University of Essex in the press...

Research into first-time buyers
Research by Dr Joao Ejarque from the University of Essex has looked at risks for first-time home buyers and the impact on their spending patterns.
Working with the University of Copenhagen's Dr Sren Leth-Petersen, Dr Ejarque from Essex's Department of Economics looked at a Danish household panel dataset of information on income, unemployment, assets, mortgage values and particulars on the house.  
Harlow Herald

Why are we so fascinated by criminal deeds?
It was Essex which started the moral panic. Flashback more than 40 years to Clacton and the clashes between the mods (short hair, ties, scooters) and the rockers (long hair, leathers, motorbikes). The police were bemused, residents were horrified and the national press had a field day. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Hundreds of youths and twentysomethings, some armed with chains and knives, looted shops and battled it out on the resorts beaches and promenade and for what? Identity crisis? Primeval urge to fight? Attention seeking? Whichever, it left the town reeling, angry and afraid. Sociologist Stan Cohen, who had links with Essex University, summed up Clactons reaction as moral panic and it stuck.
Halstead Gazette

Tuesday 16

PR agents pick up awards at regional ceremony
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) East Anglia Pride Awards 2008 saw a record number of entries (1500) and a number of the county's internal and consultancy firms recognised as finalists. Among the winners were Essex University who who the silver award in the best newspaper or magazine category.
Evening Gazette

Leading writers booked for event
A host of award-winning writers are getting ready to appear at the 10th Essex Book Festival.  One of the writers will be Rachel Duffett from Essex University will give a flavour of life in the trenches of the First World War, including the the special significance of food in men's lives.
East Anglian Daily Times

Cash to go for GOLD
The sporting dreams of a dozen Olympic hopefuls have received a boost. Essex County Council has announced the names of the 12 athletes it hopes will be representing the county in the 2012 London Olympics and two of the hopefuls are the Colchester race walking twins, Daniel and Dominic King.  Dominic is the University's Students' Union Sports and Societies Development Co-ordinator.
Evening Gazette

Can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy help people with eating disorders?
An estimated one million people in Britain suffer from eating disorders which are notoriously difficult to treat but rResearchers have developed a new form of psychotherapy which they say has the potential to treat more than eight out of ten adults with eating disorders. The therapy is an enhanced form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which was tested on 154 patients in Oxfordshire and Leicestershire. Andrew Samuels, a Psychotherapist and Professor at the University of Essex said that what you're witnessing is a coup, a power play by a community that has suddenly found itself on the brink of corralling an enormous amount of money. Science isn't the appropriate perspective from which to look at emotional difficulties. Everyone has been seduced by CBT's apparent cheapness. Read the whole article here.
The Independent

How risky are first-time buyers?
Research by Dr Joao Ejarque from the University of Essex has looked at risks for first-time home buyers and the impact on their spending patterns.
Working with the University of Copenhagen, Dr Ejarque from Essex’s Department of Economics looked at a Danish household panel dataset of information on income, unemployment, assets, mortgage values and particulars on the house.
Dr Ejarque said: ‘We found that when people buy their first home they borrow as much as they can - in some cases 95% of the house value - and run down their assets to a low level which persists for several years after the purchase. We then looked at what happened if income fell or unemployment hit immediately after the house purchase. We found people cut down their consumption so that whatever little is left of their assets fell even further. However, importantly, they do not increase their debt levels. This suggests that they have borrowed as much as they can.’ Read the whole article here.
Innovations Report

Plan for student housing
Ipswich planners are tomorrow expected to give planning permission for student accommodation despite concerns from the Environment Agency about flood risk. The plan for 371 student rooms with retail and office space is the latest in a number to provide residential homes for students at the newly opened university on the Ipswich waterfront. Under the flood risk assessment, the commercial units  could be liable to flooding over the 60-year design life of the development with a one-on-200-year chance that they would be flooded to a depth of at least one metre.
East Anglian Daily Times

Initiative aims to make 2009 a Year of Skills
Suffolk Chamber of Commerce is preparing to launch a Year of Skills initiative which is due to run throughout 2009.  They will be joining in partnership for the programme - which marks its 125th anniversary - with University Campus Suffolk, Suffolk New College, the Learning and Skills Council and the media group Archant. John Dugmore, Chief Executive of the Suffolk Chamber said "The Year of Skills will enable businesses and education providers to better understand what each others' requirements are and will go some way to fulfil those skills needs".
East Anglian Daily Times
 

