University of Leicester Newsletter

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Bulletin I N S I D E

GHOULS IN SIGHT: BA Humanities students enjoy a little light relief after studies. Page 13.

STACKS OF ENERGY: Library staff successfully complete Walk of Life. Page 25.

ART DECO: ULAS looks at architectural gem in Northampton. Page 26.

THE ‘LEICESTER GRADUATE’ – A MODEL OF SUCCESS A MODEL of ‘The Leicester Graduate’ has been drawn up by the University. The University has taken a look at the qualities it expects in all its graduates and has developed a Learning and Teaching Strategy to produce graduates who not only have subject specialist skills but also the essential generic skills to succeed in the workplace. The University is an internationally recognised research institution and has the rare distinction of having achieved ten successive awards for teaching quality of 22/24 or more (equating to excellent) from the Quality Assurance Agency. Its Learning and Teaching Strategy, which is being implemented on a rolling basis over a three-year period, has

DEGREE CONGREGATIONS STAR QUALITY: Astronaut Jeff Hoffman opens National Space Centre. Pages 3031 and Supplement.

ON-LINE BULLETIN: Issues of the Bulletin are accessible on CWIS via the following web address: http://www.le.ac.uk/bulletin/

Jubilation after a degree congregation at the De Montfort Hall. Full story on pages 19, 22, 23.

been commended by the Higher Education Funding Council (England), which believes that that the University’s programme “may provide an exemplar for the sector”. The implementation process is being monitored and supported by the University Learning and Teaching Committee, chaired by Professor John Holloway, the Pro-ViceChancellor for Learning and Teaching. continued on page 2

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001

University of Leicester Newsletter

Bulletin News

Bulletin University of Leicester August/September 2001

THE ‘LEICESTER GRADUATE’ – A MODEL OF SUCCESS continued

Volume 33 • Number 8 August/September 2001 Bulletin News ......................1-13 Lifelong Learning ..............13-14 Business .............................15-18 Degree Feature............19, 20-23 Space Centre .....................20-21 International...........................24 Out & About ......................25-27 Student Pages ...................27-28 Graduate Relations .................28-30 People ................................30-33 Notices ...............................34-37 A.O.B. ......................................38 Feature ....................................38 Crossword...............................39 Photostop ...................Back Page YOUR BULLETIN We wish to encourage members of the University to submit items for the Bulletin – feel free to email stories or suggestions to [email protected]. The Bulletin is edited in the Press and Publications Office. The Editor reserves the right to amend or abbreviate copy without notice. Editor:

Ather Mirza (3335) [email protected]

Deputy Editor:

Barbara Whiteman (2676) [email protected]

Journalist:

Jane Pearson

Design and layout: Paula Curtis, AVS – Graphics Pictures:

AVS – Photography

Cartoons:

Barbara Whiteman

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The result of this demanding new strategy will be graduates who can demonstrate not only knowledge of facts, but an understanding of key concepts and techniques and their application; the ability to analyse key issues; give clear and concise presentations of material; and a critical appraisal of evidence. Graduates should be able to communicate effectively, orally and on paper, and will be proficient in IT and numeracy. A Leicester graduate will adopt a critical, careful and objective approach to complex problems, and will be a good team

member, appreciating his/her own, and others’, strengths and weaknesses. Ultimately Leicester Graduates should emerge from their degree courses with the skills they need to enrich their lives and to make a full contribution to society. All these skills will be gained through the programmes of study in students’ chosen academic subjects. They are fully incorporated in courses and are not a ‘bolt on’ addition. • Further information is available on the website: www.le.ac.uk/ua/vc/ilts

SUMMER SCHOOL OFFERS FORETASTE OF UNIVERSITY LIFE GCSE STUDENTS from across the country were given a foretaste of undergraduate life – thanks to the University.

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They were among the early visitors to the National Space Centre which opened to the public on June 30. About 50 teenagers attended the week-long summer school from July 1 to July 6. They attended lectures and seminars, met with staff and university students – as well as heard from those who attended last year’s summer school. Academic Registrar Kathy Williams said: “We are removing the mystique about higher education and giving support and encouragement to school students who are expected to gain above average A-Levels. “These students are identified as talented and gifted – but they know very little about what to expect at university. The purpose of the summer school is not simply to provide a taste of higher education but to raise the aspirations of these students. “Although widening access to higher education is the principle behind the Government initiative, this particular target student population needs the confidence and encouragement to apply, rather than any academic concessions”, she said.

Bulletin News


BIRTH OF MUSICAL PROTÉGÉS? A STUDY carried out at the University and shown on www BBC’s Child Of Our Time on July 11 reveals for the first time that babies remember sounds they heard in the womb – and recognise them well into later life. The study, by Dr Alexandra Lamont from the Music Research Group at the University’s School of Psychology, demonstrates how oneyear old babies recognise music they were exposed to up to three months before birth. The discovery explodes the theory that babies can only remember things for a month or two – and suggests that memory could last a great deal longer than that. This provides important new evidence for the influence of nurture in early child development, said Dr Lamont, who is a Lecturer in Psychology. She said: “We know that the foetus in the womb is able to hear fully only 20 weeks after conception. Now we have discovered that babies can remember and prefer music that they heard before they were born over 12 months later.”

The Child Of Our Time study involved a small group of mothers playing a single piece of music to their babies for the last three months before birth. Dr Lamont said the music was chosen by the mother – so all babies heard different pieces of music while still in the womb. These included classical (opera, Mozart and Vivaldi), world (Spirits of Nature), reggae (UB40, Ken Boothe) and pop (Five). Over 12 months later, eleven of the babies were tested and showed a significant preference for these pieces of music compared with very similar pieces of music they had not heard before. None of these babies had been exposed to the pre-natal music in the intervening period (i.e. from birth to first birthday). A control group of 11 babies tested with the same pieces of music show no preference for a particular piece. Dr Lamont said: “This small-scale study suggests that deliberate and extended pre-natal exposure to music sets up a very long-term memory trace for a particular piece

COO!: Dr Alex Lamont with equipment she used for her test.

of music, and that this is recognised and preferred over 12 months later.” However, these babies’ outstanding musical memories are not at all related to their intelligence. Dr Lamont emphasised that there is no evidence here that playing classical music to babies helps make their brains develop – the babies perform just as well with pop or reggae music, and the same high levels of musical memory are found in babies from families where IQ levels differ enormously.

SOUND VITAMINS ON SHOW A PROJECT co-ordinated by the University that could help older people to retain an interest in the wider world and broaden their social links went on display at Care Expo at the National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull. Funded by the EU, the Silver Bird project uses global digital networks to provide elderly people with six sound channels. The combination of quizzes, stories, spiritual discussions, music, news and keep-fit exercises are designed to improve physical mobility, mental agility and connectedness with friends, relatives and the outside world. Silver Bird has been developed by Audio Riders, of Helsinki, Finland. A consortium of four partners are involved in the research, including the Department of Psychology at the University of Leicester, who

have a long record of research on how sounds can influence emotions and behaviour. Finnish, Swedish, English and Hindi versions of Silver Bird, with native speakers of these languages will be piloted. A field trial has been running for one month with Miinan Hoitolalt care homes in Finland, and a UK pilot is about to start, with the co-operation of The Anchor Trust care homes. Dr Adrian North, of the University’s School of Psychology said: “The preliminary findings so far show that the major benefit of Silver Bird is its social effect. The benefits, in turn, have knock-on pastoral and financial implications for care homes. When the well-being of their residents has been improved they become healthier and happier.”

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Bulletin News


‘SMELLIEST PLANT’ BLOOMS AT BOTANIC GARDEN NOT everything has come up smelling of roses at the University’s Botanic Garden. One plant that came into bloom at the picturesque 16-acre attraction in fact created quite a stink! Director Richard Gornall said the smell of the Snake Palm (Amorphophallus Prainii), which lasts for only a few hours, was absolutely disgusting. “While the smell is awful, the plant’s foliage is something else,” he said. “It is truly magnificent, with marbled leafstalks and a wonderful symmetry to the leaf-blades.” Dr Gornall brought the plant back from Indonesia in 1997. It is one of nine

ASTHMA EPIDEMIC ALARM THE NUMBER of pre-school children with wheezing disorders has doubled over the past ten years, according to a study by University experts. Asthma has reached epidemic proportions in Britain. One in seven children – approximately 1-

5 million – now has the disease. Professor Mike Silverman, Head of Child Health at the University who carried out the study, said the increase covered all types of wheeze – from insignificant wheezing to severe asthma attacks. The findings, published in The Lancet, come from a comparison of questionnaires sent to the parents of 1,650 children in 1990 with a similar survey of 2,600 children in 1998. All the children were aged between one and five and lived in Leicestershire. Over the eight years there was a significant rise in all types of wheeze from 16% of children to 29%. The number of asthmatic children rose from 11% to 19%, while the proportion of children admitted to hospital for wheezing increased from six per cent to 10%. There was also an increase in transient wheezing, a condition that normally disappears by school age from three per cent to five per cent.

INVESTIGATION: Professor Mike Silverman is investigating why airway disease has increased so dramatically. 4

The increase was not just linked to allergies. The incidence of viral wheeze, the response to a

similar plants at the Glebe Road gardens and only the second to flower. • A plant fair and open day at the gardens attracted more than 1,200 people. virus infection, rose from nine per cent to 19%. The rise on respiratory problems could not be linked to household risk factors such as passive smoking, gas cooking, pets or low parental education attainment because those factors declined over the period, the team reports. Professor Silverman said factors unrelated to allergies were to blame for the rise. But he ruled out traffic pollution as a likely cause. Part of the increase could be due to a greater awareness of wheezing and asthma. But other symptoms of asthma, such as coughing, had not increased over the decade. “The increasing prevalence of viral asthma can’t be explained by allergies. There may be something more fundamental that has made airway diseases increase,” he said. “The explanation must be environmental change over recent years. Changes in diet, hygiene, medications or even road traffic could provide the answer.” More research is under way to answer or solve these issues.

Bulletin News


GLOBAL CONSORTIUM ANNOUNCES PLANS TO SEQUENCE BANANA GENOME SCIENTISTS from 11 countries – including the University of Leicester – have announced the founding of an international consortium to sequence the banana genome within five years. The scientists from governmental, university, and nonprofit organizations will use the new genetic data to enable developing-world farmers to grow bananas that are able to resist the fungus Black Sigatoka, as well as other diseases and pests. The project involves Professor Pat Heslop-Harrison of the Department of Biology at the University. Professor HeslopHarrison and his group study the biology of the cell nucleus. Bananas are a staple food for nearly half a billion people worldwide, but their crops are increasingly lost to disease. The genome sequence will also benefit US and European consumers of the popular dessert banana, one of the world’s most chemically dependent crops. “Ancient farmers selected banana strains that were seedless and thus sterile, and grew the fruit through vegetative sprouting,” said Dr Emile Frison, Director of the Montpellier, France-based International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain. “Cultivated bananas have, therefore, been at a near evolutionary standstill for thousands of years and lack the genetic

diversity needed to fight off disease. A coordinated effort by scientists worldwide is needed to unlock the diversity found in bananas that still grow and reproduce in the wild.” The group sequencing effort was launched at a meeting held July 1719 at the US National BANANARAMA: Plans to improve the Science Foundation in global yield and quality of bananas Arlington, Virginia. will involve Leicester Professor of Scientists will map the Biology Pat Heslop-Harrison. banana genome using a sexually reproducing wild species of banana from Southeast Asia. “Banana will be the first exclusively tropical crop to be sequenced,” said Frison. “More than a popular snack, bananas are a staple food that many African families eat for every meal. This is our chance to develop a crop that won’t fail for them and that may help lift them out of hunger and poverty.”

COMMUNITY SAFETY AT ISSUE A CONFERENCE focusing on community safety issues attracted over 100 delegates to the University at the end of May.

