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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
Holly Ward in the Communications Office (e-mail
hollyb@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.
The University of Essex in the Press
June 2012
Saturday 30 June
Luxury to a high degree
Wivenhoe House, is the first hotel of its kind, offering degree
courses in hospitality and culinary management while, at the same
time, giving its guests the best of British.
East Anglian Daily Times
How to save coral reefs, without
leaving your home
The University of Essex's acclaimed Coral Reef
Research Unit is on the front line of coral conservation and anyone
with a home aquarium can now help its important reef research. You
can view the digital supplement online
here.
East Anglian Daily Times
Who's There?
Eight new short plays on time and memory from a stellar line-up of
LiFTs Department writers including Jonathan Lichtenstein, Glyn
Maxwell, Adrian May, Rebecca Prichard, Paul Sirett, Phil Terry,
Marina Warner and a specially selected work by one LiFTs student.
Essex County Standard
and in 9 other local news outlets
José Emilio Pacheco
José Emilio Pacheco, born on
30 June 1939, is a Mexican essayist, novelist and short story
writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the
second half of the 20th century. The Berlin International Literature
Festival has praised him as "one of the most significant
contemporary Latin American poets". He has taught at UNAM, as well
as the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of
Essex, and many others in the United States, Canada and the United
Kingdom. In 2009 he was awarded the Cervantes Prize for his literary
oeuvre.
Iran Book News Agency
How game designers are informing the world of
gamification
Gamification isn't about creating games.
It's about enhancing user engagement, something game developers know
how to do. And as witnessed at this year's recent Gamification
Summit held in San Francisco, game designers are clearly interested
in helping this new industry with its growing pains.
According to Dr. Richard Bartle , a Professor
in Computer Game
Design at the University of Essex,
gamification presents its own challenges. “In my talk, I have an
analogy that it's as if game designers are novelists and gamifiers
are journalists,” Bartle said via email. “There is a huge overlap
between novelists and journalists - they both write stories using
words.... However, they are fundamentally different in that the art
behind them is different.” Read the article
here.
VentureBeat.com
Friday 29 June
Should we
allow Doping in the Tour de France? Or
all sports?
Read Professor Chris Cooper's article in The New Republic.
The New Republic
Mini-Olympics held
at Uni
Youngsters from three Colchester schools
tried out Olympic events during a special sports day at Essex
University . Pupils played sports including handball, tennis and
hockey Broomgrove Junior School, Old Heath Community Primary School
and Montgomery Junior School each brought 60 children from years
five and six along to the event. Community volunteering manager
Keith Rowlands said: “We wanted to do something to mark the Olympics
coming to London this year and also show the school children our
campus and the excellent sports facilities we have here.
Colchester Gazette
Essex County Standard
Arms debate with minister
A University of Essex student met with Foreign Office minister
Alistair Burt and other Government officials as part of an Oxfam
delegation. Law student Unkha Banda, 21, was one 150 students to
take part in a debate over the UK’s position on a global arms
treaty. The Arms Trade Treaty Youth Forum was organised by Oxfam and
Amnesty International.
Essex County Standard
'Bootiful' Mersea Island dialect is
disappearing
Mersea islanders’ age-old dialect is fast disappearing, according to
a University of Essex researcher. Dr Jenny Amos has found that the
world beyond the Strood causeway has had a big impact on the
water-bounded community, influencing how residents there fashion the
spoken word. Increasingly, over the past half-century, youngsters
have felt obliged to leave for work or university, while older,
wealthier outsiders, able to afford local house prices, have come to
live on the island. Dr Amos concluded that such demographic changes
mean words such as “bootiful” and “hoi toides” are increasingly
expressed in the Standard English “beautiful” and “high tides”.
Gazette
University of Essex boasts first Box Cup champions
University of Essex Amatuer Boxing Club enjoyed a double gold
success at the prestigious Multi-Nations Haringey Box Cup.
Cruiserweight Dan Azeez and light middleweight Zac Keating were
crowned Haringey Box Cup Champions for 2012, at Alexandra Palace.
Essex County Standard
Gazette
University of Essex online
to
admit
just
two
more
intakes
prior
to
rise
in
tuition
fees
University of Essex Online only has two more intakes available for
students to start an online degree before the rise in tuition fees.
If prospective students begin their course before the end of July
2012 they will pay the current, lower tuition fees for the duration
of their degree.
Dan Roe, Head of Remote Learning for University of Essex Online,
said: “There has never been a better time for students to start
studying for a degree online and we expect to see a surge of
applicants over the next few weeks. We’re encouraging students to
apply now to take advantage of the current lower fees and grants
available.”
Young Academic
Thursday 28 June
BBC Essex
Steve Scrutton visits Wivenhoe House.
Listen to his report and interview (forward to 41:40) with
Stephen Mannock, General Manager.
New Study Tests the Just-World Theory
Mitchell J. Callan of the Department of Psychology at the University
of Essex in the UK recently led a study using gaze analysis.
For his study, Callan monitored the eye movements of 44
participants as they listened to a scenario involving a good or bad
character. The participants’ gazes were assessed prior to the
outcomes to see if the just-world theory applied to their
unconscious desires for the characters. Callan discovered that the
characters’ depiction did indeed influence the eye movements of the
participants. The just-world theory proposes that individuals expect
the world to be relatively fair and that people receive punishments
and rewards according to their actions and morality.
GoodTherapy.org
Essex students are ahead of the game
A team of students from the University of Essex has been picked by
Virgin Mobile to develop a new video game for phones and table
devices. They won £10,000 for coming first in the Virgin Media 100
Day Game Project competition and are now developing their concept -
a puzzle game called Superfluid - with industry experts.
East Anglian Daily Times
New student housing complex set for
green light
A student housing complex with 722 rooms should be given the green
light, according to planning officers. Uliving, the company building
student homes at the University of Essex has lodged an objection
claiming the homes would saturate the accommodation market and
damage the university's long-term vision.