Monday 15

Passing out parade: Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst
General Sir Richard Dannatt, Chief of the General Staff, represented Her Majesty The Queen at the Sovereign’s Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on Friday, December 12, 2008. Four University of Essex graduates have been granted commissions in the Regiments and Corps shown, having successfully completed their Commissioning Course.  Read the whole article here.
The Times

Panto boasts host of characters
Audiences can continue the festive spirit into the New Year with a production of Humpty Dumpty the Pantomime, featuring a host of traditional panto and nursery rhyme characters. The show, which also features BBC Radio Oxford presenter Dominic Cotter, is being directed by Jemma Goodridge, 23, from Milton Keynes, who is studying for a masters degree in musical theatre at the East 15 Acting School at the University of Essex in London.  Read the whole story here.
Oxford Mail

Why are we so fascinated by criminal deeds
Read Dr Pam Cox's comments on criminal deeds and more about the updated and highly successful book that Dr Cox and others in the Sociology Department have written  - Criminology: A Social Introduction..
Evening Gazette
Halstead Gazette

Brown accused of retreating on constitutional reform
The programme of constitutional renewal promised by Gordon Brown when he entered 10 Downing Street last year has turned into a "constitutional retreat", with a delayed bill offering inadequate reforms, a report claimed today.
The report was published by a cross-party group of four MPs and peers who sat on the parliamentary joint committee which scrutinised the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill, which they complained was packed with Labour placemen and establishment figures who did not want to rock the boat. The four dissenting members of the joint committee - Conservative MPs Andrew Tyrie and Sir George Young, Liberal Democrat peer Lord Tyler and Labour's Lord Morgan - joined the University of Essex's Democratic Audit group to produced today's report, entitled Beating the Retreat.
The Press Association

Research on marriage and family
The study uses 15 waves of the British Household Panel Survey and the General Health Questionnaire to investigate changes in mental distress over several years surrounding transitions both into and out of marital partnerships (marriages and cohabitations) using fixed effects models," investigators in Oslo, Norway reported. "Entering marital partnerships is associated with reduced distress in separated or divorced individuals but not with those not previously married (see also ). Partnership dissolution is associated with very high levels of distress, but most people experience levels of distress a few years after leaving a partnership similar to that of a few years before leaving," wrote M. Blekesaune and colleagues.
NewsRX.com

Sunday 14

Called to account
With conflicts of interest rife, the auditing industry is in desperate need of independent oversight. Read Professor Prem Sikka's article here.
The Guardian
 

Friday 12

Crime is the thing at Uni
Essex University has launched two new undergraduate degrees in criminology and criminology and the media at its Colchester campus. Pam Cox from the Department of Sociology said: 'Criminology is extremely well-established at Essex and we heop these new degrees will strengthen our existing offering. Criminology appeals to students because it tackles some of the most pressing issues, decisions and dilemma facing societies today'.
Evening Gazette

Novel way to draw on life's lows
Former Essex County columnist and Essex University graduate, Stephen May,  who spent years as a self-confessed flunky, has turned his misery into material for his first novel - TAG.
Essex County Standard
Evening Gazette

Film premiere: Children capture youth club action
The red carpet was rolled out as a youth club premiered a film is has make to publicise its activities. Members of K2, at the Hythe Community Centre, worked with artist Penny Brice and Essex University to shoot the film, which got its first showing on Wednesday. The film was inspired by the University Gallery's Now Showing exhibition and was part of a link between the university and the club to fuel  children's interest in art.
Evening Gazette

Amadeus names Jones as new president
Amadeus, recently announced the appointment of David Jones as its new president and chief executive officer. Mr. Jones, who will be assuming his new position starting in January 2009, will be responsible in leading Amadeus during what is projected to be turbulent times for the travel and tourism industry. Mr. Tazon has held the top position in Amadeus since 1990. A 30-year veteran of the travel and tourism industry, Mr. Jones first joined Amadeus in 1992 first as marketing general manager and later as senior vice-president for global travel distribution. Holder of an Economics degree from the University of Reading and Masters in Economics from the University of Essex, Mr. Jones has been widely credited for developing Amadeus from a computerized reservation system into a global business marketed worldwide.
Business World Online
 

