Duncan Allardyce - winner of 2nd prize in the PTCC photo competition 2011/2012

Duncan Allardyce spent nearly 8 months at the University of Groningen, Department of Molecular Chronobiology on an Erasmus work placement.  Duncan chose Groningen as he wanted to experience a research working environment, which will enhance his employability when he leaves university.  As you can see from Duncan’s photo, he was immersed in a multicultural environment in The Netherlands, which shows prospective employers the ability of a student to undertake a challenge and step out of their comfort zone.  

Well done Duncan!

Lappeenranta University of Technology, LUT Summer School (Finland)

The LUT summer school is a four week programme and is intended for postgraduate students from 'Electrical Engineering' and 'Computing'.

Students will be nominated to participate in the LUT Summer school with a tuition fee waiver (tuition, printed course material, support services and social activities free of charge), the only expenses being travel and accommodation.

The LUT summer school will take place between 15th July 2013 and 11th August 2013. For further information visit http://www.lut.fi/en/lut/admissions/summerschool/Pages/Default.aspx.

Interested students from 'Electrical Engineering' should discuss this opportunity with Dr Tim Brown and those from 'Computing' to discuss with Dr Bogdan Vrusias.

November 2012 - Erasmus exchange student receives best performance award at Mazda Motors Europe Headquarters

The International Relations Office supported Sandra Gershon (undergraduate 'Business Management & German' student) on her Professional Training Year (PTY) through the Life Long Learning Programme, Erasmus.  

As part of her course, Sandra was required to undertake a placement in Germany during the academic year 2011/12.  She secured a placement at Mazda Motors Europe Headquarters in Leverkusen where her high performance levels were recognised with an award for best performance.  To read more on this story click here.

October 2012 - São Paulo visit explores mobility options 

Dr Annette Kratz, the new Head Europe & International Mobility, met her colleagues at USP in SãoPaulo on a recent visit to explore the promotion of student mobility between the two UGPN partners.

Discussions ranged on how to make it possible for Surrey students to spend a semester or a year studying and working at USP using the PTY.  USP teach a few courses in English and it is possible to do an internship as long as a student is registered for two courses. These possibilities will now be explored further with the relevant staff at Surrey.

October 2012 - Surrey attends British Council exhibitions in Brazil 

A team from Surrey attended the British Council exhibitions in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro on 20 and 22 October.  The exhibitions provided an opportunity to meet with Brazilian students interested in studying at Surrey.  Commenting on the exhibitions, Peter Shelley, International Relations and Projects Officer, said, “These exhibitions provided a great way to build on our existing links with Brazil.  There are already 12 Brazilian students at Surrey and we expect this to increase to over 30 in 2013 – thanks, in part, to the success of the Science without Borders programme.”

September 2012: Pro Vice-Chancellor (International Relations) attends the official 60th anniversary celebration of the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE)

Surrey’s new Pro Vice-Chancellor (International Relations), Professor Vincent Emery, represented the University of Surrey at the 60th anniversary celebrations of DUFE in Dalian, China at the end of September 2012.  The Surrey International Institute-DUFE (SII-DUFE) is a joint academic partnership and is the third largest British higher education programme in China with over 1500 students undertaking undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. 

Professor Emery presented a speech in the DUFE Sports Stadium to over 7000 guests including the Vice Minister of Finance (Zhang Shaochun), the Vice Minister of Education (Lu Xin), the Party Secretary of DUFE (Chairman Ai Hongde) and the President of DUFE (Li Weian).  

http://xiaoqing60.dufe.edu.cn/publish/2012/0929/content/333.html

At the same time as DUFE celebrating its 60th anniversary, the SII-DUFE celebrated its 5th anniversary with a series of alumni activities and workshops. 

May 2012: Visit to Surrey by Dr. Melinda Morrill NCSU

The University, through the School of Economics (FBEL), hosted a visit by Dr Melinda Morrill on Thursday and Friday 10-11 May.  

Dr Melinda Morrill is an Assistant Professor in Economics at the Department of Economics at North Carolina State University. She has published several articles in leading Labour, Health and Economic Demography journals.

During her visit, Dr Morrill met with senior Surrey colleagues and gave a seminar entitled ‘Sticking Together During Hard Times? High Unemployment Rates and Marital Stability’.

March 2012: Mini-Conference strengthens research collaboration

An FBEL mini-conference, focusing on entrepreneurship and innovation, corporate governance, internationalisation and sustainability was organised in March 2012 by Dr Jane Hemsley-Brown (Associate Dean International) as part of the wider University Global Partnership Network (UGPN) event at University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Academics from Surrey Business School, the Centre for Environmental Strategy (FEPS) and Research and Enterprise Support (RES) delivered papers at the three day event which took place from 19–22 March. Hosted by University of São Paolo, the Surrey academics were joined by speakers from North Carolina State University (NCSU), who presented papers on the same research themes.

The UGPN has already set the dates for the next mini-conference event which will be held on 9–13 September at Surrey. The FBEL sessions will include the same topics, together with an additional theme: consumer behaviour. There are plans across all faculties to extend the mini-conference to include more cross-disciplinary work—encouraging collaboration across faculties—and to extend the workshop to all the Schools in FBEL. The School of Hospitality and Tourism will be running workshops from 11–13 September, and the Surrey Business School intend to plan workshops for the early part of the week: 9–11 September.

March 2012: Visit to Surrey by Dr. Marsha Orgeron and Dr. Devin Orgeron, of NCSU

The University, through the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences, will be hosting a visit by Dr. Marsha Orgeron and Dr. Devin Orgeron on Friday 9th March.  

