SPACE - Autumn 2016

sPACE

The magazine for Bath Spa University students and staff | Autumn 2016

The huge importance of being a global citizen

we need to preserve our disappearing videogame culture

Prestigious drawing exhibition comes to bath for the first time

vice-chancellor update

W

elcome to our new students and staff, and welcome back to those of you who took a break over the summer.

Professor Christina Slade

SPACE magazine is published seasonally for Bath Spa University students and staff.

Want to get involved?

Email spacemag@bathspa.ac.uk

Already this term has been a busy one with activities during One World Week, Equality and Diversity Week, open days and the new Bath Spa Live programme of events which included the first Professorial Lecture of this year, delivered by Kate Rigby, Professor of Environmental Humanities.

Editor

Over the last few years we have grown and welcomed new students, professors, academics and professional staff. Our offering to students has developed to allow greater choice and flexibility, and we have improved our facilities. Most recently we have taken ownership of a factory in the Locksbrook Road area of Bath which will in time become home to much of Bath School of Art and Design (BSAD). In the interim, some BSAD students and staff will be based at Locksbrook Road for this academic year and future plans for this new campus will be shared with you in due course.

Jennifer Davies Features Jane Wakefield Alexandra Snell Design Rosie Maynard Contributors James Newman

It is wonderful to see our campuses filled again with vibrancy and creativity and I look forward to the successes this year will undoubtedly bring.

Jenna Rainey Front cover Victoria Bone, MA Fine Art Back cover Photograph by Alexandra Snell Photography Chris Wakefield @CrescentPhoto

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CONTENTS

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4 ON the cover 6

Prestigious drawing exhibition comes to Bath for the first time

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The huge importance of being a global citizen

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We need to preserve our disappearing videogame culture

Regulars 4

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Success at Spa Stories from students and staff across our University Autumn in Pictures

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SPACE to Shout!

Your tweets, photographs, recommended reads, events and advice

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Kitty’s Column Hear from the Students’ Union President

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5 Minutes With…

Professor Iftikhar H Malik, Professor of History at Bath Spa

Features 12

SPACE to Chat Reaching out in Bali Jenna Rainey, MA Travel and Nature Writing, talks about the importance of being a global citizen

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SPACE to Talk We need to preserve our disappearing videogame culture James Newman, Professor of Media, Digital Academy, Bath Spa University

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Success at spa

New courses in Environmental Humanities

Pioneering Environmental Humanities Led by Professor Kate Rigby, the University is building on its long-standing strength in environmental literary studies and has launched a new MA and PhD in Environmental Humanities.

The Environmental Humanities is an area of interdisciplinary research that examines the interrelationships among human cultures, social relations, and the physical environment by bringing research in philosophy, politics, art and literature, language, religion, history, human geography and anthropology, into conversation with the natural sciences.

The MA is the first of its kind in the UK and explores new disciplinary

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perspectives through critical focus on key concepts such as ‘the Anthropocene’ - the idea that Earth has now entered a new geological era, indelibly shaped by human activities. The PhD offers an outstanding experience for doctoral students, with access to a wide-ranging researcher development programme and opportunities to develop teaching skills by participating in Bath Spa’s Graduate Teaching Assistant Scheme.

Commenting on the introduction of the programmes, Professor of Environmental Humanities Kate Rigby, said: “It is vital to our future, and that of many other species, that we focus

on understanding and confronting the socio-cultural dimensions of global environmental change and widespread degradation. Students and researchers in this emerging field have the capacity to drive innovation, challenge perceptions and make change happen. The interdisciplinary nature of our programmes provides the opportunity for broad and rigorous thought on complex socioenvironmental issues. This is an exciting step for Bath Spa towards making a significant contribution to the development of this emerging field.”

Success at spa

Professor Neil Sammells will host a lecture Creative writing project

Showcasing Bath Spa’s body of talent Bath Spa University will hold a series of public lectures this academic year.

The Professorial Lecture Series is being held to celebrate and share the expertise of Bath Spa’s new and established Professors.

