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University of Essex in the press...

Below are examples of recent University press and broadcast coverage. Please note that all websites are external and will take you out of the Communications website.

Members of the University community can receive an electronic daily alert with links to press coverage by contacting Sandy Hart in Information Systems Services (e-mail sandy@essex.ac.uk) and asking to be subscribed to presscuttings@essex.ac.uk.

An archive of recent coverage is available online. A full archive of media coverage is also held in the Communications Office.

Broadcast Digest

Turnout in general elections
Professor Paul Whiteley, of the Department of Government, was interviewed about the turnout at general elections.
Radio 4 Westminster Hour

Video clips on-line

BBC Persian
Professor John Packer, Director, Human Rights Centre
Contribution for Human Rights Day.
View the clip here - forward to 12:12 minutes.

Parliament Live
University of Essex report on care farming was discussed as part of an adjournment debate on Care farming and disadvantaged groups by Mr Mark Todd in Parliament on 24th November.
Discussion starts at 7hrs 11 and finishes at about 7hrs 45.

BBC
Flagship University Building open
Teaching has begun in the new flagship building for the recently created university in Suffolk. University Campus Suffolk (UCS), in Ipswich, was established by the University of East Anglia and the University of Essex last year. View the clip here.

The University of Essex in the Press

29 January

Getting a Handel on choir's success
Israel in Egypt is being performed by the University of Essex Choir at Chelmsford Cathedral tomorrow and it is expected to be another sell-out performance for the popular choir which draws its members from staff and students at the University and the surrounding area.
Essex County Standard

Calling Faithless Fans
The University of Essex will be playing host to one of the biggest dance groups in the country - Faithless. They will be playing in Sub Zero on 10 February.
Essex County Standard

Community film theatre is backed by director Leigh
University of Essex Honorary Graduate and acclaimed Film Director, Mike Leigh has agreed to become Patron of the Reel Appeal, which aims to establish a community cinema in Wivenhoe.
Gazette

While most people know that exercise is good for them, most still do not do enough
Will the legacy of the 2012 London Olympic Games be eight athletes watched by 30 million couch potatoes? The build-up to the event sees UK sports scientists and technologists providing world-leading backroom support to the British team, yet while our Olympians' bodies are being honed to perfection, statistics show the general population are roundly fat and unfit.  Professor Jules Pretty and colleagues at the University of Essex have argued the particular value of using the natural environmental. They suggest that the same amount of exercise outdoors is of more benefit than in a gym.
The Independent
 

28 January

Curtain rises on £5m theatre
After two years of building work and £5million investment, the curtain has finally risen on East 15’s new professional theatre. The doors to the Clifftown Studios, in Nelson Street, Southend, will open tonight and the public will be invited to step inside the acting school’s dynamic new building. However, the opening won’t be marked by a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony. Instead, and arguably more appropriately, a huge weekend of theatre performances, featuring more than 250 actors, led by ten directors, ten artistic designers and the entire technical department, will take place to celebrate the launch. Read the article here.
Echo

CHELMSFORD: Smile, we're the happiest place of all
It's official – Chelmsford is the happiest place to live in the UK. A survey carried out by an internet research organisation has found that families living in the town are more satisfied with their work and home life than anywhere else in the country. The results paint a very different picture than that provided in 2005, when an Essex University researcher found only 19 per cent of the town's residents were satisfied with their lives.
Essex Chronicle

Hana's cakes help earthquake's victims
Four year old Hanna Robinson, who goes to the University of Essex day nursery got dressed up and held a cake baking day in aid of the Haiti Earthquake appeal.  Currently, the amount raised stands at just over £500.
Gazette

University remembers the Holocaust
A series of moving events took place at the University of Essex to mark Holocaust Memorial Day yesterday. Activities included a talk about the experiences of Romanies under the Nazi regime and throughout the day university staff and students remembered the victims of genocide by reading their names aloud in the central part of the campus.
Gazette

Barclays to close its branch in Westcliff
The Barclays in Hamlet Court Road, Westcliff, will close on April 16, when its new bank opens in the ground-floor of the University of Essex building, in Southend High Street. The existing branch in the High Street, at the corner with Southchurch Road, will also close. Staff from both branches will be transferred to the new site, so there will be no redundancies.
Echo
 

27 January

Here's the cast, make a movie
A perennial challenge faced by student filmmakers is how to persuade professional actors to appear in their shoestring productions. These days, any film school worth its name is equipped with high definition cameras, digital editing suites, and lecturers with CVs boasting years of production experience. But few can claim their own supply of thespians. Enter the University of Essex which has just launched Britain's first masters in film-making, to be taught not at a traditional film school but at one whose primary role is to train actors for theatre and television. With alumni ranging from the actress Alison Steadman to the Oscar nominated director Stephen Daldry, East 15 Acting School has already generated more than its fair share of big-screen talent.
The Times