Organised by lecturers Jon Garland and Andrew Silke of the Scarman Centre, the conference, entitled Community Safety: Contemporary

Issues and Perspectives debated topics such as the evaluation of crime prevention schemes; Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act; partnership working; new approaches to community safety and integrating methods of crime reduction. Speakers included Professor Nick Tilley, who delivered the opening keynote address; Stephen Brookes, the Crime Reduction Director for the government office for the East Midlands, and Professor Ken Pease, who closed the conference. The conference attracted delegates from across the United Kingdom, including police officers, academics, community safety workers and local government officers. It is intended that the papers from the conference will form the basis of a book on community safety and crime prevention issues to be published early next year. 5

Bulletin News


OADBY HALLS EVENT SUCCESS OVER 90 people heard Donald Woods give his views about the new South Africa and his friendship with Nelson Mandela at Gilbert Murray Hall on May 24. The second event organised by the Oadby Halls Action Group was declared a great success by the ViceChancellor, organisers and all who attended. The event was opened by fourteen-year-old Nathaniel Brown, who read his poem, Freedom Cries, which he wrote in response to the story of Steve Biko. It was Nathaniel’s poem which inspired Donald Woods to come to Leicester to speak. Mr Woods told of how the Attenborough movie, Cry Freedom, was as accurate as it could be without testing the boundaries of audience belief. He said that the reality was in fact more dramatic and astonishing than the film dared to show. When asked why he acted as he did in standing up against the Apartheid regime, he said, “I was in a situation which if most people found themselves in, they make the same decisions … we woke up one day to find we were on the other side of the boundary line which we didn’t even know was there.” Woods described the incredible differences between the family’s white friends and their politically active black friends. “One day we would talk with the whites about the swimming pool being a bit cloudy, and then the next night we’d be at the Bikos’ hearing who was in solitary confinement, was he being tortured, and should we take something to the prison?” His banning in 1977 isolated him from the life he had previously enjoyed. “As a banned white person, it was the only place in South Africa that was worse for the whites. If you were a banned black person you were a hero to your community….but if you were a banned white person you weren’t.” His opinion of the new South Africa is that “…life is a hell of a lot better now than it was before.” He says of sensational news stories about crime 6

TAKING CONTROL: Claudia Wiseman, Matthew Niblett, Donald Woods, Karrin Singh, Sally Brooks, Matt Day – the infamous Oadby Halls Action Group!

and corruption in South Africa, “What we’ve found in South Africa is lots of problems, but even more solutions.” He remains hopeful that South Africans have the capacity to deal with their problems in positive ways. Students from The Lancaster School wrapped up the evening with a presentation celebrating the importance of personal testimony. Accompanied by music written by Tim Cope, students read from Witness – Voices from the Holocaust edited by Joshua Greene and Shiva Kumar. “If testimony offers no assurance of averting catastrophe in the future, it at least assures that what occurred in the past will not be forgotten. That alone would be a remarkable accomplishment.” They ended with an appeal for a collection of books for schools in black townships in South Africa. Primary-age picture books, or

any books by African authors – fiction or non-fiction – are urgently required by the Books for South Africa charity. Other books for primary, secondary or tertiary students will be collected for other schools in South Africa. Books may be left at Browsers’ Bookshop in Allandale Road, or at The Lancaster School, Knighton Lane East. The Vice-Chancellor praised the achievements of the Oadby Halls Action Group in founding its speaking programme. The programme aims to raise funds for educational facilities in the Oadby Halls of Residence and at the same time broaden students’ exposure to learning. • For more information about the Oadby Halls Action Group or about the collection for Books for South Africa, contact Karrin Singh on 0116 215 5454 or Matthew Niblett on 0116 215 6045.

FOOD RISK ASSESSMENT REPORTS PUBLISHED TWO workshop reports from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Institute for Environment and Health (IEH) relating to the FORA project Diet-Gene Interactions: Characterisation of Risk and Chemoprevention and Chemoprotection: The Role of Dietary Intervention and How to Measure its Effects have been published. Scientists at the MRC Toxicology Unit and the MRC IEH, both located at the University, have completed a series of four workshops and reports as part of the Food Risk Assessment (FORA) Project – which integrates novel methods and new scientific findings into food risk assessment, particularly in the context of diet and cancer. The project has been funded by the Food Standards Agency.


Bulletin News

LAW STUDENT IS AMONG TOP IN THE COUNTRY A POSTGRADUATE student has been selected among the top three in the country in a law competition. Haresh Sood clinched third place in Tomorrow’s Lawyer, sponsored by commercial law firm Addleshaw Booth & Co in association with The Times. The competition was launched last year and this year was part of The Times Annual Student Awards. Entrants had to write an essay of 1,000 words explaining why the successful lawyer of the future needs a thorough understanding of their clients’ business to deliver real commercial advantage. They also had to detail a practical life experience they believed better equipped them for a career in the law. Haresh (24), from Nottingham, won £2,000. A spokesperson for Leeds-based Addleshaw Booth and Co said: “We are looking for people with passion and drive, who possess a real enthusiasm and motivation for everything they undertake.

MORE FEMALE FANS FOR FOOTBALL A RECORD number of women are watching football, and the crowds are becoming more middle class, according to a new study by John Williams at the University’s Sir Norman Chester Centre for Football Research. Some 14% of Premiership fans are now women, and they make up one-fifth of season ticket holders. A survey of 29,000 fans of top clubs in England and Scotland says the majority of new fans are women. It says 11% of fans now earn more than £50,000 a year, with the largest numbers following London teams. At Chelsea, they make up one third of the crowd, followed by Wimbledon (23%) and Arsenal (20%). This compares with Sunderland (4%) and Everton (5%). According to the survey Liverpool’s Anfield stadium was voted the best ground to visit, with Old Trafford, Stamford Bridge and Elland Road the worst. Middlesbrough, Bradford and Newcastle United have the biggest proportion of locally-born season ticket holders, on 84%. Manchester United has the lowest, at 46%. More than half of those questioned said they supported a team because their father did, with 7% replicating their mother’s support for them.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: Haresh with his award in the Law Library.

“The standard of entries was exceptionally high, matched only by the outstanding individual qualities evident in the personal submissions of all the contestants. “Merely qualifying as one of the six short-listed finalists was an achievement in itself and the judges had a very difficult task in coming to their decision following the day of presentations.” Haresh, who already has an LLB from the University which included a year in Italy as part of the course, is now engaged in an LLM programme of Higher European Legal Studies which will take him to Spain and France during the course. He impressed the judges not simply by his academic abilities – but also by the wealth of experience he has gained in the commercial sector. At the age of 17 Haresh worked with BBC Radio Nottingham and later set up his own business Haresh Sood Productions to raise funds for charity by annually staging shows, dramas, concerts and conferences. The organisation is now involved in charity fundraising, business marketing and media and public relations. The talented student has added to his experience through membership of a range of committees including serving as an equal opportunities officer and a Labour students, chairman.

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Bulletin News


511 MILLION YEAR OLD FOSSILS DISCOVERED FOSSILS discovered in Shropshire have provided scientists with the evidence for the earliest known occurrence of crustaceans, the major group that includes such well known animals as crabs, lobsters, shrimps and barnacles.

were recovered with acid techniques from limestone rocks belonging to the Cambrian period of geological time and are about 511 million years old. At that time much of Wales and central England were covered by a shallow sea.

These fossils are also the oldest known find of an animal with its body and complement of limbs preserved in three dimensions. The discovery helps build up the picture of the early evolution of life.

Professor Siveter said: “A really exciting aspect of these fossils is that they are preserved complete with their softparts such as limbs and they are in three dimensions, so we can examine aspects of their biology and discuss their relationship to various major groups of animals in detail.

The find was made by Professor David Siveter from the Department of Geology at the University and Dr Mark Williams of the British Geological Survey, Nottingham. Together with a colleague from the University of Ulm, Germany, they have published their findings in the leading American scientific journal Science. The tiny crustacean fossils, less than a millimetre in size,

NEW YORK CHARITY RUN FOR RAINBOWS A POSTGRADUATE student from the University aims to run the gruelling New York Marathon in aid of children’s charity Rainbows. Tim Werry (25), who is reading for his PhD in Pharmacology, plans to raise funds for the hospice for terminally ill children and their families. Tim, from Buckfastleigh in South Devon, is appealing for companies to support his charity bid – helping him to raise a total of £1,500 in order to take part. He said: “The work of the Hospice provides a humanitarian service and is worthy of as much support as I can give it. The Hospice requires around £1.5million per year to support it’s activities, and I am aiming to raise at least £1500 to donate to the organisation.” Tim is currently training to complete the New York Marathon on November 4. He is also a keen footballer. “It is a tough challenge, but is nothing compared to that facing the families helped by Rainbows,” said Tim. • Anyone wishing to support Tim should ring 07773 770 228. 8

“Such is the quality of preservation that we have hair-like structures on the limbs that are less than a hundredth of a millimetre in size. The discovery identifies an important, geologically early source of exceptionally well-preserved fossils and holds potential for finds of other types of animals with soft parts from the same locality.”

POLICING, ETHICS AND HUMAN RIGHTS A CONFERENCE at the University, hosted by the Scarman Centre, attracted speakers from academic and practitioner backgrounds. They included the Deputy Chief Constable of West Mercia, Peter Neyroud, who gave the keynote address. Other areas of human rights and ethics, which were discussed, included human rights in action, the right to a ‘safe’ crime-free life and the ethical stance of Russian police officers. Papers were also presented on the problems arising from competing demands for ethical policing and effective use of public funds and the ‘responsibilities’, which are bound up with rights. Dr Louise Westmarland, Lecturer in criminal justice studies. said: “The conference was attended by 55 delegates, with senior officers travelling from across Britain and Northern Ireland and academics from continental Europe. A number of other public agencies were also represented. One of the aims of the conference was to launch the new Journal of Policing, Ethics and Human Rights.” A call for papers was made and it is intended that the new publication will include, in its inaugural issue in summer 2001, a collection of the conference papers.

SUMMER SCIENCE EXHIBITION

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PROFESSOR David Siveter from the Department of Geology, along with colleagues from Oxford and Bristol, exhibited their cutting edge research at the Royal Society’s annual Summer Science Exhibition in London from July 3-5. Their exhibit, entitled Virtual Fossils: Silurian Sensations Released from the Rock, depicted the first ever detailed computerised 3-D images of soft-bodied fossils. These are 425 million years old from the Silurian rocks in Herefordshire. Open to the public and free to enter, the Summer Science Exhibition offered a once-a-year opportunity not only to see the latest in cutting-edge science from the UK and abroad but also talk to the scientists about their work and how it might improve our lives in the future.

Bulletin News JUST WHO DOES THAT BELL TOLL FOR? TO A packed house, an Iranian poet and two musicians gave a spirited performance at a Richard Attenborough Centre lunchtime Spotlight, which had the audience dancing – if they could find the space. The event was part of the National Refugee Week celebrations and featured briefly on the BBC television East Midlands news, MATV and Leicester Sound. The performers, all professionals whose work is banned by the Iranian government, are members of the Midlands community of asylum seekers, living here in exile. The event underlines what a rich cultural contribution to society asylum seekers can make.

Except that while he was languishing in a Malawi prison along with the cockroaches and rats, one of his fellow political prisoners was a Leicester graduate in Mass Communications Research. Jane Pearson

Later the same evening there was an altogether quieter affair at the Westcotes Library on Narborough Road, like the earlier event, organised by the City Literature Development Officer. The published poet and professor of English, Jack Mapanje, talked about his years as a political prisoner in his native Malawi, his time as a student in the UK, and the racial prejudice his family had experienced when he returned here some years ago as an exile himself. What does this have to do with the University of Leicester? Not a lot, I suppose.

SECURITY JOURNAL THE LATEST issue of the Security Journal edited by staff at the Scarman Centre at the University includes striking new findings from research in England and Wales; Australia, the United States and New Zealand. Dr Rosemary Barberet, Lecturer in Criminal Justice at the University and Professor Bonnie Fisher of the University of Cincinnati, co-editors of the special issue on Women and Security: International Perspectives, state: “So often public and private strategies to make

DISCIPLINE HOPPING A RESEARCH project in the University’s Space Research Centre using techniques developed for space research in the treatment of cancer, has received a Medical Research Council (MRC) Discipline Hopping Award. One of only 24 out of 64 applicants to receive the MRC award, the Leicester discipline-hopping team, Dr John Lees and Professor George Fraser, head the University’s BioImaging Unit. The funding is for research they are carrying out in

people safer do not take women’s special security needs into account. This issue highlights the overlap among women of threats to security in the home, workplace, in institutions, in public life and in cyberspace and suggests ways the security industry might be more responsive to the particular security needs of women.” There are sections of the presence of abuse and violence in the lives of women offenders and the situations that female taxi drivers face on a daily basis. The journal also tackles the issue of cyberaggression.

collaboration with Andrea Murray, of the Queen’s Medical Centre, University of Nottingham. They will investigate the use of a microchannel plate imager for visualising high-energy radionuclides, used in treating cancer. Radioimmunotherapy uses antibodies to carry therapeutic radiation directly to cancer cells, while normal cells are protected from its toxic effects. Such treatment has shown promise in tackling various cancers, including breast, bladder and ovary. However, currently available techniques make it difficult to visualise the effectiveness of this approach at the tumour level. The microchannel plate technology

underpinning the imager was developed within the Space Research Centre for cameras used on the Chandra satellite, now in space and used for X-ray astronomy. Its imager, sensitive to beta particles as well as X-rays, would seem to be ideal for detecting radiolabelled antibodies within tumour cells. The research collaboration will assess the performance of the microchannel plate camera as part of the development of a radiolabelled antibody being developed at Nottingham for the treatment of bladder cancer, with the ultimate goal of using it to monitor the effectiveness of radiotherapy treatment. 9

Bulletin News INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

care workers for the teamwork required in the delivery of modern public services.