Lecture topics range from the Value of Literary Prizes, to Understanding Prehistoric Landscape Change. This series promises to be engaging, as well as entertaining.

Sean Cameron, Research and Graduate Affairs Officer, said: “The Professorial Lecture Series is a great way to involve the public in University research and it is a fantastic way to showcase our Professors. These lectures really do highlight the body of talent we have here at Bath Spa.” The lectures are open to all students and staff as well as the general public.

To find out more and to book visit Bath Spa Live.

Working with local schools in the South West to inspire a nation of young writers In September it was the hundredth birthday of beloved children’s author and storyteller Roald Dahl. To celebrate, Bath Spa University urged local schools to get involved in a unique creative writing project.

The University is searching for 100 schools to pioneer a new writing programme called Paper Nations. The project is led by Bath Spa University in partnership with Bath Festivals and the National Association of Writers in Education. Professional writers will work with teachers to develop high quality creative writing experiences for children age eight to 14.

The project has received support from Arts Council England through a strategic fund that aims build a regular, consistent and high quality creative writing offer in schools across England.

Creative Director of the Project Bambo Soyinka said: “For the past decade, Roald Dahl’s birthday has been recognised with a worldwide celebration, ‘Roald Dahl Day’.

This year, on what would have been Roald Dahl’s hundredth birthday, the celebrations were bigger and more dahlicious than ever before. Therefore it seemed fitting to launch our search for schools in celebration of this inspirational and muchloved author.

“We are searching for one hundred schools prepared to take the Paper Nations challenge and get involved.

Creative writing should be part of every child’s education as it develops imaginative thought, language and literary skills. Paper Nations will introduce school pupils to the joys of writing and will enable young people to learn alongside professional writers.”

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University Success at news spa

Prestigious drawing exhibition comes to bath for the first time

After Emma by Anthony Caro

Artist Boss: the role of studio assistants A new research project which looks at the relationship between artist and assistant was launched August with the launch of a new book, Artist Boss. It is being led by Jenny Dunseath, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, Bath School of Art and Design, who herself worked as a studio assistant to Sir Anthony Caro, one of Britain’s greatest sculptors.

The book is published by Wunderkammer Press and co-edited by Dr Mark Wilsher, subject leader of MA Curation at Norwich University of the Arts. It gives unique insights into the experiences of working with Caro through a series of interviews with his studio assistants.

Commenting on the project, Jenny said: “There are collaborative elements which often influence and change the course of an artist’s work. We set out to provide an intimate and frank interpretation of the artist and ways of working, gaining some wonderful insights from those closest

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to Caro in the studio and exploring how the experience has shaped their careers.

“At Bath School of Art and Design we encourage our students to consider the effect that the influence of others has on their artistic work. Research such as this not only opens up access to new work and engages new audiences with sculpture, it also stimulates new possibilities and creative thinking for students, academics, artists, and the public.”

In addition to the book, an exhibition is being held at the New Art Centre, Roche Court, which will give the public a unique opportunity to see how the artists unified

by Caro explore the language of sculpture today. The exhibition runs until January 2017. Two associate exhibitions will also take place at The Cut in Suffolk and Bath Spa University’s Bath School of Art and Design.

More information about the project is available at www.artistboss.org.uk

The Jerwood Drawing Prize is a joint initiative led by Anita Taylor, Dean of Bath School of Art and Design, and is supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation through the gallery programme Jerwood Visual Arts.

The exhibition celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2014 and 2015 marked fifteen years of support from the Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

For the first time in 20 years the exhibition is coming to Bath and will showcase the work of UK based drawing practitioners ranging from students to established artists. The exhibition is being held at The Edge, University of Bath until Saturday 17 December.

The 2016 works were selected for inclusion by artist Glenn Brown, Stephanie Buck, Director of Kupferstich-Kabinett at Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, and Director of Modern Art Oxford Paul Hobson.

The first prize was awarded to Solveig Settemsdal for her video Singularity, and the second prize was awarded to Anna Sofie Jespersen for her work Sid in Bathtub. Two student awards of £2,000 were given to Jade Chorkularb and Amelie Barnathan.