Essex uni sees 25 per cent rise in student apps
The number of students applying to start undergraduate courses at the University has risen by almost 25 per cent - to more than 12,500.
Colchester Gazette
Harwich and Manningtree Standard

26 January

Two plays mark Holocaust week
Cutting-edge theatre from Essex kicks off the new season of shows at the Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex. Devoured and Ashes to Ashes will be performed to mark Holocaust Week and after the performance of Ashes to Ashes there will be a round-table discussion which will involve Jewish Holocaust survivor Dora Love.
Gazette

University bars feel the pinch
Students are slowing down on their on-campus drinking to focus on their studies. Edison Peng Yan, Vice-President Services and Communication at the University of Essex Students' Union has noticed the trend and says as a result, the Students' Union is seeing very high levels of interest in service we provide to help students gain additional skills, like community volunteering projects.
Gazette

25 January

Pinsents adds Essex Uni to student digs client list
Pinsent Masons has won the University of Essex as a new client on a greenfield property development in Colchester. The firm will advise on the entire lifecycle of a ­student accommodation project, including funding, planning, environment and construction work. Pinsents’ role includes assisting on the project structure, which could see the university partnering with the private sector and lenders to create new income streams.
Lawyer 2B
The Lawyer

These roses smell funny
There's something deeply captivating about natural beauty, if we'd only get off our butts and experience it. According to a slew of very scientific-sounding studies containing words like "preferenda" and "monomethod," getting outside and looking at nature is good for you. A study from the University of Essex showed that a walk through a rural area reduces stress and elevates self-esteem.
The California Aggie

East 15 theatre school opens new venue in former church
A former United Reform church in Southend has reopened as a theatre and studios for the East 15 acting school. Clifftown Studios is the result of a £5.5 million renovation of the Grade II listed building for the University of Essex affiliated group. The building now includes a theatre, box office, five workshop studios, dressing rooms, wardrobe department, props making area and cafe.
As well as East 15 the venue will also be available for local community use. Read the article here and view pictures here.
BBC Essex

Scientists at University of Essex release new data on autism
Mr Ignazio Puzzo and colleagues from the Department of Psychology have published their study in Neuroscience Letters which looks as Reduced cortico-motor facilitation in a normal sample with high traits of autism.
Obesity, Fitness and Wellness Week
Biotech Week
Life Science Weekly
Mental Health Weekly Digest
Health and Medicine Week

Universities face funding freeze for years, admits David Lammy
Universities face being starved of taxpayer cash for "a good few years", the Government has admitted, triggering fresh fears over a prolonged squeeze on degree course places. The latest intervention came as new figures showed several leading universities will cut or freeze the number of places open to British undergraduates this autumn because of the funding crisis. They included Oxford, Cambridge, the London School of Economics, Durham and Essex. Read the article here.
The Telegraph
The Guardian
The Times

23 January

SNP warn of attendance allowance cut
SNP candidate for North Ayrshire and Arran, Councillor Patricia Gibson has hit out against Labour plans to scrap Attendance Allowance for nearly 168,000 elderly disabled Scots. Attendance Allowance, AA, is a non-means tested tax free benefit paid to people over the age of 65 requiring help from another person due to severe mental or physical disability. An investigation by the Institute for Social and Economic Research shows that removing Attendance Allowance would push 40 per cent of those people into poverty, or 67,000 Scots.
The Irvine Herald
Ayrshire Post Series
Paisley Express

Passionate about human rights
Dr Ami M Angell, 34, has degrees in international public law, human rights law and in the theory and practice of human rights from the American University of London and the University of Essex. In 2001, she headed for the West Bank after reading an article on human rights violations there. Intending to stay for two weeks, she eventually spent four years there, working as project lead in the children's legal department of Defence for Children International, a non-governmental organisation. Dr Angell is now a visiting research fellow at the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore.
The Straits Times

22 January

Words of wisdom from professor; VOICE OF THE NORTH
A reader read an article in a wildlife magazine by Jules Pretty OBE recently and, as an environmentalist, felt that the readers should have the opportunity to read parts of it. The Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex said: "The idea of progress deceives us into thinking we are at the summit, the best there is in the animal kingdom, with the best civilisation there ever was." And he said we wrongly believe we are happier than in the past, because we have so much more, "yet we aspire to levels and types of consumption that are destroying the world and have forgotten how to say enough is enough". As this estrangement from the natural world grows, we forget how eco-systems work, which damages our health and makes us unhappy, the Professor argued.
And he said that, by making our own world inhospitable, we risk losing what it means to be human and although the world will endure for millions of years, we may not, "unless we can find new ways of living".
The Journal
Newcastle Journal