THE CHIEF Medical Officer, Liam Donaldson, was the www keynote speaker at the University’s Inaugural InterProfessional Education conference. The aim of the conference was to promote the development of interprofessional education for health and social care professions in public and voluntary sectors, in line with Government recommendations for modernising services in Leicestershire. The conference considered how Leicestershire should address the changing requirements of


LAUNCH: Dr Angela Lennox said inter-professional education should be given the highest profile.

professional training. The aim is to develop a vision for future learning, which will prepare health and social

Dr Angela Lennox, Director of the University’s Centre for Studies in Community Health Care at Prince Philip House, Leicester, said: “We believe that inter-professional education should be given the highest profile, so we are proud to launch this inaugural conference with the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Liam Donaldson and to follow his talk with Professor Marshall Marinker who was the founding Professor of General Practice at the University of Leicester.” Funding for the inaugural conference came from the Leicester Health Action Zone and the NHS Executive (Trent).

MEDIA MANAGERS AT LEICESTER MANAGERS of Media Services in Higher Education from 36 universities in the UK (and one in Europe) gathered in Beaumont Hall for their Spring conference in April. Topics under discussion were the new European Directive on copyright, setting up digital image archives, strategic planning for media services in universities and the challenges of delivering courses over the web. The keynote speech was by Professor Lewis Elton and was entitled Educational Technology – Has It At Last Arrived? Delegates visited the new LWMS distance learning theatre in the Maurice Shock Building, and worked on a national benchmarking project for the Media/AV sector with the Library and Information Statistic Unit. Nita Spektorov

SPACE SCHOOL LAUNCHES OLYMPIC CONTENDER A LEICESTER student who is to represent Britain in the www 2001 International Space Olympiad in Russia later this year was the lucky recipient of a free place in the sought-after Space School UK during the summer. Sam McGauley, a student at Gateway Sixth Form College, Leicester, was able to brush up his skills at Space School UK at the University, in July, before competing 10

in the British team in the Space Olympiad in Korolev, Russia in October. During the residential five-day course, students at Space School UK met space scientists and employers, and explored the realities of such topics as human space flight, Mars, rockets, satellites, the Solar System, stars and supernovae, extraterrestrial life, remote sensing and the environment. Academic

disciplines involved ranged from physics and astronomy to engineering and astronautics, geology, the environment and humanities. The five days were demanding and intensive, but also included visits to Astrium UK to see satellites under construction and the newly-opened National Space Centre at Leicester.

Bulletin News


YEARS OF SERVICE CELEBRATED ‘SILVER’ CELEBRATIONS FOR STAFF TWENTY-THREE members of staff at the University celebrated 25 years of service at a lunch held by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Burgess, on June 18. Those celebrating their ‘silver’ anniversary came from all corners of the campus, including academic departments, the Bookshop, Computer Centre, Library and the Accommodation office. Michael Sackin, of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, said: “The University has grown much bigger in my time, but the atmosphere has changed remarkably little. It still feels quite small and friendly. I’ve been much involved in University musical activities from the outset. There have been many wonderful landmarks and many eras, mostly exciting and vibrant, but very different from each other.” Christine Mawer, who works in the Library, remembered: “From the old days of typed catalogue cards with only printed resources available to aid in cataloguing and classification, we have moved into the new millennium, with global automation and all the innovations ICT has brought with it. The Library building has also been an historical experience in itself, from days when we had to wear gloves in the late 70s to be able to file cards in near subzero temperatures, to weeks of tropical balm in the 80s, when the air quality is reminiscent of a hot Mexican

TOAST: The Vice-Chancellor with some of those joining in their 25th anniversary celebrations.

beach. Lots of memories, lots of changes and fortunately lots of very informative and valuable colleagues along the way.” Dr Johnathan Young, Department of Geography and Warden of College Hall, paid tribute to Margaret Smith, College Hall Manager (both at the lunch): “The working relationship that I have enjoyed with Margaret Smith over the past 18 years since I have been at College Hall has been exceptional. I can honestly say that we have not had a cross word in all that time. She is simply the most loyal and congenial colleague and friend that anyone could wish for.” John Wilson, Director of Computing and IT Services, has watched a complete change of attitude in his field: “In 1975 computing was seen as an expensive research tool for a few scientists. It is now indispensable for all staff and students and a way of life

for many, as fundamental as the electricity supply. It has been very interesting and challenging to work with a wide variety of intelligent and gifted people, both within the Computer Centre and in academic and administrative departments. I am grateful for the opportunities afforded me to work in such a key area over the last 25 years.” Professor Stewart Petersen looked forward as well as back: “It is virtually impossible to relate the job of an academic now to that of 25 years ago. Combined with the consequences of promotion and seniority this means that I could not have conceived 25 years ago of the job I do now. Allowing staff to develop professionally in ways which best suit their talents and abilities is what a University should be all about. I only hope that we can preserve this in the aggressive new order of the university world.”

UNIQUE HERITAGE GOES ON DISPLAY VISITORS to an Open Day on June 23 at the Centre for Urban History learned more about an exciting new project to set up an oral history archive for Leicestershire and Rutland. They heard extracts from local oral history recordings, and explored oral history sites on the internet, along with slides of the Wharf Street and Walnut Street areas of Leicester.

preserved for posterity thanks to a £370,000 cash injection from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The University, Leicester City Council and Leicester County Council received the largest single grant to the East Midlands from the Fund. The pioneering project aims to draw together and preserve 1,600 tapes made since the 1970s. This will form a record of voices from the last millennium.

This public record of ‘The People’s Voice’ is being 11

Bulletin News MANAGERS ARE GETTING YOUNGER IF THE growth of university courses on the subject of management is anything to go by managers are getting younger and more numerous. In the UK, business and management studies remain consistently the most popular courses, with students of these subjects making up over ten per cent of all firstdegree students in the last academic year. The University has been delivering management courses for more than ten years, largely at post-graduate level. This is about to change with the introduction of a new BA in Management Studies. “We have watched the demand for management courses grow and grow” said Professor Peter Jackson, Director of the University’s Management Centre. “During this period we have developed expertise through research and through teaching students from all over the world and from major corporations. The time now seems right to make that expertise available to wider groups of students”. And does the world need all these extra managers? There is clearly a long-term growth in employer demand for managers. “But”, maintains Professor Jackson, “it is also clear that changes in the world of work and employment


have made the organisation of work more complex and more intensive, placing a premium on managerial skills. “The ability to think strategically, to be able to problem solve, to be numerate and to be able to present coherent reports are all essential skills of management increasingly needed in a range of occupations in the public, private and voluntary sectors. We aim to equip our students to be able to make a significant contribution across a range of different employment situations and be able to adapt to the changing demands of a world that will not stand still.” The new course starts in Autumn 2001. • For further information contact Mark Burridge on 0116 252 3954.

WINDOW ON GERMANY A NEW seminar series on German History – Germany Today and Yesterday – was launched at the University. The founders are three historians who have recently joined the School of Historical Studies and work on modern Germany. The series serves as a platform to invite scholars working on a wide range of topics on modern Germany to present papers in Leicester. Everyone is welcome to attend: academics, students and those interested from the public. The topics of the first three seminars centred on issues of nationality, citizenship and identity. Dr Andreas Fahrmeir from the German Historical Institute in London delivered a provocative paper in March on The Myth of Ethnic Citizenship Law: Nationality in Germany in a European Context, 18001960. ‘Antisemitism of Reason’: Nazi Research on Jews and Judaism was the title of the second seminar, delivered by Professor Alan E Steinweis from the University of Nebraska, currently Skirball Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies. The last seminar also dealt with the Nazi era. Dr Alice von Plato, who is currently engaged in a research project on City and Dictatorship at the University of Hanover, showed in her paper, Town Jubilee under the Swastika, how town jubilees were celebrated in the Third Reich. The seminars, held in the Marc Fitch Historical Institute, 3-5 Salisbury Road, were well attended. The planning of the next series in 2001/2002 is already on the way and will include topics such as film and literature in modern Germany. Suggestions are welcomed by the convenors Dr Claudia Prestel, Professor Dieter Schott and Dr Chris Szejnmann. For further information please contact Professor Dieter Schott on 0116 252 2766, [email protected].

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Bulletin News


‘MOOSIC STUDY’ REVEALS WAY OF INCREASING www MILK YIELDS DAIRY cows produce more milk when listening to REM’s Everybody Hurts or Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony than when subjected to Wonderstuff’s Size of a Cow or the Beatles’ Back In The USSR a new study by music research specialists at the University has found. The 1,000-strong herds of Holstein Friesian cattle preferred listening to no

music at all to being exposed to Mud’s Tigerfeet or Bananarama’s Venus, the psychologists discovered. Their milk yield rose by 0.73 litres per cow per day when they were exposed to slow music rather than fast music. The results revealed a three per cent increase in output when slow rather than fast music was played. Scientists Adrian North and Liam MacKenzie from the Music Research Group at the University of Leicester School of Psychology exposed cattle to fast, slow and no music at all over a nine-week period.

The trials, at LCAH Dairies in Lincolnshire and Bishop Burton Agricultural College in Humberside, involved playing music to the cows for 12 hours a day, from 5am to 5pm. Dr North said: “These results are statistically significant – they reveal that milk yields could be increased by 3% simply by playing certain types of music to the cows. “We have found that cows respond to a pleasant auditory environment by producing more milk. It seems that slow music had the effect of alleviating stress and relaxing the animals which resulted in greater milk yields.”

Lifelong Learning LEICESTER AT RUSKIN

to all year groups is a tour of medieval Oxford led by Dr David Parsons.

Guy Sumpter, a BA Humanities third-year student, gives a flavour of a study week at Ruskin College, Oxford.

Last night is party night. A band is engaged and Evelyn the college chef lays on a superb buffet. On the final morning all year groups meet in plenary session to present précis of what they have learned. This could be a dry academic occasion but Humanities students are inventive if nothing else so the plenary session tends to take the form of a stage review, with songs, sketches and wicked impersonations of some of the lecturers. The third-years also made a presentation to Dr Rob Colls, for whom this was his last year as senior tutor at Ruskin. After six days everyone is completely shattered and thankful to return home for Easter. Lifelong Learning? Some people will do anything for CATS points.

EVERY April for the last 12 years a coach load of about sixty Leicester BA (part-time) Humanities students leaves campus and makes its way to Ruskin College Oxford for an intensive week of study. This event may be regarded as the University of Leicester equivalent of Open University residential schools, but it is so much better than Open University because we already know one another, so there is no social ice to break and from the outset we are confident to contribute our ideas and feelings. Ruskin College is situated in the Jericho district of Oxford, about five minutes walk from the city centre, and is built in the Classical idiom, a matter of supreme irony in a building that commemorates John Ruskin, advocate of Gothic. It’s our moment of opportunity to have the university experience we never had: the chance to enjoy our ‘take’ on the world. We bounce ideas and anxieties off tutors and each other all through the day and well past closing time.

• For details of the part-time BA in Humanities course contact John Tompkins at Lifelong Learning on 0116 252 5901, [email protected].

Activities are mainly divided into year group seminars and field trips. Field trips are undertaken mainly by the firstyears, ostensibly because they are studying land and landscape, but really because second and third years are too burnt out to have the energy for such visits! Seminars for the second-years included an intensive poetry course with Nick Everett and Professor Bill Myers of the English Department, and two days on Colonialism with Dr Ruth Young from Archaeology. Third-years studied cultures high and low with Dr Roey Sweet and Dr Robert Colls from Economic and Social History – from Sir Joshua Reynolds to Educating Rita in five days. A popular optional outing open SHARING EXPERIENCES: Leicester students at Oxford. 13

Lifelong Learning


AN EXCITING TIME ‘MY name is Sumayya and I have been attending Vaughan College for the past three years, studying parttime. In that time I have completed three certificate courses and I am currently on the BSc degree course. Vaughan College has offered me freedom of choice and flexibility with my adult education, whilst enabling me to maintain my personal and social life. The tutors and staff are very helpful, which is important as it makes one feel valued and welcome. The students are from various backgrounds and studying side-by-side with them has given me a real insight into their experiences and ideas. Everyone is pleasant and I now count many of my fellow students as good friends. The whole atmosphere at Vaughan College is friendly and welcoming and there are good facilities too. It is hard to summarise three

Sumayya Sabat.

wonderful and exciting years in a few sentences – all I can say is that I have really enjoyed my part-time studies at the University of Leicester.’ • Sumayya Sabat has completed the Certificate in Counselling Studies, Certificate in Psychology and Advanced Certificate in Behavioural Studies. She is currently studying for the Advanced Certificate in Modern Biology and the degree module in Psychology, and is working towards the BSc in Human and Environmental Sciences. Friendly, Approachable and Helpful ‘During recent years, the importance attached to lifelong learning has increased dramatically. The University of Leicester can claim with justification to have anticipated this trend, since it has for many years provided for the education of mature students at Vaughan College Leicester, University Centre, Northampton, and elsewhere. A wide variety of courses are offered, up to and including undergraduate and postgraduate degree level. These enable people to develop or change career direction or, perhaps more importantly, to undertake academic study for learning’s own sake. Staff in the University’s lifelong learning centres are friendly, approachable and helpful. The atmosphere is welcoming and not at all intimidating – ideal for those who may be considering higher

NEW NEWSLETTER FOR LIFELONG LEARNING A NEW eight-page newsletter, New Frontiers, has been produced by the Institute of Lifelong Learning. Edited by Jackie Dunne, the Institute’s new Director of Continuing Professional Development, over 20,000 copies of the newsletter will be distributed three times a year.