University Success at news spa

Diversity in Teacher Education Over recent years the routes that individuals can take to achieve qualified teacher status (QTS) have been diversifying. The multiplication of options has been led by various policy agendas, one of which is to shift the location of teacher preparation to the teachers’ workplace - schools. The range of possibilities from which to choose has been becoming bewildering. As a result, the terminology and the general complexity in the field present a real challenge.

Diversity in Teacher Education (DiTE) is the name for a research project within the Institute for Education which is investigating the question: Do different models of teacher preparation produce different outcomes?

The research team recently published a paper Towards a new topography of ITT: A profile of initial teacher training in England 2015-16.

It challenges the claim that teacher preparation can be neatly packaged and that there are two simple options: university or school based training.

The paper identifies and maps the multiple routes to qualified teacher status (QTS). In early November colleagues from the Institute for Education presented the paper at the Universities’ Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET) conference in Birmingham.

As well as research into topography, there are three other strands to the project: policy and theory, macro data analysis and qualitative fieldwork. The members of the DiTE team are Pat Black, Dr Jim Hordern, Professor Ian Menter, Dr Anne Parfitt, Dr Kate Reynolds, Dr Catherine Simon, Dr Nick Sorensen, Dr Caroline Whiting and Professor Geoff Whitty.

Success at Higher Education event Writhlington Dragonfly Sixth Form in Radstock recently held a Higher Education evening at Bath Spa University. The aim of the evening was to enable students to experience life at a local University. Students and parents had a carousel of talks covering an array of topics including: university life, student finance, deadlines, writing an effective personal statement, surviving on a student budget and the benefits of studying abroad. There was also a talk from a mothers’ perspective of her child leaving for University specifically for parents.

Lindsey Sloman, a teacher at Writhlington Dragonfly Sixth Form, said: “It was a wonderful experience to get local universities and Further Education Colleges together. Those who had never experienced being at university could see the opportunities available to themselves or their children - the evening was a huge success and is being repeated again in June 2017.”

Be creative, be a teacher

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Success at spa

Theatre piece marks 100 years since Irish Easter Uprising Dr Helena Enright, Lecturer in Drama, recently wrote a verbatim theatre show to commemorate 100 years since the Irish Easter Uprising called Rising.

Verbatim theatre is often referred to as documentary theatre as it is an art form that focuses on using precise words used by people at the time of the event. The uprising was an armed rebellion from Irish Republicans who hoped to gain independence for Ireland and end British rule.

Helena first found out about the project through a friend at Dublin Youth Theatre who wanted someone to come and write a verbatim theatre piece to mark the uprising. The Arts Council had a pot of funding set aside for theatre companies who wanted to do a show about the uprising. Dublin Youth Theatre had to bid for funding and with the help of the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, and a scratch piece that Helena had created with some of the company.

The script did not exist when Helena went to Ireland to start rehearsals.

She said: “Tom Creed, the director, and I wanted to see what thoughts and feelings were invoked by the theatre group through the contemporary texts and poems.” Helena interviewed 20 to 30 year old activists and politicians about their thoughts on the uprising and gave

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this material to the young practitioners.

“The script was a collaborative effort over the six week rehearsal period,” Helena said. “We had over 400 pages of material that we needed to reduce to 40.”

The play was a success. The Limerick Spring Festival of Politics asked if the show could be performed for their upcoming festival. So, will the show go on tour?

Helena said: “The cast is of 20 young people, ranging from 18 to 22 years old and they are all from various backgrounds, so organising a tour would be difficult. We are keen to do it, it is just a matter of organising it.”

Rising wasn’t Helena’s first verbatim theatre piece. She has written six shows in total, including one where she compiled interviews of resident’s experience of the River Shannon, Ireland, and performed them as a one woman show on an 80ft barge where the audience watched from a boat.

