university news
Bucking the economic downturn
Expert in criminology on C4 The country’s most quoted academic expert on guns, Professor Peter Squires, lecturer from School of Applied Social Sciences, has provided analysis for the major Channel 4 series, Disarming Britain. A Street Weapons Commission, chaired by Cherie Booth, investigated the problem of gun and knife crime on Britain’s streets and attempted to find out why so many young people now routinely carry guns and knives. Peter brought his expertise in criminology and public policy to the commission panel by
helping to develop profiles of the problems encountered in five cities visited by the commission including London, Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow.
ProfitNet, the university’s business development and learning scheme, recently celebrated its fourth birthday. Launched in 2004, the scheme was originally funded as a pilot in Hastings and Bexhill and has since been rolled out across the rest of East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and West Sussex with over 400 businesses benefitting from the scheme.
Peter also recently completed a report alongside colleagues at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS), King’s College, London, about the state of British gun crime and the government’s response. He was awarded the status of Academician in the Academy of Social Sciences for his outstanding contribution in the field of criminology in October 2008.
The Brighton Effect | February 2009
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Graduates building for the future The bioscience building will house the university’s biggest lecture theatre with a seating capacity for over 300 people and will span nine floors across two buildings, incorporating a student communal study area and multipurpose seminar rooms with movable walls, as well as teaching rooms and laboratories.
Twelve construction graduates have returned to the university to start building work on Moulsecoomb’s new bioscience building. The graduates are now all employees of Morgan Ashurst, the Brighton-based company constructing the new £17m building. “It’s fantastic being back at the university and having the chance to put a stamp on the institution where so many of us began our careers,” says Richard Watts, Building Studies BSc(Hons) 1987, and now Morgan Ashurst area director.
“For many years the university has provided us with graduate trainees and this project gives us an opportunity to allow undergraduates to study a sizeable construction project on their doorstep.”
You can take a virtual tour of the new bioscience building at www.brighton.ac.uk/pharmacy.
ProfitNet helps businesses try to buck the economic downturn through innovation and the application of knowledge management tools. Such is the scheme’s success, ProfitNet has started to be franchised internationally, with networks recently started in Ireland and South Africa with several EU countries expected to follow later this year. Member companies include startups, social enterprises and sole traders as well as more established businesses. The benefits seen by members include improved turnover and profitability, re-branding, new markets and strategies, improved peer support and social networks. For more information about ProfitNet visit www.brighton.ac.uk/profitnet.
News in brief Honorary status awarded
Satisfied students
The home of chess
Veterinary centre opened
Professor Andrew Lloyd, dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, has been awarded the honorary status of Fellow of Biomaterial Science and Engineering (FBSE) of the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering (IUSBSE) at the 8th World Biomaterials Congress held in Amsterdam. Honorary fellows are recognised for their international contribution to the field of biomaterials science and engineering and are expected to support the further development of the field of biomaterials through professional, practical and intellectual endeavour.
Students are overwhelmingly satisfied with their lecturers and degree courses at the university, a national survey has shown. The latest National Student Survey published by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, shows that 81 per cent of students are satisfied, a four per cent increase on last year.
The third largest public chess library in the world was officially opened last summer at University Centre Hastings by former Home Secretary, Charles Clarke MP. The English Chess Federation library now has a permanent home in Hastings, a town with a long association with the game of chess and home to the annual Hastings International Chess Congress.
Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julian Crampton, was the guest of honour at the official opening of the new Veterinary Nurse Training Centre at Plumpton College last year.
Students from the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), run jointly by Brighton and Sussex universities, were also surveyed and 94 per cent were satisfied, making BSMS the fifth most successful medical school in the country in terms of student satisfaction.
Charles Clarke said, “University Centre Hastings is already making a major contribution. This will give it a very public, very well-known string to its bow. Hastings has a worldwide reputation for chess and this library will help build things up.”
The new centre will enable the college to develop its foundation degree in veterinary nursing along with its current provision for work-based learning and full-time courses at further education level. The centre will also be an ideal facility for veterinary practices and others to undertake continuing professional development courses.