Colchester Gazette
Mexico '68 scrutinised
Speakers at the University of Essex will discuss
political and artistic issues raised by the 1968 Olympics. Hundreds
of peaceful protestors were massacred ten days before the 1968
opening ceremony, in Mexico. The discussion runs alongside an art
exhibition.
Colchester Gazette
Essex County Standard
HF Female Employees Experience Inequality in Workplace
A new paper from two British universities has found that women
working at hedge funds have a harder time gaining credibility than
their male counterparts. The study, done by Jo Brewis of the
University of Leicester School of Management and Dr. Kat Riach of
Essex Business School at the University of Essex, discovered
that females struggled with various issues ranging from minimal
training while starting on the job to earning respect among
colleagues after giving birth. Brewis and Riach based their findings
on 53 interviews with men and women between 25 and 37 at a London
hedge fund, and 150 hours of observation. Their paper will be
presented during an academic conference at the University of Keele
on Thursday.
www.hedgefund.net
Eurek Alert
24 dash
hereisthecity.com
Farmer's shop turns over an honest
profit
Lashes Farm Honesty Shop relies on the principles of
trust and respect and the owner says that 99 per cent of people are
honest when buying goods from the unmanned shop. His experience
affirms a report by the University of Essex which says that although
we are less honest than we were a decade ago, small tight-knot
communities enjoy much higher levels of neighbourly respect.
Brentwood Gazette
Plan the New Year 2013 Celebrations at New Delhi with
ICRICKET
IMT Ghaziabad India will be organizing ICRICKET -- an International
Conference on Rural Innovation, Capacity Building, Knowledge
Management, Entrepreneurship and Technology at India Habitat Centre,
New Delhi on 2nd & 3rd January 2013. The Conference is being
organized in collaboration with Centre for Entrepreneurship, Essex
Business School, University of Essex.
PRLOG
World Net Daily
Denver Post
I-Newswire
Wednesday 27 June
Death penalty in decline
The U.N.’s Human Rights Committee is charged with monitoring the
1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Article 6
calls for every human being to have “an inherent right to life” —
but also leaves a loophole open for death penalties decided by “a
competent court.” “We can’t say, per se, the death penalty is
wrong,” said committee member (and panelist) Nigel Rodley of the
University of Essex. But at the same time, Article 6 is “essentially
abolitionist,” he said, since it upholds the right to life. The
death penalty was once widely regarded as “a question of domestic
penal policy,” said Rodley — but today “it’s a human rights matter.”
Read the article
here.
Harvard Gazette
Wivenhoe trail closed to cyclists for
24 hours
A popular cycle route will be closed for
24 hours on Friday The Wivenhoe Trail, part of national cycle route
51, will be closed to cyclists between the town’s train station at
the University Quays until Saturday. Sustrans will close the trail,
which is a permissive route, at the request of the landowner.
Walkers are still able to use the riverside route. Cyclists should
us an alternative route through Wivenhoe and the
University of Essex campus.
Colchester Gazette
Essex County Council closes care provision for
children
Dr Chris Nicholson discusses Essex County Council's decision to
close its mainstream care provision and the potential damage to
vulnerable children and teenagers this might cause. To listen to the
interview see
here.
BBC Essex
Short plays set to shine on stage
A unique opportunity to see brand new work from some of the
University's leading writers takes place this weekend. As part of
the event, there's also a chance for two students to show their work
alongside them. A playwriting competition asked students to write a
15-minute play based on the theme of time and memory.
Colchester Gazette
Returning to work: a mother of a problem?
It's possible for working mums to have an enhanced home life,
characterised by better relationships. It wasn’t that long ago – the
years leading up to 1966 – that women working for the public service
had to quit once they got married. Today, while life for the working
woman is better, she still faces one big challenge: returning to the
workforce after maternity leave. But what’s best for the kids?
That’s the ultimate question, and the research on that is quite
mixed. A study conducted at Essex University found that children
were slower learners when their mums returned to work before the
kids reached the age of three. Read the article
here.
The Sydney Morning Herald
Albury Border Mail
Social Media Marketing
If you’re not already using Social Media Marketing to connect with
customers and generate traffic to your site you’ll soon be dropping
down Google’s rankings and losing business. Social Media is now an
essential part of the marketing mix. This Social Media Course at the
University of Essex, Southend Campus, won’t just tell you how to set
up Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn etc., we will show you how and why
to use them to engage with your customers, build your brand and
increase sales. This 1 day Social Media training workshop is led by
web marketers with real-world experience of implementing Social
Media campaigns for business. See
here
to book a place.
Colchester
Gazette
Tuesday 26 June
Professor's water plea
University of Essex academic Professor Mark Harvey, from the
Department of Sociology is appearing in a series of online videos
highlighting the need for research into global water demand. He is
leading a research project on bottled water consumption.
Colchester Gazette
University 'Cloisters' campaigners
stairing at defeat
Work has begun to demolish a staircase as part of work
to extend the library and create a new Student Centre. The work is
due for completion around Easter 2014.
Colchester Gazette
Students joins arms trade conference
University of Essex law student, Ankha Banda, took
part in the Arms Trade Treaty Youth Forum, organised by the charity
with Amnesty International.
Colchester Gazette
Torch relay set to light up the town
The Olympic torch is coming to Colchester next week
and the town is set to celebrate. St Thomas More's children will
travel to the University of Essex where they will take part in
Olympic art projects and sport.
Colchester Gazette
Exclusive video: HSBC's Gary Dunn and Evi Pliota on risk
modelling : Automated Trader Exclusive video: HSBC's Gary Dunn and
Evi Pliota on risk modelling
Exclusive video: HSBC's Gary Dunn and Evi Pliota on risk modelling :
Automated Trader Gary Dunn has been in HSBC's wholesale and market
risk department since 2010 and before that he was with Britain's FSA
and with the Bank of England. He has also been a propriatary trader.