Helena is now working with a Domestic Abuse charity in Bath where the aim is to set up a theatre programme to help the victims get their voices heard. She said: “Verbatim theatre is all about how we stage these personal testimonies. It is so relevant and so important.”

Trevor Osborne

Lifetime Achievement Award winner Trevor Osborne Congratulations to Sir Trevor Osborne, Governor of Bath Spa University, who won the Bath Chronicle Business Awards Lifetime Achievement Award.

Trevor came away with one of the headline awards at the 2016 event earlier this year.

He has long been a prominent figure in the life of Bath. As well as currently being a governor of Bath Spa University, he is involved in the Bath Abbey Footprint campaign and was a trustee of the Holburne Museum from 2008 to 2014.

Success at spa

Exploring writing and technology – call for participation in the next MIX DIGITAL conference MIX DIGITAL is an event that has established itself as an innovative forum for the discussion and exploration of writing and technology, attracting an international cohort of contributors from the UK, Australia, and Europe as well as North and South America.

After the success of the last three MIX DIGITAL conferences, MIX 2017 returns to Bath Spa University’s Newton Park campus next July. The three-day conference will take place on Monday 10 to Wednesday 12 July 2017.

As the UK’s foremost provider of creative writing programmes at undergraduate, masters and PhD level, Bath Spa University is proud to host

MIX 2017 to explore themes such as digital fiction, transmedia narrative, new reading habits and augmented reality.

The MIX 17 conference will host a vibrant mix of academic papers, practitioner presentations, seminars, keynotes, discussions and workshops.

Alongside scholars and researchers, artists, creative writers and creative technologists.

Keynote speakers include Professor Jon Dovey, Digital Culture Research Centre and Pervasive Media Studio at the University of the West of England, and Dr Elizabeth Evans, Assistant Professor in Film and Television Studies at the University of Nottingham.

Call for papers This year the conference organisers would like to encourage the submission of research papers and artist or practitioner presentations that address the themes of revolutions, regenerations and reflections.

They are interested in work that takes a wide variety of forms, including digital fiction and poetry, participatory media, digital art and text, collaborations between writers and technologists, hybrid and cross-media practice, transmedia practice, as well as addressing themes on the future of the book, new forms of publishing, convergent media cultures and new forms of digital curation. Deadline is 30 January.

Tickets will be available soon.

For more information on MIX 2017 visit www.mixconference.org Advert

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Autumn IN PICTURES

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2 & 5 Work by graduate Andrea Wright, two years ago Andrea took the plunge and chose to move to Bath to study for a Masters in Fine Art, following a career in music and fashion which had taken her to New York and London, and she hasn’t looked back.

1, 3, 4 & 7 Welcome Week!

What a great week and the start of a great journey here at Bath Spa. 6 Emerging artists showcase outstanding work at Bath School of Art and Design’s annual MA Degree Show

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autumn IN PICTURES

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sPACE TO

“ Chat ” Reaching out in Bali

Jenna Rainey, Creative Writing and Publishing graduate, and now studying for an MA in Travel and Nature Writing, talks about the importance of being a global citizen The Global Citizenship Programme is a fantastic initiative run by Bath Spa University. The programme consists of a varied array of lectures and seminars, staggered throughout the year, each led by a guest speaker often a specialist in their industry. The idea is to get students to become increasingly aware of, and address the issues that potentially affect communities across the globe. The course runs throughout the three years of undergraduate study, and consists of a placement in your second or third year.

This summer I embarked on my own transnational adventure, as I set out to teach schoolchildren on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The voluntary placement is a means of helping communities, by distributing your personal skills to aid and benefit those in other countries, an effort that enriches all parties involved. I was very excited to undertake my placement, as I had known for a while that I wanted to work with children especially helping educate them through creativity.

“The humidity hit the moment you stepped off the plane, I haggled for a good price on a taxi and set off on my journey up into the foothills of the tropical Ubud region.”

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“It was incredibly heart-warming to witness their efforts and to say I had a near-full class in attendance every day I was there, it made me feel like I must be doing something right.”

