of fame to the depths of mental illness and back again.

TALKING DRUGS 20 February 2014, 6.45pm Professor David Nutt is one of the world’s leading experts on the effects of drugs on the brain. Join us as he talks about his life in science, his disputes with government over drug policy, and why MDMA is so much more than a party drug.

THE EXAMINED LIFE 20 March 2014, 6.45pm As a practising psychoanalyst Stephen Grosz has spent the last 25 years uncovering the hidden feelings behind our most baffling behaviour. In the final talk in our season, we unveil a portrait of the analyst at work and show how lessons learned in the consulting room can reveal as much to all of us as to the patient.

BUILDUP

SUPPORTING BUILT ENVIRONMENT PROFESSIONALS

BUILDUP is a professional development and consultancy service offered by the Faculty of Architecture and Built Environment. We run a variety of CPD certified short courses covering a range of disciplines from policy planning to architecture.

Find out more buildup.westminster.ac.uk courses/info

PROFESSIONAL AND SHORT COURSE OPEN DAYS The University of Westminster regularly holds open evening sessions for professional and short courses throughout our four campuses.

For more information on upcoming sessions please visit westminster.ac.uk/study/prospectivestudents/open-days/professional-and-shortcourse-open-days

Plug In Your Brain talks are open to all and hosted by the Department of Psychology, University of Westminster. All events will take place in The Old Cinema, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW. For more information and to register your interest, please visit westminster.ac.uk/pluginyourbrain or facebook/pluginyourbrain

POSTGRADUATE INFORMATION EVENING 5.30pm – 6.30pm 13 November 2013 Cavendish, Marylebone, Harrow, Regent The evening offers prospective postgraduate students the opportunity to talk to academics about course content and to take a tour of the building with current University of Westminster students. Refreshments will also be provided. This event will be held on all sites, so please check the table below for the relevant subject to find the appropriate location. Our Postgraduate information evening commences at 5.30pm For more information and to register for the evening please visit westminster.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/open-days

The Department of Photography at the University of Westminster has launched an exciting new programme of short courses due to start in September.

New courses include: • Black and white darkroom • Alternative photographic processes • Photographing the city – London • The history of photography through London’s archives For more information visit

westminster.ac.uk/photographyshortcourses

NETWORK UNIVERSITY OF WESTMINSTER ALUMNI MAGAZINE 2013 47

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A SEAT

YOUR CHANCE TO HELP US REVIVE THE BIRTHPLACE OF BRITISH CINEMA The University is restoring its historic theatre, where the very first moving images were shown in the UK, to create a working cinema and state-of-the-art auditorium, a place for learning and cultural exchange – a landmark venue for the British film industry.

Join your fellow alumni in naming a seat to help us secure the future of the Regent Street Cinema for our students and for everyone.

To donate or find out more about the campaign, please visit birthplaceofcinema.com/seat-campaign

““THIS IS A HISTORIC LANDMARK, BUT IT’S SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT” TIM BEVAN, CO-CHAIRMAN, WORKING TITLE FILMS

YOUR CHANCE TO HELP US REVIVE THE BIRTHPLACE OF BRITISH CINEMA

With this image i’ll have to check there is a high res version...

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A SEAT The University is restoring its historic theatre, where the very first moving images were shown in the UK, to create a working cinema and state-of-the-art auditorium, a place for learning and cultural exchange – a landmark venue for the British film industry.

Join your fellow alumni in naming a seat to help us secure the future of the Regent Street Cinema for our students and for everyone.

To donate or find out more about the campaign, please visit birthplaceofcinema.com/seat-campaign

“THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO SHOW MY COMMITMENT TO THE REGENT STREET CINEMA. I HOPE OTHERS WILL JOIN ME.” NICOLAS KENT, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE TRICYCLE THEATRE

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A SEAT

YOUR CHANCE TO HELP US REVIVE THE BIRTHPLACE OF BRITISH CINEMA The University is restoring its historic theatre, where the very first moving images were shown in the UK, to create a working cinema and state-of-the-art auditorium, a place for learning and cultural exchange – a landmark venue for the British film industry.

Join your fellow alumni in naming a seat to help us secure the future of the Regent Street Cinema for our students and for everyone.

To donate or find out more about the campaign, please visit birthplaceofcinema.com/seat-campaign

“THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO SHOW MY COMMITMENT TO THE REGENT STREET CINEMA. I HOPE OTHERS WILL JOIN ME.” NICOLAS KENT, FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE TRICYCLE THEATRE

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A SEAT YOUR CHANCE TO HELP US REVIVE THE BIRTHPLACE OF BRITISH CINEMA The University is restoring its historic theatre, where the very first moving images were shown in the UK, to create a working cinema and state-of-the-art auditorium, a place for learning and cultural exchange – a landmark venue for the British film industry.

Join your fellow alumni in naming a seat to help us secure the future of the Regent Street Cinema for our students and for everyone.

To donate or find out more about the campaign, please visit birthplaceofcinema.com/seat-campaign