Evi Pliota has also worked in the same department as Gary since
2010. She is a visiting fellow at the Centre of Computational
Finance and Economic Agents at the University of Essex.
Automated Trader
Monday 25 June
Instructions not needed, I can use my inner sat-nav
EADT Columnist Lynne Mortimer
writes about heading to the University of Essex, ignoring any
directions.
East Anglian Daily Times
Venezuelan athletes no longer heading to town
Venezuelan Olympians, who had agreed to use Colchester as a training
base, will no longer be coming to the town this summer. About 60
athletes and trainers had agreed to stay in the town and use its
leisure facilities. They were due to stay in University of Essex
accommodation and boost the town's participation in the global
sporting spectacle. University of Essex will still be providing
accommodation for 230 support staff who will be working at the
Olympic Park.
Gazette
Boost for hotel school students
Three students at the Wivenhoe House hotel school have received
£3,000 scholarships from the Savoy Educational Trust to help with
their studies. Freddy Bateman, Tori Cox and Alice Holah are among
the first group who started courses this week at the Edge Hotel
School, on University of Essex’ s Wivenhoe campus. They are working
towards a fast-track BA honours degree in hotel management,
combining academic study with experience of working in a luxury
country house hotel. Six more scholarships will be awarded across
the next two student intakes.
Gazette
Sunday 24 June
Top Tory donor Michael Hintze’s company earns
£125million but only pays £77,000 tax in Britain
Comments by Professor Prem Sikka from Essex Business School included
in story about tax affairs of Tory donor Michael Hintze.
Read full story.
Sunday Mirror
Saturday 23 June
Becoming an Olympian: Nature or Nurture?
As part of the Cultural Olympiad organised by the Essex Federation
of the Workers' Educational
Association (WEA) on
Saturday 23 June, Professor Martin Sellens, Head of the Centre for
Sports and Exercise Science was due to deliver a presentation asking
how Olympic athletes have achieved the exceptional state of
freakishness necessary to be amongst the best in the world. Sellens
considered, as a biologist, the contribution of both nature (talent)
and nurture (practice) to the development of Olympic athletes, and
touched on the intriguing possibility that it might soon be possible
to use modern genetic techniques to “engineer” world-beating
athletes.
Essex County Standard
And 20 other media outlets
Friday 22 June
£15 million Colchester Academy plan approved
Colchester Academy’s £15 redevelopment has been approved by
Colchester Borough Council. The University of Essex, Colchester
Institute and NHS North East Essex are sponsors of the Academy.
Essex County Standard
Have fun for St Helena
Costumes and obstacle courses will return for St Helena Hospice's
It's a Knockout event. Teams of at least ten, with a minimum age of
16, are needed for the event, on July 8 at Essex University. It is
free to enter, but teams need to raise £500 in sponsorship. All
money will go the charity.
Gazette
The waiting game
The East Anglian Daily Times spoke to Colchester-based race walker
Dominic King who is hoping to be selected for this summer’s London
Olympics. He looks set to compete for Great Britain in the 50K race
walk, through the streets of London, having already bagged the
qualifying time. Dominic is also the Student Activities Development
Manager at the University.
EADT
Thursday 21 June
BBC Essex
Unfit parents
Dave Monk interview Dr Gavin Sandercock about his research
into how parents physical activities effects their children's
physical activity. The university of Essex has found that children
who have parents who do no physical activity are 50% more likely to
be sedentary themselves.
Poor role
models:
Children say
two-thirds
of parents
do 'almost
no
physical
activity'
Researchers from the University of Essex asked more than 4,000
schoolchildren to rate how active they thought their parents were.
The researchers then got the children to complete a test of their
cardio respiratory fitness (the 'bleep' test) and compared the
results. A quarter of the children who took part in the test were
classed as 'unfit' but this likelihood was strongly influenced by
how active they perceived their parents to be.
ScienceDaily
News-Medical.Net
Miss, you are the best, it's official
Former University of Essex student, Elizabeth Bailey has been named
as one of the best up-and-coming educators in the country after
claiming a top award - Outstanding New Teacher of the Year in the
East.
Colchester Gazette
We can't wait for relay to hit town!
Schools are gearing up for the Olympic torch relay,
which comes to Colchester in two weeks. There will be an activity
day at the University of Essex with schools from around Colchester
taking part.
Colchester Gazette
Rings of fire
The University of Essex has opened an art exhibition
investigating the period in the lead-up to the 1968 Mexico City
Olympic games, when a peaceful demonstration by students sparked the
massacre of hundreds of protestors.
Times Higher Education
Kudos, UK, but this is hardly the time
to rest on your laurels
As British students from all classes look to the US
and challenges rise in the East, Anthony Seldon warns the sector
against complacency. He states that the UK does extraordinarily well
in the THE's 100 Under 50 table, we have five institutions in the
top 20, with the University of Essex being placed 20th.
Times Higher Education
Wednesday 20 June
East Anglia: Business in the Community honours firms for
responsible practice
The University of Essex was a winner in the
'Staying Healthy at Work' category of the Business in the Community
awards.
Read the article
here.
East Anglian Daily Times
Alan Turing: Is he really the father of computing?
Simon Lavington is the author of Alan Turing and his Contemporaries:
Building the World's First Computers and a former
Professor of Computer
Science at the University of Essex.