Thursday 11

Original Features
University Campus Suffolk, a unique collaboration between the universities of East Anglia and Essex, first welcomed students in August 2007 and recently opened a dedicated teaching building designed by architects RMUM, on Neptune Quay. It's sedum roof is one of the eye catching features which have helped it achieve an excellent BREEAM rating, which is the world's most widely used environment assessment standard.
THE

Teens change out in the wild
Researchers set out into the wilderness with a group of young offenders in a bid to help them turn their lives around. The trio of Essex University academics used the project with young people from the Braintree and Chelmsford area to study how getting into the great outdoors can help improve behaviour and noted an "amazing" change in the youngsters' behaviour during the course of the project.
Evening Gazette

£1m grant for network
An Essex University consortium has been awarded a £1 million grant. The grant has been made to the Institute for Social and Economic Research, the UK Data Archive and the Department of Sociology. The network will provide online information resources for researchers, as well as advising the Economic and Social Research Council on the use of surveys in the UK.
Evening Gazette
MRWeb

£2 m gallery verdict due
An extra £2 million looks set to be ploughed into Colchester's beleaguered arts gallery tonight.  The borough councillors have been asked to vote on providing the additional cash after the costs of the Visual Arts Facility project soared to £25 million. If the extra £2 million is pledged by the council as expected, an extra 1.5% will be added to the council tax in the borough for 2010/11. It is hoped that the remainder of the cash needed to complete the job will come from its other partners - one of which is the University of Essex.
Evening Gazette

East of England MedTech campus on radar
Early-stage talks are underway that could lead to the development of a multi-million pound MedTech campus in the East of England. While the BioMed Campus at the Addenbrooke’s site in Cambridge is gathering pace, the blueprint for a dedicated MedTech campus would fill a vital gap in the region’s medical CV – bringing together researchers working exclusively in medical devices, diagnostics and robotics. Healthcare entrepreneurs have initiated discussions with leading universities to identify the most suitable site for the venture. Essex seems a genuine contender to host the MedTech Mecca. The University of Essex is doing some brilliant research in robotics while Anglia Ruskin University has just established a Postgraduate Medical Institute (PMI) at its Rivermead Campus in Essex. Read the whole article here.
Business Weekly

Homeowners use remortgaging for day-to-day cash
A clampdown on lending by banks and the collapse in property values will plunge hundreds of thousands of families deeper into debt, according to a study that has found the living standards of many homeowners depend on cash from remortgaging their homes. The researchers looked at the borrowing patterns of more than 8,000 families who took part in the British household panel survey from 2001 to 2005. They found that in any one year, two in five homeowners ended up with higher mortgages than in the previous year, even though they had not moved home. On average, these households borrowed an additional £5,000 to £7,500. In 2005, couples without children accounted for 12% of remortgagers and couples with children comprised 36%. Read the whole article here.
The Guardian

Marina Warner on 'The Arabian Nights'
Professor Marina Warner from the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies reviews The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights and The Arabian Nights’ in Historical Context: Between East and West.  Read the review here.
London Review of Books

Wednesday 10

Governments 'must include human rights in health policy'
Study says governments 'must include human rights in health policy' Printer friendly version A new study has urged global governments to include legally binding right-to-health features in their health policies. "Those with responsibilities for health systems are giving inadequate attention to the right-to-health analysis," writes study leader Paul Hunt, former United Nations special rapporteur for the right to health and professor of human rights at the University of Essex. Read the whole article here.
Inthenews.co.uk

The Connecticut living space residence by Studio Daniel Libeskind
This incredible living space of a Connecticut residence is formed by a spiraling ribbon of 18 planes, defined by 36 points and connected by 54 lines. Read the whole article on Essex Graduate and Honourary Graduate, Daniel Liebskind's  current commission.
Shearyadi's World

Essex led consortium awarded £1m grant
A high profile project which will support the work of the UK’s research community and raise the standards of social science research at home and abroad has been awarded to a consortium led by the University of Essex.
www.innovationsreport.de

Jobs growth key to regeneration
A massive plan to regenerate the Haven Gateway includes priorities to generate opportunities for new businesses.
One priority is to build a 15,000 sq ft business incubation unit for small companies. ..In east Colchester, another priority highlighted is the proposed Essex University research park and business innovation centre.
Colchester Gazette