Recession leaves almost half of all young black people out of work
Rate compares with fifth of white young without job but it is society's unfairness, not racial bias, which is being blamed. Professor Richard Berthoud from the Institute for Social and Economic Research says "What's of concern is that you have especially young Afro Caribbean people who are out of work for long periods of time. "That means you have a group who are not so embedded in the workforce. So when the economy recovers and they try and find a job they continually have to answer employers who say 'what's wrong with you?'" Read the article here.
The Guardian

It's all going on at the Lakeside
The Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex is ready to host a vibrant new season of events, theatre, film, music and art exhibitions.
Essex County Standard

Women race to sign up for run
More than 200 women signed up for the race for life in Colchester in just one week.  Cancer Research UK launched three dates in Colchester just over a week ago, one of which is at the University of Essex on 25 July.
Essex County Standard

New Managing Director of the Improvement and Development Agency
Rob Whiteman, the current Chief Executive of Barking and Dagenham, has today been announced as the new Managing Director of the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) and will take up his appointment after the local elections in May of this year. Rob is an University of Essex economics and government graduate.
I&DeA

21 January

Appointments
Mike Saks has been appointed Provost of University Campus Suffolk, where he will work with the University of East Anglia, the University of Essex and other partners to lead the institution in its next stage of development.
THE

20 January

Basketball Bury players gain experience
Teenage basketball players based in Bury St Edmunds have shown their potential to make it all the way in the sport following a testing start to the new season. Following a successful pilot year, the County Upper Basketball Academy squad has travelled across England at the start of the new campaign in order to test themselves against some of the best men's and junior sides around.
County Upper showed tremendous spirit to get back to winning ways in a match against Essex University's first team. The Essex side had led by 11 points at the end of the third quarter, but County Upper came back to win 46-45.
East Anglian Daily Times

New course to explore Post-impressionist art
A new Seaford WEA course, will explore Post-impressionist art, including the work of Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso. The course will be taught by Kay Blackburn who until recently taught art history for the Open University and the University of Essex. Kay has also taught widely for the WEA including Brighton, Colchester and London.
Eastbourne Gazette

Let's hear it for the band . . .
Readers reminisce about local gigs they attended in the past one talks about watching Dr Feelgood in a dingy basement at the University of Essex University.
East Anglian Daily Times
Ipswich Evening Star

Daybreakers' Ethan Hawke Should Turn to British Scientists for a Blood Substitute
In the futuristic vampire thriller Daybreakers, Ethan Hawke's fangy hematologist Edward Dalton is hard at work trying to find a substitute for human blood. It may sound like scifi, but for years real scientists have been racing to find the same thing. So far, they've been about as successful as Hawke's character, which is to say not very. But now scientists at the University of Essex have made a breakthrough. Read the article here.
Internet Movie Database

UK company law is terrorism's friend
By prioritising laissez-faire ideology over public safety, Britain is helping al-Qaida et al to move cash through the banking network. Read Professor Prem Sikka's article here.
The Guardian

Search for artificial blood
Scientists at the University of Essex have just submitted a worldwide patent for their engineered haemoglobin. Read the full article here.
Research and Development

Green infrastructure strategies to be explored at GreenSpace event
Essex researcher Jo Barton will present findings of a green exercise study at GreenSpace East today.
Horticulture Week

19 January

University of Essex gets drinks licence
The University's Clifftown Studios has won permission to sell alcohol at the premises. Read the full article here.
Echo

Visual stress the cure
Research at Essex University has shown that using coloured acetate sheet overlays on texts or prescribing precision-tinted lenses in glasses or contact lenses can help alleviate the symptoms of visual stress. It reduces discomfort, headaches and improves reading skills and concentration. Read the full article here.
Daily Express

18 January

Vibrant new season at Lakeside Theatre
The Lakeside Theatre at the University of Essex is ready to host a vibrant new season of events, theatre, film, music and art exhibitions and throughout the new season, the Albert Sloman Library will display a variety of works from the university's collection of Latin American art.
Gazette

More tax breaks for start-ups
Entrepreneurs in the UK must be considered as a key driver in leading the UK economy out or recession according to Doug Richard, one of the country’s leading entrepreneurs. Former Dragons’ Den entrepreneur, Richard, will today claim that the policies of successive governments continue to cripple entrepreneurial endeavour, when he launches The Entrepreneurs Manifesto: Empowering The New Wave today at a social enterprise learning event, Growing a Successful Social Enterprise, at the Royal Institution. The event, presented by the University of Essex and supported by the Transformation Fund of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills will deliver the School for Startups workshop on growing and funding social enterprise and entrepreneurship.
SME Web
Fresh Business Thinking
SmartBrief
Market Watch
FinanzNachrichten
Quote.com Hong Kong
Business Wire

