Manchester Tops University Popularity League 2 Unilife
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The free magazine for The University of Manchester UniLife 7th March 2005 Volume 2 Issue 10 Manchester Tops University Popularity League 2 UniLife NewsDigest A summary of the key news in this issue of UniLife: Contents 3 Manchester Tops University The University of Manchester is the UK’s Popularity League most popular university, according to new figures from the Universities Central 4 News 3 Admissions Service, having received almost 57,000 home and overseas applications for undergraduate courses 12 Research since October 2004. 14 All Aboard for New Bus Service 16 Planning and Accountability Conference The University has launched a new office on Southampton Street in London, which 19 People 9 can be used by members of staff visiting the capital on University-related business. 20 In The Community 21 Students 22 What’s On The secrets of a 2,500 year old mummy 24 Seminars 11 are being unlocked at the Centre for Biomedical Egyptology. 25 Seminars/Noticeboard 26 Classified Ads 28 Just the Job Next week sees the launch of a new bus service between Piccadilly train station 14 and the University campus – which Front cover photo by Paul Cliff should ease the journey to work for many members of staff. A group of schoolchildren from Saddleworth paid a visit to the School of 20 Chemistry to find out more about University life. UniLife 3 Manchester Tops University Popularity League The University of Manchester is the UK’s most popular university, according to figures released by the Universities Central Admissions Service (UCAS). The University received almost 57,000 Delyth Chambers, Director of Student these in comparison to last year due to home and overseas applications for Recruitment and Admissions, said: the merger. In light of this, the overall undergraduate courses between October “The University has an excellent performance of the University is 2004 and 15 January 2005. This marks an reputation for teaching and research and especially positive.” overall increase of 2.3% on the previous offers a wider range of subjects than any One of the most dramatic increases in year, and confirms the new institution as other single-site British university. the country’s premier destination for Students are aware of its great reputation applications was in Electrical Engineering, would-be students. and want to come here to take part in the which saw a 21% increase in interest The figures are all the more pleasing as Manchester experience. despite a fall nationally of 8%. The figures also show applications to nursing research has shown that other “The two legacy institutions shared universities which have undergone a approximately 3,000 undergraduate and social work have increased merger have experienced a drop in applicants each year, and so we would dramatically at the University, mirroring a applications. have expected to have lost a number of national trend. 4 UniLife News Lord Sainsbury Visit The Incubator Building and Core Technology Facility (CTF) construction site on Grafton Street received some notable visitors last month. Brian Gray, Chairman of the North West Chancellor Professor Alan Gilbert joined Development Agency, visited the them in the latter part of discussions. Incubator for a guided tour and meeting with representatives from tenants The group was then joined by Lord Renovo, Epistem and DXS Ltd. He was Sainsbury, who originally opened the able to see how the CTF will provide Incubator Building, Sir Tom McKillop (Chief grow-on space for current tenants of the Executive of Astra Zeneca) and Professor Incubator, as well as freeing up Richard Lambert of Cambridge University, accommodation for new tenants. during a break from the Conference ‘Competing in a Global Economy’ at the Mr Gray also met Professors Larry Manchester Conference Centre. Gifford and Ken Douglas from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical The group was updated on progress Sciences, and discussed their plans for a being made towards a CTF completion Medicines Institute and Medicinal date of October 2005, with fit-out of the Chemistry Steering group for the region. new facility scheduled to be completed Vice Chancellor and President and Vice- by January 2006. www.umic.co.uk University to Host Networkshop 33 Networkshop is an annual event Networkshop will be hosted here at the will be a conference dinner on the organised by UKERNA, the UK Education University, underlining Manchester’s role famous Orient Express, as it travels and Research Networking Association at the heart of UK networking through the Welsh countryside. which manages and develops high-speed developments and the rise of the As part of the conference programme, education and research network JANET. It University as a venue of choice for major staff from Manchester Computing will be is aimed at network managers and national conferences. speaking on location-independent technical staff from the JANET The conference will be attended by networking (LIN), Manchester having community, and