New coral reefs have been found on the Seychelles
Scientists from Essex University (Great Britain) have found out new coral reefs on Seychelles - in a southern part of island Curieuse. The island named by name of the trading ship, was discovered in 1768 and till now it was famous for the big colony of huge turtles - over 200 individuals - and dense thickets of tropical plants.
Daily Travelling News

£1m grant awarded for social research network
A consortium of organisations led by the University of Essex has won a £1.1m grant for a project aiming to raise standards in social research. The grant has been made by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), the UK Data Archive and the Department of Sociology – all of which are parts of the University of Essex – and four other partner organisations. Read the whole article here.
Research

Free speech The emerging consensus
DEBATES over freedom of expression have been at the centre of political transformation and turmoil in South- east Asia. These debates have been almost exclusively domestic in scope, which is not surprising since all politics is ultimately local. Yet, there is something to be gained from keeping track of global developments in the area of freedom of expression...By Kevin Boyle, Professor of Law at the University of Essex, Britain.
The Straits Times

Tuesday 9

Jobs growth key to regeneration
A massive plan to regenerate the Haven Gateway includes priorities to generate opportunities for new businesses. One priority is to build a 15,000 sq ft business incubation unit for small companies. It has been planned for north Colchester and aims to create 134 new jobs and 85 companies in three years. In east Colchester, another priority highlighted is the proposed Essex University research park and business innovation centre. Read the whole article here.
Evening Gazette

Tom McCarthy and Simon Critchley in conversation: Beckett, Adorno, Blanchot, Comedy, Death, and so on….
Read the conversation with Professor Simon Critchley from the Department of Philosophy here.
Void Manufacturing

PR professionals celebrate at regional PRide Awards
The University of Essex publication Wyvern won a Silver award at the 2008 Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) PRide Awards which aim to recognise the region's brightest PR talent.
East Anglian Daily Times

Students to light candles
Students will light candles to celebrate a landmark anniversary in human rights law. A special ceremony is being held at Essex University tomorrow to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations flag will be flying above the Colchester campus during the ceremony.
Evening Gazette

Studies from University of Essex yield new data on botany
Dr Tracy Lawson from the Department of Biological Sciences has had a study published in the Journal of Experimental Botany concluding that "the primary light-induced opening or CO2-dependent closing response of stomata is not dependent upon guard or mesophyll cell photosynthetic capacity, but that photosynthetic electron transport, or its end-products, regulate the control of stomatal responses to light and CO2".
Life Science Weekly
 

Monday 8

Coordinated Effort of Hellenes Expands Leadership
Recently the National Coordinated Effort of Hellenes (CEH) expanded its leadership to include several more Hellenes from across the country who play a significant role in the formulation of U.S. policy on Hellenic and Orthodox issues. CEH is an informal network of such community members who are influential with key U.S. policymakers in the United States Congress and the Executive Branch. One of the six new members is Essex Graduate Endy Zemenides who graduated with a Masters in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights. Read the whole story here.
Greek News

PM escapes blame despite Britons facing tough times
The British Election Study at Essex University has found that only 23% of people hold Gordon Brown personally responsible for the economic crisis.  70% blames US banks and 60% Uk banks, while 45% think Brown has done a good job in the crisis. Read the whole article here.
Gulf Times
The Independent

Recession: why Essex will come out smiling
Professor Michael Sherer of the Essex Business School does believe Essex will weather the storm. He believes the county's 'ability to upskill its labour force is one of its main assets' and extremely good for the Essex economy.
Evening Gazette
Halstead Gazette

Amnesty marks declaration
The Amnesty student group at Essex University is set to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The university group has organised a series of events for the occasion including students each lighting a candle and forming the shape of '60'.
Evening Gazette

Saturday 6

Colchester: Young mathematicians off to UK finals
Whizzkids at Colchester Royal Grammar School have booked their place at the final of a national maths competition.  The sixth form team, who are studying the subject at A level, came out tops in the eastern region final of the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust’s Senior Maths Challenge held at Essex University. Read the whole story here.
Essex County Standard

Moving motion control technology to FPGAs
Read an article written by Stefano Zammattio, an Essex Physics graduate.
Embedded-Europe.com

Friday 5

ActionAid USA
Professor Diane Elson from the Department of Sociology takes part in an ActionAid USA  discussion on "Macroeconomic Policies that Work for Health and Education: Do International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spending Policies Need to be Changed?" in Washington.
FIND Washington Daybook