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Guy Sumpter. education for the first time. These centres can also be regarded as ‘embassies’ of the university in the community – places where ‘town and gown’ meet. In my own case, I completed a twoyear Certificate course in Architectural History at the Northampton Centre and I am now in the final year of the BA (Hons) degree course in Humanities at Vaughan College. I have thoroughly enjoyed my years studying at these two centres and would strongly recommend the University’s lifelong learning courses to anyone.’ Guy Sumpter


Business Bulletin

UNIVERSITIES’ CRUCIAL ROLE IN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT UNVEILED AT CONFERENCE HIGHER education institutions in the East Midlands are playing an increasingly important role in the economic development of the region through innovation, knowledge and technology transfer. Great progress has been made since the establishment in 1997 of regional development agencies, and the creation of government funding to support partnerships between higher education and the business community. East Midlands universities’ dynamic and exciting contribution towards economic regeneration was unveiled at a special conference on July 3. The conference, Innovation Through Diversity: Higher Education’s Role in the East Midlands, was attended by key representatives from the region’s businesses, universities, the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) and other organisations.

The focus of the event was the launch of a report outlining many ways in which the region’s ten higher education institutions contribute to regional development and improved competitiveness. Highlights of these activities include knowledge transfer, the education of high quality graduates, economic regeneration through directly relevant training, business re-engineering and lifelong learning. The report illustrates the evolving relationship between higher education, the new regional agencies and the economic and social agenda they were set up to address and further. It also provides a comprehensive overview of the broad spectrum of expertise within the East Midlands. Key speakers included Professor Robert Burgess, Vice-Chancellor of this University and Chair of East Midlands Universities Association, and Martin Briggs, Chief Executive of EMDA.

The university sector in the East Midlands provides direct employment for some 20,000 people and generates in excess of £750 million income, through direct government funding, research, commercial contracts and export income from students outside the EU. “Although teaching and research remain the core activities in these institutions, activities with business and the community are essential,” said Professor Burgess, Chair of EMUA, which represents the region’s ten higher education institutions. “Universities have long since shed their ‘ivory tower’ image. The partnership between higher education and business is a key element in successful regional development.” EMUA can provide additional information, or answer specific enquiries relating to the report and the higher education institutions it represents.

BUSINESS BRAINS SEEK TO UNLOCK FIRMS’ POTENTIAL BUSINESS and industry in the East Midlands are being urged to innovate and unlock their potential by forging strong links with the University. The University, in partnership with the East Midlands Quality Club, held a free half-day practitioners’ event on June 27, sponsored by the Small Business Service and the Teaching Company Scheme. Commercial Contracts and Intellectual Property Manager at the University of Leicester Kate Murray said: “In this rapidly changing world, maintaining a competitive edge depends more on how well knowledge, skills and creativity are exploited. “Successful organisations are those that differentiate themselves through continuous innovation of their products, processes and practices. They create a

culture where people think ahead, see opportunities and take calculated risks. “Success through continuous innovation can be strengthened by bringing the worlds of business and academia closer together – with universities playing a central role as dynamos for change.” The event included case studies from a company’s perspective, a graduate’s view, a perspective from an academic involvement plus much more. Linda Mee, of the East Midlands Quality Club, added: “The Teaching Company Scheme is an opportunity for companies to access the knowledge and skills of the UK’s expertise within universities and to draw on this expertise by supporting key development projects while developing talented graduates into future business leaders.”

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Business Bulletin PROBE INTO RETAIL CRIME ANDREW Willis and Ken Livingstone of the Scarman Centre have been awarded a two-year ESRC research award of £186,000 on retail crime. Andrew Willis comments: “Retail crime disfigures one of the most important parts of the UK’s economy. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) estimates that there are nearly 4 million incidents of shop theft costing more than £2 billion a year. Crime threats jeopardise the quality of the shopping experience for customers and they have an adverse effect on prices; they diminish the working experience for staff, especially when there is violent victimisation; and they have an adverse effect on a retailer’s profitability. “Dealing with the retail crime problem requires a partnership of effort between the police, retailers and their staff and town centres and shopping centres, including Home Officesponsored Safer Shopping and Retail Crime Partnership schemes.” The Business Intelligence Crime System (BICS) is a DTI/ESRC Management of Information (MI) LINK programme which seeks to secure the

development, implementation and successful use of an electronic system for collecting and collating and disseminating information about known and suspected retail offenders across a wide geographical area. The aim is to share data for the purposes of the prevention and detection of crime, and the apprehension and prosecution of offenders or suspected offenders, with particular emphasis on high-volume, Ken Livingstone. high-value travelling thieves. The research covers twelve areas across the East and West Midlands and the North East, including: Birmingham, Coventry, Leamington Spa (Rugby, Warwick, Nuneaton) Leicester city centre, Leicester Fosse Park, Merry Hill, Newcastle upon Tyne (including Gateshead town centre and Gateshead Metro Centre), Shrewsbury, Stoke on Trent, Stratford upon Avon and Wolverhampton. The sites have been chosen to reflect the ‘corridors’ (M1, M4, M5, M6, M40, M42 and M69) most likely to be used by professional, semi-professional and other ‘committed’ thieves. The research data deriving from the BICS project will be used as to inform the promotion of similar schemes nationally and internationally. Andrew Willis says: “The primary beneficiaries include towncentre retail crime management

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Andrew Willis.

(retailers, local government and the police) and the shopping public. “There are social benefits in terms of improved quality in the shopping experience, as well as avoidance of the costs of criminal losses, which are otherwise borne by the retailer as diminished profits or by the consumer as inflated prices.” Ken Livingstone adds: “The project will stimulate and provide examples of best practice in crime risk management, and the Scarman Centre will publish and disseminate research material in both academic and professional outlets.” The results of the project will also lead to commercial exploitation of the software used in BICS, provided by Retail Decisions plc (ReD), including its application in other town-centre crime reduction partnerships. BICS will collect, disseminate and then use retail crime intelligence in a completely new way so as to allow crime analysis by type of store attacked, type of merchandise stolen and its value, particulars of the offender’s modus operandi, details of the day and time of attack, and the name or alias of the offender, together with circulation of a CCTV or police photograph and previous retail crime history. Sharing this type of information will allow retail crime partnerships to take a proactive approach in dealing with known or suspected offenders, including the use of so-called exclusion orders to prevent offenders from entering stores in the first place.

Business Bulletin


KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Organisational Networks Unit) which brings together researchers from the Universities of Leicester, London and Warwick.

THE MANAGEMENT Centre has been awarded a grant (£160,000 in total) by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to investigate Knowledge Management for Project-based Learning.

The project involves a number of major organisations from a range of sectors – Unilever, Land-Rover, BT Labs, Birse Construction, Peterborough NHS Trust and Nycomed-Amersham. The aim is to improve the way in which organisations capture the learning generated during projects.

This two-year project is supervised by Professor Harry Scarbrough, and is undertaken in collaboration with the inter-University IKON (Innovation, Knowledge and

Professor Scarbrough explained: “At the moment, many companies find that the break-up of the team on

WORKING AT HOME - WHO WINS? WOMEN working at home who do higher grade work are paid more on average than www their equivalent office-bound colleagues according to new research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of its £4 million Future of Work Programme.

completion of a project leads to the dispersal of much of the learning and knowledge generated. This results in the expensive and time-consuming need to ‘re-invent the wheel’ on other projects. By focusing on the organisational and behavioural factors which encourage groups and individuals to share knowledge, the project aims to identify a framework of management practices through which organisations will be able recycle project-based learning much more effectively.”

Employers in the utilities sector are most likely among private sector companies to offer the facility. The number of people working mainly at home has risen dramatically in the last two decades to 2.5 per cent of the workforce, while those who said that they work at home ‘sometimes’ account for a further 22 per cent.

This is one of several surprise findings in a study which explodes some of the popular perceptions that home working is all liberation or all drudgery. With encouragement from politicians and some business leaders, the facility to work at home, at least for some of the working week, is increasingly viewed as a factor in promoting a more healthy work/life balance. Some employers see the granting of permission to work at home as enlightened employment practice. Dr Alan Felstead, from the Centre for Labour Market Studies at the University, has identified some unexpected facts about who works at home, how much they earn, and which employers are most likely to allow their employees to work at home.

Alan Felstead.

Addressing the annual ACAS conference in Harrogate, he showed that the public sector is more likely to offer the option of home working than private employers, as are larger employers against smaller companies. 17

Business Bulletin


FIRMS HONOURED FOR EMPLOYING STUDENTS BUSINESSES in Leicestershire that have made an exemplary effort in providing part-time employment opportunities for students while they are still studying were honoured at a special awards ceremony at the University. The Employer Awards Scheme was launched by the University of Leicester Students’ Union last year, building on the work of its Student Employment Centre. The Award

Scheme judged employers on the opportunities they offer based on an understanding of present and future student needs. The judging panel, which included representatives from sponsors Everards Brewery as well as Leicestershire Chamber of Commerce, Leicester City Council, the University and Students’ Union, assessed the duties students are given, the training and induction procedures and the overall benefits gained by both parties. The award winners were as follows:

AWARDS: Winners in the various categories are pictured with the ViceChancellor Professor Burgess, Emma Hamilton and with Mr Everard (back row, right).

Small Category Runner-Up

Link Communications

Small Category Winner

Leicester Quaker Housing Association

Medium Category Runner-Up

Nicholls Colton Testing

Medium Category Winner

Mecca Bingo

Large Category Runner-Up

Wesser and Partner

Large Category Winner

Leicester City Football Club

Overall Winner

Leicester City Football Club

CAREERS FAIR SUCCESS THE CAREERS Fair at the University attracted some 700 students and 50 exhibitors. The Fair and Careers Week hosted 17 workshops of which 11 were run by employers. The most popular were Interview Skills run by Arthur Andersen; Image Building run by Eversheds; Telephone Interviews by Lab Support Services; Job

Search in Science by Science Recruitment Group and On-line Applications by wcn.co.uk The Careers Week workshops were attended by 300 students.

JOB HUNTING: Hundreds of students gained skills and information during the Careers Fair and Careers Week. 18

Employer liaison officer Haniel Riviers-Allen said: “More companies were represented than at last year’s fair – an increase of seven companies. The students came from many universities and employers’ feedback was very positive.”


Degree Feature

GRADUATES’ SUCCESS CELEBRATED FRIENDS and families from around the world joined more than 3,400 students at the degree congregations on July 11,12 and 13.

Addressing the graduands and their families, Sir Michael Atiyah talked of degree ceremonies in the Lebanon, his father’s country, and the cosmopolitan nature of student communities, before concluding:

Approximately 2,100 undergraduate students received Bachelor’s degrees while higher degrees were conferred on approximately 1,300 postgraduate students. The degrees were conferred at six ceremonies by the Chancellor of the University, Sir Michael Atiyah, and the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Burgess.

“As you leave university the world you will enter is changing fast, not only in terms of the movement of peoples that I have been referring to, but also in terms of technology and employment. You start with the initial advantages of your degree from Leicester, but you will need to supplement this at various stages and in different ways. “Some of you will acquire further skills on the job, others will get special training, some may go on to higher degrees or research, and some may return later to university for additional courses. To keep up

with the world outside you will constantly have to be educating yourself. In fact the most useful skill you can acquire at university is that of learning how to teach yourself. With libraries and the internet, with universities offering retraining programmes, there are plenty of opportunities for you to keep abreast of changes and I hope you will do so. “As I said at the beginning, graduation is really your commencement. So I wish you all well, may you have fulfilling lives, both personal and professional and may you serve not only your own advancement but also that of your community. Whatever happens, do not lose the idealism of youth, but temper it with experience and realism.”

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Space Centre

20

…ONE GIANT FOR

T LEAP R LEICESTER

Space Centre

The £53.3 million Millennium Commission sponsored National Space Centre, the brainchild of the University of Leicester, opened to the public on June 30. University photographer Colin Brookes captures moments from the occasion.

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Degree Feature


Honorary degrees were awarded to the following people: Mr Gerry Cinderby, (LLD), Member of the University’s Council, who served as Treasurer from 1995 to 1999, pictured with his wife, Brenda, and son, Steve.

Mrs Jean Humphreys, (MA), honoured for her contributions to the development of the University for over 50 years.

Sir John Robertson (Sir Rob) Young, KCMG, (LLD), British High Commissioner to India and graduate of the University.