Natural alarm clock It was my first international flight and the world I walked into when I touched down in Denpasar couldn’t have been more different in comparison to the climate I am used to. The humidity hit the moment you stepped off the plane, I haggled for a good price on a taxi and set off on my journey up into the foothills of the tropical Ubud region. I stayed in a local homestead and the house was simplistic, only holding the essentials, including a bamboo bunk, a bathroom, a few bamboo furnishings and a water tank, but it was all that was needed. I was awoken early each morning at the break of dawn, my alarm a natural harmony of the brooding cockerels and howling stray dogs.

Journey to school Each day consisted of a similar routine.

Starting with breakfast, before several hours of lesson planning, a brief lunch and then we departed for the day’s teaching.

My school was based 40 minutes away from the village, through winding valleys of congested forest on either side. The journey to the school alone felt like an intrepid adventure, but was made all the more real, when greeted by the eager children at the school gates.

Each day I would try to vary my lessons, so as to educate the pupils in a variety of subjects. Although the children attend school in Bali, education isn’t essential like it is in Britain and often teachers don’t turn up, so it can fall on the volunteers to try and fill in the gaps.

Eager to learn I was teaching Grade three and found the children’s abilities varied, so it was a challenge to ensure each child was able to keep up a similar pace to the rest.

That said, they were always eager for more work and determined to finish each activity, even if they didn’t fully understand the English. It was incredibly heartwarming to witness their efforts and to say I had a nearfull class in attendance every day I was there; it made me feel like I must be doing something right.

No regrets The whole experience of living on a need to be basis in a foreign country was a very welcome change to the busy cosmopolitan lifestyle at home. Teaching the children was a delight and I even got to learn some local skills, such as Balinese cookery and crafts. Over the days I got to talk with some of the locals and hear stories about their life and everything about the experience was eye-opening, truly. It caused me to think about my personal life choices, and even aided decisions about future career paths. Volunteering abroad was one of the best things I have done and I would fully recommend the experience to other open-minded individuals, whether on the Global Citizenship programme or not.

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sPACE TO

“ Talk ” We need to preserve our disappearing videogame culture James Newman, Professor of Media, Digital Academy, Bath Spa University

Videogames have been with us for just a few decades, but the industry is already worth more than Hollywood. Hundreds of new games arrive each year, from AAA-rated titles with multi-million-dollar budgets to indie titles created by individual developers crowdfunding their efforts.

Videogames are a vital part of our cultural heritage and creative economy, and it’s important we record and preserve them.

In recent years, academics and museum specialists, not to mention a legion of fans and enthusiasts, have dedicated themselves to the project of game preservation. While there are now more platforms on which to play games than ever before – from dedicated consoles to smartphones – videogames disappear all the time. Game systems go out of production, servers required for games played online are shut down, and even the digital data stored in chips, floppy disks and CDs begin to decay.

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to re-release select titles from their back Not unreasonably, much preservation catalogues, but for preservation activities, work focuses on making old games the technique is not without issue. While playable again. Typically this is achieved through emulation, where software running the unofficial creation of videogame system emulators is generally considered on one platform – a modern PC, for allowable, the acquisition and sharing of example – reproduces the environment copyrighted code remains unequivocally required to run software from another – illegal. And as the games that we might such as 1980s-era 8-bit systems such as want to play typically remain under the Nintendo NES, and home computers copyright long after their commercial like the Commodore 64 or ZX Spectrum. lifespan, such techniques often pose The power of modern computing platforms and sophistication “Many systems feature dedicated joysticks, of emulation as well as dancemats, lightguns, gloves, software means and even fishing rods.” that many early games can even insurmountable legal issues and require be played in a web browser: the Internet navigating complex permissions and Archive’s Internet Arcade holds over 900 intellectual property rights. games that are playable online.