Spirited objections to bar in former church
The former Clifftown United Reformed Church, in Nelson Street, Southend, has undergone a £5million regeneration project to transform it into a theatre and students from the University of Essex’s East 15 Acting School have moved in. The university has applied for a licence to sell alcohol on the premises and also for permission to stage public performances throughout the week. At a meeting of the council’s licensing sub-committee yesterday, 12 residents and business owners made their feelings about the application clear. Read the article.
The Echo

The decline in party membership - local perspectives
Dan Drillsma-Milgrom, the Local Government Chronicle's News Editor and Political Correspondent uses Professor Paul Whiteley's research to illustrate a story about an  article in a recent LGC about local party groups in London working with headhunters to find new and more diverse candidates for this summer’s local elections. Read the story here.
LGC

Researchers file for patent for producing artificial haemoglobin
Researchers at the University of Essex, U.K., have filed for a global patent covering their procedure for producing a less toxic type of synthetic haemoglobin. "The trick with artificial blood is to modify the molecule to be less toxic, but still perform the vital role of carrying oxygen around the body," a researcher said.
Smart Brief
 

17 January

County residents win chance to work for charity
A host of people from Oxfordshire have been given a chance to “make a world of difference” by taking two months off work for charity. The Vodafone Foundation’s World of Difference UK Programme is giving 500 people from across the country the chance to work for eight weeks with a charity of their choice. One of these is Rachel Drew who will be working with The Children’s Legal Centre.
Witney Gazette
Oxford Mail

Top professions must be less elitist, warn ministers
The country's most senior doctors, lawyers and accountants will be told tomorrow that they must draw up plans showing how they will make their ­professions less elitist.The move is part of a government attempt to increase social mobility and break down the pattern that has seen top jobs dominated by those from privileged backgrounds. Only 7% of the population receives a private education, but 75% of judges and 45% of top civil servants went to independent schools. John Ermisch, professor of economics, at the Institute for Social and Economic Research, said that while it was good that the government was bringing in the reforms, it was extremely hard to monitor actual change. Little was known about what levers actually affect social mobility, he added. Read the article here.
The Guardian

Study in UK Exhibition
The exhibition will again be held during the traditional early February dates to coincide with the release of examinations results in Brunei and will be graced by over 20 institutions from across the British Isles and attended by some of the most distinguished universities and colleges including the University of Essex.
Borneo Bulletin
Brunei News

News Bites
Researchers from the University of Essex have compiled a report, called Nature, Childhood, Health And Life Pathways, which underlines the importance of improving the health and wellbeing of children and adults. The team says that there is increasing evidence that exposure to natural places can lead to positive physical and mental health outcomes. Researcher Professor Jules Pretty says: "Fewer than half of children now get enough physical activity. We need radical changes in social and physical environments and policies if activity levels are to change permanently." The plan includes encouraging more outdoor play for younger children and encouraging planners to incorporate green space into cities.
Sunday Mail, Australia
Sunday Herald Sun, Australia
Sunday Telegraph, Australia
Brisbane Courier
Daily Telegraph, Australia
Herald Sun, Australia

16 January

Vampires and the Search for an Artificial Blood Substitute
The quest to create artificial blood is big business, with more than one billion pounds being spent over the last 20 years in an attempt to create a true alternative to blood. Among those around the globe seeking a viable blood alternative are scientists at the University of Essex who have just submitted a worldwide patent for their engineered haemoglobin. Read the article here.
Science Daily

15 January

Class in the new racism
Wealth is now more important than skin colour in shaping lives, Communities Secretary John Denham declared yesterday. He insisted huge strides had been taken to tackle racism in the past 10 years and government must focus more on class in the fight against inequality. Omar Mehtab from Ilford, Essex studies economics at the University of Essex in Colchester says 'I'm proud of my heritage, proud to be a Muslim, and also proud to be British.'
The Mirror

Plans to use attendance allowance to boost care funding faces criticism
The Scottish Parliament has attacked the UK government for failing to consider the impact of its adult green paper on vulnerable pensioners in Scotland. The Westminster government is considering using attendance allowance and disability living allowance for over-65s - both UK-wide benefits - to part-fund care for all eligible users in England. Research by the Institute for Social and Economic Research suggesting that 40% of recipients of those benefits would fall below the poverty line if they were scrapped.
CommunityCare.co.uk