Professor Jack Spence, (DLitt), Director of Studies at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) from 1991-97, and former Professor of Politics and Pro-ViceChancellor of the University of Leicester.

Dr Hugh Greenwood, OBE, (LLD), businessman, honoured for his contributions to child health worldwide.

Professor Colin Humphreys, FREng, (DSc), Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge. Pictured with his wife, Sarah, and daughter, Kate.

Mr Richard Pearson, (DLitt), distinguished economist, Director of the Institute for Employment Studies and a graduate of the University.

Dr John Taylor, OBE, FRS, FEng, (DSc), Director General of the Research Councils, and former Director of Hewlett Packard Laboratories. Pictured with Professor Andrew King, Physics. Mrs Elvy Morton, (LLM), who has contributed to community relations in Leicester and has organised the African-Caribbean Carnival for 17 years. 22

Professor Sir Brian Follett, FRS, (DSc), former ViceChancellor, University of Warwick, honoured for his contribution to Biological Science Pictured with the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Burgess.

Professor Liam Donaldson, (DSc), Chief Medical Officer in the Department of Health, and former Lecturer in Community Health and Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology at the University of Leicester. Pictured with his wife, Brenda.

Degree Feature


DELIGHT AT LEICESTER HONOUR Quotes from the honorary graduates: “THE University of Leicester has had a very formative influence on my life and career. I feel deeply privileged to be receiving an Honorary LLD. It will strengthen my links with – and affection for – the University.” Sir John Robertson (Sir Rob) Young, KCMG “I am pleased to return to Leicester and to see it play its role as a major university, helping the community and the economy.” Mr Richard Pearson “I am delighted to receive an honorary degree from the University

of Leicester where I spent 18 very happy years.” Professor Jack Spence “I am delighted that the University has chosen to recognise my contribution to its governance by this award of an honorary degree. The University is continually improving its performance and thus gaining recognition as one of the top academic institutions in the UK.” Mr Gerry Cinderby “It has been a rare pleasure and privilege to be in at the birth of a university and to see it grow through succeeding stages to the large and flourishing institution it is today. I have known some of the people whose generosity and vision created the University College, and all of the

Principals and Vice-Chancellors who guided it on its way from 1947 to this day.” Mrs Jean Humphreys “I am delighted to be receiving this honorary degree from the University of Leicester for my work in materials science. My research has involved using a beam of electrons for ultrasmall writing so that the entire contents of Encyclopaedia Britannica can be written on a pinhead. My current work involves new materials which emit brilliant light of all colours. It may be possible to make a light-bulb which consumes much less energy than at present and which lasts for 60 years.” Professor Colin Humphreys, FREng

ERIC CELEBRATES DEGREE SUCCESS – AT 82 AT 82, Eric Lewinsohn was among the oldest students to be graduating from the University. His remarkable achievement of completing his MPhil and gaining his degree served as a tribute to his parents who died during the Holocaust. The subject of the study is also a testament to the courage of the octogenarian – for in it he revisits the Holocaust which accounted for the death of millions of people.

WHAT A TRIUMPH

PART TIME – FULL COMMITMENT

MOST students find it challenging enough to take a degree. But Emma Lister not only coped with a liver transplant during her final year, but went on to achieve a firstclass BA degree in History of Art. Her academic performance won her the Luke Herrmann award for the best undergraduate performance and the Hilda Willis Memorial Prize for the best undergraduate dissertation (each award shared with a fellow student).

THE UNIVERSITY of Leicester Department of Adult Education, in the Institute of Lifelong Learning, celebrated a bumper crop of results among its students graduating with BA (Hons) in Humanities. Out of a total of 21 students, three achieved first class degrees and 10 upper seconds.

Emma, who has cystic fibrosis, said: “I was just so glad to graduate. It was a difficult year and I am grateful to everybody at the University for their support. I feel I am very lucky.” 23

International Focus A YEAR OF DISCOVERIES

to the Philippines preceded my arrival in Australia. New Zealand, Fiji and the almighty US were next on the list but an initial plan is exactly that, isn’t it?

ON January 2, 2000, while many others were still nursing postMillennium hangovers, I found myself sipping a gin and tonic on the shores of the Red Sea. I was spending the week at a Diving College in Egypt in order to master scuba diving. Here, amongst the corals and brightly coloured fish, I made the decision to make this year special to me.

There’s simply not enough space here to describe what I experienced, that’ll be in the book, but I will try to give you a flavour of it.

Using savings originally intended as a deposit for a house, I planned a year abroad, to travel and to broaden my horizons. I resigned from the best job I’ve ever had and caught a plane to Bangkok. Do I make it sound easy? In many ways, it is! For months, I toured South-East Asia, crossing borders, exchanging currencies, dealing with very different people and languages. I made new friends, found out who were my true friends amongst the old ones, and found new things in me. I left England during one of the longest stock market rises in history, a country enjoying a boom, where we are bombarded with messages about investment, technology, pensions, and home ownership. I left behind the Dome and Eye long before the foot and mouth. Instead I uncovered the treasures, the natural wonders, the charm and the dangers of the Orient. I crossed Thailand, through recently opened Laos to Vietnam. I saw the horrors and the beauty that characterise Cambodia. I sampled the many cultured cuisines of Malaysia and Indonesia. I was reminded of the materialistic West in Guam, and encountered the dragon in Hong Kong and China. An all too brief visit 24

I walked the Great Wall of China and stood in awe of the great temples of Angkor in Cambodia. I stared down the mouth of smoking volcanoes in Java and Bali and admired the great Hindu temple of Prambanan and the Buddhist temple of Borobudur. I joined long lines of Vietnamese school children filing

respectfully past the tomb of the great Ho Chi Minh in Hanoi. I relaxed under the flying kites of Chinese children in Bejing’s Tiananmen Square unable to comprehend the rebellious demonstrations that took place here more than a decade ago. I wondered at the master builders of the Forbidden City, amazed at Shanghai’s numerous gleaming towers and the world’s tallest building, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. I climbed quietly up the steps to the looming, massive seated Buddha on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. The scale and size of the Three Gorges Dam Project in China, constructed to harness the mighty flow of the Yangtze River, takes your breath away. As does the massive army of terracotta warriors assembled in battle formation beneath the earth near Xi’an in China.


I enjoyed spectacularly good food along the journey. I slept on trains, boats, and beaches, and in huts, jungle lodges and hotels. I rode elephants, swam under waterfalls, sang Karaoke, encountered a shark, swayed with a Balinese dancer. I was humbled by the generosity of polite, respectful, mostly poor, people in all countries. I fell in love with the frantic swarm of people in cities such as Jakarta, Beijing, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Vientiane, Shanghai. Even more seductive were the quiet moments, a deserted mountain, an unspoilt beach lapped by warm seas, a valley of rice paddies tended by women in cone hats and their oxen, a bicycle ride through a landscape of limestone karsts. A world unlike the one I am used to. Where community is strong, people often share all that they have, where people treat you with respect, where belief and faith is unwavering, where good deeds are rewarded in the next life. Where hot water, toilet paper, a sprung mattress, fresh clothes, cling film wrapped chicken pieces, fresh cold milk, a TV, and a roof over your head are considered luxuries beyond the means of many. I got lost in a jungle with two travelling companions, finally being rescued long after the sun had set, our torches were failing and our food was gone. I almost drowned when a strong current swept myself and two companions three miles out to sea whilst snorkelling. I had a moment then… And I met the woman I am going to marry later this year. An Australian I met in Cambodia who was sitting quietly on the verandah of a hotel in Phnom Penh the day I arrived hot and sweaty from a long bus ride across the border from Vietnam. I’ll certainly remember this year! Andrew Harvey (BSc Mathematics, 1994)

Out & About


EARLY BOOKING ADVISABLE NOW is the time to start booking next term’s audio visual equipment with AVS – Technical Support! Following last academic year’s 30% increase in equipment use, it is expected that demands will again be high, so early bookings are recommended. Angela Jalota receives all the requests – via email, web booking form, telephone,

memo and in person – before entering them on the AVS computer database. Only bookings sent by email to [email protected], or through the online booking form on the AVS web site at http://www.le.ac.uk/avs/bookav.html, will be confirmed, although a booking enquiry number will be given on other bookings. Please remember that the audio visual equipment is not included with a room booking and must be booked separately to ensure that it is available and checked ready for use.

READY, SET, GO!: Angela Jalota gets ready to receive equipment bookings for the new academic year.

OUT TO RAISE FUNDS A GROUP of University Library staff and their partners took up the challenge of the fourth annual Walk of Life on June 10 to raise money for the Rainbows Hospice in Loughborough. Rainbows Hospice cares for life-limited children and offers respite care and support for their families. With over 4,000 taking part, raising over £180,000 in pledged sponsorship for this charity, the Walk of Life became the biggest community fundraising event Leicester has yet seen. Dr Tim Hobbs, University Librarian, was there at the start to encourage the group. All 12 completed the15-mile walk, which started and finished in Victoria Park, tired and aching, but with only a couple of blisters between them. The group raised over £800 for Rainbows Hospice, and declared their intention of taking part next year and persuading a few more of their colleagues to join them. Lynda Chapman

PACING CHALLENGES: Library staff pictured before the start of the Walk of Life: left to right, Heather Baines, Sharon Sandhu, Alistair Chapman, Jas Sandhu, Claire Everitt, Stephen Coates, Abi Bayes, Jim, Lynda Chapman and Becky Spendley.

LOOK AHEAD WITH LIFELONG LEARNING Vaughan College, the Northampton Centre and the Richard Attenborough Centre now have new leaflets available - containing full details of part-time courses (Vaughan College and the Northampton Centre), and concerts, courses, exhibitions (Richard Attenborough Centre). These publications can be obtained by ringing: Vaughan College 0116 251 7368 Northampton Centre 01604 251 801 Richard Attenborough Centre 0116 252 2455

INTERNATIONAL PURE MATHS WORKSHOP IN LEICESTER MAJOR advances in mathematics in recent years have resulted from new ideas providing unified approaches to central subjects. A workshop to highlight and develop new links between Algebra and Topology will be held in Leicester during the week September 17 to September 21. The meeting has attracted many of the leading mathematicians in the focus areas from Europe, the former Soviet Union and North America. It builds on a similar successful workshop held here last year, and is supported by the London Mathematical Society through a grant to Dr Nicole Snashall as well as by the European Union. John Hunton 25

Out & About


ENGINEERING A HANDS ON EXPERIENCE! IN JULY, a Montessori Summer School group spent a day in the Department of Engineering. Organised by Dr Simon Gill, the day provided many thoughtprovoking and absorbing activities. Students learnt about the application of scientific Pics: Paul Smith. principles to engineer technological solutions by the practical design and construction of a Pipe Inspection Gadget (P.I.G.) and an electric motor.

PICTURES RECORD THE PICTURE ERA ULAS (University of Leicester Archaeological Services) has been commissioned to undertake a photographic and building survey of the former Cannon Cinema in Northampton by its new owners, the Jesus Army Charitable Trust, who plan to convert it into a worship and care centre. The Grade II listed building, which has been empty since 1995, is an exceptional example of art deco architecture. Originally constructed for Associated British Cinemas (ABC) as the Savoy in 1936, it was designed by the company’s architect, William Glen.

auditorium survives. Building works are shortly to commence, and will include the restoration of the magnificent entrance foyer’s double staircase and balcony to their original splendour. Although primarily a cinema – it opened with the film Broadway Melody of 1936 - the building also has a stage, and played host to the Beatles on their national tour in the early 1960s. Richard Buckley

One of the particular features of note is the proscenium arch in the main auditorium, with its distinctive streamlined design, flanked by decorative grilles concealing the organ pipes. Sadly, the mighty Compton Cinema organ which was restored for the cinema’s 50th anniversary, has been removed, although the mechanism which lifted it up into the 26

Out & About


CITING PRAISE

Notelets A NOVEL OPPORTUNITY PROMPTED by enquiries about a reading group organised by the University Bookshop, Helen Adam at the University’s Charles Wilson Bookshop is considering starting such a group. It is envisaged that members would have an input into the general format of meetings, and would all decide on the books (probably from paperbacks, fiction, non-fiction, contemporary or classic novels) they would like to read. By special arrangement with the University Bookshop, the month’s choice could be purchased at a discount. “To start this group, we would need at least ten people”, says Helen. “From my own reading group experience, having men and women in the group makes for lively discussion”. • Anyone interested should contact Helen at the Charles Wilson Bookshop on 2000 or 3008.

ANDREW Wright, a Bennett Building Porter, has written to Bulletin, praising the work of the University gardeners. “The Bennett end of the main site has been a delight of marvellous colour”, he writes. “On the first day of degree congregations, I watched from the comfort of the porters’ lodge as Rachel, one of the team struggled in a gale and driving rain to right a listing tree in one of the tubs.” He also comments on the floral displays for degree week, which, as he says, “have brightened up many a lobby.”

