UNIversethe magazine of Teesside University Issue 67 Autumn 10

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Pictured on the front cover, Centuria South.

UNIverseUNIverse is produced by Teesside University’sMarketing & Student Recruitment Departmentat Teesside University, Middlesbrough, Tees ValleyTS1 3BA.

Although we are experiencing tougheconomic times, it is clear that thecombination of the outstanding progresswhich we have made in recent years and theflexibility, maturity and resilience acquiredthroughout our 80-year existence has meantthat we have been able to remain confidentand financially strong, despite the adverseeffects of the global recession.

And, as a result, the University is, at least inpart, responding to the effects of therecession by seeking to further expand anddiversify our activities, and hence our income.We have seen a number of significant recentsuccesses in relation to further funded growthof our UK student numbers, expansion of ourinternational activity and a step change incommercial income from our businessengagement and knowledge transferactivities. On the other hand, we are notbeing complacent and we are, as you wouldexpect, continuing to look at ways ofbecoming an even more effective and

efficient institution going forward, whilstretaining a very sharp focus on continuing to respond to changing needs in the localand regional economy.

And, the success of our financial strategy,which sees us retaining our position as one of the most financially stable institutions in the university sector, has succeeded ingenerating the financial surpluses necessary to enable us to continue to invest in theUniversity’s estate and infrastructure for thebenefit of our students, partners and staff.

This ongoing investment is an importantmanifestation of institutional confidencewhich has recently seen £17m invested in the new Centuria South building (for dentaltraining and sports therapy), £3.5m in twonew higher education centres in Hartlepooland Redcar & Cleveland, £13m invested inour new Darlington campus, which is set toopen in a year’s time, and design work isunderway for a further £18m new building onthe University’s campus in Middlesbrough.

These new developments will not only see theUniversity having a significantly enhancedcampus in Middlesbrough, and an embryonicnew campus in Darlington, but will also moveus to a position where the University will have a University centre in all of the general FEcolleges across the five Teesside boroughs.This is an important milestone in the pursuit of our aim of making higher education easilyaccessible to everyone within the Tees Valley,North Yorkshire and South Durham.

These developments, and the results of our recent audit from the Quality AssuranceAgency (QAA), highlighted elsewhere in thisedition of UNIverse, give us confidence in theUniversity’s future and, despite the obvious,and growing, challenges ahead, we believe we can, and will, go forward to even greatersuccess in the future.

Professor Graham HendersonVice-Chancellor and Chief Executive

As the University celebrates its 80thbirthday this summer and we draw to the end of our period as nationalUniversity of the Year, an accoladeawarded to us by the Times Highermagazine, I would like to reflect backon our continuing success as aninstitution, despite the difficulteconomic environment in whichhigher education currently operates.

News items should be sent to UNIverse,c/o Press and PublicRelations Office, Teesside University by 26 November 2010.

Email pr@tees.ac.uk

Welcome

the magazine of Teesside University

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New Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Teesside Professor Eileen Martin is TeessideUniversity’s new Deputy Vice-Chancellor(Development). Professor Martin is oneof the University’s three Deputy Vice-Chancellors and her diverse roleincludes responsibility for developingthe University’s academic portfolio and the further development of theUniversity’s collaborative local andregional partnerships. She will also lead on the University’s bursaries and scholarships, develop the lifelonglearning and student recruitmentstrategies, and oversee marketing and communications.

Professor Martin said, ‘I am absolutelydelighted with my appointment at TeessideUniversity and to be joining the University ofthe Year (2009-10) from the Times Higherwhich has very good student satisfactionratings and an excellent reputation foremployer engagement.

‘I am very much looking forward to workingwith our staff, students and many partners. Itis a time of great change in higher educationand it is essential that our academic portfolioallows us to grow and to continue to play adistinctive role in the higher educationlandscape. Similarly, our partnerships arecrucial and I relish the challenge of nurturingand deepening those partnerships and toworking with colleagues across the Universityto make our provision as relevant anddynamic as it can be.’

Professor Martin moved into health educationwith her first Tutor post at the Trafford Schoolof Nursing, the hospital where the NationalHealth Service was born; gaining her first andhigher degrees from Manchester Polytechnicas a part-time student whilst working full timeand raising her family.