Join sea of pink at aces to defeat scourge of cancer
Organisers of the Race for Life brought a splash of colour to a miserable day in Colchester as they launched the town's events. The University of Essex will be hosting the race on Sunday 25 July and have 2,250 places for runners and walkers.
Gazette
Halstead Gazette
Harwich and Manningtree Standard

Keeping the faith at uni's Sub Zero
Another big act is on its way to Sub Zero at the University of Essex and it's arguably the biggest of them all as two-thirds of Faithless, one of the most popular dance acts around are set to play at the venue next month.
Gazette

14 January

Skating could slim obese kids
After an Essex University survey revealed a shocking decline in the fitness of Chelmsford children, trainers at the Riverside Ice and Leisure Centre have recommended ice skating as a solution to growing health concerns. The study showed children's fitness in the borough has declined by eight per cent over the past decade, with experts blaming too much TV watching, social networking sites and computer games as taking the place of physical activity.
Essex Chronicle

Discussing your disabled child's needs
Parents of disabled children are being encouraged to come along to a forum to discuss their needs. The event has been set up because parents want to empower themselves in finding out the best way to get help in caring for their children, in light of the Government’s Lamb report, which introduces a range to measures to make sure disabled children have their needs met easily. A variety of speakers will be at the forum, including Ilford North MP Lee Scott and Mandi Wilson from the Children’s Legal Centre.
Yellow Advertiser
Ilford Recorder

We owe children a good education
The proposal to teach financial responsibility to kids shows schools have replaced learning with social engineering. For many, teaching young kids how to manage their money seems like common sense at a time when so many adults are struggling with debt. Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, says the new lessons are welcome because ‘we have dug ourselves into a hell-hole of personal borrowing problems’. Others point to a recent study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research that found that ‘being unable to manage money harms a person’s wellbeing’ as proof that time spent with young children will pay dividends in later life. Read the article here.
Spiked

Blood is 'created'
British experts yesterday claimed a breakthrough in the development of artificial blood. The team at the University of Essex say they have managed to create fake haemoglobin, which can carry oxygen around the body like the real thing. Previous efforts to make the key blood ingredient have been toxic or have not carried oxygen.The race to create fake blood began 20 years ago when thousands died from transfusions infected with hepatitis or HIV.
The Sun

It's all about them
Times Higher Education's Student Experience Survey brings together the views of more than 11,000 full-time undergraduates. Between September 2008 and June 2009, market-research agency Opinionpanel asked students to rate their university on 21 different attributes that are key to a positive student experience. The University of Essex was placed 15th out of 104 institutions. Read the article and view the table here.
THE

Uni park project to provide jobs boost
Work on a long-awaited research park at the University is to finally begin in months, creating thousands of jobs. Work on the 40-acre site, which will be called the University of Essex Knowledge Gateway is due to start in April.
Gazette
Harwich and Manningtree Standard

Boffins' breakthrough in quest for fake blood
Science fact and fiction could soon merge in the world of fake blood. Scientists at the University of Essex have submitted a patent for an engineered version of one of blood's main ingredients - haemoglobin. The researchers hope their discovery will one day be used in the development of a blood substitute which could be used in hospitals.
Gazette
East Anglian Daily Times
Harwich and Manningtree Standard

Memories are made of this
Youngsters from Basildon rolled out the red carpet to welcome elderly people as part of a community-led project. Pensioners have been recording their thoughts and memories of the past and discussing how Basildon has changed over the past 60 years for the project.
Our Basildon, Our Memories has been funded by NHS South West Essex. The material gained through the scheme will go to the University of Essex to be studied and archived.
Brentwood Weekly News
Basildon and Wickford Recorder

Financial power list 2010: Where the power lies
Few in the accounting world don’t have a view on Prem Sikka. The outspoken Professor of Accounting from the University of Essex Business School  is a voice of dissent within the profession, and routinely rages against perceived injustices. But his blog, on The Guardian’s website, reaches an audience seldom addressed by traditional accounting media – the general public. Read the article here.
Accountancy Age
Finance Director Europe

The future of ultra HD
JANET (UK) is a key infrastructure partner for the University of Essex, which opened its new Media Lab - the first European facility to offer an 8k node - to researchers, networks and media professionals on 12 November. Read the article here.
JANET News

12 January

Culford girl wins tennis plaudits
Daniella Silva, a tennis scholar at Culford School, has won her first under-14 European doubles title. Daniella teamed up with Grace Dixon, Number One in Great Britain at 14 and under, to win the Tennis Europe Grade Three event held at Wrexham in December.
Thirteen-year-old Daniella joined Culford School as a boarder in September. Her tennis scholarship encompasses a full time education alongside a comprehensive tailor-made tennis programme which includes five individual sessions per week, five squad sessions per week, two hitting sessions and two hours of fitness training. In addition, Daniela undergpes fitness testing at Essex University, regular sports massage sessions and in depth video analysis each term.
Bury Mercury