Student Pages RACING AHEAD OF THE FIELD Student Wins Journalism Award UNIVERSITY of Leicester Law Student, Joanna Bott, has won the Under 19 category of the Martin Wills Memorial Trust Annual Racing Writing Awards. The Awards aim to encourage aspiring young journalists who have an interest in horse racing. Joanna’s winning article was titled Novices With No Vices, and explains her experiences at her first day at the races. The main theme of the article is the difficulty that beginners face in understanding horse racing. Joanna was encouraged to enter the competition by her mother, who had read an advertisement in the national press.

competed at national level. “I was overwhelmed to have won such a prestigious award and meet so many interesting people involved in racing, it was a fantastic experience!”, she says. And she is eager to accept new challenges in her already busy life. She adds,“Winning the competition has rekindled my enthusiasm for journalism”! • Full details of the competition and Joanna’s article can be found atwww.racenews.co.uk/martinwills.

Judging the final shortlist were Lord Oaksey (Chair), Cornelius Lysaght (Radio 5 Live Racing Correspondent), Alan Lee (Racing Correspondent for the The Times) and Dr Catherine Wills (Art Historian and Governor of the Ditchley Foundations). The winners and Lord Oaksey were interviewed on Channel 4 Racing by Lesley Graham. This year saw the competition’s largest number of entries – “the strongest we’ve seen”, said Lord Oaksey. Joanna was awarded £500 for her winning article, along with numerous other rewards. These included an all expenses paid trip to the Craven Meeting at Newmarket Racecourse; the publishing of her article in The Racing Post and Irish Field; tours of top trainers James Fanshawe’s and Henry Cecil’s yards and overnight accommodation in nearby Cambridge. • Joanna has a strong background in horses, and has

ON COURSE TO PICK UP PRIZES: Winner of the Under 19 category in the Martin Wills Memorial Trust competition, Joanna Bott, with two other category winners. 27

Student Pages HONORARY VICE PRESIDENT AWARDS THE UNIVERSITY of Leicester Students’ Union Council has nominated four students as recipients for the award of Honorary Vice President of the Students’ Union, thereby recognising their outstanding contributions. They are: James Banks James Banks graduated from the University of Nottingham in the year 2000. Whilst at Nottingham he was heavily involved with Community Action and Nightline. During his time at Nottingham his work was recognised as being above and beyond the course of duty and he was awarded Honorary Life membership of the University of Nottingham Students’ Union. James was appointed as the Contact Sabbatical in July 2000 for the University of Leicester Students’ Union. This year Contact’s awareness and involvement has grown to an unprecedented scale and record numbers of the University of Leicester’s students are working

within the local community. At the end of the academic year James will be stepping down as Contact

Sabbatical. As a result of his outstanding contribution to life at the Students’ Union, Union Council unanimously voted to make him an Honorary Vice President of the University of Leicester Students’ Union. Tristram Hooley Tristram Hooley graduated in English from the University of Leicester in 1995, afterwards commencing study for a PhD. During his time here, Tristram has been politically active within the student movement and has campaigned continually against tuition fees and the abolition of the grant as well as many other causes. Tristram has been very active within the local community and has been instrumental in setting up the Leicester Radical Alliance and its magazine, Grassroots. He has campaigned for a number of students who stood for Sabbatical positions and during 1999 he was a close contender for the position of Vice President Communications.


In recognition of the way he has played an integral part of the Students’ Union over the last decade, campaigning on behalf of many very worthwhile causes, the Students’ Union have named him an Honorary Vice President. Imen Derouiche and Nouredine Ben Ticha Imen Derouiche and Nouredine Ben Ticha were Tunisian students who were detained and arrested for demonstrating about campus conditions in Tunisia. Imen and Nouredine were beaten and tortured for being involved in the student movement in their country and, whilst in prison, they both went on a hunger strike in protest at not being able to study – highlighting what some people will and have to do in order to gain an education. Union Council decided that Imen and Nouredine are examples of highly motivated students who risked much. Council also acknowledged that they both have inspired our own awardwinning Amnesty International group in Leicester, and would like to extend support to Imen and Nouredine by naming both Honorary VicePresidents of the University of Leicester Students’ Union.

Graduate Relations JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME Psychology graduate Yasmin Ali joined millions of pilgrims from around the world performing the Hajj – the Pilgrimage to Makkah (Mecca) which is one of the five Pillars of Islam. Here she recounts how this spiritual journey proved to be the major milestone of her life. The Holy Ka’aba. 28

EARLIER this year I embarked on the ‘journey of a lifetime’ with mixed emotions. I felt a childish sense of excitement about travelling on an aeroplane to a new and exciting land and also a little anxious at the thought of being thousands of miles away from home in an unknown place. Despite knowing what my duties were when performing the Hajj I felt that I was unprepared for what is such a consequential event in a Muslim’s lifetime.


Graduate Relations recited softly and others with force and immense emotion. The most striking thing for me was that not all of the people around me spoke Arabic, they had come from countries far and wide, for example, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey – and in the market place a number of different tongues could be heard. Yet here around the Ka’ba, the voice of the pilgrims was one – Arabic verses flowed from people’s lips and everywhere I turned their faces shone with pure joy as this was it – we had all finally arrived.

Pilgrims in Ihram.

I travelled with a group and, before going to Saudi Arabia, we stopped in Amman, Jordan for a short time in order to change into our ihram. For men, this is two white, unstitched pieces of cloth to be worn throughout the Hajj (women wear normal clothes ‘Never before had I which must be experienced a sense of simple). The being a part of history.’ ihram is a symbol of purity and aims to create a sense of equality amongst the pilgrims – the rich and poor should not be distinguishable from one another and should appear as they are – equal – before Allah (God).

Upon completing the rounds of the Ka’ba we all drank the water Zam Zam, which originally sprang from the ground but today flows through taps throughout the mosque. After completing a Tawaf (circuit of the Ka’ba), pilgrims perform the Sa’ii whereby they pace between two hills known as Safa and Marwa – it is between these two hills that Hajarah (Hagar) ran when desperately searching for water for her son Ismail (Ishmael). On the first day of Hajj, following the example of the Prophet Muhammad, pilgrims leave the city of Makkah and travel eastwards to Mina which is virtually uninhabited during the rest of the year. We spent our time there praying and meditating. The next day we left for the Mount of Arafat. Also known as the Mount of Mercy, this is where the Prophet Muhammad gave his final farewell sermon before he passed away. The Prophet is reported to have said:

“All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab. A White has no superiority over a Black nor Black has any superiority over a White person, except by piety and good deeds.” ‘I stared at the Ka’ba for a very long time as I tried to Many years later this statement reflects commit to memory its beauty.’ the essence of Hajj for all Muslims.

Upon arriving in Makkah our first duty was to complete an Umrah (the lesser pilgrimage). There was an air of excitement as we walked through the busy market streets, for many of us it was our first time in Makkah. The Ka’ba is a small cubic and simple monument. It resides in the centre of the Masjid-AlHaram, a majestic mosque which has a grey marble exterior and a vast courtyard surrounding it. We removed our shoes at one of the great entrances to the mosque and made our way to the centre to an open courtyard, the sky was a bluey black and the stars made everything seem very bright.

After sunset, the mass of pilgrims leave for Muzdalifah – literally an open desert halfway between Arafat and Mina, again following the example of the Prophet Muhammad. After having prayed and collected a number of pebbles to be used later, we slept under the stars for the short time we remained in Muzdalifah until day break.

The Ka’ba is covered with a black cloth (Kiswah) which is decorated with verses from the Quran in gold embroidery. We gathered at a corner of the Ka’ba where the Hijri-AlAswad (the Black Stone) is located. The Ka’ba has been rebuilt many times but this stone which the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) placed himself, still remains. We circled the Ka’ba seven times reciting specific prayers at each circuit. Despite the crowds this is where I truly felt the unity and harmony amongst my fellow pilgrims. I literally felt myself being carried along by the crowd and all around me I could hear the melodious verses of the Quran, some being A view of Mina. 29

Graduate Relations We then made the journey back to Mina. We rested for a while, then left our tents and made our way to a place where three large stone pillars are situated. We then cast the pebbles that we had collected at the pillars. This is where Satan tried to dissuade the Prophet Ibrahim from sacrificing his son as he was commanded to by God. The Prophet threw seven pebbles at the devil each time he blocked his path and we do the same as a reminder to ward away bad behaviour and impulses within ourselves. The next ritual is the sacrificing of a goat or sheep – this does not have to be carried out personally! A small portion is to be eaten by the pilgrim and the rest is distributed amongst the poor. This act is a symbol of thanksgiving to God. It echoes the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son and it also ties in within another pillar of Islam – providing for the poor The end of Hajj is marked by Eid–Al-Adha, this is a day of celebration as pilgrims remove their ihrams and cut (women) or shave (men) their hair as a symbol of purity. The unity amongst the pilgrims is spread across the world as Muslims everywhere in the world take part in the festival of Eid. Before leaving Makkah we performed a final ‘farewell’ Tawaf late at night. I watched groups from other countries performing their Tawaf, some of them carrying their national flags, I was overwhelmed as I saw that some were moving in tight groups whereby the stronger members joined hands on the outside whilst the weak were protected inside the circle as they moved slowly as one to prevent people from getting lost or injured I stared at the Ka’ba for a very long time as I tried to commit to memory its beauty and the sounds around me but even as I try and describe what I saw and felt I know there is no substitute for being there and


experiencing the Hajj. Following in the footsteps of millions and walking along the same paths as the Prophets and their families, and their companions was breathtaking, never before had I experienced a sense of being a part of history. Never before had I felt accepted amongst the community or so comfortable in who I am as a Muslim, and as an individual. I felt something during Hajj which is rare and that is peace, peace with God, with myself and with others around me, and as I have come to understand, this is the destination of the ‘journey of a lifetime’. FACTFILE • Hajj takes place over during the twelfth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. • The Hajj, or pilgrimage to Makkah, brings together Muslims of all races and tongues. • Makkah is the birthplace of Islam. • The Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam, i.e. one of the central duties of a Muslim. • The Quran (the Holy Book which is followed by Muslims) narrates that the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael) built the holy Ka’ba (or the House of God). • Muslims across the globe turn towards the Ka’ba as they pray five times each day, prayer (salat) is another pillar of Islam. • It was Prophet Ibrahim who established the rituals of Hajj, one of which is Tawaff meaning circumbulation of the Ka’ba.

People STAFF DISTINCTIONS Professor Richard Baker (General Practice and Primary Health Care) has been invited to deliver the James Mackenzie Lecture in 2003; this is the highest honour the Royal College of General Practitioners can bestow bar the Presidency. Professor Graeme Barker (Graduate Dean) has been elected to serve on the Executive of the UK Council for Graduate Education, appointed to English Heritage’s Stonehenge Archaeology and Interpretation Group, and elected President of the Prehistoric Society. Professor John Beeby (Pro-ViceChancellor) has been elected as a 30

delegate of Individual Ordinary Members to the Council of the European Physical Society.

appointed a specialist adviser to the Financial Committee of the Scottish Parliament.

Professor John Benyon (Director of Lifelong Learning) has been re-elected to serve for a further term as Treasurer of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom.

Professor Ian Lauder (Dean of the Leicester Warwick Medical School) has been elected Treasurer of the Council of Heads of Medical Schools and will automatically become a member of the Executive Committee of CHUMS.

The Revd Professor Richard Bonney (History) is serving as the Representative of the Service Provider Steering Committees on the remodelled Management Board of the Arts and Humanities Data Service. This is in addition to his continuing to chair the History Data Service Steering Committee. Professor Peter Jackson (Management Centre) has been

Professor Marilyn Palmer (School of Archaeological Studies) has been invited by the Royal Archaeological Institute to give the Annual Young People’s Lecture in December 2001. Professor Clive Ruggles (School of Archaeological Studies) is the coauthor of a paper, Cosmology,

People


Calendars and Society in Neolithic Orkney: A Rejoinder to Euan MacKie, Which has been ‘categorically chosen’ for the Antiquity Prize for 2000 as Best and Most Enjoyable Contribution in the year. He has also been appointed with Professor Barker [see previous page] to English Heritage’s Stonehenge Archaeology and Interpretation Group. • Antiquity is a leading archaeology journal. Professor Ruggles’ and Dr Barclay’s paper was a critical examination of three related ideas. The first is that society in Neolithic Orkney was strongly hierarchical, the second that precise relationships existed between monuments and sunrise and sunset on significant dates in the year, and the third that an elaborate and accurate calendar was in widespread use from Orkney to southern England. Professor Nick Standen (Cell Physiology and Pharmacology) has been elected to a Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Sciences. Dr Martin Gill (Scarman Centre) has been invited to serve on the American Society for Industrial Security (ASIS) Foundation Board and also to become an Honorary Member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. Dr Ian Harris (Politics) has been offered a Hartley Institute Fellowship for 2002/03 by the University of Southampton.