New UK social study gives first findings
A preliminary study has been completed among an ‘innovation panel’ for Understanding Society, the UK’s new longitudinal social survey. The panel of 1,500 homes, which is being used to test methods and experiment with new approaches, will continue to operate as part of the wider project, which aims to cover 40,000 households. Read the whole article here.
Research

Plans for the future move a step closer
Wivenhoe is a step closer to reaching its vision for the future. People in Wivenhoe drew up a plan for the town, following a household survey to find out what its residents wanted. Among the items was the protection of a green area between the town and Essex University. Colchester Council's local development framework committee has now agreed to adopt the town plan.
Evening Gazette

Violent man faces a prison threat
A man has received a nine-month suspended sentence for throwing a glass at an Essex Art History student back in March.
Evening Gazette

Thursday 4

Pendulum at uni
Members of the Australian drum and bass group, Pendulum, will be at Essex University's club venue, Sub Zero, this weekend.
Evening Gazette

Voters say crisis down to banks
The electorate blame banks, not Prime Minister Gordon Brown, for the economic downturn, according to the first set of survey results from the British Election Study run by the University of Essex. Forty-five per cent of respondents said Dr Brown has handled the crisis well.
THE

Artifacts from the notorious Kipper Kids
Read an article about artifacts from collection of the legendary British performance artists known as The Kipper Kids. The Kipper Kids met at the East 15 Acting School in 1970.
IndyWeek.com
 

Polish immigrants go home as work dries up in Britain
Polish immigrants who filled jobs as plumbers and waitresses helped fuel the recent economic boom here. Now they're going home, as Britain slips toward a recession and jobs disappear.  Many of the immigrants were skilled and took jobs way below their education level, says Robert Szaniawski, a spokesman for the Polish Embassy in London. Now, however, Britain's economy is projected to shrink 1.5% next year, and the number of unemployed will grow to 2.5 million people in 2010 from the current 1.8 million, according to the National Institute of Social and Economic Research, an independent British think tank. Read the whole article here.
USA Today

Wednesday 3

Tuesday 2

Stab vests for uni staff 'sends out wrong message'
An anti-knife campaigner has slammed Essex University’s decision to offer stab vests to staff. Revellers visiting the university’s bars and club face the possibility of being dealt with by security staff wearing the extra protective layer.
A university spokesman reassured students and revellers that the optional uniform is not in response to a rise in either violence or knife incidents on campus, but more a reflection of the change in society. Read the whole story here.
Evening Gazette

Gateway bids for investment
The Haven Gateway Partnership is seeking to ensure that the area cashes in on the Government's plans to boost public spending in response to the looming recession. The partnership - a joint public-private sector initiative to promote economic development in and around the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich, including Ipswich and Colchester - is today launching an Integrated Development Programme (IDP) setting out where funding could be directed most effectively.
Key investment “packages” identified in the document include East Colchester including the University of Essex Research Park and Business Innovation Centre. Read the whole article here.
East Anglian Daily Times

Business East - Movers and Shakers
Emma Town has been appointed as a trainee solicitor at Colchester and Clacton-based law firm Thompson Smith and Puxon. Emma studied at the University of Essex and spent one year at the University of Madrid as part of her studies.
East Anglian Daily Times

Monday 1

County is grappling with change
Essex has dramatically changed over the past 40 years because of a huge influx of London commuters, a BBC commissioned study suggests. Professor Michael Sherer, the director of the Essex Business School at the University of Essex, said being a neighbouring county to London had helped its growth. "There has also been a huge increase in the number of commuters," he said. "More and more people decided it made economic sense to live 30/40 miles from London in houses for half the price they'd pay in the city".  Read the whole article here.
BBC

Britons on a budget prefer sex to gossip
Britons may be tightening their belts to cope with the credit crunch, but their favourite free leisure activity involves whipping off their clothes, a new poll showed Monday. By contrast, a study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex concluded that declining house prices in Britain increase the risk of divorce. The study, published in September, found that "negative house price shocks significantly increase the risk of partnership dissolution". Read the whole article here.
Sydney Morning Herald
China Daily
AFP
Agence France-Presse
The Age
Yahoo! Asia
IOL
Yahoo! Canada
Yahoo! Australia
Breitbart.com
Swaf News