Professor Martin progressed to ChiefExecutive and Principal of the LancashireCollege of Nursing and Health Studies in1992, which brought together six differentschools of nursing. Following bids fromdifferent universities, the College joined theUniversity of Central Lancashire’s Faculty ofHealth & Social Care, with Professor Martinas Dean. She also chaired the Council ofDeans for Nursing and the Allied HealthProfession, making a significant contributionto the development of policy.

She later achieved the post of Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of CentralLancashire, focusing on teaching and

learning and the student experience, UKpartnerships, corporate oversight of highereducation developments on the Burnleycampus, and responsibility for the publicaffairs agenda. Professor Martin was alsoappointed as the first Executive Chair ofWestlakes Scientific Consulting, in WestCumbria, working with the nuclear industry.

Away from work, Professor Martin has twochildren and two grandchildren, anddescribes herself as an ‘avid gardener’ withthree allotments. She is also a classical musiclover, particularly opera.

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Partners and supporters of the projectcame together to celebrate the majormove towards expanding highereducational opportunities in Darlingtonand the surrounding areas at the westend of the Tees Valley.

Among those attending the event with theVice-Chancellor Professor GrahamHenderson were John Williams, Leader ofDarlington Council and the local authority’sChief Executive Ada Burns, Jenny Chapman,MP for Darlington, Alastair Haworth, OneNorth East’s Capital Development Manager,and Darlington College Principal Tim Grant.

The completed building will cover 4,000square metres, providing a flexible andstimulating teaching environment, and also offer facilities for business short coursesand conference activity. Once opened, thebuilding will enable a significant expansion of the range of higher education courses

available in Darlington. It is being funded bythe University, with additional support fromOne North East, via Tees Valley Unlimited,and Darlington Council and is also supportedby Darlington College and Tees ValleyRegeneration.

Durham-based construction companyMorgan Sindall has been chosen to deliverthe high-quality academic building for theUniversity. A major feature of the scheme will be the creation of a ship’s fin, made out of a sub-structure of metal and a finishedelevation treatment of glazing and brickwork.Work is progressing well and the project isexpected to be completed by September2011.

Professor Graham Henderson said, ‘TheUniversity has a long history of wideningaccess to higher education within the TeesValley. The new initiative will provide animproved gateway to higher education forindividuals and employers in the west end of

the Tees Valley, South West Durham andNorth Yorkshire.

‘Darlington’s pivotal location provides us witha number of exciting new developmentopportunities, particularly in relation to ourrapidly expanding programme of work withregional and national employers. I amabsolutely delighted to see work nowunderway on such a significant project andthat so many key friends and partners fromthe town have joined us today.’

John Williams, Leader of Darlington Council,said, ‘I am delighted that Teesside Universityis coming to Darlington. Many people andorganisations, both local and regional, havecome together to make this happen. Thewhole Darlington community welcomes themand the Council will continue to work with theUniversity to help them thrive in the town.’

Jenny Chapman, new MP for Darlington,said, ‘I am so proud to see the expansion of

Darlington campus is underway

Teesside University has marked the officialstart of construction work on a £13m fivestorey, high quality, undergraduate andpostgraduate teaching building next toDarlington College.

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Teesside University in Darlington. This new building will bring exciting educationalprospects to the town, not to mentionfantastic facilities. I look forward to watchingthe building grow over the next 12 months.’

David Cramond, Director of CapitalDevelopment at One North East, said, ‘OneNorth East and our partners have adoptedCentral Park as a key site of strategicimportance to the Tees Valley and the widerregion, which will significantly enhance theregional and national profile of Darlington’.

Darlington College Principal Tim Grant said,‘We are delighted to have been able tosupport this substantial investment byTeesside University to create a further andhigher education quarter in Darlington. Welook forward to working closely with theUniversity to expand educationalopportunities for the area for many years tocome.’

As many as 3,000 full and part-time studentscould be accommodated in the building –and Professor Henderson said if the demandexisted there could eventually be a secondUniversity building on the Darlington campussite.

The new £13m building is the culmination of arange of initiatives and developments inDarlington, which began in 2007, when theUniversity opened its first higher educationcentre within a further education college atDarlington College – offering a range ofdiverse subjects including professionalmanagement and business, education,journalism and digital media.