Dr Laurence Howard (Sub-Dean, Leicester Warwick Medical School/Pre-Clinical Sciences) has had conferred upon him an Honorary Fellowship of University College Northampton in recognition of his contribution to the development of the College’s Centre for Healthcare Education. Dr Kamlesh Khunti (General Practice and Primary Health Care) is to receive the John Fry Award for 2001 from the Royal College of General Practitioners for outstanding research conducted by a practitioner under the age of 40 years. Dr David Lambert (Anaesthesia and Pain Management) has been invited by the Dean of the Medical School of Hirosaki University, Japan, to lecture as a Visiting Professor. Dr Angela Lennox (Medical Education) has been appointed a Deputy Lieutenant for Leicestershire. Dr Philip Lindley (History of Art) has been appointed as an independent assessor to advise the reviewing committee on the Export of Works of Art for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. Professor Vince Newey (English) has been elected a Fellow of the English Association (FEA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA). Dr Andrew Tobin (Cell Physiology and Pharmacology) has had his senior Biomedical Fellowship renewed for a further 4/5 years by the Wellcome Trust.

AWARDS AND PRIZES • Mari Lloyd Williams, an Honorary Senior Lecturer within the Department of Oncology, together with Dr Mick Peake, lead Clinician for lung cancer, has received an award from Cancer Relief of £36,000 to enable research into Needs Assessment of Patients with Lung Cancer. This will be a two-year quantitative and qualitative study to obtain views of patients with lung cancer and their carers as to their needs in terms of services, symptom control, psychological and spiritual care. The study will inform service provision and delivery locally and will have implications for developing appropriate care for lung cancer patients in other regions.

Professor Bryan Williams (Medicine) has been awarded the International Investigator Award 2001 for his research work in the field of hypertension. • This prestigious award, judged by an international panel of experts, is given each year to a Clinical Scientist who has made an oustanding contribution to the field of hypertension. On receiving his award in June after delivering his Prize Lecture at the European Society of Hypertension meeting in Milan, he said, “I am very proud to receive this. It is testimony to the excellence of cardiovascular research and medicine in Leicester and to the hard work and dedication of many people who have worked with me in the laboratories, the Clinical Research Unit and the LRI Hypertension Clinic over the past 10 years”.

STUDENT DISTINCTIONS Haresh Sood (Leicester LL.B. graduate, currently LL.M. student in the Faculty of Law) has been awarded the third prize of £2,000 in the Tomorrow’s Lawyer 2001 Award competition. The University’s first VIII rowing team has reached the last 32 of the Temple Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta.

• Dr Jennifer Thomson, an MRC Clinical Training Fellow from the Division of Medical Genetics, has been awarded the Raftery Prize in Cardiovascular Sciences by the Medical Research Society at its Spring meeting 2001. The award follows her contribution to the work that led to the identification of the gene causative of the devastating vascular disease known as primary pulmonary hypertension. • Dr Henrik Aronsson has recently been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from the Swedish Wenner-Gren Foundation to work as a visiting scientist with Dr R Paul Jarvis, Lecturer and Royal Society Rosenheim Research Fellow in the Department of Biology. 31

People


DISTINGUISHED GRADUATE Bruce Grocott received a peerage in the election peerages list published in June. Formerly Parliamentary Private Secretary to Prime Minister Tony Blair and MP for The Wrekin, Bruce Grocott is a graduate of this University (BA Politics, 1962).

RETIREMENTS CAREER OF SCHOLARLY ACHIEVEMENT: A lunch was held in July to mark the retirement of Dr Clive Dewey. Clive joined the Department of Economic and Social History in September 1969. He has major reputation in the field of South Asian Economic and Social History and has published a number of books and papers in the field, as well as organising a series of international conferences. He was Harrison Visiting Professor at the College of William and Mary in 1997. Clive (centre) and his wife, Evelyne, seen here with colleagues and Peter Musgrave, Head of the Department (right), will live in France.

LONG AND DEDICATED SERVICE On Friday, June 29, a reception was held to mark the impending retirement of John Woodliffe, who leaves the University at the end of September, having worked at Leicester for over 30 years. John joined the Department of Law in 1968, having previously held a lectureship at the University of Hull, and was promoted to a Senior Lectureship in 1975. John has always been a person who is extremely loyal to the Department and University and a person who was very caring for the students. This latter point, I can personally attest to in that, when I first arrived at Leicester as an undergraduate in 1975, John was my personal tutor and certainly helped me as I pursued my undergraduate career. John’s contribution to both the Department and the University has been immense. In particular, when James Fawcett resigned to go to Nottingham in 1995, John was seen as the obvious person to replace him as Dean of the Faculty. I understand that he was initially reluctant to take on this role and, in the first instance, agreed only to do it for two years. He grew into the role, however, and performed it extremely well. He took his responsibilities as Dean very seriously, both within the Faculty and in the wider University, and was meticulous in all his work. In addition to be being a dedicated teacher and immensely loyal colleague, John is also a significant scholar. He is well respected by fellow International Lawyers and his book, The Peacetime Use of Foreign Military Establishments under Modern International Law is regarded as a significant contribution to the subject. He has also maintained an abiding interest in environmental issues and it is entirely characteristic of John that, VALUED COLLEAGUE: when we were putting John Woodliffe. together a typical student 32

week for the Departmental brochure, he secured the inclusion of a trip to the bottle bank. John has been a real mainstay of the Department and he will be very much missed by colleagues all around the University. It was good to see so many people at his reception and that his wife, Pat, was able to attend. We wish them both well in retirement and very much hope that they stay in touch with us. His retirement leaves a large hole in the Department. We will always regard him with respect and affection. Professor Mark Thompson

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A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION On Thursday, May 31, more than 150 people gathered in the Charles Wilson Building for a reception for Ian Paterson, Chief Photographer of AVS – Photography, to mark his retirement from the University after 33 years of service, and to wish him well for the future. Ian, whose wife, Patsy, and his daughter joined him for the occasion, was presented with a new bicycle and a cycle helmet. Ian Paterson hails from Scotland. After school in Edinburgh, he started an apprenticeship in photography, later joining the Royal Navy (Fleet Air Arm), as a Naval Photographer. In 1968 he took up the post of Photographic Technician, in the University’s Central Photographic Unit. When Ian joined the Unit, there were six staff, serving the Departments of Geology and Geography, and latterly the University as a whole, from a series of randomly located rooms in the Bennett building.

People Chancellors, Pro-Vice-Chancellors, honorary graduands, and all the Medical Deans during his years here. He has also been a most efficient Health and Safety representative for the whole of AVS, another role for which he will be sorely missed. Ian has also witnessed many landmark occasions. Probably one of the most dramatic was the collapse of the Bennett Building roof in 1973. Following this, the CPU were scattered throughout the campus for two years, like nomadic tribesmen, with outposts in Chemistry, Charles Wilson, Attenborough and the Astley Clarke buildings. It is quite ironic, that five years ago, the nomads again broke camp and moved into the Fielding Johnson Building, only yards from where they began in 1966. In fact, the Print reception area, is where the original darkroom was located.

The large assembled company of friends and colleagues at the reception were delighted with the photographs on display - Ian as a The amalgamation of Print, baby, naval rating, experienced sailor, ON YER BIKE!: Ian Paterson, with Nita Spektorov. Graphics, TV Production and photographer, and posing as Dean of Photography, offered many new Medicine - and expressed warm and challenges and opportunities. Ian, an unfailingly cheerful affectionate wishes for Ian’s future. Though there is little and polite Chief Photographer, led the unit through the chance that his active lifestyle will change. He will no metamorphosis of black and white photography, through doubt continue to take an active part in the life of his to colour and finally, digital imaging. home village, Countesthorpe – he’s served on the Parish During his time here, Ian has seen many changes within Council, founded a twinning association with a similar, the University and recorded numerous pioneering events, well situated village in France – whilst making good use of including space research projects and DNA fingerprinting. his new bicycle! He has photographed all the Chancellors, ViceNita Spektorov

CHAPLAINS SAY FAREWELL On June 6 the Chaplaincy said farewell to Vincent Price and Fiona Cownie, two long-serving Chaplains. Both of them have thoroughly enjoyed their eight and five years respectively working with the Chaplaincy. At the reception held for them, Ian McIntosh said, “Fiona has particularly helped the Chaplaincy to engage with a complex institution and to pioneer partnerships across the faith communities. Vincent has made a significant contribution to work with student groups and a trip to Iona, and his listening skills have been much valued. Both have also played a major part in the centre’s redecoration. We thank them for their enormous contribution which has been given alongside other work commitments.” GENEROUS SUPPORT: Quaker Chaplain Fiona Cownie and Methodist Chaplain Vincent Price. 33

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Notices


Volunteer to Become a School Governor and Make a Difference in your Community The School Governors’ One-Stop Shop (SGOSS) would like your help to find school governor volunteers. There is a pressing need to find many more talented people for local schools. All children deserve the highest standards in education; it should not be left to chance. School governors form the largest volunteer workforce in the UK. There are 370,000 governor places nationally, but between 10 and 15 per cent of them are vacant. In some inner-city areas, the vacancy rate exceeds 30 per cent. In Leicester, there are currently over 130 vacancies. There is a real need to fill these vacancies, some long term, with a cross section of talented people who reflect the diversity of their local communities. University staff will have transferable skills from the world of work that can make a significant difference to a school’s governing body and will often bring a new perspective to the decision making process. Governors take a strategic overview of, and make important decisions on, the direction of a school. An effective governing body allows the head teacher and staff to concentrate on

EIGHT HONORARY DEGREE CEREMONIES IN 2002 During the Autumn term the Honorary Degrees Board will consider nominations for the award of Honorary Degrees in the academic year 2001/2002. These ceremonies (on 7 February and 10, 11 and 12 July 2002, together with a special ceremony to be associated with the British Association meeting in the University in September) will fall in our 80th Anniversary year. Members of the University are, therefore, invited to come forward with appropriate nominations to mark this special year. The Board will wish to have evidence that, for most cases, those nominated are of national, and indeed of international standing, but also to ensure that the Honorary Graduands will include some individuals who have made very significant local contributions. Nominations must be made in writing and should include the nominee’s full name, title and address and be accompanied by a supporting statement and a CV. Nominations should be sent, in confidence, to the Vice-Chancellor by Monday, October 22, 2001.

providing the highest possible quality of education. Governing bodies normally meet once or twice per term and usually in the evenings. As well as the obvious benefits to the school, being a school governor offers a number of benefits to the individual and their employer. Governorship can be a valuable personal development opportunity. Individuals can develop and acquire new skills and extend the range of their experiences. As a governor you can also gain satisfaction from making a real difference in shaping children’s future. Completion of an application form does not commit you to a school right now, but is an expression of interest. This enables the SGOSS to start the matching process and you have the opportunity to decide whether the role is right for you. Talk to the SGOSS now on 0870 241 3883 or email [email protected] or write to School Governors’ One-Stop Shop, 64 Essex Road, Islington, London, N1 8LR (website www.schoolgovernors-oss.co.uk).

International Essay Contest for Undergraduates The Contest’s organisers, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, in cooperation with UNESCO and the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, USA, invite undergraduate students to envision how the Dialogue among Civilizations can better prepare the peoples of the world, especially the youth, for the challenges of tomorrow. The Contest, in Celebration of the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, will select ten winners (winning essays announced by October 31) and award each a $1,000 scholarship, round-trip airfare and accommodation for a 5-day stay in New York during the first week of December 2001. Winners will attend the culminating events of the Year of the Dialogue among Civilizations at the United Nations and present their essays (winners are responsible for arranging to obtain their US entry visas).

undergraduates should first be submitted to Professor John Holloway, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, by September 26. The University is requested to select one essay for submission to the Dialogue among Civilizations International Essay Contest. Essay format should be between 900 and 1,200 words in length, excluding sources. Further details are available on the following web sites: United Nations: www.un.org/Dialogue Secretariat at Seton Hall University: http://diplomacy.shu.edu/dialogue (telephone 973 275 2515, email [email protected]) The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations: www.un.int/Iran The International Centre for Dialogue among Civilizations: http://dialoguecentre.org • Please contact Barbara Whiteman on 0116 252 2676 for a copy of the essay contest guidelines.

Entries from University of Leicester 35

Notices Sponsored Jailbreak! How Far Will You Go for ChildLine? Go on the run with a friend – teams of 2 to be released on parole for 24 hours on Friday, September 14 from David’s Cave at Nottingham Castle. If you dare to take part in this exhilarating ‘get away from it all’ event, organised by ChildLine Midlands, then contact 0115 924 2544 for further information and registration packs. Prison uniforms supplied! The cost is £10 per person and entrants are asked to raise sponsorship. Proceeds to the the charity ChildLine Midlands. • Childline is a free, national 24-hour helpline for children in trouble or danger. Trained volunteer counsellors comfort, advise and protect children and young people. Based in Nottingham, ChildLine Midlands opened in 1988 as the first ChildLine centre outside the 24-hour headquarters.


