UWL alumni magazine 2017

Your University The magazine for alumni and friends

The face of resilience Alumna Leyla Hussein leads the fight against FGM

Winter 2017 In this issue: Challenging our responses to aging Nursing and midwifery – a changing workforce 130 years of London College of Music Celebrating ten years of the Alumni Association News and events from around campus

Your University

History in the making The University of West London has undergone over 150 years of change and evolution.

Throughout its varied past, there has always been one constant in the life of the organisation – its alumni community. Whether you studied at UWL or one of its predecessor institutions, we invite you to continue with us on our journey and be a part of our future.

1860 Byron House School is founded by C N Atlee, with a focus on practical education. It is later renamed Ealing Grammar School

1923 The Art School is renamed as the School of Arts and Crafts 1937 The institute is renamed the Ealing Technical Institute and School of Art 1961 Ealing Technical College is formed 1962 Acton Hotel School becomes part of Ealing Technical College and is renamed Ealing Hotel School

1977 The institution becomes Ealing College of Higher Education 1991 Ealing College of Higher Education merges with Thames Valley College of

Higher Education, London College of Music and Queen Charlotte’s College of Health Studies to become the Polytechnic of West London

1992 The Privy Council bestows full university status on what now becomes Thames Valley University (TVU)

1994 Northwick Park School of Nursing, Riverside College of Nursing and the North West Thames Regional Health Authority’s AIDS Unit merge and become part of TVU

1995 Berkshire College of Nursing and Midwifery merges with the University 2004 A further merger takes place with Reading College and School of Art and Design

2010 University divests from its provision in Reading 2011 The institution changes its name to the University of West London

to reflect a re-focusing of activities on our Ealing and Brentford sites

Welcome

Welcome from the Vice-Chancellor Over the past year the University has achieved significant increases in all the independent UK university league tables. Most recently, the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2018 shows UWL in 56th place nationally; it also confirms our status as the top modern university in London and the 8th modern university in the UK. These impressive results are a testament to our ambitious and well executed strategic plan Ambition 2018, which is underpinned by our investment in infrastructure (over ÂŁ120 million to date), academic staff and our curriculum, all of which is reflected positively in the quality of our teaching.

We continue to deliver high quality, career-focused education programmes which transform the lives of our students. At 97 per cent, we have one of the best graduate employment rates in the UK and are in the top quartile for salaries of graduates entering full-time employment. Our students returned an 86 per cent student satisfaction rate in the latest national student survey and the University achieved a Silver award in the UK's new Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).

A TEF Silver means UWL’s provision is of high quality and consistently exceeds sector benchmarks. Our continuing success was recognised by the higher education sector, with the University winning the award for Outstanding Leadership and Management Team in the prestigious Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards 2017 (THELMAs).

We remain indebted to you, our alumni, for all the support you have extended in helping us achieve these remarkable milestones. As donors, guest lecturers, placement hosts and visiting professors, alumni continue to support the University in countless ways. On the tenth anniversary of the Alumni Association I look forward to meeting and thanking you in person at one of the many alumni events planned for the year ahead.

Professor Peter John Vice-Chancellor

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Your University

Contents Your University contributors: Louise Jones Alumni Relations Manager Luna Sidhu Director of Development and Alumni Relations Paul Hendrick Alumni Board Representative Natalie Sauter Development Associate Rebecca Kerr Donor Relations Officer Editor: Jackie Morgan Design: Moox Creative Design Printed by: McLays Cover: Leyla Hussein Photo credits: Jason Ashwood (Leyla Hussein), Love Productions, the Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, Wikimedia

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To ensure you keep receiving your copy of the magazine, details of upcoming events and all the latest news, please update your contact details at alumni.uwl.ac.uk 2

University news News and developments from across the University.

Alumna Leyla Hussein on her campaign to end the cruel cut.

Office of Development and Alumni Relations University of West London St Mary’s Road Ealing, London W5 5RF Tel: +44 (0)20 8231 0188 Web: uwl.ac.uk/alumni Email: alumni@uwl.ac.uk  linkedin.com/groups/5138093  facebook.com/UWLAlumniAssoc  @UWLAlumni @uwlalumni

Leading the fight against FGM

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A workforce for the future Dr Wendy Wigley on the challenges facing our nurses.

16 Gerontology through a lens

Alumna Sukey Parnell looks at ageing and how it is perceived.

Your University The magazine for alumni and friends

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Lighting the Way The University moves closer to completing its ÂŁ10 million fundraising campaign.

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Celebrating ten years of the Alumni Association We reflect on a memorable decade of alumni activity.

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Five Minutes With‌ We talk to Humanities graduate Mike Smith-Clare MBE.

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Introducing the Honorary Graduates In July we conferred Honorary Awards on those making an impact in their field.

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Alumna Marianne Waite on why she is challenging perceptions around disability and consumerism.

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Design with a difference

Down memory lane: LCM at 130 During its 130th anniversary, we look back at the history of London College of Music.

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Sharp and strong is the sword of justice Alumnus Harry Potter tells the story of anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp.

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Event round-up Highlights from a year of events and reunions.

Upcoming events

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Feature – Leading the fight against FGM

Leading the fight against FGM Alumna Leyla Hussein is a trained psychotherapist and multi-award-winning campaigner on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and gender rights. She recently spent time with Psychology Lecturer Dr Savin Bapir-Tardy to talk about her work as a campaigner and counsellor.

Leyla grew up in a number of countries, including Italy and Britain, and is originally from Somalia, where she was subjected to FGM. As a survivor and a trained therapist, she has devoted much of her work to supporting other women.

She set up the Dahlia Project based in north London with the aim of providing a safe space for women who have experienced FGM. It also provides therapeutic support groups in areas of London where there is a need.

Leyla obtained a degree in therapeutic counselling and a postgraduate diploma in psychotherapy from UWL (then Thames Valley University).

Savin Bapir-Tardy: How has being an FGM survivor influenced your work in psychotherapy and counselling?

Leyla Hussein: Even though I grew up in the West, when I was young I thought FGM was OK. It wasn't a subject teachers, midwives or doctors ever brought up. When I realised the awful consequences of FGM and how many women suffer from it, I wanted – as a survivor and a psychotherapist – to be able to help other women.

SB-T: Tell me about the Dahlia Project and how it differs from other support services.

LH: The Dahlia Project is the only counselling service in Europe for survivors of FGM, so it's quite unique. It's in a constant state of development, with changes introduced as we listen to the needs of women. For example, we noticed a lot of women were scared to come to certain locations because they didn't want anyone to know they were in counselling. So, because their safety is paramount, we now have counselling sessions in places such as libraries or schools.

It doesn't matter how nice you are as counsellors, you have to go to places where women are – you have to let them choose the location, the time, and then go to where they are.

You also have to realise that many of the clients can't read or write so sending them a letter, which is the way most counselling services operate, doesn't help them. I think about my mother. She would never have responded to a letter; she would only have responded to a phone call and an assurance she wouldn't be abused. This is something other counselling services wouldn't normally do because they want to ensure professional boundaries are set in place. I do find sometimes that other counsellors won't work with me because they feel I am breaking the rules as a therapist. They don't want to say to someone: “have you experienced domestic violence or a particular practice?” The ethos is that, if a client has experienced

violence, it's up to them to come and tell us. I understand this – you don't want to ask them to speak about something they don't want to speak about.

The other thing is that FGM is not something communities recognise as a form of domestic violence – nor is it always seen as a bad thing – so if you ask, “have you been the subject of domestic violence?” they would not recognise it as such. As therapists, our job is to help clients explore the abuse they've experienced.

SB-T: What are the main challenges you face in fighting FGM? LH: The biggest challenge I face on a daily basis is trying to explain to people how severe the effects of FGM are. This is one of those forms of violence that leaves a lasting scar: you have the physical evidence of it for the rest of your life. The fact that it is treated as an 'other' is another challenge. I was speaking at a big child protection conference in Birmingham a few months ago.

A police officer came up to me and said: “I've never heard of this but if I knew that a person had touched a child's genital area and, even worse, cut it, then the law would say this is a form of sexual assault.” But this is not the way FGM is categorised.

SB-T: Has your way of operating – your reaching out to women – impacted the way other parts of the mental health service operate?

LH: The main challenge is a lack of understanding and quite a lot of resistance to change among therapists. At the same time, the mental health service has a lot of other challenges so something like this is not going to be invested in. And there's a lack of commitment from decision makers and commissioners. I sometimes hear therapists say: “it's a choice isn't it?” Being quite blunt about these things, I like to relate it to their own lives – “what if that happened to your child?” Their reaction is then quite different. If you think about it, this is quite a racist comment and I tell these specialist therapists that they need to challenge their own discrimination in this area. There's a sense that it's OK for a bunch of black women to go through this.

• F emale genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure where the female genitals are deliberately cut, injured or changed, but where there's no medical reason for this to be done.

• It's also known as “female circumcision” or “cutting”, and by other terms such as sunna, gudniin, halalays, tahur, megrez and khitan, among others.

• FGM is usually carried out on young girls between infancy and the age of 15, most commonly before puberty starts.

It is illegal in the UK and is child abuse.

• It's very painful and can seriously harm the health of women and girls. It can also cause long-term problems with sex, childbirth and mental health.

Source: NHS website

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Your University

Leyla's documentary The Cruel Cut. Photo © Love Productions 2013

Britain is a very conservative country and people – even therapists – generally don't want to talk about race and subjects like FGM. I don't think race is controversial at all and, when I was a student, I felt it was important to point out how few black people were in that room. When we talk about issues such as FGM, gender and race are a big part of the conversation and we have to discuss them. One of the problems is that we sometimes mix up cultural sensitivity with cultural relativism. As a result of being sensitive, of not wanting to appear racist, we have allowed a lot of children to be abused under our noses and a lot of women to not get the support they need.

no longer the case in child abuse cases. So making FGM part of child protection training and changing the rules of evidence in these cases – these are some of the things that need to change.