provides the primary more than 300 delegates, allowing IT been a proof-of-concept site in trials of forum for discussion of the latest staff facing similar challenges to the forthcoming LIN service. Other topics developments in Higher Education (HE) discussed will include SuperJANET 5 (the compare approaches and solutions. It data networks. next incarnation of the national will also provide opportunities to backbone network), wireless networking, The conference brings together expertise discuss collaborative endeavours, meet and network security. from all the fields of networking, and is suppliers and – when the technical held at a different HE institution each sessions are over – relax among peers. For more information about the conference year. On the 22 - 24 March, the 33rd The focus of this year’s social activities please visit the addresses below. http://www.ja.net/conferences/networkshop/ http://www.mc.manchester.ac.uk/ UniLife 5 News Picture This Budding David Baileys are being Everyone is welcome to enter, whether £1,000 first prize is up for grabs. Entries you’re a scientist, artist, student or will be assessed by a panel of judges urged to enter this year’s Visions photographer. All you have to do is including Bob Bodman, the Picture Editor of Science Photography Awards, produce a photographic image that stops of The Daily Telegraph and TV science people in their tracks, and makes them presenter Dr Adam Hart-Davis. which are being run by Novartis think about science or nature in a and The Daily Telegraph. different way. For further details and to get hold of an entry form please contact the award The competition features five different categories – action, close-up, people, organisers on 020 7613 5577, or e-mail at concepts and science as art - and in each a [email protected]. The closing date for entries is 6 May 2005. www.visions-of-science.co.uk The Materials Performance Centre PERFECT (MPC) hosted the second meeting of its ‘PERFECT’ project at the Manchester Conference Centre in Partners January. perform the first ‘European collective’ component analysis exercise. It also aims to educate young researchers about the degradation mechanisms of materials. The meeting was attended by over 100 leading materials, engineering and corrosion specialists from 12 European countries. It was followed by a BNFL NSTS-sponsored dinner, which was attended by NSTS Business Manager Tom Rice, materials specialists from MPC and NSTS and over 70 PERFECT partners. The MPC will in turn provide a contribution-in-kind to PERFECT, in the The MPC is an interdisciplinary research PERFECT is a four-year European form of new experimental approaches centre drawing together expertise from the Commission Framework Six project, to and multi-scale models of constraint, Corrosion and Protection Centre, Materials investigating the prediction of residual stress and irradiation effects on Science Centre and the Nuclear Graphite irradiation damage effects in nuclear the cleavage fracture behaviour of Research Group in the Faculty of Engineering reactor components using new ferritic materials. and Physical Sciences. It was set up as a materials data and mechanistic models. research alliance with BNFL to address For more information on the project materials performance issues across the The project aims to disseminate these please contact Andrew Sherry, Director chemical, process and power industries, in new tools across the industry in Europe to of the MPC, at areas including corrosion, structural integrity, complement previous and current [email protected]. graphite, zirconium and modelling. international projects, and use them to http://www.materials.manchester.ac.uk/mpc/ 6 UniLife News Responding to War Through Theatre The University’s Centre for Applied presentations from international guests Theatre Research is to host ‘In Place of and a performance by refugee artists War’ - a major international seminar for based in Manchester. global theatre practitioners. The seminar will facilitate in depth and provocative James Thompson, Professor of Applied discussions about theatre practice in and Social Theatre, commented: “We’re places of war, and takes place on 8 and 9 in the process of making contact with April in the Martin Harris Building. practitioners across the world to try to The event will bring together more than map performance projects that have 30 theatre practitioners from as far afield taken place in war or post-war settings as Palestine, Columbia, Iraq, Kosovo, since 1990, including artist, community Rwanda, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the US and social agency-led initiatives. and the UK. They will meet for two days to share examples of practice, and discuss “The seminar, the first of its kind, will how artists and communities affected by allow people who generally work in conflict can respond through theatre. isolation to come together to discuss The seminar will incorporate practical practical ideas for performance, as well workshops, small group discussions and as giving them an opportunity to short presentations from practitioners.