Optical Burst Switching (OBS) Expected to Facilitate Next-generation Optical Internet and Grid Computing
Read more about the open grid forum (OGF) and researchers at the University of Essex have already taken steps to develop specifications for Grid-over-OBS networks.
WebWire

Crisis? What Crisis?
Business start-ups are bucking the gloomy trend so much that more units need to be provided for them, it has been claimed. COLBEA is experiencing an explosion in interest in its offices from people starting their own ventures.  Three incubation centres are planned for Colchester, one of them is Essex University's research park for hi-tech businesses.
Evening Gazette

Uni finds an eastern side to all that jazz
A blend of South Asian music with a contemporary jazz attitude is coming to the Lakeside Theatre at Essex University. The performance by acclaimed Arun Ghosh Indo-Jazz Sextet marks the close of the Jazz at the Lakeside season, which has seen some of the best acts in the musical genre come to the Wivenhoe Park campus.
Evening Gazette
EA Events
Essex County Standard

What if computers went back to the '70s too?
A Wizard whispers in your ear: "The password of Sheffield Library Packet Switching Service is ABC1234XYZ".  That would be a conversation thirty years ago, on the Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD. The Dungeon was actually a minicomputer at the University of Essex. I won't tell you the name of the wizard, because he's a big noise in the computer business these days, and not a hacker at all, dearie me no. But this isn't the story of MUD and hackers (we can tell that tale another day). Rather, it's the tale of how University of Essex came to run a minicomputer. Read the whole article here.
The A Register

Boston College Lands Two Marshall Scholarships
Boston College 2008 graduate Kuong Ly, whose roots in a Southeast Asia refugee camp inspired his focus on human rights advocacy is one of the few students to win prestigious George Marshall Scholarships, which support graduate-level study in the United Kingdom. Kuong Ly will study issues of forced migration and refugee care at either Oxford or the University of Essex. American students of the highest academic ability are selected annually for the two-year awards. Candidates are selected for distinction in intellect and character - as evidenced by scholarly achievement, outstanding activities, leadership and interests - and are judged on the strength of their proposed study. Read the whole story here.
KATC.com
Forbes Online
Minneapolis/St Pauls Business
KLFY-TV online
The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee
Earthtimes.org
Streetinsider.com
San Antonio Business Journal
Houston Chronicle
Nashville Business Journal
PR Newswire
Atlanta Business Chronicle
Portland Business Journal
San Francisco Business Times
Phoenix Business Journal
Business Courier of Cincinnati
Market Watch
Boston Herald
KOTA TV Online
 

Falling house prices will lead to more couples splitting up, economists warn
Thousands of couples could split up as a result of Britain's crumbling property market, economists warn. In a pioneering study, Researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research compared household questionnaires with property market results over 14 years and found that sudden plunges in prices are followed by an increase in separations. Read the whole article here.
The Telegraph
Property Week.com
Innovations Report
The Move Channel
In the News.co.uk

November 2008

Saturday 29

Jack Mintz defends the Harper approach to stimulus
"The Harper government does not want to be stampeded into providing a large fiscal stimulus," Essex Graduate, Professor Jack Mintz noted in his Globe essay "A well-shaped package would be worth the wait". Read the whole story here.
Globe and Mail online

Friday 28

Who gets the benefit?
The proportion of working age adults receiving safety net social security benefits has halved since the early 1990s. But the safety net increasingly focuses on a small minority of people who could remain on benefit for a long time. Researchers at the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex used data from the British Household Panel Survey, which has interviewed the same people annually since 1991, to look at histories of receipt of benefits such as Income Support and Job Seekers Allowance. Read the whole article here.
Innovations Report
Medical News Today

Job support for women fades during fiscal crisis; Male breadwinning 'bias' is evident in policymaking
Women, especially in poor countries, are likely to bear a disproportionate burden during the current economic crisis, a leading British expert on development warned yesterday.
Diane Elson, a sociologist at the University of Essex, said "male breadwinning bias' -- the 'erroneous assumption' that men's earnings are the mainstay of household finances -- shaped policy responses during past economic crises. The same bias toward working males is evident in fiscal stimulus plans being developed today, she told an audience at the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa.
The Ottawa Citizen