 

Sante Fe Man Sues Neighbour over Radio Waves
A man in Santa Fe claims his neighbour's use of wireless technology causes him to get ill. He has sued his neighbour, a woman who he used to hire to cook for him, and who purchased a house she used to rent. This case was filed in state district court, but will almost certainly be dismissed, not without some expense on the part of the neighbour. But there should no longer be a dispute over electrosensitivity. It's become increasingly clear that people who claim that condition have a measurable health problem--Essex University and University of Regensburg both did work on this front.
WNN Wi-Fi Net News

New international studies research from University of Essex outlined
Mr Xun Cao from the Department of Government has had his research published in International Studies Quarterly. The research studied three potential causal mechanisms through which network dynamics of intergovernmental organizations (IGO) might cause convergence in domestic economic policies.
Science Letter

Stanley Heckadon's new book
Stanley Heckadon was awarded a PhD. in Sociology at the University of Essex and in fulfilling the requirements for the doctorate, in 1983 he submitted a dissertation on the colonization of the forests. This text served as the basis for his new book - De selvas a potreros: la colonización santeña en Panamá, 1850-1980 (From Forests to Pastures: Santeño Colonization in Panama, 1850-1980. Read the article here.
The Panama News

10 January

What's the alternative to joining a gym?
Tradition dictates that this is a difficult time of year. It's the point where we have to swap the sofa for a sweaty gym. In Europe, there has been a serious decline in physical activity over the past 50 years. Adults aged 20-60 years expend 500kcal less energy per day than they did 50 years ago. As Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex, puts it, this is the equivalent to the running of a marathon each week. Even rates of participation in walking and cycling are declining (walking declined from 87 hours per year in 1975 to 57 hours in 2005). All of which suggests we should be marched to the nearest gym. Read the article here.
The Guardian

Race For Life 2010
Colchester women are being urged to enter Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life and share amazing moments as they become part of the biggest female-only team in the UK. This year Race for Life in Colchester takes place on Sunday 16 May at Lower Castle Park at 11am and 2pm and Sunday 25 July at the University of Essex at 11am.
Heart
Halstead Gazette
Braintree and Witham Times

Five students receive Port Authority awards
Five local students have been given financial awards by Milford Haven Port Authority at its annual scholarship presentations. Four undergraduates received £1000 each and one postgraduate received £2000. One of the undergraduate winners was Owain Gwynn, a second year student studying acting and stage combat at the University of Essex.
There were over 100 applicants for the awards in total, with interviews taking place on December 21 for those who made it through the first stage.
Milford Mercury Series

Third time lucky for U's centre bid
A controversial proposal for a new training-ground complex for Colchester United has been given the go-ahead at the third attempt. The U's do not have a permanent base for training and currently use various venues including the pitches at the University of Essex. Read the article here.
East Anglian Daily Times
Ipswich Evening Star

The House Magazine comes to ePolitix.com
A new section launched today on ePolitix.com features the best of The House Magazine.
Interviews, policy and comment from the parliamentary weekly are now available online.
This week one of the contributors is Professor Paul Whiteley from the University of Essex who looks at the latest topical polling.
ePolitix.com

9 January

Nature's cure for society's ills
Physical activity levels have dropped dramatically in a generation with a corresponding rise in obesity, mental ill-health and anti-social behaviour. Could childhood re-engagement with nature and green spaces offer a solution? The East Anglian Daily Times report on a study by researchers at the University of Essex.
EA Life

8 January

Alastair Campbell has us in his sights
It hardly seems five minutes since the last jamboree, but tickets are about to go on sale for the 2010 Essex Book Festival. There's the chance to view the Margery Allingham archive - she created the detective Albert Campion - at the University of Essex.
Speaking of the Wivenhoe seat of learning, its annual Burrows Lecture has long come under the umbrella of the festival, and will again in 2010, with Matthew Poole's talk “From chavs to contemporary art: anti-institutionalism and iconoclasm in Essex”.
“This year, too, what they wanted to do was really connect what's going on at the university with a wider audience,” says June. “So What's Around the Corner is 15 different researchers from the university coming to Colchester library on one day to present five differently-themed hours. Within each hour there will be short presentations about key research, presented in a way that is aimed at a general audience.” Read the article here.
Ipswich Evening Star

Uni lecturer doubles as Radio 1's agony uncle
University of Essex lecturer Dr Aaron is here to help, and not just his students at Wivenhoe Park. Aaron is a lecturer in Psychoanalysis at the University of Essex but also a regular contributor to Radio 1's long-running Sunday night show.
Gazette