SB-T: Is FGM carried out here in the UK?

LH: I said from day one, this is my story and you have to take my approach. Luckily, I had a great producer and director and they understood that I needed this to be a documentary that could be watched by my 85-year-old grandmother, by teachers, by doctors; everyone from my five-year-old nephew to a judge, to a mother.

It was also important that the focus was on what happened in Britain. The experience was great but also traumatic: for three months I was reliving my experience on a daily basis. I insisted on having a therapist on standby the whole time so that all the women contributing felt supported and were given a safe space when they were telling their stories.

LH: It's carried out everywhere: in London and all our major cities.

A lot of women who come to my clinics were born and raised here and a lot of them were cut here.

SB-T: Have there been any changes in attitude over the decade that you've been campaigning against FGM? LH: There have been drastic changes but I am still not satisfied. It comes back to our laws and the policies pursued by the authorities.

One of my biggest battles is with the UK Home Office. FGM is considered a child safeguarding issue but it is not a compulsory part of child protection training, which doesn't make any sense at all.

The other issue is over taking cases to court. Any child who has been harmed by FGM has to give evidence in court against their own parent. What child is going to do that? I have met girls who have been cut here in London who won't come forward; they are worried about how safely they could speak against their parents. You wouldn't ask the victim of rape to do this, and this is 6

When I travel to other countries such as the US, or around Europe, I see how much we've done but it's still not enough; girls are still at risk.

SB-T: In your documentary The Cruel Cut, you talk about your own experience, the fact that you have a permanent scar from FGM. How difficult was it for you to make this?

SB-T: What has been the impact of The Cruel Cut? LH: Following the film, I launched an e-petition, Stop FGM in the UK Now, and it got over 100,000 signatures which meant Parliament had to hold a debate. Up until that time, the government had been ignoring me but now they had to listen. It was great to see MPs squirm on the benches of the House of Commons! One of the great things that came out of the debate was that the law has

Feature – Leading the fight against FGM

been changed so we can go out and protect a child. And I'm really pleased that the film is still educating people.

SB-T: And you showed it at UWL – how was that as an experience?

LH: I wasn't the most confident student, and I cried a lot while I was at University, so to come back and lecture to other students was quite an interesting experience. The University changed how I dealt with things and I always refer back to my time here and my tutor. I was honoured to come back – it was a really nice feeling.

SB-T: Of all your achievements, what are you most proud of?

LH: The Dahlia Project and what it has achieved. I have great examples of outcomes – women who've gone back to higher education, left abusive partners….they start smiling and go to yoga. Through the project, we can give them space, give them a big change in their life – I'd like to be remembered for that.

SB-T: Tell us about your psychotherapy training at UWL and how this has helped your subsequent work.

LH: It was Thames Valley University when I arrived – I was part of the transition when the name was changed. I was already involved in counselling and really wanted to update my skills, particularly how to listen to the women who were coming to the community centre and clinics where I was working. So originally I wanted to do the basic counselling course but I fell in love with whole process of counselling. I had a great tutor called Helen Adiran who gave me great advice. During my second year, she said to me: “take a year out to take care of yourself so you can become the counsellor you always wanted to be”. My initial reaction was “I'm not good enough”. But I followed her advice and came back for my last year and I qualified in 2010.

It actually was the best professional advice I've ever been given and it's something I've put into my own professional development work ever since. Everyone who works with me gets supervision and I know when someone needs to take a break, so I tell them to go and sort themselves out before they go out and see clients. I even do it myself. We're human, we have to know our limits.

Leyla speaking to UWL students

Dr Savin Bapir-Tardy is a Lecturer in Psychology

Read more about Leyla Hussein is a multi-award-winning campaigner on Female Genital Mutilation the School of Human (FGM) and gender rights. Her documentary The Cruel Cut with Channel 4 on FGM and Social Sciences at in the UK was nominated for a Bafta in 2014, The Amnesty Media Awards 2014 uwl.ac.uk/hss and Best Onscreen Talent category for the CDN Awards 2014 and Broadcaster award 2015. Leyla advises the UK-wide Tackling FGM Initiative, the Desert Flower Foundation and the Honor Dairies organisation. She also sits on Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary advisory group on honour-based violence. After her successful e-petition 'Stop FGM in the UK Now' she was called in to give evidence at the Home Affairs Committee inquiry into the matter. She also sits on the Board of Directors for Safe Hands For Girls, a non-profit organisation based in the US and Gambia and working with survivors of FGM.

Leyla was included in the BBC 100 women list of 2013, voted sixth in the Woman’s Hour 2014 Power List and was included in RedLine magazine's Women of the Year 2014. Her many awards include the Cosmopolitan Ultimate Campaigner Women of the Year Award 2010; the Emma Humphrey Award in 2011; and the Lin Groves Special Award for her work in raising awareness of violence against women and children. She received the 2012 True Honour Award by the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Right organisation, recognising her work on preventing honour-based violence and she received the World Peace and Prosperity Foundation award 2013.

Leyla blogs for the Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan magazine and The Guardian.

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Ten ways to get involved Whether you studied five or fifty years ago, there are many ways for you to stay involved and play an active role in your alumni community Attend events

Support outreach activities

Give a donation

Share your expertise

Join us back on campus for alumni dinners, lectures and career-focused events. We can even help you organise a reunion for you and your classmates.

Make a transformative difference to a student by giving a regular or one-off donation towards a bursary fund, or by supporting an academic prize or special project.

Offer a student placement or internship Give your business an edge with access to up-todate skills, knowledge and fresh thinking relevant to your sector.

Become a Graduate Mentor

Joining our mentoring scheme enables you to have a real and tangible impact on a current student, whilst also gaining experience and skills that will benefit you beyond your role as a mentor.

Assist with student recruitment

Provide an Alumni Profile for us to feature in marketing recruitment materials and inspire prospective students.

Volunteer with the Outreach Team and help to raise aspirations among young and mature learners from under-represented groups in the local community.

Have the opportunity to talk to current students about the path you have taken after graduation.

Recruit employees

Advertise vacancies to students and recent graduates for free through the Employment Services team.

Help us reconnect

Encourage your classmates to register their details with the Alumni Association, helping us to grow and strengthen your alumni network.

Promote your business

Join other industry partners in offering a discount to alumni on products or services through your business.

Find out more at alumni.uwl.ac.uk/getinvolved2017

News – What's happening in our community

University news A look back at UWL highlights from the past year

ASIAN FAMILY BUSINESSES IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP (second left), with Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter John, and co-chairs of the conference Rami Ranger CBE and Alyshia Mangalji

Asian-owned companies contribute more than £200 billion a year to the UK economy, and employ 300,000 people in London alone. On 6 October, the Asian Family Business Conference put this vital sector in the spotlight with special guest the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, the UK's Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and a host of highprofile speakers including Claude Littner, UWL Visiting Professor and co-star of The Apprentice BBC TV show, and Rami Ranger CBE, distribution tycoon. Topics on the agenda included conflict management, leadership, governance, gender and intergenerational transition. Dr Suresh Gamlath, Dean of Claude Littner Business School, presided over three lively debates.

Delegates and guests also enjoyed a gala dinner at UWL’s award-winning restaurant Pillars, by world-renowned chef Cyrus Todiwala OBE, who led a team of student chefs and 'front of house' waiting staff from the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism to prepare the meal.

Mr Javid said: "It’s great that the Asian family business conference and the University of West London are through this event celebrating the contribution of Asian businesses to our society.

Contributing as much as 10 per cent towards the UK economy, Asian businesses continue to be a powerful force in British society.

In particular, thanks to the drive and the innovation from Asian family businesses, cities such as Leicester, Manchester and Leeds are thriving. So as we leave the EU, they will play a pivotal role to help us build a more global, more outward-facing Britain."

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Your University

CELEBRATING THE LONDON GELLER COLLEGE OF HOSPITALITY AND TOURISM A celebratory dinner in November 2016 marked the renaming of UWL's award-winning College of Hospitality and Tourism the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, in honour of the University's Chancellor, Laurence Geller CBE. The dinner was attended by alumni, industry figures and staff.

An alumnus of the College, who studied there when it was known as Ealing Hotel School, Laurence has played a key role in advancing excellence in hospitality and tourism worldwide. He has over 45 years of experience in the industry, working with brands such as Holiday Inn, Hyatt and Strategic Hotels. As well as being an author and speaker, he is a committed philanthropist to many causes, including the University’s Lighting the Way campaign.

Speaking at the dinner, Laurence said, “For more than five decades, the College has set the standard for so many facets of hospitality and tourism education. I could not be prouder or more humbled to have my name associated with it and I look forward to supporting its on-going growth and successful development in the future.”

(l-r): Chair of the Board of Governors Chris Humphries, Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter John, with Ruth and Laurence Geller

LIBRARY SERVICES ACHIEVES AWARD IN EXCELLENCE Congratulations go the University’s Library Services team, who received a prestigious Customer Service Excellence Accreditation award from awarding body Assessment Services in June. This accolade was given in recognition of the outstanding experience the Library provides to students, staff and graduates. Head of Customer Experience at Library Services, Julian Roland, said: “This accreditation follows a substantial amount of work by everyone in the team, so it is enormously rewarding for our customer service to be officially recognised as excellent.”

Opened in 2015 as part of a £100 million campus refurbishment, the Paul Hamlyn Library is named after the first Chancellor of the University. Together with the Berkshire Institute for Health Library at our Reading campus, our libraries boast a wide collection of physical and electronic books and journals, along with 150 computers and around 780 spaces for individual study, research and group work.