Read his article
here.
londonwired
Students from the
University of Essex chosen to complete
Virgin Media's 100 Day Game Project
It's mid-June, which means Virgin Media has finally chosen the
winner of its 100 Day Game Project. And the winner is
Surface Tension Studios! This small group of students from
the University of Essex now has 100 days
to transform its new mobile game concept into a reality, before
showcasing it at Eurogamer Expo 2012 this September. The Surface
Tension Studios team, which has been awarded £10,000 to put towards
future development projects, will create Superfluid - a puzzle-based
platformer in which you take control of a character that can switch
between solid, liquid, and gas states. Each state can be used to
solve puzzles, as well as overcome enemies. "We're thrilled to be
taking part in this project and beyond this we're all planning on
working in the games industry in the future, so this is a fantastic
opportunity for us all," David Pearson, Surface Tension Studios's
head, said.
Pocket Gamer
CHK points
in the
right direction
CHK’s mapmakers must design maps that help
passengers solve that puzzle without overwhelming them.
After teaming up with Britain’s University of Essex
psychology department, Wood learned that map reading is limited by
“cognitive load,” how much information a person can process at once.
Read the article
here.
Santa Barbara Independent
Keep fit for your kids
Children whose parents are not active are 50 per cent more likely to
be unfit, according to research at Essex University. It also found
fathers had more influence than their mothers over the fitness of
their children. Dr Gavin Sandercock, who led the research, said: "As
parents, we don't need to be Olympic athletes to be good role
models. We need our children to know we encourage and support their
physical activity and, most importantly, we need our children to see
us being active."
Colchester Gazette
Learn from top Essex chefs in the
celeb kitchen
This year's Colchester Food and Drink Festival will
see teachers come together in the celebrity kitchen to teach you the
tricks of their trade. Leading the way will be Malcolm Long, who for
35 years was senior tutor at the Colchester Institute's catering
department, Chefs. There, he taught two the area's best known chefs,
Paul Boorman and Jonathan Brown, both of whom will be appearing in
the festival kitchen over the weekend. All three will be cooking up
some tasty treats and giving people culinary tips. Paul used to be
chef at both Clarice House and Lifehouse health club and spas,
before taking up a role at Essex University's new training hotel.
Colchester Gazette
Alan Turing: Is he really the father
of computing?
Professor Simon Lavington of the University’s
School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering comments on
the centenary of computer pioneer Alan Turing's birth. Professor
Lavington is the author of Alan Turing and his Contemporaries:
Building the World's First Computers. Read the article
here.
BBC News
Contested Games: Mexico 68’s Olympic
design revolution
Zanna Gilbert is an AHRC Collaborative PhD
candidate with Tate Research and the Department of Art History and
Theory, University of Essex. She was
interviewed on BBC Essex on Monday 18 June about Contested Games,
her exhibition at Art Exchange about the Mexico Olympics. For
details about the exhibition see
here. To
listen to the interview, see
here.
BBC Essex
Timothy Secret on Night Waves
Graduate student Timothy Secret of the School of the Philosophy and
Art History gives a talk on Night Waves as part of BBC Radio 3’s New
Generation Thinkers programme. Timothy is among 10 academics chosen
by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and BBC Radio 3
as a New Generation Thinker 2012, receiving top-level mentoring and
advice on how to develop their ideas into viable programme
propositions and spending time shadowing the work of presenters and
producers alike. Listen to the interview
here.
Night Waves
Search for a Star finalists highlight key UK
universities
The finalists for this year's Search for a Star competition have
been announced and are due to be judged this Friday, June 22. The
annual competition, organised by Aardvark Swift, highlights the UK's
brightest video game programming talent and gives them the platform
to advance their careers in the video game business. This year's
final five are Daniel Collinson from the University of Central
Lancashire, Ashley Gwinnell from Bournemouth University, Pantelis
Lekakis from the University of East Anglia, Glen Pepper of the
University of Essex and Craig Hamilton of the University of West
Scotland.
www.gamesindustry.biz
Tuesday 19 June
30 convincing reasons to start running now
Improve self-esteem. Need one more excuse to go green? Runners who
ran outside and snagged a good view of nature showed increased
self-esteem post-workout than those who had only unpleasant scenes
to gaze at. This is taken from
'The mental and
physical health outcomes of green exercise'
from the University of Essex.
WXPI-TV
WYOV-TV
KFOX-TV
KTVU-TV
Deportee families face unfair attack
Professor Carolyn Hamilton from the Coram
Children's Legal Centre is one of the signatories on a letter in
The Guardian regarding a debate in Parliament today on measures
"to protect the public from foreign criminals who try to hide behind
family life as a reason to stay here".
The Guardian
Monday 18 June
Women's Mental Health
A study published last year in the Journal Of Health Economics
showed that women's mental health is affected more than men's by a
daily work commute. The study included data from the British
Household Panel Survey, which found that women who had kids of
preschool age also a fourfold increased risk of experiencing stress
from their commute than men. "We know that women, especially those
with children, are more likely to add daily errands to their
commute, such as food shopping and dropping off and picking up
children from childcare," study researcher Dr. Jennifer Roberts, of
the University of Sheffield. "These time
constraints and the reduced flexibility that comes with them make
commuting stressful in a way that it wouldn't be otherwise."
she added.
Huffington Post
Retrain your
brain to be happy
Between the optimist and the pessimist, the
difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut, the pessimist
the hole. Oscar Wilde got it spot on with this nugget of wisdom -
but how do we know whether we truly look on the bright or not?
According to latest research being an
optimistic or pessimistic may be rooted in our genes and hardwired
into our brains.
Professor Elaine Fox, of the Department of
Psychology at the University of Essex in Colchester, has been
looking into this area of research for over 20 years. Her book,
Rainy Brain Sunny Brain, published this month, looks into research
that some people have a gene that makes them have a tendency to be
optimistic and be more emotionally resilient.
Gazette
Echo
British youth immune to the great outdoors
New research suggests that teenagers have
become immune to the psychological benefits of the great outdoors.
The new study claims that today’s adolescents
have become so “disconnected” from nature and the outside world that
going there has no impact on how well they feel.
