News
UKDA to host new Census Registration Service
The UK Data Archive has been awarded a contract to host a new central
registration service for the census products emanating from the 2001 UK
census. Just under £500,000 has been awarded to the UKDA under the new
2001 Census Programme, jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research
Council (ESRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) to run
the service over five years. The development work on the new registration
service will start with the appointment of the co-ordinator, Lucy Bell,
who will be joining the University from the King's Fund, in October.
The award will provide for a One Stop Census Access and Registration
service (OSCAR, for short) for UK Higher and Further Education. The key
feature of the new service will be an integrated, seamless, user-friendly
one-stop registration system for access to all the varied census resources
from the 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 decennial censuses. Registration for
the various census products and materials will be provided using a
flexible on-line web-based user interface, whilst still maintaining the
access controls and authentication required by the participating Census
Offices.
Other service and data providers within the 2001 census programme
include EDINA, University of Edinburgh; the School of Geography,
University of Leeds; and MIMAS and the Cathy Marsh Centre, both at the
University of Manchester.
Gold Award for Writtle College gardens
The grounds and gardens at Writtle College have received a prestigious
gold award from Chelmsford Borough Council Environment Group.
The Cathie Carlile Gold Award was presented to the College in
recognition of the extremely high standards of tidiness throughout the
grounds. The award also acknowledged the continuous efforts of the Amenity
Landscape Department who have built up a significant plant collection at
the College, and enhanced the overall work place environment with the
creation of new gardens.
Awards for E15 students
Three students from E15 have all recently benefited from different
awards. Third year student Corinna Cunningham received the prestigious
Renaissance Award from the Ulster Association of Youth Drama. The award of
£1,000 will go towards the cost of her final year of study on the BA
Acting scheme.
Second year students Joanna Sharples and Iain Tidbury won the Lilian
Baylis and Henry Cotton Awards 2001 respectively.
Bright appointment
A former student from South East Essex College has been appointed as
Head of Television Services for the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation -
the Zimbabwe equivalent of the BBC. Bright Montonga was part of the first
chohort of students at SEEC to study for the Media and Production degree.
Bright completed his degree in 1998 with a 2:2 and gained valuable work
experience at the BBC during his final year of study. His new job will
mean that he has responsibility for ZBC1 and 2 - the two main TV channels
in Zimbabwe. The TV station is being completely relaunched and he will
play a major part in making this a success.
A tree planting ceremony was held on campus last month to
commemorate the life of popular Language Studies graduate Steve Robarts
who died from cancer in May.
Staff from the Department of Language and Linguistics, former students
who were special friends of Steve's and members of his family gathered to
plant the tulip tree in memory of the happy time he had spent at Essex.
Vice-Chancellor Ivor Crewe gave an address, to which Steve's widow
Saillie Robarts responded.
Former Army Sergeant Steve Robarts was a popular mature student at
Essex from 1996 to 1999. He was always ready to help students of all ages.
He related well to his tutors, and often assisted younger students in
class by asking the questions they were too shy to ask.
When taking a break from his studies, Steve would station himself in
the Language and Linguistics Common Room and converse with all and sundry.
He also played a prominent part in voluntary student study-groups to
discuss problems relating to the subject matter of various courses.
In his second year at Essex, Steve was diagnosed with cancer, but
underwent a major operation in the expectation of being cured. He
persevered with his studies and graduated with a BA 2.1. Honours in
Language Studies.
He then pursued his long-standing ambition to enter teacher training,
but, sadly, the cancer returned, and though he put up a courageous
struggle, he died in May, aged 50. Just prior to his death, he expressed
the wish for a tree to be planted for him on campus and for some of his
ashes to be buried beneath it.
Also in the printed November edition of Wyvern:
- VCH publicises 10th volume
- Murray spurs on Atlantic rowers
- Students get into Red
