December 2010 - University of Worcester

NEWSEnvironment Students GainHands-On Experience withInternationalConsultancyFirmBullyingsucks!Thursday 18th November saw the returnof the “Bullying sucks!” campaign. Thecampaign was run by the StudentExperience team in Student services.The campaign was a fantastic success! Close to1000 badges and 600 lollipops were given outto both students and staff throughout the day,with badges being available at various pick uppoints around the University. There was a lot ofinterest in the campaign, as many students andstaff expressed their own experiences of bullying.Please continue to wear your badges allyear round to show your support. Bullyingcan happen to anyone at any time, andwe need to show bullies that they are nottolerated at the University of Worcester!SLR Consulting, one of the UK’sfastest growing environmentalconsultancies, moved theirregional office to Worcesterearlier this year, where the UKecology team is headed up byTechnical Director Mike Webb.Mike graduated from theUniversity of Worcester in 1991with a BSc (Hons) in BiologicalScience. “I always kept in touchwith my old ecology lecturer,Peter Alma, and following theCompany’s move to Worcester I sought opportunities to make stronger links with theUniversity science department,” he said.In the summer Mike invited several ecology students to assist SLR’s ecology team withongoing project work, which included bat surveys and dormouse surveys.Mike said: “The students, who gained valuable insight into the role of a professionalecologist, were paid the industry rate for their time and received relevant training.”Professor John Newbury, Head of the Institute of Science and the Environment, added:“The collaboration with SLR provides an excellent opportunity for students to gain real lifeexperience in monitoring the environment and putting into practice the skills that they areacquiring through our environmental courses. It will contribute to the high employabilityscores that University of Worcester students already obtain in national surveys.”Library Reviewto reviewWorcester Libraryand HistoryCentreILS staff members Dr Judith Keene and Roger Fairman have received confirmation thattheir article “Building an integrated work force through shared values: the WorcesterLibrary and History Centre” has been accepted by the peer reviewed journal ‘LibraryReview’, and will appear in Volume 60(3) in April 2011.University Community Development WorkersRobyn Andrews and Siobhan PerryThe article describes the need to integrate staff from the services who will be workingtogether in the WLHC. Staff workshops aimed at producing agreed core values wereused as a way of starting the process of integration and engaging all staff with the visionof the new library. The decision to focus on core values and to actively involve staff intheir development is explained with reference to other work on vision and values. Theformat of the workshops is described, and an overview given of the qualitative andquantitative feedback from staff at the workshops, which was used to assess the successof the approach and inform future work, which is briefly outlined. Roger and Judith areplanning to follow this article up with a longitudinal study to assess the impact andeffectiveness of the integration programme.6 / DECEMBER 2010 / newsandviews@worc.ac.uk