Carly Wood, a PhD student at Essex University
who carried out the research using the Rosenberg self-esteem
questionnaire, said: “The current generation of adolescents seem to
be psychologically disconnected from nature, perhaps as a result of
the continuous reduction in the opportunity to interact with it.”
Scotsman.com
Students throw
items from high rise buildings
Students at University of Essex were disciplined
for throwing items out of high rise buildings.
Gazette
UK can learn from Australia on
drought, researchers say
Australia’s handling of drought could have valuable
lessons for Britain’s current water shortage, according to
researchers at Lancaster University.
Researchers Dr Will Medd, Dr Alison Browne and Dr Martin Pullinger
from the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University and Dr
Ben Anderson from Essex University are backing the Environment
Agency’s call for a new approach to drought. They say the case of
the current drought and hosepipe ban in England is an example of why
it needs rethinking.
Water briefing
Universities are target of hundreds of
bomb hoaxes
Universities across Britain are being plagued by
what detectives believe is a linked series on bomb threats designed
to cause chaos on campuses.
Around 50 institutions have been victims of hundreds of hoaxes in
the past month. There appears to be no link between the universities
that have been targeted which include Essex, Durham and UCL.
The Observer
Friday 15 June
Uni in ‘architectural vandalism’
dispute
Professors at University of Essex are fighting to save a historic
staircase from demolition. It has been announced that work will
begin on tearing down the stairs, known as the Cloisters, in the
Albert Sloman library on Monday. Jules Lubbock, professor of Art
History, is leading a campaign to have the library listed, which
would protect it from demolition. According to Lubbock, listing the
Cloisters would mean a “major example of Sixties architecture would
be secured”.
Essex County Standard
Building Design Online
Study finds nearly two thirds of
parents never look at books with their babies
Nearly two thirds of parents never look at books with their babies,
according to a new survey. The research, carried out by ICM and The
Fatherhood Institute on behalf of the reading charity, Booktrust,
found more than half of families (57 per cent) do not own a single
baby book until they receive their first free packs from Bookstart.
Professor Yvonne Kelly of the Institute for Social & Economic
Research (ISER), University of Essex, said: “'Bookstart is a key
initiative in getting books into homes and encouraging parents and
carers to share books, stories and rhymes from birth which can make
a significant difference to outcomes later in life for a child.”
Daynurseries.co.uk
Thursday 14 June
The Times Good University Guide 2013
The University of Essex has been placed 40th in the UK
university rankings.
The Times
Opening doors for tomorrow's hoteliers
Wendy Brading writes a feature about Wivenhoe House, the 18th
century country house offering indulgence, quality and opportunity.
Colchester Gazette
Philosopher presents his ideas on
Radio 3
PhD student Timothy Secret from the School of Philosophy has been
selected as one of ten New Generation Thinkers by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council and the BBC.
Colchester Gazette
University of Essex open day
The University of Essex is expecting to welcome around
3,000 visitors to its undergraduate open day at its Colchester
campus on 16 June.
East Anglian Daily Times
Colchester Gazette
We're still running, despite phone
issues
A taxi firm is desperately reassuring passengers it is
still running after a fault left it without phone lines for two
weeks. One driver said it is the first time in nine years he had not
taken any fares to the University of Essex Summer Ball.
Colchester Gazette
Money still
“buys”
you
gold at the Olympics
Recent research shows that for a variety
of reasons, poorer countries tend to win fewer medals in the
Olympics, with a direct correlation between performance and economic
well- being, particularly national infrastructure and social
services. The report, by researchers at
the Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (IDCR) at the
University of Essex, analysed the ranking of countries on the UNDP’s
Human Development Index and the number of medals handed out at the
2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
Inter Press Service
How exercising
outdoors
can
boost
your
workout
Combining nature and physical activity—a phenomenon called "green
exercise" by researchers at the University of Essex in
England—produces a positive effect on physical and emotional health.
Green exercise has been shown to significantly improve self-esteem
and mood, reduce blood pressure and burn calories.
HealthyWomen.org
The complex
history
and science
of doping
The return of the Olympics means that we'll get to enjoy
some of those weird and delightful summer sports stuff like archery,
handball, and synchronized swimming. Unfortunately, it also means
the return of a thorny and frustrating subject: doping. In
'Run, Swim, Throw, Cheat',
Chris Cooper, a professor of biochemistry at the University of
Essex, provides an extraordinarily thorough account of the history
and science of drugs in sports.
Boston.com
Wednesday 13 June
Essex philosopher chosen by AHRC and BBC Radio 3 as
New Generation Thinker
Graduate student Timothy Secret from the School of Philosophy and
Art History is among 10 academics chosen by the Arts and Humanities
Research Council (AHRC) and BBC Radio 3 as a New Generation Thinker
2012.
www.bbc.co.uk
www.telegraph.co.uk/
Labour's effort to cut child poverty was
exceptional
There is no doubt that there is a close link between the increases
in financial support for families with children over the past decade
and the fall in child poverty.
Professor Mike Brewer from Institute for Social and
Economic Research discusses Labour’s record on child poverty.
Read full
article.
The Guardian
Professors protest over
staircase demolition
The demolition of a staircase and entrance corridor as part of
enabling work ahead of the construction of the extension to the
Albert Sloman Library is being opposed. The University announced
this week that preparatory work was starting for the £21 million
library extension and Student Centre building.
Colchester Gazette
Building Design
(Please note an announcement about the
works was sent to staff and students on Monday. If you did not
receive this e-mail please contact the Communications Office by
e-mail at: comms@essex.ac.uk)
Nearly two
thirds of
parents not
reading with
their babies
at seven
months
Professor Yvonne Kelly, from the Institute for Social & Economic
Research (ISER), comments on the importance of reading to
young children: “Bookstart is a key initiative in getting books into
homes and encouraging parents and carers to share books, stories and
rhymes from birth which can make a significant difference to
outcomes later in life for a child.”