UWL's Library Services team with their Customer Service Excellence Accreditation award

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Graduates of UWL and its predecessor institutions can enjoy borrowing rights at the University’s libraries by purchasing a UWL Alumni Card. For further details, please visit alumni.uwl.ac.uk/benefits

News – What's happening in our community

THE IMPACT OF ART ON DEMENTIA CARE Professor Victoria Tischler, Professor of Arts and Health and Head of the Dementia Care Centre, has secured £100,000 funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to tour a unique art installation about dementia around the UK. The project, called The Imagination Café, is a pop-up installation that will travel to Llandudno, Edinburgh and London. It showcases research on visual arts and dementia, and enables the public to learn more about dementia using art, music and specially designed food. Expert advisors from the Alzheimer’s Society and Dementia UK will be on hand to provide advice and support to the public. It is designed to be fun, accessible and participatory, to get people involved and to lessen the stigma associated with dementia.

Professor Tischler’s wider work focuses on developing evidence for arts and multi-sensory approaches to dementia care. She works with designers, visual artists, musicians, actors and others to develop unique services that improve the lives of people with dementia, create unique artistic outputs, and educate the public.

She has developed a Masters in Dementia Care that provides training for students who wish to specialise in creative and interdisciplinary approaches.

Professor Tischler is adamant that innovative dementia care should be available to everyone, and hopes that her research will provide the evidence needed to make more creative activities available.

If you would like to support the work of the Dementia Care Centre you can donate at https://alumni.uwl.ac.uk/dementia-care-centre

Photo courtesy of Dementia and Imagination

Francesca Kelsall

Source: Charlie Bibby/Financial Times

STUDENTS SELECTED FOR FUTURE LEADERS SCHEME 2017 graduate Francesca Kelsall (MA Luxury Hotel Management), has been selected by Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) as one of 20 candidates taking part in its prestigious Future Leaders graduate scheme. She joins fellow graduates Eleonora Labor (BA (Hons) Hospitality Management) and Juliane Rackl (MA Luxury Hotel Management) on the sought-after development programme. During the programme, they will all receive on-thejob training in one of IHG’s hotels in Europe.

Francesca said, “The University has really helped me to get to this position, as I had no previous educational experience in hospitality. Now I’m joining a graduate scheme, which is testament to the quality of education here.” In July, Francesca was featured in a Financial Times article explaining how companies are using computer algorithms to identify the best new talent. IHG use prediction technology developed by a company called Cognisess, which invites candidates to complete cognitive tests and psychometrics to assess whether they would make a top employee.

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News – What's happening in our community

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1. Raymond Blanc OBE, chef and Honorary Member of the University, along with students of the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, cooked for the French Ambassador as part of Goût de France (Good France) – a global festival showcasing French gastronomy.

2. The University announces a new long-term partnership with Brentford Football Club.

The community-focused collaboration will include the delivery of educational programmes helping to forge bonds between the Club and students, associated businesses and local organisations in Ealing and Hounslow boroughs.

3. Legendary jazz musician and drummer Harvey Mason is made Honorary Doctor of Letters of the University. He delivered two master classes for London College of Music students during his visit to campus in March.

4. Ambassador Carolyn Curiel, a former Senior White House Speechwriter, gave her unique perspective on the US presidential election at last year’s Public Lecture Democracy Unplugged: The 2016 Road to the White House.

5. Vice-Chancellor and CEO Professor Peter John is joined by government officials, professionals, and academics to open the University's Hong Kong Centre. Offering

a range of courses delivered by University staff, the Centre is a dedicated space located adjacent to its partner, Nang Yan College.

6. The University was saddened by the passing of Victor Ceserani MBE, the former Head of Ealing Hotel School, who died in February 2017. Victor had an enormous impact on the industry as a highly respected chef, catering advisor, author and educator, influencing generations of students and staff.

7. The University celebrates at the Times Higher Education Leadership and Management Awards 2017 (THELMAs), after scooping the award for Outstanding Leadership and Management Team.

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A workforce for the future How training providers and practitioners are tackling new challenges in nursing and midwifery.

“ Our vision is that, on qualifying, nursing students will be authentic and courageous” Nursing education is constantly evolving, responding to shifting needs, expectations and priorities in health and healthcare. Dr Wendy Wigley, Head of PreRegistration Nursing for the University’s College of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare explains how the College is equipping nurses with the knowledge and skills required to provide high quality care and support in a rapidly changing environment.

Over the summer of 2017, the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) started its consultation to identify what the public will need from registered nurses in the future and to develop an appropriate new standard for nursing proficiency. The need for a new standard reflects the fact that the health and social care needs of individuals, groups, communities, and the population as a whole do not remain constant. As healthcare research identifies new knowledge, those who provide healthcare are required to revise their own knowledge and skills to meet people’s expectations of the profession.

Nurses are already now required to provide care across the individual's lifespan and in a variety of care environments including the NHS, and the private and voluntary sectors. Nurses assess patients, make decisions and provide treatment and care, not only in hospitals, but more frequently in communities, within primary care and in people's homes. Increasingly this treatment and care is becoming more technical and complex.

After reviewing and commenting on the NMC’s draft standards, the College has designed and developed the vision for its Pre-Registration Nursing course. Starting in the academic year 2018/19, this will be offered in partnership with NHS Trusts and private hospitals in London, Thames Valley and surrounding areas.

The new course will be flexible and enable the development of new nurses and also nursing associates. The role of nursing associate bridges the gap between health and care support workers and graduate registered nurses; it also offers an opportunity for healthcare assistants to progress into nursing roles. Our vision is that, on qualifying, nursing students will be authentic and courageous. They will be essential in integrated and interprofessional teams. They will have the ability to share vision, purpose, outcomes and values by building trust with the 14

people for whom they care, both individual patients and their families. They will influence the care environment to enable people to maintain their own health.

Building upon the University’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) Award 2017 of Silver, we will be exploring innovation in learning and teaching, looking to see where we can do things differently. The most important aspect of this will be to produce nurses who will have a positive effect on health and the social welfare of the public. To achieve this, the College has invested in high-tech simulation centres in our London and Berkshire campuses to provide students with a variety of ‘real life’ scenarios: from a complex cardiac emergency, to communicating with a person with dementia. Other learning will consider bioscience, genomics and the application to health and wellbeing to individual lifestyles.

From the first year of their course, our nursing students will learn about the wider social and political context in which healthcare is provided, including learning about research and evidence, and how policy and governance influences the requirements of their job.

Dr Wendy Wigley is Head of Pre-Registration Nursing

Teaching – Our impact on society

“ As midwives, we are in the unique position not just to shape the maternity services, but to transform our society as a whole.”

As a practitioner working in the field, Clinical Risk Midwife Gergana Nikolova has witnessed first-hand the positive impact of mentoring on students, as well as the challenges facing the midwifery workforce.

In healthcare, and in midwifery in particular, mentoring and training students is equally important as providing care to mothers. The student midwives today are the colleagues we will rely on tomorrow – therefore we not only have a duty to train them well, but to show them respect, professionalism and care.

I took the Mentorship course at what was then Thames Valley University, in order to understand the link between the university curriculum and the practice placements at a deeper level. I then returned to do the MSc in Advancing Practice course. I can proudly say that the UWL students I had the pleasure to mentor are now well respected professionals working on the front line of our maternity services.

on the front line when it comes to promoting healthy lifestyle; supporting breastfeeding mothers in an effort to support the best possible upbring of our future generation. When I first started my career 25 years ago, I never thought that I would one day be a part of the life of thousands of families, as well as contributing to the lives of the future society.

If I could make a wish, I would wish for more midwives now! To be a midwife is not the easiest profession in the world, but without doubt it is the most rewarding.

Gergana Nikolova is a Clinical Risk Midwife for Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, a Fellow of the Royal College of Midwives and a member of the UWL Alumni Board.

Our lifestyle is constantly changing and not always for the best. Midwifery today is facing ever greater challenges; we are looking after more women with diabetes, hypotension, mental health problems, obesity and other antenatal or intrapartum complications related to lack of physical activities, incorrect diet, smoking and language barriers. At the same time, the population of experienced midwifes is falling; the newly qualified midwives are experiencing greater pressure in the workplace. Managing a healthy balance of supporting student midwives, newly qualified midwives and service needs has become more and more difficult.

However, as midwives, we are in the unique position not just to shape the maternity services, but to transform our society as a whole. Midwives are on the front line tackling female genital mutilation, campaigning for appropriate mental health services and constantly raising awareness of domestic violence. We are

Learn more about the College of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare at uwl.ac.uk/nursing 15

Your University

Showing her age ‘Isn’t she beautiful?’ she demanded. I had been browsing postcards in the National Portrait Gallery bookshop in late January 2012 when a woman thrust a postcard in front of me.

It was a photograph of an old woman. I hesitated. That question – of age, beauty and image – was something I had been pondering since beginning a BA at UWL (then Thames Valley University) in late 2002. An MA and PhD have followed and I am still puzzled. In popular culture, beauty and age are thought to be diametrically opposed to one another so what was my questioner really asking? And what exactly are we calling ‘beauty’ in pictures of older women?

I was struck by a sudden gap. From the many photographs of her as a beautiful young actress she disappears in her early forties, only reappearing when I pick up my camera not long before her death.

The reasons for this sudden vanishing act piqued my interest and I began to explore issues of visibility of older women through my photography and academic research, and through conversation with women in midlife and older age. Recurrent themes in these conversations were a sense of fascination and frustration with photographic images and a longing for visual representation that could do justice to the energy, humour, power and attractiveness of older women that they experienced in everyday life.

In the West, signs of age are considered detrimental to female beauty. Women, unlike men, are identified with – not by – their faces. Whilst for men marks of character are prized, a woman’s character is thought to be innate, static and continuous. Any change, flaw or blemish is considered a detraction, a fall from grace. Whereas in the past ‘feminine’ beauty was configured in relation to sexual passivity – a passivity that has been challenged in contemporary culture – the distance from a youthful appearance is now the conditioning factor in a discourse of beauty that progressively marginalises older women. This gendered double standard is experienced most acutely when framed from within the aesthetics that operate in and through pictorial art. But how do we picture age and the female subject without denying the unavoidable conflicts inherent in growing old?