Gender aspects of climate change
Until recently, most people treated climate change as a matter of scientific discourse, or at best a technical issue discussed and debated in highbrow academic seminars and 'expert consultations'. Of late, however, the pervasive effects of climate change hovering over economic to social to political sectors that bind people of every stage in the society-- regardless of race, caste, ethnicity, sex, and level of income -- have forced this traditional “far-off” perception of climate to change into one of the hard realities of everyday life. A recent study conducted jointly by the London School of Economics, the University of Essex and the Max-Planck Institute of Economics, analyzing natural disasters between 1981 and 2002 of 141 countries reveals evidences of socially constructed gender specific vulnerability of women built into everyday socio-economic patterns that leads to the relatively higher female disaster mortality rates compared to those of men. For example, the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh killed 138,000 people, many of whom were women and older than 40 years. Read the whole article here.
Bangladesh Daily Star

A question on four wheels
Those who are resisting repeated pleas from the US automakers for a piece of the bailout package argue that only financial firms deserve bailing out because they supply credit, which is an essential market lubricant. While the collapse of firms in financial sectors would have systemic ramifications, the failure of other firms, no matter how large, should be addressed by the kind of business restructuring that is stipulated by chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code. This is supposed to ensure an efficient reallocation of labour, capital and other resources by helping firms renegotiate existing contracts. Read the whole article here.
Yahoo! India

Price falls bring relationship dramas
House price falls are responsible for increased relationship difficulties between couples, the Institute of Social and Economic Research has claimed. Its analysis suggests for every ten per cent prices fall, five per cent more couples break up. Read the whole article here.
Money.net
aboutproperty.co.uk
ShropshireStar

More than 200 jobs to be created at £60m site
More than 200 jobs could be created by the £60million expansion of college and university facilities in Southend. Teachers, support staff and administrative workers are among those likely to benefit from the development of the new Farringdon Road complex, which will include South East Essex College and University of Essex departments and library facilities. Funding applications for the project have now been submitted after final plans were drawn up for the 17,500sqm site. Read the whole article here.
Billericay Weekly News

Banks not Brown to blame for financial crisis
Few voters believe Gordon Brown is personally responsible for the current economic crisis. That’s according to the first set of survey results from the British Election Study (BES), which shows the electorate pointing the finger of blame firmly at the banks. Read Professor Paul Whiteley's comments here.
Innovations Report

University of Essex hires Comms Director
The University of Essex has appointed a new director of Communications and External Relations as it looks for greater brand recognition. Vanessa Potter has more than 15 years' senior management experience in the public and third sectors and has worked in central and local government and for the National Union of Students. Most recently she was Director of Policy and External Relations at the Big Lottery Fund.
The Public Sector Week
 

Thursday 27

Adcock Group helps power energy revolution in living lab
University of Essex researchers are partnering global heavyweights to push back the technology frontiers in the ultimate digital home of the future. The University has established iSpace – a futuristic, full-size domestic apartment on campus that contains all the usual rooms for student activities such as sleeping, working, eating, washing and entertaining but all powered by intelligent, hi-tech devices.
Appliances in the ‘living lab’ are networked using cutting edge technologies. As the dynamic concept continues to evolve, world-class pioneers like Sun Microsystems, BT, Intel and Kodak are using the space to research new, disruptive concepts to further enhance the environment in future digital homes. Read the whole article here.
Business Weekly


Haven sent
The UK government is halfway through a sweeping crackdown on UK citizens hiding their money in offshore bank accounts and the French and German governments have urged the nations in the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to get tough with offshore tax havens. Professor Prem Sikka, professor of accounting at the University of Essex, also predicts tough times ahead for offshore tax havens. 'My feeling is that the offshore world is increasingly going to be squeezed and that their secrecy is going to be eroded,' he says. He adds that tax havens will face growing pressure to become more open from governments and trading blocs like the European Union.
'Lots of countries are facing budgetary deficits and there is a limit on how much tax they can levy on individuals. [Governments] will hone in on tax avoidance and there is no way offshore centres can avoid this.'
Accountancy Age
InterActive Home

Rowing: Head-to-head on the Stour
Sudbury Rowing Club will be hosting a head-to-head on Saturday, joined by crews from Broxbourne and the University of Essex in races along the River Stour from 9am to 2pm.
Suffolk Free Press

UK voters under the microscope
A £1.5 million grant to conduct the latest British Election Survey has been awarded to the University of Essex
Times Higher Education