Booktrade
Tuesday 12 June
Ambassador meets students on uni visit
His Excellency Dr Ion Jinga, Romanian Ambassador to the UK met
students from Romania during a visit to the University of Essex. He
also met academics working on research projects linked to Romania.
Colchester Gazette
Students raise cash
Students from the University of Essex collected almost £170 for
charity. Five students shook tins in Colchester town centre and
collected £167.79 for Barnado's.
Colchester Gazette
Challenge to SEN legal barriers
Children with special educational needs face limitations in
accessing justice, but this could soon be addressed by proposed
changes to education law, says Tom Farrell, education law adviser at
Coram Children's Legal Centre.
Children and Young People Now
The evolutionary origins of optimism
Positive feeling evolved to make us do critical tasks -- but new
findings suggest it can also help us live longer.
Read an excerpt from “Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain:
How to Retrain Your Brain to Overcome Pessimism and Achieve a More
Positive Outlook” by Elaine Fox.
www.salon.com
2012's Best New Writers make Festival appearance
alongside Marina Warner, Richard Bean and UK's biggest publishers
The Festival is delighted to welcome Marina Warner. Since 2004 she
has been a professor in the Department of Literature, Film and
Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. She has been visiting
professor at NYU Abu Dhabi from January 2012. She gave the
BBC’s Reith
Lectures in 1994 and has been short-listed for the Booker Prize.
In her York Festival of Ideas talk, Marina Warner will explore some
of the magical powers ascribed to literature in the Arabian Nights
based on her forthcoming book, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and
the Arabian Nights.
University of York
Monday 11 June
Contested Games: Mexico 68s design revolution
1968: a year of worldwide social unrest, upheaval and protest was
also the year of Olympic Games in Mexico. The first
'nonwestern'
country ever to host the Olympics, Lance Wyman's
landmark designs for Mexico 68 have since entered the history books.
By exploring both official and student design, this exhibition
reveals what is at stake when a country hosts the Olympics, and what
happens in the gap between the universal values that the Games
represents and the local realities faced in the host country.
At the Art Exchange, University of Essex.
Halstead Gazette
Essex County Standard
Harwich and Manningtree Standard
Clacton, Frinton and Walton Gazette
Brentwood Weekly News
Halstead Gazette
Maldon and Burnham Standard
Chelmsford Weekly News
Thurrock Gazette
Braintree and Witham Times
Threatened home opens its doors
An under threat care home opened its doors
to the public this weekend. Joyce Brooks House, in Oxford Road,
Colchester is set to be closed by Colchester Borough Council as part
of a plan to fund other housing schemes across the borough. But as
part of arguments against the plan the sheltered home opened for a
day to give local residents a chance look around. The day also
included an exhibition of resident artist Roy Cleary's paintings and
photographs, and a video viewing of the Essex University drama
students play about the planned closure.
Essex County Standard
Colchester Gazette
Sunday 10 June
More is less when it falls below expectation
Getting more money may
not make you happier, especially if you are a neurotic, as a salary
hike may be viewed as a failure if it is not as much as you
expected. Eugenio Proto, CAGE (Centre for
Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy) economist at the
University of Warwick, looked at how personality traits can affect
the way we feel about our income in terms of levels of life
satisfaction. Proto who will be presenting
the research at next month's Economic and Social Research Council
(ESRC) Research Methods Festival, used data from the British
Household Panel Survey and the German Socio-Economic Panel.
The Guardian
and over
60 news outlets worldwide
Saturday 9 June
Woman and
Children among
victims
of Deraa
attacks
A YouGov survey for the University
of Essex and Georgia State University showed less than 20% of UK and
US citizens support sending troops to the country. Essex
University's Dr Thomas Scotto said attitudes could change: “Events
are moving quickly and new reports of atrocities may have an impact
on public attitudes. People may be swayed by coverage showing women
and children being killed. “Nonetheless, our survey suggests that
opposition to using military force on the ground will remain high in
both Britain and America.”
Huffington Post
Friday 8 June
A bit of Harry Potter magic to grace graduation
While he's already graduated with a degree in magical film-know-how,
Harry Potter director David Yates will be taking home an honorary
degree from the University of Essex this
summer too. Yates directed the last four Harry Potter films, the
darkest of the franchise, and will be honoured alongside seven other
esteemed alumni and honorary graduates in July.
Harlow Star
Diplomat chats to students
Romanian students at the University of Essex have welcomed their
country’s ambassador to Colchester. Dr Ion Jinga met with
undergraduates to learn about their volunteer projects organised
through the Students’ Union, including one which saw them visit high
schools in Romania to advise youngsters on studying in the UK and at
Essex. There are currently 305 students from Romania based in Essex,
which is one of their most popular university destinations.
East Anglian Daily Times
Firstsite restaurant closes in the evenings
The restaurant at Colchester’s Firstsite arts gallery has stopped
serving food in the evenings. After experimenting with later opening
times the gallery’s ‘Musa Restaurant’, run by University of Essex’s
catering team, will no longer offer meals on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday nights. Musa remains open for breakfast, lunch, snacks and
drinks during the day. Essex County Standard
Thursday 7 June
Money Still "Buys" You Gold at the Olympics
The Olympic
Games are widely viewed as a chance for countries to showcase their
fastest, strongest, most skilled and disciplined athletes, a time
when political, economic and cultural differences are set aside and
individuals are judged on personal merit alone.
But the reality is often quite different. When athletes from
around the world gather in London this summer for the 2012 Games,
they won't be competing on a level playing field. Not surprisingly,
a recent by
researchers at the Institute for Democracy and Conflict Resolution
(IDCR) at the University of Essex shows that for a variety of
reasons, poorer countries tend to win fewer medals in the Olympics,
with a direct correlation between performance and economic well-
being, particularly national infrastructure and social services.
Read
the article
here.