My early BA projects explored familial dynamics and generational issues and, most profoundly, the death of my mother. Those intimate pictures became a personal rite of passage, a way of countenancing her death and the inextricable bond between mother and daughter. They now constitute part of my wider work with medical students at Kings where we discuss issues of death and dying, care and gender. I use my photography to stimulate debate and question the way we see – or don’t see – old people and older women in particular. In the wake of my mother’s death, I turned my focus to my own generation. My MA project, Women of an Uncertain Age, features portraits and text of women between 40 and 65 years of age and explores a changed sense of visibility that many women experience in midlife. The project tapped into a rising interest in the portrayal of age and ‘femininity’. Two portraits were selected as finalists in the National Portrait Gallery's photographic portrait prize in 2006 and 2007. Age and photographic portrait have continued to be my focus during my PhD where I moved from still to moving image, drawing on my background in theatre-in-the-round to restage and repoliticise issues with images of older women and underlying cultural narratives.

My focus on ageing has grown out of my own experiences of a sudden unexpected psychic change around the age of forty, an event accompanied by the birth of my son, and not long after, the death of my mother. Looking through her archive after her death, 16

Feature – Showing her age

My Mother, My Self from Genetic Profile

17

Your University

Read more about the London School of Film, Media and Design at uwl.ac.uk/lsfmd

Carrie Floating in Her Garden from Through a Glass Darkly and Women of an Uncertain Age

My academic journey at UWL has allowed me to carry on questioning the relationship we have to age and photographic image. Now my work is spreading out into other collaborative research projects. I was recently commissioned to make portraits as part of a Leverhulme funded project entitled The Ageing of British Gerontology, photographing the movers and shakers in ageing studies in the UK since its creation in the 1970s. It was a wonderful opportunity to apply some of the insights I have gleaned from my prolonged study as a mature student. It also connects to another issue I am passionate about – lifelong learning and continued opportunities for growth in later life. We live in a culture that has lockstepped a three-stage lifecourse – childhood, working life and retirement – into the collective psyche. A retirement mentality constrains individual development and opportunities for continuing to contribute more widely socially and intellectually. But with an ageing population and the demands that creates in the social and care systems, how will we be thinking of our lives in the future?

In The 100-Year Life, Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott suggest that in the future we will think quite differently about work and life choices. They argue that in our rapidly changing workplace, a linear career trajectory will soon be a thing of the past. Life will become multi-stage with people returning to education throughout the lifecourse and will organise work, romantic partnerships and children-rearing less rigidly. Conventional thinking will also change – instead of seeing ourselves as older for longer, we will see ourselves as younger for longer as intergenerational mingling will help us retain youthful 18

characteristics into later age. Their suggestion highlights longer life as the gift it can be, but reflects the underlying negativity associated with being called ‘old’ and the stigma associated with looking our age.

Perhaps the first step towards changing attitudes is to challenge the way we see and picture age. But how? A good place to start is to ask not who we see but what we see. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde, wryly notes ‘it is the spectator not life that art mirrors.’ Photographs of others provide us with a mirror into our conditioned responses – what we accept or reject. Confronting and challenging our own responses to the appearance of age paves the way for us to question our attitude to our future older self and imagine, along with it, enriched possibilities for a long life.

Sukey Parnell is an alumna of UWL’s London School of Film, Media and Design. Her work has appeared in national publications such as The Sunday Times, The Independent on Sunday, the Radio Times and a cover and feature on Dame Joan Bakewell in Saga magazine. Private commissions include portrait images for comedian Bill Bailey, and a private book for Sir Bob Geldof to celebrate his 60th and daughter Pixie's 21st birthdays. A picture of Bill Bailey was Photograph of the Month in 2010 and was exhibited in the Comedians: From the 1940s to Now exhibition. Sukey is just completing her PhD at UWL and is a visiting lecturer at Kings College in the Medical Humanities programme.

News – Honorary Graduates

Introducing our Honorary Graduates In July 2017 we welcomed 11 new Honorary Graduates to the University of West London community. Each of these individuals has been recognised for their outstanding contribution to civic or cultural life, unrivalled business success or long-term support for the University’s work.

Left to right Andy Kemp, Carole Sharma, Caroline Redman Lusher, Daniel Adler, Edward Veale, Elaine Bowden, Errol Francis, Gareth Cadwallader, Luke Johnson, Tony Coad, Tony Matharu Andy Kemp Marketing Director at Bidvest Foodservice, Andy is passionate about diversity in the hospitality sector and is a campaigner for child nutrition.

Carole Sharma A former CEO of the Federation of Drug and Alcohol Professionals, Carole has devoted her career to the field of drug and alcohol treatment since qualifying as a mental health nurse in 1982.

Caroline Redman Lusher Founder of Rock Choir, Caroline has inspired 24,000 people to take up singing and has starred in a TV documentary series. She has also lent her vocal talents to several hit albums.

Daniel Adler Manager of Lyceum Capital’s origination team whose role is to identify investment opportunities. Dan sits on the board of Briefing Media and Isotrak and is also a member of Lyceum’s Management Board and Investment Committee.

Edward Veale Music talents such as John Lennon, George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend all turned to Edward to design their studios in a career lasting decades. Today he helps young professionals who are also on a quest to build the perfect studio.

Elaine Bowden Head of Education and Workforce Development at Health Education England, Elaine has devoted 30 years to public health services.

Errol Francis Campaigner, writer, carer and consultant, Errol has campaigned on BME issues for years and contributed to mental health care advances in the criminal justice system.

Gareth Cadwallader A successful investor, Gareth has served on the Learning and Skills Council and chairs the Tech Partnership’s Higher Education steering group for employers. In 2009 he was appointed to UWL’s Board of Governors, and has served as Deputy Chair since 2015.

Luke Johnson Former chairman of Channel 4, Luke also transformed Pizza Express into a highstreet favourite and has been Chairman of the Royal Society of Arts.

Tony Coad A marketing expert and Honorary Lifetime Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing, Tony is a graduate of Slough College of Technology (later UWL), was on the University’s Board of Governors and now sits on the Alumni Board.

Tony Matharu Founder of Grange Hotels, Tony’s portfolio of 18 hotels have won industry awards. A keen sports fan, he also assists vulnerable people affected by natural disasters via philanthropy.

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Your University

Down Memory Lane: LCM at 130 In 1887, London College of Music was founded at 54 Great Marlborough Street in London’s West End. With an ethos of improving musical standards across the UK, it offered a range of qualifications to all ages and backgrounds, regardless of gender. Its emphasis on accessibility was pioneering and unique in comparison to other music colleges of the time. 130 years later, LCM is the largest specialist music and performing arts institution in the UK. It continues to challenge the way in which music education is delivered, remaining at the cutting edge of innovation and ensuring that inclusiveness, diversity and creativity stays at the heart of its mission. To mark 13 decades of LCM, we take a look back at the long and illustrious history of this remarkable institution.

1887

LCM was founded by G Augustus Holmes at 54 Great Marlborough Street, where it began as an examining body.

1880

1888-91

A teaching element was created early in its history, providing facilities for part-time education. Many popular classes were established including orchestra, operatic and ladies’ choir.

LCM's courses grew so much in popularity that, within seven years of its founding, the College had moved twice in search of more space.

1900

1890

1920

1910

1940

1930

1892

The College finally settled at 47 Great Marlborough Street, where it remained until 1991. Alfred James Caldicott was appointed the first Principal of LCM.

1894

By now, the College had 340 examination centres in America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Chile and West Indies: “....they (LCM) had popularised music in many places which otherwise it would never have reached.

They had not only helped those who sought to enter the profession, but had raised the standard amongst those who did not seek the profession, but wished to study music for its own sake. They all knew the immense refining power of music, and the London College of Music was doing a great and good work in spreading a love of it, thus bringing ‘the greatest happiness to the greatest number.’”

Sir Vincent Kennett-Barrington, Patron 1894

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1895-1964

The College continued to prosper with the support of notable examiners such as Dr W J Westbrook in the late Victorian period, also of Dr W H Longhurst, an organist of Canterbury Cathedral, and H Wharton-Wells in the 1930s and 1940s. Philip Dore, an organist renowned particularly for his performance of the music of J S Bach, also became an examiner and, in the 1950s, gave a series of lectures and recitals at the College.

In 1959, the LCM Junior College was founded by Dr William R Pasfield with 30 young musicians.

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Feature – Down memory lane

1964-82

With the advent of Dr William Lloyd Webber, LCM began to enjoy a ’golden age’, during which time it became widely recognised in the music world as one of ‘the five’ London music colleges. The examinations department was reorganised and Dr Lloyd Webber pioneered the introduction of exams for electronic organ. Improvements were made to the building and a new organ was installed thanks to the generosity of the Rank Trust.

1991-present

Owing to a lack of investment, a merger with the Polytechnic of West London (now University of West London) in 1991 was inevitable, but at the same time it ensured that LCM was able to prosper and acquire what it lacked at Great Marlborough Street – increased space and facilities.

“We have a great challenge before us. We have a new future to build. Its direction may not be clear in all particulars, but the LCM is still alive and in its new setting has perhaps a greater, if different, potential than ever before.”

John Chapman, a former Warden of LCM, on the move to Ealing in 1991.

1960

950

1980

1970

2000

1990

2020

2010

The College today

Based at the University’s St Mary’s Road campus, LCM offers ground-breaking courses in subjects ranging from performance, composition and music technology to performing arts and music management.

The College nurtures talent from LCM Junior Music College level, right through to Doctoral studies, whilst LCM Examinations has a presence in 51 countries and 898 exam centres around the world.

1982-91

On Dr Lloyd Webber’s untimely death in 1982, John McCabe became Director and further improved the status of LCM. His tenure saw the centenary of LCM and a concert at the Barbican with distinguished pianist John Lill and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber as soloists. Major building works were carried out to enlarge the available space; music technology and film music courses were established.