More practically, while it’s possible The technical achievement here is to play arcade and console games on obvious and emulation is often used a modern laptop, the experience may “behind the scenes” by publishers wanting

be very different from the original. Many systems feature dedicated joysticks, as well as dancemats, lightguns, gloves, and even fishing rods. Playing the games without these controllers or on alternative types of TV screen can be profoundly different. As Foteini Aravani, Digital Curator at the Museum of London has noted, it’s as important to collect and preserve these physical components of videogames that are essential to the experience as it is to

interactive exhibits and games elsewhere in the building that explore different aspects of game design and structure. But the 100 Objects gallery tells the stories of videogames’ early days and provides context that cannot be found through the act of playing alone.

The first is a hand-drawn cassette inlay for the 1985 Commodore 64 game Way of the Exploding Fist. This is not the original cover, but rather a homemade creation for an illegallycopied “Videogames have been with us for just a few version of decades, but the industry is already worth the game.

Like many more than Hollywood. Hundreds of new players at games arrive each year.” the time, the (anonymous) preserve the software code. That way, the donor of this piece had duplicated a experience of pressing the ZX Spectrum’s friends’ copy of the game using nothing rubbery keys can be recreated. more than a domestic hi-fi. As the game However, there are other reasons for was encoded as audio on cassette tape, collecting videogame objects. Since the copying the game was as straightforward National Videogame Arcade, where I am (and as illegal) as copying a Top 40 album. part of the research and curatorial team, In case we think media piracy is the opened in Nottingham in March 2015, one preserve of the current generation of of the most popular exhibits is the History torrent and filesharing networks, this piece of Videogames in 100 Objects. In a sense, of amateur artwork shows it stretches it’s like a traditional gallery exhibits with farther back. We may not lament the a variety of unique and everyday items in 15-minute wait for a game to load from glass cases – certainly a far cry from the cassette, but we should not forget the culture of copying, tape sharing and bootlegging that are fundamental to the early days of videogaming – and indeed Popular Pikachu computing in general.

For a sense of the response to this bootlegging culture, which included industry taglines such as Don’t Copy That Floppy that mirrored the music industry’s line that Home Taping Is Killing Music, the second object looks like a cross between a television test card and an Ishihara test used for detecting colour blindness. Distributed with the 1984 game Jet Set Willy, created by British developer Matthew Smith, this innocuous-looking grid was designed to confound the efforts of pirates and is an example of an early copy protection scheme.

Duplicating the game cassette is still a trivial undertaking. However, the game is designed so that once it is loaded and run, it asks the player for one of the 180 codes

Disappearing videogames

found on the card. Without the correct code, the game will not run any further and cannot be played. No code, no game.

The system worked partly because while copying audio was easy, duplicating a full colour printed copy protection card was far harder to do at home.

Taken together these objects reveal a little of the back story of the battle between rights holders, publishers, pirates and players, as well as the interplay between the technologies of distribution and duplication available at the time and the sometimes surprising strategies deployed. Preserving game code allows us to appreciate the game’s design and aesthetic, but it doesn’t provide any insight into the cultural, political and economic context in which it appeared.

The videogame culture of the time, from fan-made strategy guides and hand-drawn covers to fiendish copy-protection and luxurious manuals, is more difficult to preserve.

If we are to avoid the fate of early television programmes, the sole recordings of which were often wiped in order to reuse the tapes, and even more recent CGI that has been lost, we must recognise how fragile videogames are so we can take action now to preserve the data, paper and culture they represent – before it’s too late.

Article originally in The Conversation

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! SHOUT ! sPACE TO Have your say – We’re looking for letters, feedback, and general social media musings, so please send in what you like about Bath Spa and the city of Bath via spacemag@bathspa.ac.uk

Recommended reads by three of Bath Spa’s talented lecturers

Welcome Week Tweets

Artist Boss

by Jenny Dunseath, Bath School of Art and Design, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art

@chlo_mydia bath spa uni is the prettiest place ever i swear đ&#x;˜? @loribethrachel On route to bath spa university can’t believe it’s actually happening my first choice ahhh đ&#x;š—đ&#x;? đ&#x;?šđ&#x;’–đ&#x;Ž‰đ&#x;’Ť

This new, lavishly illustrated publication explores the potent creative relationship between artist and studio assistant. It includes critical essays that explore the role of artists’ assistants, which raise questions concerning the status of production, originality, authenticity, and authorship in creative practice.