From apartheid South Africa to scholarship-boy segregation
For Terry Eagleton, one of the most prominent working-class British academics of the past few decades, the 'scholarship boy' ranks with the 'mad scientist' and the 'dumb blonde' as among the 'most archetypal of postwar characters.' An interesting example is the career of Vic Gatrell, professor of British history at the University of Essex and a life fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
Times Higher Education

Tuesday 25

Doing Business in the Thames Gateway
Profile: 4D Optics sees bright future. Read an article profiling 4D Optics who are based at the Business Incubator Centre at the University of Essex, Southend Campus.
Financial Times

Pre-Budget report: Long term outlook still looks bleak for Gordon Brown
Anyone looking at the detailed findings of YouGov's poll is bound to conclude that, while Gordon Brown and the Government have gained a modest boost from their handling of the current crisis, their long-term outlook remains bleak. By Professor Anthony King, Department of Government.
Telegraph

Slapping a tax on playtime
Gamers more used to battling demons, giants and dragons may soon be tacking another mortal enemy - the tax man. Slowly but surely authorities around the world are turning their attention to online games and virtual worlds and the tax-exempt status of the economic activity taking place within them.Richard Bartle, a multi-player game pioneer and researcher at the University of Essex, says in-game taxes would spoil the fun. "If you were taxed every time you bought a property in Monopoly, you'd be annoyed. The same goes for people in World of Warcraft."
BBC Online http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7746094.stm

Brown not to blame for crisis, survey finds
The public do not hold Gordon Brown responsible for the financial crisis, according to a survey released today.
The results will give succour to Labour as it faces continued controversy over the contents of yesterday's Pre-Budget Report.
"These results are good news for the government and Gordon Brown," said professor Paul Whiteley from the University of Essex, which led the study.
Yahoo http://uk.news.yahoo.com/14/20081125/tpl-brown-not-to-blame-for-crisis-survey-81c5b50.html

Disillusion feeds fascist votes
The leaked BNP list contains some 12,800 names. Not all of these are members of the party – some of the names have not paid subscriptions for three years. It is also clear that only a minority are active members of the party. Just under 3,000 of the names have the word “activist” next to them – around one in four. Some commentators have suggested that these figures are smaller than expected – and that the BNP therefore poses less of a threat than had previously been thought. But this misses the fact that the fascists have been grabbing unprecedented electoral success of late. A report compiled by academics at the University of Essex “investigated the relationship between the social class mix of the ward and the level of support attained by the BNP” and found that “the roots of their appeal are among the lower middle classes”.
Socialist Worker Online http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/art.php?id=16521

Voters say: it's not Gordon's fault
FEW voters believe Gordon Brown is personally responsible for the current economic crisis. That's according to the first set of survey results from the University of Essex's British Election Study (BES), which indicates the electorate blame firmly at the banks.
East Anglian Daily Times

Latin American celebrations
A celebration of Latin America is being held this week at Essex University. The first Latin American Day Symposium is being held at the Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall on Friday and will look at the cultural and economic impact of Lain America.
East Anglian Daily Times

High-profile finance 'hawk' to lead cull of public spending
Leading academic and financial commentator Colm McCarthy is to head up a new body aimed at curbing government spending. The group is set to be formally established today at a Cabinet meeting. A graduate of UCD and the University of Essex, Mr McCarthy was involved in the Expenditure Review Group established in 1967.
Irish Independent

Monday 24

Prem Sikka commentisfree
The government's planned reduction in VAT will be welcomed by many, but on its own is unlikely to provide the desired long term stimulus to the economy. With personal debt already exceeding £1.4 trillion, bigger than the UK gross domestic product, some might be tempted to spend more, but will find it difficult to balance their household budgets later.
The Guardian

Students enjoy maths challenge
A team of pupils from an Essex secondary school have taken part in a maths challenge, taking on representatives from around the country at Essex University.
East Anglian Daily Times

Report on an international conference on gender, class, employment and family
This paper reports upon a two-day conference held at City University, London. Man Yee Kan and Jay Gershuny used the British Household Panel Survey to demonstrate that women reduce their hours of paid work, and increase their domestic work, after having a child. Although men increase both their paid work and childcare hours on fatherhood, they do not substantially increase the time they spend on routine domestic work.
Equal Opportunities International