130

LONDON COLLEGE OF MUSIC

years 1887-2017

21

Your University

Our LCM Community The College owes its continued success to its valued community of alumni, staff, students, honorary members and supporters whose involvement makes LCM an institution to be proud of.

I chose to give an annual prize to support two students of composition who

“ promise. This stems from the encouragement I received from William Lloyd Webber are showing who, in 1976, appointed me as examiner and composer of all sight-reading tests. ” Patricia Evans (former LCM Examiner)

“

Life as a student at LCM gave me an excellent all-round musical education and many lifelong friends.

”

Peter Cook (Alumnus and former Director of LCM Junior College)

“

The path I set out on, to be a composer, was begun at the LCM on Saturday mornings, and for that I will always be grateful.

”

Roger Marsh (former LCM Junior College student, now Professor of Composition, York University)

“

LCM has always been the great survivor on the music college scene, constantly reviewing and renewing itself to play an individual role in an ever-changing environment where adaptation is key. Long may LCM continue to flourish!

Martin Ellerby (Alumnus, Honorary Member and former Head of Composition)

”

“

The London College of Music helped me to build the skills I needed for my professional performance work and my current development role within a theatre company. I hope it continues to be a high-quality training institution for another 130 years!

”

Kate Millington (Alumna and LCM representative on the Alumni Board)

“

Once I got to LCM, I knew it was for me. The music technology course; the inspirational tutors; the diversity of music; the wealth of talent from all over the world, all under one roof.

Gavin Fernandes (BA Music Performance & Music Technology ’16, currently studying for MMus ’18)

”

LCM’s future London College of Music has much to celebrate and even more to look forward to. During this exciting milestone, we encourage former students of LCM to reconnect, to get involved with the College today, and to support LCM in continuing its mission to offer music education for all.

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Find out more at alumni.uwl.ac.uk/ LCM-alumni

Achieve more with a postgraduate degree A postgraduate degree will enable you to: • Build on your current qualifications • Learn new and essential skills • Explore your passion for a particular field of study • Increase your network of contacts • Help you gain valuable insight into industries that you might not gain from the workplace alone Interested in discussing your future further?

Contact our Student Recruitment Team directly to find out why so many graduates now have masters in mind.

Exclusive alumni discount

£2,000

Loans of up to

£10,280 available**

towards tuition fees for UWL graduates!*

student.recruitment@uwl.ac.uk 0800 036 8888

*£2,000 towards tuition fees for UWL graduates when joining a taught postgraduate course. 10% discount towards tuition fees for UWL graduates when joining a postgraduate research course (MPhil / PhD). Qualifying overseas UWL graduates qualify for a £2,000 discount per year, when joining a postgraduate research course, over a period of three years maximum. No part-time discount applies. £1,000 towards tuition fees for friends and family of UWL graduates when joining a postgraduate course. **For further information, see: uwl.ac.uk/students/postgraduate/help-funding

Your University

Lighting the Way In January 2014, we launched the University’s first fundraising campaign, Lighting the Way, with a goal of raising £10 million and engaging with 10,000 alumni and friends. We are delighted to announce that, with one year left in the Campaign, we have raised just over £8 million and have engaged with over 13,000 former students. Our target is in sight and we are excited by the forthcoming projects that will take us over the finish line. Our community of alumni and friends has played a crucial role in these successes and we are incredibly grateful for the support given so far. Here, we highlight just a few of the recent achievements that your generosity has helped us to accomplish.

Total raised across the University: £8 million of £10 million target £1.9 million towards scholarships, bursaries and prizes for students in need

£1.8 million to support academic and research excellence

£900,000

£3.4 million towards enhancing our campus and improving the student experience

in unrestricted gifts helping to provide immediate support to areas of greatest need

Thank you for your support!

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Lighting the Way – Supporting our Future

INVESTING IN OUR STUDENTS Vital financial support makes a difference

Supporters and students at the 2017 Donors and Scholars event

Scholarships, bursaries and prizes provide financial assistance and support to some of our most deserving and promising students who otherwise might not have had the chance to receive a university education. Over 98 per cent of our students come from state schools, which is 8 per cent above the national average. 54 per cent of our UK fulltime undergraduate students are from backgrounds and families with an overall annual income of less than £25,000.

Providing such vital financial support allows us to make a true difference to these students’ lives. We are able to give access to high-quality learning and teaching facilities, increase student attainment and success, and enable students to successfully complete their studies without having to worry about their finances.

Every year, the University holds a Donors and Scholars event, a celebration of the wonderful impact that financial awards have upon the lives of these successful scholars. This event offers a great occasion for donors to meet the scholarship recipients who have benefited directly

from this support, and for students to meet and thank the people who have made this funding possible. By acknowledging scholarship donors’ generosity at this event, we are able to facilitate relationships beneficial to both scholars and donors, and inspire confidence and achievement in these young people.

In 2016–17, 84 donors donated or pledged over £100,000 towards scholarships, helping over 100 students from Junior Academy level right through to postgraduate students. Thanks to this generosity, we are in a position to assist an increasing number of talented young people, allowing them to achieve their dreams and realise their full potential.

“Receiving this scholarship really motivates me to maintain my First Class grades and complete my Masters with distinction. I have been going through some personal issues which have resulted in financial difficulties and this award will definitely ease some of my financial burden. I am so grateful, and I will do my best in achieving my academic and career goals, so I can give back to the community.”

Recipient of the Syed Hamid Scholarship

Our recent Honorary Scholarship Appeal has had a phenomenal response, dramatically increasing the number of gifts pledged by Honorary members.

As of September 2017, we have 11 awards available for students. We are truly grateful to the following Honoraries for their generous support and their belief in our students: • • • • • • • • • •

Alistair Telfer Ian Carter The Springboard Charity Professor Zenobia Nadirshaw Geoffrey Harrison Foundation Pete Townshend Charles Wilson Laurence Geller CBE The William Brake Charitable Trust The William Barry Trust

For more information about supporting students through scholarships, bursaries or prizes, please visit alumni.uwl.ac.uk/student-support

25

Your University

SUPPORTER PROFILE: SAM BILLICH England, had been a nurse for nearly four decades. He wanted to pay tribute and give back to the woman who means so much to him and had provided him with encouragement and strength throughout his life.

It was the University's unique connection to the Jamaican, Mary Seacole, a Crimean War nursing pioneer, which led Sam to pledge his support. UWL donor and Emeritus Professor of Nursing Dame Elizabeth Anionwu DBE established and was Head of the Mary Seacole Centre for Nursing Practice at the University until 2007. She was also vice-chairperson of the Mary Seacole Memorial Statue Appeal and is now a Life Patron of the Mary Seacole Trust. Through this affiliation, Sam came to hear about the University and approached the Development Office in early 2017 to discuss making a gift.

Samuel Billich with Elizabeth Anionwu DBE

His Worship Samuel Wenzel Billich (known as Sam) is Justice of the Peace in Toronto, Canada. He generously supports students of the College of Nursing, Midwifery and Healthcare through the Josette M Billich Nursing Award, which he set up to honour his mother’s 35-year long career as a nurse. Here, we take a look at his story and why he decided to support the University.

Born in Jamaica, Sam moved to Canada as a child in 1961. Having gained a BA in Political Science at Trent University, just north of Toronto, Sam enrolled in the British Army where he served for the next five years. In 1989, Sam returned to Canada and shortly thereafter joined The Queen's York Rangers. During over 28 years of service, Sam was posted to locations including Northern Ireland, Germany and England. He was awarded the General Services Medal with Northern Ireland Clasp and the Canadian Forces Decoration with Bar. He became the first Jamaican-born person to be decorated 26

by Poland, when he was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit. Sam also was the first member of the Canadian Forces to be decorated by Jamaica for contributions to the Jamaican Diaspora in Canada and for Community Service. In 1998, he was appointed as a Justice of the Peace (JP) in and for the Province of Ontario, and in the year 2000, he was promoted to Captain in the Canadian Forces Reserve.

Sam’s civic involvement has seen him as a member of The Venerable Order of St John and St John’s Ambulance, for which he has been made a Commander for his longtime service. Sam has received numerous awards and decorations, including the Queen’s Gold and Diamond Jubilee Medals for Community Service. Already supporting Ryerson University in Toronto, Sam had a wish to help students at a UK university, particularly as a result of the recent decision to scrap NHS bursaries for student nurses.

Sam’s mother Josette, who was originally from Jamaica and had studied nursing in

As a result, Sam has set up the Josette M Billich Nursing Award in honour of his mother, pledging annually to support an outstanding part-time nursing student actively involved in their community. As a firm believer in giving back to society, Sam takes encouragement from Winston Churchill’s words, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Josette M Billich

Lighting the Way – Supporting our Future

SUPPORTING RESEARCH AT ITS ROOTS

The School of Computing and Engineering is delighted to have reached a major fundraising milestone. It has raised £300,000 to develop Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology in order to detect and diagnose tree disease earlier and more accurately and therefore prevent irreversible damage to vital tree populations.

New and ground-breaking technologies are needed to better predict health issues affecting trees – important national assets that are facing increasing threat from disease and environmental pressures.

Trees are suffering disease and decay that negatively impact their health before any visitble signs such as leaf discolouration can be seen. With non-destructive tools such as GPR, it is possible to see inside the trunk and root structure of a tree and spot the early warning signs of disease, allowing experts to treat and stop them before they spread.

With their specialist knowledge in the area of non-destructive testing, researchers at the School of Computing and Engineering are specially placed to address this challenge and adapt currently available technology. The GPR project will increase understanding of how these stresses present themselves and develop algorithms to identify the early signs of

stress from disease. This in turn will enable the forecasting and prevention of future disease.

Thanks to the support and wonderful generosity of our donors, the University will be able to purchase essential equipment and appoint a Research Fellow and PhD Scholar to support Executive Head of School, Professor Amir Alani and Research Fellow, Dr Fabio Tosti to embark on the research. For his work on GPR Dr Tosti recently received an Outstanding Early Career Scientists award at a ceremony of the European Geoscience Union (EGU) in Vienna, Austria.