This book, published by Wunderkammer Press, provides a new unchartered approach on the reading of artistic legacy, creative careers, and sculpture today.

@kayleighdaviess Officially a Bath Spa University student đ&#x;˜ đ&#x;“š

Follow the University @BathSpaUni

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Equity, Trust and the Self-improving schools system by Richard Riddell, Senior Lecturer in Education Richard Riddell draws on his interviews with senior managers in schools, academy chains and the regions during the UK Coalition Government to analyse the changes in education policy during its term. The book advocates a two-stage process to achieve long-term school partnerships based on trust, so that inequity in schooling is effectively addressed.

Scar by Carrie Etter, Reader and Senior Lecturer in Creative Studies This chapbook is a single long poem about the effects of climate change on Carrie’s home state of Illinois.

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Top 5 tips for keeping your finances in check!

Your first student loan payment can feel like a lottery win - but you will still need to budget wisely to survive until the winter break.

1) Budget and prioritise Budgeting is the last word you want to hear when you’ve just started at Uni, but it is something that needs to be done.

Accommodation is a top priority, whereas nights out and new shoes come further down the list! After rent, think about food and transport as the next vital things to buy. If you can’t feed yourself or get to Uni then you might find it difficult getting to classes. There are now some really user friendly online budgeting websites designed for students, including studentcalculator.org and international. studentcalculator.org

the supermarket is always a good place to check out a deal, but beware of those flashy supermarket offers in case you overspend on something you don’t need.

Plus the supermarket’s own value option might be cheaper and do just the same job!

3) Part-time work The majority of students now work parttime alongside their studies, whether this is the odd day here and there, or a regular weekend or evening shift. Not only will this give you some spending money, but it will look great on your CV. The University’s Careers Service can help you with CVs, applications, and they even advertise jobs available at the Uni or in the Bath area! Check it out here: https://careerhub. bathspa.ac.uk/students/jobs

2) Offers and freebies

4) Use the library

You are a student, you have a student card, use it! You can get loads of student discounts so always ask. Your transport costs, haircut, clothes, food shop and more, can all be reduced by flashing your student ID. The reduced aisle at

Never buy a book for your course without first checking the library! The library is free so it’s a no brainer. If all the books are taken out it might be online as a resource anyway. If you do have some old textbooks lying around and you are sure you won’t

be need them then you can sell, sell, sell. eBay or Amazon are a good place to start, and this goes for other unwanted items too - those clothes you never wear or kitchen gadget that’s never been touched!

5) Plan ahead

This might seem a bit too organised, but it’s a good idea to start thinking long-term and what costs you might have coming up in the New Year. After winter break it will be house hunting season so if you do have any spare money it would be wise to save some for that housing deposit! This is where a good student bank account can come in handy, particularly if it has an interest-free overdraft. Most of us don’t have £500 lying around, but if you have managed to avoid your overdraft until now then it would be sensible to use it for a deposit.

If you need further advice or guidance about finances whilst at Bath Spa, please contact studentsupport@bathspa.ac.uk for an appointment.

Events for your diary Professorial Lecture series Over a series of 16 lectures, we invite new and established Professors to share their expertise. Each lecture will be on a Wednesday, from 18:00 – 20:00 in Commons G23/ G24, Newton Park.

Coming up this term are: November: Alastair Niven: The Value of Literary Prizes, If there is Any December: Neil Sammells: Oscar Wilde: Be Cool

Carol Concert The Christmas Carol Concert will be held on Wednesday 7 December at Bath Abbey, with special performances from the University’s Choir and readings from the Bath Spa community.

Christmas At Newton Park House BA Acting students present an innovative and interactive piece that journey’s through the generations. Experience history with the ghostly voices who inhabit the corridors. The piece runs from Thursday 15 to Saturday 17 December. Find out more and book tickets at bathspalive.com

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Kitty’s column

Hey! I hope the first month or so has been going as well for you as it has for us.