Dr. Devin Orgeron and Dr. Marsha Orgeron are both Associate Professors of Film Studies at North Carolina State University. They are co-editors, with Dan Streible, of the recently published Learning with the Lights Off: Educational Film in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2012) as well as of The Moving Image, the journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists (U Minnesota Press).

They are scheduled to meet with senior Surrey colleagues and also give a seminar from 12:00 - 13:00 entitled 'Documentary's Forgotten Legacy: Rethinking a Century of Educational Film' in 07 NC 01.

January 2012: UGPN Research Collaboration Fund - Call for Proposals

The University Global Partnership Network (UGPN) is pleased to announce the inaugural Call for Proposals to the UGPN Research Collaboration Fund.  This Fund will support high quality research collaborations between researchers at the UGPN partner institutions.  The fund will total US$180 000, with each UGPN partner contributing US$60 000.

The intention is that these awards go beyond pump-priming to support substantive engagement that leads to high quality outputs, such as joint papers or joint research bids.  Proposals should be jointly submitted by faculty from at least two of the UGPN partner institutions.  

The deadline for applications is Friday 30 March 2012. For details and an application form click here. 

December 2011: USP-Surrey shift work research

Prof. Claudia Moreno of the USP School of Public Health visited the University of Surrey in early December as part of a Fapesp-Surrey collaboration with Professor Debra Skene in FHMS.

Their research explores light exposure as a factor in adaptation to odd working hours. It aims to understand the patterns of light exposure and working time, and their implications for health, sleep patterns/timing and the biological rhythms of rubber tappers living in an Extractive Reserve in the Amazon region.

Contacts: Skene DJ Prof (Biochemical Sciences) and crint@fsp.usp.br

Updated 8 November 2011

16-19 November 2011: Mini conference strengthens partnership

A mini-conference examining entrepreneurship and innovation, corporate governance, and sustainability is the latest activity of the University Global Partnership Network (UGPN).

The UGPN was launched in August 2011 and sets out to create a foundation for international collaboration. It enables academics and students from some of the world’s top universities to work together on issues of global importance.

Academics from the University of Surrey in the UK’s Faculty of Business Economics and Law will be delivering papers on sustainable supply chains, entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial finance at the three day event from 16 to 19 November. Hosted by North Carolina State University (NCSU), the Surrey academics will be joined by speakers from the University of São Paulo and Poole College of Management at NCSU who will be presenting papers on the same research themes. 

From Surrey Business School Dr James Aitken will be delivering a paper on “Automotive crash repair reverse logistics operations: An analysis of the inventory-service trade-off” – a model for reusing car parts from damaged cars to reduce landfill and improve service. Dr Maria Di Domenico will be presenting her paper entitled “Home-based technology entrepreneurs: Boundaries and ambiguities” and Dr Liang Han’s paper focuses on “Capital market concentration and cash holding: Evidence from US small firms.”

The full programme is currently being finalised and the expectation is that a number of joint projects will come out of the conference, further strengthening the partnership, in addition to plans for further conferences between the three UGPN partner institution.

4 November 2011 Surrey welcomes visiting delegation from South Korean Scientific Institutions.

A delegation of scientists and managers from Korea visited the University of Surrey on 4 November 2011. The delegation included representatives from the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety, the University of Science and Technology, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, the Gwanju Institute of Science and Technology and the Korea Ocean Research & Development Institute. Following visits to Surrey's Centre for Communications Systems Research and the Clinical Research Centre, the delegation met with Professor Colin Grant, Dr Malcolm von Schantz, Mr Peter Shelley and Professor Paul Smith to discuss Surrey's international work and the university's approach to research. 

19th July 2011 Students from IISER Pune, visiting the University of Surrey as part of a project funded by UKIERI, showcase their research.

Students from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Pune met at Queen Mary’s University of London on the 19th July to share their research with the members of the South East-India Partnership Network (SE-IPNet).

Established in 2006, IISER Pune is a leading institution dedicated to research and teaching in the basic sciences. With state-of-the-art research and high quality education it nurtures both curiosity and creativity and aims to provide equal opportunities for all.

SE-IPNet is a Surrey led consortium of Universities including Queen Mary, Southampton and Kent, working to establish research links with IISER Pune through a UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) funded grant.

Professor Colin Grant, Pro Vice Chancellor of International Relations at Surrey, and Chair of the project welcomed the students to the UK and applauded their decision to embrace the opportunity to study abroad.  He spoke of his hopes for the future of the project which looks set to involve a natural sciences symposium* to be held in India later this year.

University of Surrey IISER interns Abhinaw Kumar and Mohit Raghuwanshi shared their research with the group, each delivering a ten minute presentation. Both students are enrolled in a five-year integrated Bachelors/Masters programme in Science at IISER Pune. Having not completed their projects at Surrey the students offered the audience an assessment of their progress to date, as well as their observations on their experience of living and studying in the UK compared to India.

Abhinaw’s presentation summarised his work on the project ‘Modelling and simulation of proteins and polymers’, undertaken under the supervision of Dr Brendan Howlin in the Division of Chemistry. Abhinaw commented on the quality of the laboratories here at Surrey and thanked his Supervisor for his support and guidance throughout.

Mohit’s project focused on ‘Deposition of silver nanoparticles and spectroscopy of the films’, working under the supervision of Professor Ben Murdin and Dr Simon Henley in the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI). In his presentation, Mohit outlined the possible uses of his research in improving modern electronics. He also thanked his Supervisors for their constant support and said he had enjoyed the company of the Phd students in the ATI.

The success of similar programmes funded by UKIERI has led to the initiative being extended until at least 2016, funded by both the UK and Indian Governments. It is hoped that the initiative will reach larger numbers and build even stronger partnerships.

* Staff interested in participating in the symposium should contact Ms Louise Lawton, IISER Pune Project Administrator, on: l.e.lawton@surrey.ac.uk