The fundraising efforts have been largely supported by the University’s Pro-Chancellor, Lord Charles Faringdon, who has been a passionate champion of the research. Lord Faringdon said of the project, “I’m delighted to be able to support Professor Alani and his team to develop existing civil engineering techniques which will be applied to the world of dendrology*. Our intention is to produce a handheld instrument and supporting software that can investigate and identify early signs of disease. This will be a valuable tool in the arsenal of industry professionals and dendrology enthusiasts alike.”

Professor Alani said, “We are enormously grateful to all those who have pledged their support so far. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, the School of Computing and Engineering will be able to advance this exciting project and contribute to the conservation of trees both in the UK and worldwide.”

We are deeply grateful to all of our donors for their significant contributions towards the GPR project and would like to give our heartfelt thanks to The Lord Faringdon Charitable Trust, The Schroder Foundation, The Tanlaw Foundation, The Swire Charitable Trusts, P F Charitable Trust, Sir Henry Keswick, David Morrison, Ian Bond, The Cazenove Charitable Trust, The Wyfold Charitable Trust and The Sackler Trust. * the branch of botany dealing with trees.

If you are inspired by the project and would like to support our research, please visit alumni.uwl.ac.uk/gpr

27

Your University

COOKING UP A STORM – HARRISONS’ JUNIOR CHEFS ACADEMY

(l-r) Dean of the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism James Edmunds, Junior Chefs Academy student and Geoffrey Harrison.

We would like to take the opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks to The Geoffrey Harrison Foundation for their continued support of the University’s Junior Chefs Academy. An integral part of the London Geller College of Hospitality, the Harrison’s Junior Chefs Academy prides itself on providing opportunities for learning for school pupils in a safe and supportive environment. Each year over

100 young pupils, drawn from diverse local communities within the vicinity of the University, take up the opportunity to access high quality culinary arts training in a University setting. The Academy runs on Saturdays during term time and classes cover basic culinary skills, hygiene, nutrition, teamwork and organisational skills. The Geoffrey Harrison Foundation’s support ensures that the Academy

remains accessible to all those who wish to undertake the programme. Parents and teachers comment on the positive impact involvement in the Academy has had on their children’s culinary and general organisational skills. It also continues to be an important foundation for those who want to pursue culinary arts or hospitality education at a higher level.

Shape our Future Whether you studied the University of West London, or one of its predecessor institutions, you will know the lasting impact that education has on enriching people’s lives. To continue the University’s mission of raising aspirations, pursuing excellence and providing an education that works, we must secure our future in order to light the way for future generations of students.

Leaving a gift in your Will enables you to make a lasting and significant contribution to a cause that is close to your heart.

For further information, or to discuss leaving a legacy, please contact the Development Office on 020 8280 0245 or at development@uwl.ac.uk 28

Lighting the Way – Supporting our Future

WESTMONT INNOVATION HUB

A generous gift of £1.25 million from the Westmont Group and our Chancellor, Laurence Geller, will enable the University to live up to its promise of providing all our students with the support needed to realise their career ambitions. Increasing numbers of our graduates go on to start their own companies and there is a strong demand for a platform that enables these entrepreneurs to launch and grow their businesses. The Westmont Innovation Hub will do that and more. The Hub will not only support a strong culture of entrepreneurism across our Schools and Colleges but will seek to strengthen the economy by supporting business growth. By bringing people with diverse backgrounds – engineers, IT experts, media and hospitality professionals under one roof it will encourage collaboration and cross-fertilisation of ideas. The Hub will also provide an exciting and inspiring lecture

series and mentorship, drawing from a circle of proven and successful entrepreneurs from within London and beyond.

Work on the first phase of the Hub is underway with the aim of creating a multi-purpose, technology-rich space approximately 800m2 in area that is ideal for both working and networking.

In addition, meeting spaces suitable for mentoring and client meetings will be available, as well as access to services such as photocopying, printing and Wi-Fi. Phase II will see the Hub extended so that the facility provides 1200m2, with the additional space providing further pods for growing businesses and enabling us to open the Hub to local entrepreneurs.

Speaking about this gift, Vice-Chancellor, Professor Peter John said: “Westmont’s support is invaluable to the creation of

the University's Innovation Hub. The generosity of Westmont Group and our Chancellor, Laurence Geller, will allow us to position UWL as a leading provider of entrepreneurship and business education – with the Hub acting as a beacon of learning for staff and students alike.”

Chancellor, Laurence Geller added: “The Hub will serve as an incubator, financial supporter and centre for entrepreneurial excellence. It will quickly be established as an internationally respected centre for start-ups and entrepreneurial concept incubation. It is for this reason that I am proud, delighted and humbled to play a role in starting up the Hub and to have provided funding to the University, alongside the Mangalji family-owned Westmont Group.”

To find out more about our Lighting the Way Campaign, or to make a donation, please visit alumni.uwl.ac.uk/supportus2017 29

Your University

DESIGN WITH A DIFFERENCE

Marianne Waite

Marianne Waite (BA Digital Arts 2009) has a mission: to inspire brands to use their resources in order to improve society’s relationship with disability and difference.

She is the founder of Think Designable, a collective of people from across London's creative agencies, with a shared passion to make mainstream brands more inclusive.

In 2017, she was named by Forbes as one of their 30 Under 30 – Europe – Media.

Marianne took time out to speak to the Alumni Office about her career and how she is challenging the perceptions around disability and consumerism.

30

How did your time at the University impact on you and your career?

The University of West London focuses strongly on vocational development and encourages entrepreneurial spirit. The BA Digital Arts course was incredibly varied and it pushed me to conquer every aspect of the creative process: from concept development, to coding and programming, to life drawing and curation.

It trained me to see things differently and taught me the value of determination and simply ‘giving things a go’. Had I not learned this, I don’t think I would have had

the self-belief and optimism to get Think Designable off the ground.

The course also afforded me the freedom to build on and develop my individuality and personal beliefs. This meant that by the time I graduated I had such a strong sense of my own style, values and potential, not to mention a group of life-long university friends who have been there with moral support and a bottle of wine on numerous occasions!

Feature – Design with a Difference

Why did you choose a career in branding?

After graduating I was applying for full-time roles whilst working part-time as a graphic designer in the University’s Alumni Office.

I noticed that most creative positions required branding experience – so I thought I had better get some! I was able to take my first step after I was awarded the UWL Tina Tietjen Scholarship for Outstanding Achievement by the Faculty of the Arts (now called the London School of Film, Media and Design) at the University. I decided the best way to use it was to reinvest in an MA in Design and Branding Strategy, which I did at Brunel University. I soon realised how much power and influence brands have over our day-to-day lives and it’s exciting to be part of creative teams that are able to steer major organisations towards using this power for good.

What inspired you to create Think Designable?

My older sister Cara has cerebral palsy, so I’ve grown up being acutely aware of how the world around her fails to recognise her different requirements, meaning she is often excluded from society. Over the years, my family and I have adapted products to make them fit for purpose and more attractive to look at – most assistive technology looks like it belongs in an NHS showroom. So I was overjoyed to learn through my studies about the practice of inclusive design (the design of mainstream products and/or services that are accessible to, and usable by, as many people as reasonably possible, without the need for special adaptation or specialised design).

My favourite examples of this are escalators, revolving doors and text messaging, which were designed for the few but have improved user experience for the many.

I spent a few years following inclusive creative practice across the world and realised there was a gap between specialist academic exploration and mainstream product and services development. When you think about the evolution of eyewear

Photo courtesy of Hanna Agar

from stigmatised spectacles to highend eyewear, it's evident that branding has a strong role to play in how lifestyle requirements evolve. Through Think Designable I want to speed up mainstream inclusion innovation by bringing these two worlds together and providing thought leadership and inspiration.

Tell us about some of Think Designable’s current projects.

Our main priorities are the preparation for our next event, Designable 2018, which is being supported by The Minister for Disabilities; and our first Purple Paper – a white paper focused on amplifying the needs of disabled consumers and the power of the Purple Pound – as well as the attendance of our disability panel at the Festival of Marketing. And in October 2017 we will present the first ever Diversity and Inclusion Champion Award – which we campaigned for – at the Masters of Marketing Awards.

Of your recent work, what makes you particularly proud?

The number of attendees who claimed that Designable 2016 totally transformed their perception of disabled consumers.

The fact that the Office for Disability Issues is partnering with us this year is a great testament to this. But I consider success to be spurring real change within the creative industry, so our recent triumph in convincing The Masters of Marketing Awards to incentivise and celebrate brands in their inclusive endeavours, through the launch of a new prize category, was a real win.

This year you were named as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe: Media. What does this recognition mean to you?

To be named as an honouree was really thrilling and a bit surreal! In terms of my work, this accreditation has helped us gain traction and support from different audiences. The best thing about it was that I have access to the rest of the Global 30 under 30 network. I’ve met some jaw-droppingly impressive people and it’s been so life enhancing to discover that our future is in the hands of some incredibly empathetic and dedicated change makers. It's a shame there are not more disabled 30 Under 30 honourees, but hopefully this will change.

What’s next for you and Think Designable?

Beyond this year’s objective, I'd really like to work with our wider network of clients to fully understand what the blockers are for brands when it comes to engaging with disabled consumers. Once we know what it is that is stopping them from improving their brand experiences in a more equitable way, we can work towards providing them with the tools and resources they need to make necessary changes.

Learn more about the London School of Film, Media and Design at uwl.ac.uk/lsfmd 31

Your University

Sharp and strong is the sword of justice Harry Potter (LLB 1992)

Earlier this year I took part in the unveiling of a plaque at St Bartholomew’s Hospital to Granville Sharp, the inveterate antislavery campaigner whose dogged persistence and refusal to give up ultimately triumphed in what became known around the world as The Mansfield Judgment. Here is the story of how a moral crusade began; how a chance encounter in a London street between a man and a boy led to the sword of justice striking its first blow against the chains of slavery.