Interpress Service
Essex University to honour director of Harry Potter movies
A
director who shot four Harry Potter films will receive an honorary
degree from Essex University. David Yates directed the last four
films in the franchise and won a Bafta for the final movie in the
series. Mr Yates, who graduated from the university’s Colchester
campus in 1987 with a BA in Government, will join more than 2,600
students who graduate from July 17-20. The director and producer,
originally from Merseyside, directed his first short film When I was
A Girl in 1988. He said he was first inspired to go into film after
watching Steven Spielberg classic Jaws.
Gazette
Essex County Standard
Cycle race comes
to Colchester
Cycle racing comes to the streets of Colchester today as riders in
the Halfords Tour Series return to the town for the third year.
Councillor Anne Turrell, Leader of Colchester Borough Council, said:
"We
are thrilled to once again host this fantastic free event in
partnership with Essex County Council, the University of Essex and
Colchester Institute.” The races will be shown on ITV4 tomorrow.
Read the article
here.
itv.com
Students join protest
Students from Essex
University took part in a latter campaign supporting protests in
Canada. Protest letters were sent by 50 students to the Canadian
High Commission in London in a mass mailing on Friday. They were
campaigning against alleged police repression towards student-led
tuition fees and anti-cuts demonstrations in Quebec over the past
month.
Gazette
Wednesday 6 June
Teatime with
Rachel set to be bags of fun
Rachel Snider is
so excited to be back at the University of Essex, she’s making
everyone a cup of tea. The cuppa actually forms part of her show,
Camellia and the Rabbit, a performance piece at the Lakeside
Theatre Café, exploring the former University of Essex student’s
relationship with tea. The performance takes place tomorrow at
4.30pm and although it is free, booking is advised on 01206 873288.
Gazette
Happiness in
Marriage linked to balance
and stability in
life
Married people are more likely to be happier in the long run when
compared to their single counterparts, according to U.S. scientists
from Michigan State University. The researchers based their findings
on an analysis of data from the British Household Panel Survey based
at the University of Essex.
eNotAlone.com
Monday 4 June
Earth Is Our Business
Legal campaigner Polly Higgins from explains how a law on ecocide
would work and discusses the Restorative Justice hearing hosted in
March this year by the Institute for Democracy and Conflict
Resolution at the University of Essex. The hearing was part of a
mock post-trial sentence where the principles were explored and top
experts road tested the process. The event was live-streamed and was
open to the public.The Q and A article is based on her new book
Earth is our Business: Changing the Rules of the Game, to be
published by Shepheard-Walwyn (publishers) Ltd on June 25 2012. Read
the article
here.
Guardian.co.uk
Sunday 3 June
The largest ever study to examine the effects of altering carbon
dioxide (CO2) levels in real world seawater samples directly after
they are collected at sea, is underway. The research is part of the
UK Ocean Acidification Research Programme (UKOA), funded by the
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Department of
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department of
Energy and Climate Change (DECC). During the expedition, the
scientists will study the impact of the changing chemistry on marine
organisms and ecosystems, the cycling of carbon and nutrients in the
sea and how the sea interacts with the atmosphere to influence
climate. The scientists, from eight laboratories, will be collecting
seawater samples from both the open water and gaps in the sea-ice in
the Norwegian, Barents and Greenland Seas. The participating
universities and marine research centres are: British Antarctic
Survey, (BAS); Marine Biological Association (MBA); National
Oceanography Centre, Southampton (NOCS); University of Southampton;
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML); Scottish Association for Marine
Science (SAMS); University College London (UCL); University of
Essex. Web Newswire
Saturday 2 June
New building for South Essex
College
Plans for a new £30 million campus to be built in Basildon town
centre were unveiled yesterday. The plans
and artists impressions for the new campus for South Essex College,
one of the University’s partner institutions, went on display for
the first time in the Eastgate Shopping Centre yesterday. If the
Basildon campus, currently in Nethermayne, is moved, it would be
built on the site of Basildon market with the market moving to St
Martin’s Square, near the Basildon Centre. The plans would also see
homes built on the college site and Dry Street to help fund the
move.
Basildon Echo
Friday 1 June
The Japanese ambassador to the UK is on a two-day tour of Suffolk as
part of a campaign to promote the county in the run-up to the
Olympics. Ambassador Keiichi Hayashi began his visit in Ipswich at
University Campus Suffolk, a joint venture between the University of
East Anglia and the University of Essex, where he viewed its
regenerative medicine laboratories and opportunities for economic
growth from primary research.
East Anglian Daily Times
Universities’ accolade
Two East Anglian universities have been handed a major boost after
being named among the world’s best new institutions. The University
of Essex and the University of East Anglia both made it into the top
20 global universities under 50 years old. The list, compiled by
The Times, saw a strong show from the UK, which had five
universities in the world’s top 20. Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor
of the Univresity of Essex, which was 20th, said: “As our
50th anniversary approaches in 2014, we are proud of
creating a university that has worldwide impact and has built an
international reputation for the quality of our research and
teaching across many fields”. Read the article
here.
East Anglian Daily Times
Plus 58 other media outlets
'Green exercise'
ust five minutes of 'green exercise' reduces stress levels
and boosts our self-esteem according to researchers from the
University of Essex.
Essentials magazine
Pair’s cycle trek nears Land’s End
A University of Essex student is pedalling towards a £2,000
fundraising target by cycling from O’Groats to Land’s End. Natalie
Cox, who is taking a masters in physiotherapy, is approaching her 11
day, 1,000 mile challenge for the Army Benevolent Fund.
Colchester Gazette
Thursday 31 May
Young guns go for it: East Asia and UK
dominate next-generation list
The THE 100 Under 50 offers an insight into which institutions may
be future world leaders. The UK takes five places in the top 20 and
the University of Essex is placed 20th. Read the article
here.