Hot line-up at Sub Zero
Some of the best up and coming DJs and Producers will be taking to the decks at Essex University's Sub Zero this spring. While students are preparing for lectures, the people behind the university's nightclub venue have already been working hard, lining up a top list of music makers.
Gazette

Bid to sell alcohol in a former Southend Church
The East 15 Acting School is hoping to open a bar in its base at a former church in Southend town centre and has applied for a licence to sell alcohol in the former Clifftown United Reformed Church in Nelson Street. A report detailing the application is set to go before the Southend Council’s licensing sub-committee on January 14. Read the article here.
Echo

7 January

The 2010 Report: The year ahead for children and young people
The coming year presents exceptional challenges for anyone who works with children, young people or families. Services will feel the pinch of the recession. And the general election will focus minds on what kind of society we want to build for tomorrow's generation, and how. CYP Now's 2010 Report aims to tackle the challenges head-on through a range of experts. Read an article by Niamh Harraher, a Solicitor from the  Children's Legal Centre about Children in Care.
Children and Young People Now

Uni leads 3D Film Revolution
The 3D Revolution is taking cinema back to the future and the University of Essex could play a role in developing the format. Scientists in its new media lab are working out how to transmit 3D images around the world - technology that would allow expert consultant doctors to be "in the room" with colleagues performing operations thousands of miles away as well as the 3D images being used to aid the distribution of films by sending cinemas new releases to cinemas electronically.
Gazette

What are you reading?
Professor Jules Pretty from the University of Essex is reading Peter Matthiessen's The Cloud Forest - a lyrical account by one of the greatest of all nature writers in which he journeys across South America in search of people in their own particular wildernesses.
THE

Get into Futsal
Names are being taken for a three-hour Beginners Guide to Futsal Course scheduled for Sunday 31 January at the University of Essex in Colchester which will offer football coaches, teachers and Young Leaders a basic introduction to the innovative, small-sided format which is taking the nation by storm! Following last year’s similar sell-out event in Redbridge, twelve places are up-for-grabs on the next course which will take place from 10am to 1pm in partnership with the University in their Sports Hall.
Girls in Football
 

6 January

Season of good cheer for advocates of targets in public services
It's not fashionable to say so, but the principal reason the health service machine is ticking over relatively smoothly is good old-fashioned, top-down, Stalinist performance targets. Maurice Sunkin and colleagues from Essex University analysed all judicial review challenges to councils in England and Wales from 2000 to 2005. They found that councils assessed as performing less well by the Audit Commission attracted more challenges, which may not be unexpected, but also that successful challenges tended to be followed by improved assessments. With challenges running at a rate of some 750 a year, this made no small impact.
The Guardian

'Show us your money' plea
A Mystery Benefactor has been urged by the group trying to save  Colchester's Roman Circus to "show us your money". The would-be donor pledged £10,000 and has been asked to come forward. The group has raised £76,000 which includes donations from local Councillors and the University of Essex.
Gazette

5 January

Adjournment debate on Southend regeneration
Mr David Amess MP and Mr James Duddridge MP take part in a debate about Southend Regeneration and James Duddridge says "One of the most impressive things I saw was the education hub of South East Essex college and the University of Essex in the town centre. Those developments have attracted multi-million pound investment and brought many benefits, including employment opportunities, supporting learning and raising skills levels, and transforming the street scene with more young people living in and around the town centre". Read the rest of the debate here.
ePolitix.com
 

Essex Uni seeks top class architect for new democracy centre
The University of Essex is looking for an 'eminent architect' to create a world class headquarters for its proposed International Centre for Democracy, Peace and Human Rights. Read the full article here.
Gazette
Architects Journal online
New Civic Engineer Online
CN+
Halstead Gazette
Harwich and Manningtree Standard
Building Design online

Book Festival attracts big names
A string of award-winning writers have signed up to appear at the 11th Essex Book Festival in March. Authors Germaine Greer and Penelope Lively top the bill along with local writer, Barbara Erskine. BBC Essex presenter, Dave Monk, will launch the festival live on BBC Essex and will host a debate around cultural identity, with Germaine Greer, Sarfraz Manzoor and Colin Riordan at the Central Baptist Church, Chelmsford.
BBC News

New Online Seminar on Transformational Leadership and Analytical Psychology with Steve Myers
TypeLabs, a leading provider of online personality type resources and training, today announced the launch of a new online seminar "Transformational Leadership and Analytical Psychology" presented by Steve Myers, creator of the Management Team Role-indicator. Steve Myers has 30 years of experience both as a leader and an independent consultant in team, leadership and organisational culture development. He has a particular interest in the work of C.G. Jung, having recently completed a Masters in Jungian and Post-Jungian Studies at the University of Essex, and currently undertaking a related PhD (on Mythology for Christians: The Advancement of Consciousness).
1888 Press Release
 

