Contents


01


News University appoints new Vice Chancellor


Stroke care certificates awarded/


Energy research leads to PhD first Students volunteer to help out during National


Student Volunteering Week PhD graduate secures prestigious


role at University of Sydney/Brambles staff gain qualifications


Nursing student wins national competition In an English forest garden... Sir Chris Bonington advises on leadership Everest style Falklands commendation for graduate Learning the ropes at the Newton Rigg campus


climbing wall Features Playing to a full house at the Duke’s Theatre


The binocular clutch bag, which highlights the


audience perspective Karen honours the past and insures the future


Hilary’s academic expertise in demand worldwide Graduate expertise brings an online boost to


local companies Students clue up in advance via social networking


SU elections at the university/Cumbria hosts


national Assessment in Higher Education Conference/ Research fellow appointment


Notices Information noticeboard


7 8 9 10 11


2 4 5 6


When I wrote in the last edition of Connect about the Browne report and the Government’s comprehensive spending review, there was little detail to report. Three months later and we still await the final pronouncements about our funding for the years ahead.


12 14 16 17 18 19 20


What we do know is that from 2012/13, we will progressively lose 90 per cent of current state funding for HEFCE sponsored courses, but the fine tuning is still under wraps. As we endeavour to set our fees for the cohort of students beginning their courses in 2012, this situation makes decision-making extremely challenging, both for the university and indeed for our prospective students. Work is already underway on market research and modelling a number of different tuition fee scenarios to furnish the background information we need to make the final decision.


Reassuringly, however, this university is better equipped to deal with funding issues than many others in the sector, and that is largely down to the immense amount of hard work and effort, on everyone’s part, that has gone into turning it around and effectively relaunching as the “lean and mean” institution it deserves to be. And that is something we should all be very proud of— it proves that when necessary, staff at the University of Cumbria are prepared to dig in and make things happen. And as Professor Peter Strike prepares to take up the reins as Vice Chancellor later in the year, I believe he can have confidence that the foundations have now been laid for the University of Cumbria to reach effectively towards achieving its goals at every level.


21


Professor Graham Upton, Vice Chancellor


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24