In eighteenth-century England a premium was put on property rights. They were defended by the ‘bloody code’ that stipulated hanging for many forms of theft or fraud – and were held sacrosanct by the courts. Owners of property could do with it pretty much as they pleased, justifying all sorts of casual cruelty to animals, wives and slaves, all in their way ‘property’.

Enter Granville Sharp. Born in 1735 and named after Queen Elizabeth’s vice-admiral Sir Richard Granville, he was the twelfth of fourteen children of the Archdeacon of Northumberland and the youngest of his five sons. There was no money left for his education, but he was prodigiously clever and became an autodidact. He read all of Shakespeare as a boy and taught himself Greek and Hebrew as an adult. He became an ordnance clerk, an odd job for a pacifist – which by that time he was. He was also a staunch Anglican, with an absolute moral certainty and clarity. It was just this unbending ethical rigidity that was needed when a sin the size of slavery entered his consciousness.

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One morning in 1765 the twenty-nine year old Sharp was leaving his brother William’s surgery in Mincing Lane, when he encountered a teenage boy who was battered and bruised, ‘nearly blind and doubly lame’. He was called Jonathan Strong and was a slave whose owner was David Lisle, a lawyer. Lisle had bought Strong in Barbados for £70 and brought him back to England. For some infraction Lisle had pistol-whipped the boy so hard around the head that the butt had separated from the stock.

The valuable weapon could be repaired, but why bother with a slave? Lisle had thrown this now worthless object, like so much rubbish, onto the street.

Somehow Strong had strength enough to stagger to William Sharp’s surgery, which he must have known offered a free service to the poor. Granville saw the boy and took him to his brother who arranged for his admission into St Bartholomew’s. Strong remained there for four and a half months. On his discharge Granville got the lad a job as an errand-boy for a Mr Brown, an apothecary in Fenchurch Street.

By ill chance, after two years, the then ‘good-looking, stout young man’ was spotted by Lisle in the street. Lisle seized and sold his property to a Mr Ker, a Jamaican planter, for £30. Kerr would not pay until that property was safely stowed aboard a Jamaicabound ship captained by James Laird. So Lisle put the boy in a lock-up called the Poultry Compter, pending transit to the West Indies. Strong wrote to Brown for help. Lisle threatened Brown

Feature – Sharp and strong is the sword of justice

with illegally detaining his goods for the past two years. Brown sought help from Sharp. Sharp hurried to the compter and told the turnkeys not to release their charge to anyone until he had taken the matter before the Lord Mayor’s court. That court duly ruled that, as Strong had committed no crime, he was free to go whenever he wanted. Laird then seized Strong’s arm and declared he was taking the property of Mr Kerr. Sharp quickly charged Laird with assault, and Laird let go of his prey.

Lisle was furious, went to Sharp’s door, accused him of robbery and challenged him to a duel. Sharp retorted that he should be satisfied with legal remedies. The lawyer’s first recourse was to the rapier, the ordnance clerk’s was to the law. It was the legal route that Kerr to his cost confidently took. He sued Sharp for trespass against his property. Sharp sought legal advice and was told of an adverse authority: the weighty Joint Opinion of attorney-general Yorke and solicitor-general Talbot, which considered that a slave coming into England remained the property of his master. Sharp could not believe that the law could really be so unjust. What was wrong morally could not be lawful. He had faith in the Common Law of England. While the suit was pending he scoured statutes, judgments and legal tomes and ‘God be thanked’ could find nothing justifying slavery. Ultimately Kerr’s suit was dismissed, not on its merits, but for lack of prosecution. Kerr had to pay treble costs.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter was a history scholar at Emmanuel College Cambridge and later a Fellow of Selwyn College. He was ordained and has served as a parish priest in South London and been a chaplain in HMP Wormwood Scrubs and HMYOI Aylesbury, both then category A prisons, holding the most dangerous adults and youths. While at these latter two institutions, Harry took a part-time law degree at what was initially Ealing College of Higher Education, later becoming the Polytechnic of West London and then Thames Valley University. In 1993, Harry was called to the bar by Gray’s Inn, and has practised in criminal defence ever since.

Granville Sharpe

So Strong’s could not become the test case on whether slavery could exist in England. But Strong had inspired Sharp to find one, so that the law of England could be clarified, the Joint Opinion overruled, and ‘England’s air purified’. He did so in the case of another slave called James Somerset, whose plea for habeas corpus he brought before the Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, for judgment in 1772. The rest, as they say, is history.

Quotations taken from 'An Account of the Occasion Which First Compelled G.S. to Study Law & Undertake the Defence of Negro Slaves' in the Granville Sharp Papers, Gloucestershire Record Office.

Harry has contributed to a number of documentaries on the history of law and philosophy on BBC TV and radio.

He has written a number of books, the first, Hanging in Judgment: Religion and the Death Penalty from the Bloody Code to Abolition, being an expanded version of his final-year thesis for TVU. Subsequent books have been on Scottish History: Bloodfeud: the Stuarts and Gordons at War, about the unsolved murder of the second earl of Moray in 1592, and Edinburgh Under Siege, 15711573, about the defeat of the forces of Mary Queen of Scots. 2016 saw the publication of Law, Liberty and the Constitution: A Brief History of the Common Law. He also writes on prisons, the war poets, Thomas Browne, and has lectured on such subjects as Rudyard Kipling and the First World War, The Sin of Anatomy, and life as a barrister.

Learn more about the School of Law and Criminology at uwl.ac.uk/law 33

Your University

Celebrating ten years of the Alumni Association In June 2007 I was appointed the University’s first Director of Alumni Relations and from that day began a journey that, ten years later, I am still relishing. It is a privilege to work for such a dynamic institution that simply refuses to rest on its laurels and continually strives to better serve its students and graduates. The highlight of my time here has been getting to know many of you, the University’s alumni. Spread across generations, disciplines and different eras in the University's history, your affection for your alma mater is truly inspiring and what makes every day here so special. As we look to open the next chapter in the Association’s history, I hope in this celebratory year you will choose to connect with your University. Whether you attend a University event, share your news or just visit the newly refurbished facilities on campus, the alumni team look forward to hearing from you.

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Luna Sidhu Director of Alumni Relations

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1 A lumnus Claude Littner with Lord Sugar on their visit to the business school, October 2014 2 A lumnus Laurence Llewellyn visiting the newly refurbished theatre, 2016

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3 A lumnus Laurence Geller CBE at his inauguration as the new Chancellor, May 2011 4 First ever Law alumni dinner, 2007

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Alumni Community

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“It's hard to believe that we are already celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Alumni Association. I have been privileged to be part of the Association since its inception and am proud of all that has been achieved in that time. It is important to remember that the Alumni Association is YOUR association and without you, the alumni of the University, our work would be meaningless.

Graduation should not be the end of a student’s relationship with their alma mater and I hope that we provide a focal point for you to keep in touch. It's extremely important to us here at the University that we know how you are getting on and for you to know that we are here to help if you need us. This is a lifelong association in all senses of the phrase.”

Alistair Telfer (MBA ’93) Chair, UWL Alumni Board

5 Founding members of the Alumni Association, 2007 6 A lumnus Ian Carter meeting the Queen on her visit to UWL, 2009

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7 Photography alumni reunion, May 2017 8 M arking the 60th anniversary of the Hospitality School, March 2009 9 A lumna Lorraine Pascale at the launch of the Lighting the Way campaign at Dorchester, January 2014

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Be part of your alumni community Stay connected Search for ‘UWL Alumni Association – Official Group’ Keep in touch @UWLAlumni Join the conversation facebook.com/UWLAlumniAssoc Follow our stories @uwlalumni Stay updated Register via our alumni portal at alumni.uwl.ac.uk to update your contact details and communication preferences.

Reconnect Looking to reunite with lost classmates? We can put you in touch by forwarding messages on your behalf to those whose contact details we have.* Alumni Relations Office alumni@uwl.ac.uk / +44 (0)20 8231 0188 * Data protection policies apply

Alumni Community

Five minutes with...

Mike Smith-Clare MBE BA (Hons) Humanities, 1992

“ I loved my time at University. It helped me grow in confidence and establish a framework of knowledge and thirst for learning which I still rely on today.”

Mike Smith-Clare has established two national awardwinning training providers, Blue Cat Initiative and the Bread Kitchen, which work with deprived and disengaged communities to develop self-esteem, independence and aspiration. Alongside these, he has developed qualifications which have supported volunteers and mentors across the third sector. His work has been recognised with numerous awards, including an MBE in the Queen’s 2017 New Year's Honours for Services to the Education of Vulnerable and Disadvantaged People in Norfolk. This year Mike was elected as the Labour Councillor for Great Yarmouth and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from UWL. What does a typical day look like for you?

There’s no such thing. I’m always up before 7.00am and I don’t seem to finish much before 8.00pm. Through the Bread Kitchen we run community engagement courses, which tend to be delivered in blocks of ten weeks. So one day I might be leading on our allotment project, running a well walk and then chairing meetings – the next I could be organising volunteers at a local museum. My work as a Labour County Councillor and Children’s Services Committee member also impacts on daily timetables.

What do you love most about your job?

I love the variety and the ability to engage, support and empower local communities, many of which have been marginalised by poverty, lack of investment and opportunity. It’s incredible to work collectively in order to create solutions to problems. I’m an ideas person and believe that anything can be achieved or improved if you put in the effort. I also adore watching projects grow and become successful and sustainable.

What is your least favourite part of the job?

Paperwork! Although my partner and colleagues ensure I acknowledge its importance.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

I love walking, travel, family outings and anything involving history. I’m also a keen artist and am fascinated by architecture and design. We have our own allotment and one day I’m determined to keep goats and make cheese.