4 January

Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Affluent Children Examined
Cardiorespiratory fitness among 10-year-old children continues to decline at an alarming rate, mostly independent of changes in body mass index (BMI), at least in girls, according to a study in the January issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Dr Gavin Sandercock from the University of Essex  and colleagues assessed changes in BMI and cardiorespiratory fitness in children 10 years of age in 1998 and 2008 (located in a wealthy area of the United Kingdom. The researchers found that cardiorespiratory fitness decreased by 7 percent in boys and 9 percent in girls. While the BMI of girls did not change during the study period, boys showed an increase in BMI during the time period.
Modern Medicine
Birmingham Post
Essex Chronicle
Sunday Times (South Africa)
Newspost Online
Leinster Express
Runcorn and Widnes Weekly News
Hounslow Chronicle
Daily Post
Maghull and Aintree Star
Ealing Gazette
Buckinghamshire Examiner
Leisure Opportunities Online
Sports Management Online
Leisure Management

3 January

Children to be taught perils of debt
The government has released the details of new compulsory lessons for children on managing their finances as adults. From 2011, five-year-olds will begin with lessons on how to save money in a piggy bank. While at primary school, they will be taught about current and savings accounts and how to budget. In secondary school, the lessons will move on to credit cards, mortgages and loans, with specific warnings about debt.
The move follows a study by the Institute for Social and Economic Research that found being unable to manage money harms a person's wellbeing.
Tiscali Money
Daily Telegraph
The Guardian

Poll predictions
Seven public figures give their thoughts on how the next general election might go. Professor Anthony King, Professor of Government at the University of Essex said:
When? May.
Why then? The same day as the locals on 6 May would save enormous amounts of public money.
Main themes? The themes scarcely matter. Voters will decide whether or not to stick with the devil they know.
The winner? It's the most unpredictable election to call since 1974.
The Guardian

How the 2010 election will be won by blogs and tweets
The rise of social networking sites such as Facebook on the internet has caused an enormous change in politics. At the last election, in May 2005, social networking sites were known to few. Facebook was largely unheard of and Twitter had yet to be invented. YouTube had been in existence for only three months. Blogs were in their infancy and political bloggers, now hugely influential in the flow of news, had yet to evolve. All parties used email, but beyond that the internet remained undeveloped as a campaigning tool. The internet will bring opportunities but also dangers. It will help make election 2010, as Professor Anthony King from the University of Essex predicts, the most unpredictable since 1974. Politicians will for the first time in a campaign be able to talk directly to voters through mediums such as podcasts and blogs, bypassing the traditional media. Cameron has been doing this since 2006, while Brown now puts out his own regular weekly podcast. But such tools have never been used in the thick of an actual election campaign.
The Guardian

2 January

Welcome to the happiest place in Britain
Times Journalist Sathnam Sanghera spent a wet weekend in Mid Wales to discover why Powys is a happy place to live according to research presented at the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers' annual conference in 2008; which was conducted by respected academics; which used data from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and the Census of the UK population.
The Times

1 January 2010

Is manipulation of mood a critical component of cognitive bias modification procedures?
Helen Standage from the Department of Psychology has had a paper published in 'Behaviour Research and Therapy' which investigates whether changes in mood state are an important component of cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures.
Behaviour Research and Therapy

A cross-cultural marriage is an adventure I'd recommend
Mixed-race unions in this country are on the increase, a magical journey that benefits all the families involved. The image of a white British groom at the centre of a mass of ecstatic Indian aunties would once have been a rarity. But research released earlier this year found that one in 10 people in Britain with Indian heritage who is in a relationship has a partner of a different race. The study, by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, found the same was true of half of all Caribbean men, one in five black African men and two out of five Chinese women. The result so far: one in 10 children in Britain is living in a mixed-race family.
The Guardian
Keep Media
Qatar Tribune

31 December

John Hurst
John Hurst was a passionate campaigner for the NHS, civil liberties and public housing. After working at British Rail for a number of years, at 46, he was "persuaded" to take early retirement. He then worked as a consultant for the Post Office and other bodies and developed his political and intellectual interests, among which was Jungian psychology. He graduated with an MA from Essex University and was working on a PhD at Lincoln University. Apart from public issues he was a cricket devotee and lover of classical music. He died on 5 December 2009.
The Independent

29 December

Forum offers entrepreneurial views on crisis
The 9th International Entrepreneurship Forum, organized jointly by Turkey’s Sabancı University and the U.K.’s University of Essex, began Thursday in Istanbul, with a focus on the global economic turmoil and related social issues. Read the article here.
Turkish Daily

 

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