Things have been going remarkably smoothly for the sabbatical officer team this year. Welcome week came off without a hitch, campus is busy again and we’re all feeling motivated.

Last year we successfully secured funding for the post of Vice-President Education, which was filled by Kat Kennard, and it’s had a hugely positive impact on my team, which leads to positive impact for students.

For many years, the President portfolio has also encompassed the education remit, resulting in membership of around 25 formal meetings which each required their own prep and analysis. As a result it inhibited the ability of the President to be proactive, and led to much more of a reactive nature due to time pressures.

Already I’ve seen that by sitting on far fewer meetings, I have time to talk to students and gather their viewpoint to use as an evidence base, rather than making educated guesses about their student experience. This means that the representational arm of the Union is strengthened, and adds weight to the student voice; definitely a good thing.

As for the Education remit; with the changes that are coming in regards to the Teaching Excellence Framework and the new questions in the NSS, it’s important that the Union has a strong voice regarding the educational experience. For many people, the main motivation in coming to University is the degree (understandably), so we need to be proactive in gathering

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feedback from course reps and senior academic reps and create a strong and open conversation with the University. And guess what? We’re starting to do this and it’s going great.

By having a dedicated Education officer, we have someone whose entire focus is around academic issues and who really has a passion for it. And Kat is a really strong choice for our first VP Education. She was a course rep in her first and second year (studying Music and Drama), before becoming Senior Academic Rep in her third year, for Music and Performing Arts. Having been through the experience that many of our reps go through, she can effectively communicate and relate to them, as well as supporting them throughout their time working with the Union.

It’s been a slightly odd transition going from having three sabbs to four, but it means we have time to focus on big projects, and really bring the Union forward. We’re going to be developing a ‘top student issues’ focus for the year, where we gather student views on what their top priorities are, and work with students to resolve issues relating to this.

Not a small undertaking but I’m really excited about it.

So that’s where we’re at. It’s running smoothly, the new role is so beneficial and we’re all hyped for the year ahead!

If you’d like to contact us please email: sabbs@bathspa.ac.uk

Kitty

5 Minutes With ...

Iftikhar Malik Professor Iftikhar H Malik, Professor of History at Bath Spa, divides his time between Bath and Oxford. He has a keen interest in all things botanical and really enjoys a tasty sandwich.

1

What do you love about Bath Spa University?

It is the autumn colours on our campus that I adore the most.

Rolling hills, slopes around the lakes and especially when the majestic trees in Newton St. Loe turning resplendent with colours.

On a sunny day the spectacle could prove quite nourishing both for the body and soul.

4

Tell me something you’re passionate about at the moment?

Over the years, I have been writing articles on places I visit and people.

Some of the articles are about cycling, hiking, dervishes, or even about my long-gone hakim cousins who pursued traditional Indian and Greek medical practices. I am trying to put them together in a book to create a sense of historical inquiry and respect for endangered tradition.

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2

Where is your favourite spot on campus?

I love eating my sandwich in the Italian Gardens. I had my first picnic there in July 1994, and even now making my way by the lake and skirting around the Castle allows me a fresh, brisk walk that makes my otherwise austere sandwich even more sumptuous.

3

If you went on Mastermind, what would your specialist subject be?

I live in Oxford and often find myself walking around the lakes at Blenheim Palace designed and developed by Capability Brown. During most of my week, I am at Newton Park, where again I enjoy the company of Mr Brown. So, my subject could be about gardens at splendid places such as Isfahan, Bukhara and Samarkand.

And finally, complete this sentence. Not many people know this about me but…

There is market named after me in Iran’s historic city of Isfahan. This city is called Nisf Jahan (meaning half of the world) and it is a gem of a place. It has a unique literary past with buildings, gardens, bridges and houses the world’s largest covered bazaar. On my inquiry, however, I found out that this bazaar is, in fact, named after a local woman, which makes my claim quite dubious, but no less justifiable to non-locals.

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Bath Abbey