In 2008 the University held its first graduationceremony in Darlington for students who hadachieved Teesside University awards at thehigher education centre. At this year’sgraduation 300 people, made up ofgraduates and their families, gathered for the

annual ceremony at Darlington’s DolphinCentre.

In addition to the annual graduations, theUniversity opened its own premises off TheFairway in September 2009, which delivers a range of part-time Teesside Universitycourses. A joint prospectus betweenDarlington College and the University,detailing course provision offered by the twoinstitutions in Darlington, has also beenpublished for the first time.

Pictured inset are front row from left to right: OneNorth East’s Capital Development Manager AlastairHaworth, Darlington Council’s Chief Executive AdaBurns and the authority’s leader, Councillor JohnWilliams, Darlington MP Jenny Chapman and TimGrant, Principal of Darlington College. TeessideUniversity’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor GrahamHenderson is in the back row with the JCV digger.

For more details on the Darlington campus atwww.tees.ac.uk/darlington

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Dr Simon Stobart is the new Dean of theSchool of Computing. Dr Stobart, 43,from Durham, first joined the Universityas the School’s Assistant Dean forRecruitment and Development. He said,‘To be appointed as Dean when we’reUniversity of the Year is absolutelyfantastic. I’m aiming to make the Schoolthe number one place for anyone in theworld who wants to study computing,animation and games design. TheSchool has a history of innovation andbeing at the forefront of technology, andis recognised as delivering world-leading education and research.’

Dr Stobart first gained a BA (Hons) in DataProcessing at the University of Sunderland.He remained there, initially as a ResearchAssistant and moved through variouscomputing lecturing roles, progressing to hisfinal position as a Principal Lecturer. While atSunderland he also achieved a PhD whichexamined Computer Assisted SoftwareEngineering.

After joining Teesside Dr Stobart played a keyrole in the School of Computing’sinternational developments. He added, ‘Wenow have high-quality strategic franchisepartnerships in Europe, Africa, the MiddleEast and South East Asia. To see these growand start to flourish is very pleasing.’

A duo of new Deans The University has appointed new Deans for two of itsacademic Schools.

Dr Mark Simpson is the new Dean of the School of Social Sciences &Law. The School is a very familiarenvironment for Dr Simpson, as hefirst arrived there from Yorkshire as anundergraduate student in the early1990s.

Dr Simpson, 36, from Sedgefield, said,‘When I came here as an 18-year-old Icould not have imagined that I’d end upas Dean of the School in which I wasstudying. I’m delighted with my new roleas the School has expanded hugely. It’snice to see that this growth hasn’t been atthe cost of excellence, as seen by our verypositive results in the National StudentSurvey and other external feedback, suchas OFSTED reports on our educationprovision and reports on our foundationdegrees in policing.

‘I want to see the School continue todeliver excellence at both undergraduateand postgraduate levels and to developfurther the business-facing aspects of ourwork. Through enhancing a researchculture amongst staff and students, theSchool will continue to deliver high-qualityresearch.’

Dr Simpson first achieved a BA (Hons)Politics at Teesside. He then gained a PhDin Criminology at the University, funded bythe NHS, which explored the link betweendrug use and crime.

At the same time he joined the University’steaching staff as a criminology lecturerand progressed to later roles, includingLearning and Teaching Co-ordinator andSubject Group Leader for Criminology. DrSimpson was later appointed as AssistantDean for Marketing and Recruitment in theSchool prior to his role as Dean.

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New Dean at the helm of research focal point

Professor Zulfiqur Ali is the new Dean of the University’s Graduate ResearchSchool (GRS), the focal point for allaspects of research. Its varied roleincludes research funding and projects,research degrees, and policy andstrategy.

Professor Ali, 47, from Stokesley, NorthYorkshire, said, ‘I’m excited and very pleasedto have gained this position; I was reallyattracted by the opportunity to work acrossthe whole University research community. Theresults of the 2008 Research AssessmentExercise showed that the University hassignificant amounts of world-class andinternationally excellent research work. Wenow need to build on our strengths, exploitnew opportunities and demonstrate the valueof our research.