Times Higher Education
UK has most top Universities under the age of 50
The UK has the most universities of any country in a list of the
world's best higher educations establishments under the age of 50.
The University of York, Lancaster University and University of East
Anglia come in at eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively in the
inaugural Times Higher Education (THE) 100 under 50. Seventeen other
UK universities make it onto the 100 list, which are Warwick, Essex
(20th), Brunel, Bath, Stirling, Surrey, Plymouth, Keele,
Hertfordshire, Loughborough, Strathclyde, Heriot-Watt, Liverpool
John Moores, Kent, Aston, Bradford and City University London.
ITV
Easier being green when there's a
bottom-line gain
Institutions emitted less carbon dioxide, recycled
more waste and audited their environmental impact more in 2010-11,
according to the figures. Professor Jules Pretty from the University
of Essex said "Energy costs have gone up so dramatically that
there's no better way to make money [by cutting energy use] ...if
you have got the capital in the first place".
Times Higher Education
When the Queen came to visit north Essex
The Colchester Gazette has done a feature on the
Queen's visits to north Essex and mentions her visits to the
University of Essex in May 1985 and November 2004.
Colchester Gazette
Foreign student curbs
Sir Bob Russell MP writes to The Telegraph to say that the
Coalition would be foolish to curb the number of foreign students
coming to this country to study. He says local
economies will be affected if the Government proceeds with its cap
on overseas students. The University of Essex and a long-established
English language college in Colchester cater for a considerable
number of overseas students, who boost the area’s economy and
support a lot of jobs. Read his letter
here.
The Telegraph
Does Marriage Really Make You Happier?
Marriage may not make people happier than when they were single but
the practice may serve some purpose in stabilizing any emotional
decline. In a new study, marriage was shown to help offset any
decrease in happiness and may act more like a stabilizing agent for
happiness. The research was led by Stevie C.Y. Yap, PhD candidate,
from the Michigan State University. Researchers collected data from
an ongoing nationally representative British Household Panel Survey
to determine the effects of personality traits on major life events
such as marriage, childbirth, unemployment and widowhood.
Medical Daily
Wednesday 30 May
E15 community theatre students' life stories...
East 15 students will join forces with the local community
for their latest project working with 21 local people with little or
no acting experience.
Southend Echo
How the creatives behind that John Lewis ad sold for a
fortune
University of Essex graduate, James Murphy, Chief
Executive of the Adam & Eve Advertising Agency has
just sold their advertising agency for around £55
million, only four years after setting it up.
Read the article
here.
TMCnet.com
Individual.com
Last year’s winners in East Anglian Book Awards
Last year's winner in the Place and Nature
category was 'This Luminous Coast'
by Jules Pretty. An account of a
year spent walking and sailing along 500 miles of imperilled East
Anglian coastline. Category judge David
North said: “I enjoyed this book immensely, learning new things
about some very familiar and much-loved places.”
Dereham Times
Watton and Swaffham Times
Can you train yourself to be an optimist?
Cognitive psychologist Elaine Fox from the University of Essex, UK,
explores the ways in which we can retrain our brains to view the
world with a positive outlook in her book Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain.
New Scientist asked her why some people see the glass as half empty,
and what techniques science offers us to change that perspective.
New Scientist
Watching Cathy Freeman win gold will live with me forever
Most Olympians would select their own
participation as their favourite ever moment in the Games – but not
Southend’s former sprinter Sarah Jolley. Under her maiden name of
Wilhelmy, she competed in the 4x100m relay at the Sydney Games in
2000. After that, Sarah completed a degree at the
University of Essex and it was during that time she met her
now husband Steve. They married in 2005 and have three children –
Emma, six, Ben, five and Jessica, two.
This is Local London
and featured in over 26 other local news outlets across the country
Essex professor finds film star's happy gene
A Hollywood star met an Essex University professor after reading her
research on the science of being positive. Back to the Future star
and Parkinson's sufferer Michael J Fox featured Professor Elaine
Fox's work in a US TV documentary. Elaine was flown out to New York
to take part in his ABC show, the Adventures of an Incurable
Optimist. She discussed her findings, which will be published in a
book in June, called
Rainy Brain Sunny Brain.
Elaine said: "It was fantastic to take part in the programme, which
showed Michael had the variation of the gene we have shown is linked
to a tendency to look on the bright side of life. The interest in
this work has been fantastic. I think it's crucial to try to use
these opportunities to communicate research as widely as possible."
Colchester Gazette
Robotic
Fish Gearing Up to Patrol Great Lakes
Hot on the heels of an
announcement detailing the first deployment of a robotic fish in
European waters, an engineering professor at Michigan State
University (MSU) has developed his own aquatic automaton.
Both fish will monitor the waters
they’re deployed in for pollution and other potential issues with
slight variations.
Scientists at the
University of Essex recently deployed a robotic fish in Spain that
does everything the MSU-made robo-fish does and then some.
Outdoor Hub
Nationals approach for History Day
documentary duo
The Brookfield
Central High School documentary team of Natalie Mathes and Hayley
Gray-Hoehn will compete in the National History Day competition June
10 through June 14 at the University of Maryland in College Park,
Md.
Working with the theme of "Revolution,
Reaction, Reform in History," Mathes and Gray-Hoehn produced a
documentary film titled "We are Women, Hear Us Roar." The focus is
on the revolutionary 1968 Dagenham Ford strike in England and the
subsequent Equal Pay Act. They interviewed two of the surviving
strikers and a University of Essex professor.
You're all invited to uni's fairytale ball
Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw heads a
chart-topping line-up at Essex University's summer ball. The TV and
radio presenter is the headline act on the bill, which includes
rapper Lethal Bizzle, two members of indie band the Libertines, who
will be DJ-ing, and dance punk group Hadouken. Tickets for the event
on Saturday, June 9, from 9pm to 5.30am, cost £50 for non-students.
Colchester Gazette
Essex County Standard
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