SOUNDING OFF Red Leicester Choir – Leicester’s only alternative choir – welcomes new members. Join the choir on Wednesday, September 5 in the Secular Hall, Humberstone Gate (opposite Sainsbury’s), 7.30 – 9.30pm. Previous singing experience not necessary. Basses/tenors especially welcome. Enquiries to 0116 212 7607 or [email protected].

NVQ Assessor Awards The University’s Staff Development Centre is looking into the feasibility of applying for recognition as a registered centre for NVQs. To help with this process it would be useful to know if any University staff have NVQ Assessor Awards (D32/D33/D34). Staff with these qualifications who would like the opportunity to assess NVQs are asked to contact Helen Clarke, Training and Development Officer, on 0116 252 5211 as soon as possible.

Dates for your Diary A MORE COMPREHENSIVE LIST OF EVENTS IS AVAILABLE ON CWIS SEPTEMBER Tuesday September 18 University of Leicester Open Day for all departments. To receive a programme or further information contact 0116 252 2674, fax 0116 252 2447, email [email protected]; Internet http://www.le.ac.uk OCTOBER Thursday October 4 University of Leicester’s 80th Anniversary Day. The 80th Anniversary is being marked by celebratory events in the next academic year. A provisional programme of events can be seen at http://www.le.ac.uk/press/80th.html

SPOILT FOR CHOICE: ARTS EVENTS COMING UP IN THIS AREA Saturday August 18 – Saturday August 25 Leicester Castle Park Festival. For details of events ring 0116 252 8978. Thursday August 23 – Saturday September 8 Leicester Haymarket Theatre: Rent. Smash hit musical back for just 19 more performances. Ring 0116 253 9797 for tickets. Friday September 7 – Saturday September 29 Nottingham Playhouse: Dick Barton – Special Agent. Comic romp based on the classic radio series. Ring 0115 941 9419 for tickets. 36

Saturday 8 September – Thursday 18 October City Gallery: Adorn, Equip. Group exhibition of new equipment designs for disabled people. Special workshops on September 22 and October 13. Ring 0116 254 0595 for further details. Wednesday September 12 – Friday September 14 Nottingham Royal Concert Hall: Victoria Wood. Ring 0115 989 5555 for tickets. Thursday September 13 – Saturday September 22 Leicester Haymarket Theatre: Top Girls. Co-production with Oxford Stage Company of 1980s comedy classic by Caryl Churchill. Ring 0116 253 9797 for tickets. Saturday September 22 De Montfort Hall: Anuradha Raudwal live in concert with Devashish Das Gupta and Bollywood’s finest musicians. 8pm. Ring 0116 233 3111 for tickets. Sunday September 23 De Montfort Hall: Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem presented by the Bardi Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, conductor Andrew Constantine. Ring 0116 233 3111 for tickets. Friday September 28 De Montfort Hall: Caribbean Carnival Extravaganza. For details and tickets ring 0116 233 3111. Saturday September 29 De Montfort Hall: Imperial Circus of China. 8pm. For tickets ring 0116 233 3111.

Small Ads


CHILDREN’S BIKES FOR SALE Two bikes: one with stabilisers, suitable for girl 3-4 years, £10, the other, with 5-speed gears, suitable for boy 6-7 years, £20. Good condition. Telephone 0116 271 1448.

PROPERTY SEARCH Are you intending to buy or rent residential property in Leicester? Taking all your individual requirements into consideration, we will provide an independent, personal and professional service, helping you find the right property in the right location. For further details telephone 0116 244 8038, email [email protected]. FURNISHED ACCOMMODATION TO LET Good-sized sitting room, bedroom, and kitchen in detached bungalow (not shared) in lovely, quiet part of Stoneygate near the University. Garden attended to, gas central heating, double glazing, gas cooker, washing machine and fridge, shower as well as bath. £225 per month, exclusive of bills. Postgraduate preferred. Available for at least the next academic year. Telephone 0116 279 2106.

PROOFREADER AVAILABLE Proofreader available to proofread your essays/theses/papers/ dissertations/departmental booklets/articles etc. Grammar and punctuation also corrected. Telephone 0116 271 1362.

HOLIDAY LET Wells-next-the-Sea, Norfolk barn cottage in private courtyard near beach, quay, shops, old High Street. Sandringham, Holkham Hall, woods, Blakeney seals nearby. Sleeps five; two wcs. Email [email protected].

ACCOMMODATION WANTED German university mathematics lecturer, wife and two daughters, seek spacious three or four-bedroom house, with garden, in which children can play in, in the area south-east of Leicester from mid August/September 1. Email [email protected], telephone 0049 55081679.

ACCOMMODATION WANTED Visiting female academic (27, non-smoker) from Rumania is seeking accommodation (room in house/flat) from October until the end of December 2001. If you can help, contact [email protected] or ring 5930.

LEICESTER INTERVARSITY CLUB Leicester IVC is an informal club whose members organise a wide range of activities including speakers, meals, walks, badminton, cinema, and theatre trips. For more information contact Jan on 0116 273 5306.

ADVERTISE IN THE BULLETIN FREE OF CHARGE! Space permitting, Bulletin will publish small advertisements FREE OF CHARGE. Simply complete the form below and return it to Press & Publications Office ([email protected], 0116 252 2415) by the closing date for the preferred issue. Bulletin will make every effort to publish all advertisements received by the deadline, but cannot guarantee their inclusion.

PAID ADVERTISING Small adverts (up to 30 words) are GUARANTEED a space at the following rates: House sales and lettings: £5.00 / Other sales and services: £2.00 Prices for display adverts are available from Chris Walters on ext 1150. Tick box for type of advertisement: PROPERTY

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HOUSEHOLD ITEMS ❏

SOCIAL

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Your advertisement: (maximum 30 words) ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

(for information only): Name and department: ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Daytime telephone number: ................................................

Evening telephone number: ..................................................

• The Editor reserves the right to refuse or edit advertisements. • This service is available to members of the University only.

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A.O.B.


‘HISTERICAL’ REVELATIONS A OR A/S levels? It matters not, as History examinees continue to reveal new light upon those dark and not-sodark corners of the past. British politics in the eighteenth century were fraught and divisive, especially in the 1760s when ‘George III was trying to avoid political fractions’. To this end he employed ‘one of his favourites, Lord Bute, who had sinister hands’! Still, before long corruption was on the way out. 1789 was the annus mirabilis, when a new world dawned with ‘the French Revelation’.

‘Lord Melbourne was reinstated as Prime Mister in April 1835’; a reference perhaps to his relationship with the young Queen Victoria before Albert arrived! His government was clearly fired up by this – ‘the Dean and Chapter Act of 1840 dealt with the problem of residential cannons in cathedrals’. Presumably this was a decommissioning process. Elsewhere in the Church of England, the Oxford Movement looked to the medieval past for inspiration, leaving no stone unturned as its members decorated their churches ‘with sacraments, ornaments and vestiges’.

It was a visionary age. We are told that ‘nineteenthcentury census returns are a useful staring point for the study of society’. Well, focus carefully on the columns, and hey presto! ‘Most migrants into Leicester between 1851 and 1881 would either be single or married’. Simply amazing!

By the twentieth century, the British soldier was not what he had been. There was, for example, the ‘apparent decline in physical fitness revealed by recruitment figures for the Boar War’. It must have been the result of animal instincts! Nevertheless, by the 1940s, American troops clearly had the edge – ‘there was a lot more to the GIs than just their money; women were dazzled by their charm, confidence and whit’.

Moreover, ‘Lord Liverpool died in 1827 and was succeeded by some very weak leaders like Lord Waterloo’. A decade later, ‘the Chartists did not fail; they were just defeated’. It must have been because they were ‘lumbered with an impractical political gender’. And not necessarily the fair sex, for the census ‘tells us the martial status of female domestic servants’.

Never trust your host! Or you might end up like one ‘personal guest of Sir John French, who enjoyed a privileged potion’. Yet nothing could be quite as final as the Phoenix Park Murders in 1882 ‘where Lord Cavendish and his assistant Burke were fatally murdered’. Elementary, my dear Watson! David Johnson

Feature EXERCISE 2: IT’S BETTER TO TRAVEL HEALTHILY IF ‘donning kit’ to take a work-out fills you with dread and you think Lycra is the name of the next boy-band, then don’t despair. The good news is that you can still take enough exercise in your workwear to get a health benefit. One good way to increase the casual amount of exercise which you take is to build small extra bits of it into your daily routine. Take the stairs rather than the lift. Hiking up to the fifth floor of the Charles Wilson for your munchies might be too much to start with but you could start by hopping out at the third and starting from there. As you get fitter try and walk 38

all the way. Build a reward system in. Walk all the way – it’s your favourite – chips? Other ideas include getting off the bus a stop earlier than you need and walking the rest of the way. Alternatively, buy a car parking pass for Freemen’s Common and not main site. That way you are guaranteed a one kilometre walk every day. Best of all would be to bike to work. There are secure, well lit, covered bike sheds around the campus – and the Charles Wilson has showers. Whatever you do – aim to just do a little more than you do now!

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PRIZE CROSSWORD 55

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TEN PRIZES THIS MONTH: First correct entry of the draw – a three-course lunch for two in the Carvery, donated by the University of Leicester Catering Services, second correct entry – £15 book token, donated by the University of Leicester Bookshop, third, fourth and fifth correct entries – £10 book voucher from Smith’s, sixth correct entry – a bottle of wine, courtesy of the Bulletin, seventh correct entry – £5 book token, courtesy of the Bulletin, eighth, ninth and tenth correct entries – presentation sets of Royal Mail stamps. Entries (in a sealed envelope, clearly marked) to PRIZE CROSSWORD COMPETITION, PRESS & PUBLICATIONS OFFICE, FIELDING JOHNSON BUILDING BY NO LATER THAN NOON ON FRIDAY 7 SEPTEMBER.

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WINNERS OF PRIZE CROSSWORD 54: A three-course lunch for two in the Carvery, donated by the University of Leicester Catering Services – Colin Ferris, Biology; £15 book token, donated by the University of Leicester Bookshop – Dr A Young, Psychology; a bottle of wine, courtesy of the Bulletin – Gary Pinch, Microbiology and Immunology; £5 book token, courtesy of the Bulletin – Rebekah Jukes-Jones, Centre for Mechanisms of Human Toxicity.

Clues Across 1. Celebrity is in trouble up tree (6) 5. Body to dry up on boards (6) 8. Quick to return for sin (4) 9. Tear it up for rags, perhaps (6) 10. A cross starting to charm (6) 11. Policeman crept on so sinuously (9) 15. Superior purée: one’s coming over (5) 17. Before use, read extract (3) 18. Angry buccaneer, quietly leaving (5) 19. Ingenuity displayed by the smartest (3) 21. Very first vehicle for minister (5) 24. Band can re-play country music (4,5) 26. Guinea-pig: it’s in a hole (6) 27. Series of fast rallies from the stars (6) 28. The only flatfish (4) 29. Initially, sand often covers e.g. the Pyramids (6) 30. Is nothing to stop containment of depression? (6) PRIZE CROSSWORD 54 SOLUTION

Down: 1 Soda. 2 Arsenic. 3 Coypu. 4 Paediatrician. 6 Eyrie or Eerie. 7 Ironside. 8 Spiral. 13 Trouvère. 15 Pulpit. 16 Tribute. 18. Theme. 20 Split. 21 Tear.

SALAD DAYS

Across: 1 Seascape. 5 Semi. 9 Dishy. 10 Esparto. 11 Annuli. 12 Reels. 14 Recapitulated. 17 Until. 19 Instil. 22 Emeriti. 23 Louse. 24 Even. 25 Knitwear.

Clues Down 1. There’s war and suffering in this republic (6) 2. Vegetable too apt to disintegrate (6) 3. Tried fire to make one intimidated (9) 4. The very central progenitrix (3) 5. Heavy tread may immobilize vehicle (5) 6. Civil coppers with time to replace cocaine (6) 7. Complete group of conservationists in the Republic (6) 12. Lover is wan when thrown over (5) 13. Morning coffee otherwise is taken in twilight (9) 14. Alternatively caught by a whale (4) 16. Liar changes currency in Italy (4) 19. Device to add up account in a business (6) 20. Start to snarl up journey (6) 22. Little Bear ingests her sweet child (6) 23. It may go into locks, making a wave! (6) 25. A ship swallowed by the deep (5) 27. Self-proclaimed greatest in quality (3)

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Photostop

A BACHELOR’S LIFE FOR ME! Medical Genetics student Andrew Bright found his first modelling assignment quite relaxing, particularly as it was part of an all expenses paid seven-day trip to Bodrum in Turkey. Andrew won Club 18-30’s annual search for an amateur model, resulting in a picture of him on the front cover of the new summer 2002 brochure!

MASTER OF LETTERS To mark Father’s Day, the Royal Mail organised a photoshoot on campus with Leicester-based actress Joy Ramage posing. A fake post-box was placed in front of the Library – and books made a handy prop for the occasion. Picture: Jason Tilley

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MODEL STUDENTS