What would you have liked to have done if you hadn’t taken this career path?

I still dream about being an architect. I once assisted an architect in designing a community learning centre and I enjoyed every second of my time on the project. The only downside was having to climb up to the chimney pots and panicking that I might never be able to get down.

Three words to describe yourself?

Tenacious, enthusiastic and creative.

What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in life?

Not to give up! A good idea is a good idea, no matter what others might say, although it might not be quite time. You might be knocked or ignored – but you must never stop believing.

Who or what inspires you?

Nelson Mandela. I am fascinated by politics and the power of change through spirit and collective belief. Our world is constantly changing for the better and that can only happen through the bravery and commitment of certain individuals.

What has been your proudest achievement?

Personally: having children. Professionally: creating change through nationally acclaimed projects. I was also incredibly proud at being chosen as the Labour candidate for Great Yarmouth in the recent general election.

What impact did your time at TVU have on you?

I loved my time at University. It helped me grow in confidence and establish a framework of knowledge and thirst for learning which I still rely on today. It also made me realise the importance of quality education in the heart of an established community.

What advice would you give to students who are about to graduate?

Talk to family, friends and staff and use their knowledge – and yours – to take the best next step. Be confident in your own ability and be prepared to market yourself. Finally, you might not fall into your preferred career immediately after graduation; so if you have to wait, use that time effectively. Volunteer, work, care and make the change that won't just impact on your life, but on the lives of others.

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Your University

Event Round-Up FIRST-EVER SCHOOL OF COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING DINNER

Guests at the 2017 Computing and Engineering Dinner

The School of Computing and Engineering (SCE) held its first-ever alumni dinner in the University’s fine dining restaurant, Pillars, on 1 March. The inaugural event was attended by over 70 professionals from the science, technology and engineering sectors, including graduates, industry partners, staff and students.

The dinner was hosted by Executive Head Professor Amir Alani, who gave guests an update on some of the recent successes within the School. This included the publication of more than 160 research papers in academic journals over a twoyear period and outstanding scores for the School in the National Student Survey 2016 (NSS), including 100% satisfaction in four courses. Guests also learned about a collaboration with Hilton Worldwide, which investigated energy efficiency at the hotel group’s buildings and their resilience to extreme weather events.

The evening ended with a toast by alumnus and Alumni Board member 38

Paul Hendrick, extending thanks to students from the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism, who prepared and served a superb three-course meal for guests to enjoy.

Alumnus Marcelo Lazaroni said: “I had a lovely time and was happy with the new connections I made in the IT management and construction management sectors. Meeting lecturers and classmates was so enjoyable and I’m looking forward to engaging more with the University by sharing practical lessons from the perspective of being a professional.”

Reflecting on the evening, Professor Alani said: “Our first alumni dinner was a great celebration of the achievements of our former students and the School.

Alumni are an integral part of our School’s community, so knowing that they’re doing well is very important and we can learn a lot from them.”

Professor Amir Alani

Alumni Community

Register or update your contact details at alumni.uwl.ac.uk/register to hear about future events

RECITAL FOR GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET ALUMNI London College of Music (LCM) alumni – who were students when the College was based at its original home of Great Marlborough Street – were treated to a recital by alumna and mezzo-soprano Victoria Simmonds. The recital was followed by afternoon tea and a tour of the St Mary’s Road campus, which has been home to the College since 1991.

They also had the opportunity to watch an exclusive master class with Victoria and LCM students.

The event, which took place in November 2016, was a wonderful opportunity to re-connect alumni from this era, and to update them on exciting developments within LCM, including the College’s 130th anniversary [see page 20]. Thank you to all who attended and donated, helping us raise over £350 in support of LCM students through the Bursary Fund.

Guests at the LCM Great Marlborough Street Reunion

IN CONVERSATION WITH CLAUDE LITTNER Alumnus and Visiting Professor Claude Littner, famous for his mercilessly tough interviews on the BBC’s hit series, The Apprentice, was himself grilled by former BBC Correspondent Torin Douglas as part of the University’s Public Lecture Series last November.

Claude Littner with Torin Douglas

Over 300 students, staff, alumni and members of the public gathered in Weston Hall to hear Claude recount stories from his life; inspiring the audience with confessions from his school days, through to stories behind his prolific business career which has earned him a reputation as one of Britain’s leading business icons. Claude

welcomed questions from the audience, who were given the opportunity to seek his advice on a range of issues.

The evening was followed by a book signing for his biography Single-Minded: My Life in Business.

UWL’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost for Health, Professor Anthony Woodman commented, “We knew this event would be special and this has surpassed all of our expectations. Claude is a great inspiration to us all and the University has the privilege to be the beneficiary of his time and support through The Claude Littner Business School.”

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Your University

35 YEARS ON – LANGUAGE STUDENTS REMEMBER 1982

If you are interested in holding your reunion on campus, please contact alumni@uwl.ac.uk

Alumni of the Applied Language Studies course, class of 1982

In July 1982, 36 graduands gathered for their graduation ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's South Bank. They were students of the Applied Language Studies course at what was then the Ealing College of Higher Education. 35 years later, on 29 July 2017, a group of 25 of those graduates returned to campus for their first-ever reunion. Steven Dyson tells us more.

“The idea for a reunion came about after three of us found each other on Facebook, but tracking everyone down proved to be quite an arduous, albeit enjoyable, task.

Having studied languages, many of us went on to live abroad; subsequent name changes also made the task even more complex. Nevertheless, nearly 30 people were located and most were able to attend the reunion.

“35 years is a long time, but we were stunned by the changes that had taken place at the University. In 1979, languages was taught in the old ‘C’ block. It was attached to the main building via a bridge, just opposite the entrance to the library building. The Students’ Union was in the adjoining section and was the location for many a heated political debate. During 40

the tour, there was rather a shocked silence when we realised that all that was left of 'our library' was one shelf of dictionaries and grammar books, although we were all very impressed with the recent improvements.

“Only one place where the ALS ’82 graduates were taught still exists; Lecture Theatre 1 where our linguistics lectures were held and where two members of the group had taken part in the choir’s performance of HMS Pinafore. It had also been used as a film theatre and, one rag week, there was to be a charity performance of Saturday Night Fever and Grease to raise funds. It was, of course, a hoax and people were offered refunds – although very few accepted the offer.

“Back then, the accommodation options included bed and breakfast or full board in someone's house. At the reunion, many stories of landlords and landladies were told, such as the student who had to wait until Crossroads finished on the TV before his landlady would make dinner; the landlord who was a medium and held séances in the living room on a Tuesday night; and the landlady who (oh joy! oh bliss!) – enjoyed ironing!

“Another highlight was recounting the adventures from our year abroad. We each spent time in two countries, travelling to Mexico, France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and all made it back unscathed, in spite of some very rudimentary accommodation and lack of preparation!

“35 years after graduating there was a wonderful atmosphere of genuine friendship and interest in each other’s lives and careers, which included translating, interpreting, editing, publishing and teaching. There were also business managers and owners, IT specialists and even a Baptist minister. All of us agreed that the decision to go to Ealing College of Higher Education all those years ago was a good one.”

News – Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events Details of all alumni events and public lectures can be seen at alumni.uwl.ac.uk/events Law School Annual Dinner Friday 17 November 2017, 7.00–11.00pm

House of Lords Reception Tuesday 15 May 2018, 6.30–8.30pm

2017 marks the tenth anniversary of the School of Law and Criminology Dinner (formerly Ealing Law School Dinner). Alumni of the School are invited to join us for this special celebration, which will be held at the beautiful surroundings of Lincoln’s Inn Old Hall.

Please contact alumni@uwl.ac.uk for further information.

All graduates of UWL and its predecessor institutions are cordially invited to the University’s first alumni reception at the House of Lords. Hosted by alumna Baroness Angela Harris of Richmond, this event will provide you with a chance to visit this iconic venue, reconnect with fellow alumni and hear about the latest developments from the University. Places are limited and allocated on a first come first served basis. Find out more at alumni.uwl.ac.uk/events

Launch of the Heathrow Archive March 2018; date to be announced Thanks to generous support from Heathrow Airport and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the University has been granted a unique opportunity to host Heathrow Airport’s historical archive. A dedicated exhibition displaying rare and fascinating artefacts will be unveiled at this special launch event. For further details and to book tickets, visit alumni.uwl.ac.uk/events

Hospitality and Tourism Dinner Thursday 8 March 2018, 6.30–10.00pm Graduates of the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism are invited to join us for the College’s fifth alumni dinner, which will take place in the University’s fine dining restaurant, Pillars. We are delighted that Michelin-starred chef Andreas Antona will be the guest chef for the evening. To ensure you receive your invitation, please register your details at alumni.uwl.ac.uk

LCM Live During its 130th anniversary year, the London College of Music will present a series of performances, workshops and masterclasses as part of LCM Live. For further details and to sign up to their mailing list, please visit uwl.ac.uk/lcmlive. UWL graduates can enjoy a 50% discount on tickets to many LCM Live events by purchasing an Alumni Card. To apply, see alumni.uwl.ac/benefits

To ensure you receive your invitation to these or any other future events, please update your contact details at alumni.uwl.ac.uk Details correct at the time of publication.

Experience exceptional dining here on campus Pillars is the London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism’s awardwinning training restaurant in the heart of the University.

Open Tuesday to Friday for lunch, and Thursdays and Fridays for dinner, it offers the perfect opportunity to return to campus and enjoy an elegant and contemporary dining experience with your classmates.

Please visit uwl.ac.uk/pillars for further information.

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Office of Development and Alumni Relations University of West London St Mary’s Road Ealing London W5 5RF

Tel: + 44 (0)20 8231 0188 Web: uwl.ac.uk/alumni Email: alumni@uwl.ac.uk LinkedIn: linkedin.com/groups/5138093 Facebook: facebook.com/UWLAlumniAssoc Instagram: instagram.com/uwlalumni