‘It’s important that we continue to improve theefficiency and effectiveness of our researchprocesses. We also need to continue todevelop partnerships, both nationally andinternationally, with other regional universitiesand with centres of excellence within theregion, such as the Centre for ProcessInnovation.’

Last year the University launched fiveresearch Institutes, Digital Futures, Healthand Social Care, Design, Culture and theArts, Social Futures and Technology Futures.Professor Ali led the Technology FuturesInstitute before his appointment as Dean ofGRS. He added, ‘The research Institutes willbe particularly important for increasing boththe quality and quantity of research that iscarried out in the University. They will providemore of a focus for our research as well assupporting synergies between the differentdisciplines. I’m also keen that we supportresearch-informed teaching in the University’ssix schools.’

Professor Ali was born in Pakistan and grewup in Huddersfield. He achieved his firstdegree in chemistry at the former ThamesPolytechnic, followed by a PhD from theUniversity of Manchester. His first lecturingpost was in the Department of Pharmacy atthe University of Brighton, before joiningTeesside’s School of Science & Technology in1996 as a senior lecturer in chemistry. Helater progressed to the roles of reader,professor and finally Assistant Dean forResearch and Innovation.

For more information on the GRS call 01642 738033 or emailgraduateresearchschool@tees.ac.uk

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New principals in charge of the new academies

Teesside University is furthering its community involvement in its new role as lead sponsor to two new secondary academies in the Tees Valley. The academies are the ThornabyAcademy in Stockton-on-Tees and Freebrough Academy in East Cleveland. UNIverse profiles the two new principals and chief executives of the academies.

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Linda Halbert is the Principal ofFreebrough Academy. This Academy is the former Freebrough SpecialistEngineering College and theUniversity’s co-sponsors are Redcar &Cleveland Borough Council and PriorPursglove College in Guisborough, withRedcar & Cleveland College as namededucation partner.

Mrs Halbert, 50, pictured far left, is fromWashington, Tyne and Wear. She is anEducation graduate of Nottingham Universityand has nearly 30 years’ teaching andmanagement experience from secondaryschools in Sunderland, Newcastle upon Tyneand North Tyneside. Before joiningFreebrough Mrs Halbert worked as a headteacher for eight years in a Tynesidesecondary school.

Mrs Halbert said, ‘I am delighted to havebeen appointed as the Principal and ChiefExecutive of Freebrough Academy. TheAcademy will bring fantastic opportunities forstudents, staff and the community.

‘Our new specialism of Business andEnterprise, the expertise and support of our sponsors, our focus on Learning andTeaching, and the development of aninnovative curriculum will be major drivers inachieving our vision to be an outstandingschool.

‘Through our specialism I want to build lots oflinks with the University, I’m keen to work withour main sponsor, by collaborating witheducationalists. I’m also looking forward tothe opportunity of working closely with staff,students and parents to prepare for the newschool year. I’m really keen to develop groupsof students to work with other new studentsto help their induction into the new Academy.The student voice and student involvementwill be a big part of the Academy’sorganisation and development.’

Teesside University graduate MaryssaO’Connor is the Principal of the ThornabyAcademy. The Academy replaces the formerThornaby Community School and TeessideUniversity is the lead sponsor, with the co-sponsors being the consortium of StocktonSixth Form College, Stockton RiversideCollege and Stockton-on-Tees BoroughCouncil.

Maryssa, 38, pictured right, is fromMiddlesbrough and achieved a BA (Hons)English from Teesside in 1994. Aftergraduating, she went on to achieve apostgraduate teaching certificate inNewcastle, specialising in English. Maryssastarted her career as a secondary Englishteacher in North Tyneside and Newcastle andmoved to a school in Croydon, as Head ofEnglish and Assistant Head. She returned to

the North East to her role as Deputy Head ofTanfield School, Specialist College of Scienceand Engineering.

She said, ‘My new role is an excitingopportunity and I’m particularly lookingforward to working with my old University asthe lead sponsor, that’s one of the manythings which attracted me to the post.Working with such a quality establishment, the University of the Year, will be a key part ofmaking the Academy a success. StudyingEnglish at Teesside really opened my eyes tothe scope of communications which existwithin the language, it was an exciting part ofthe degree, showing how English works.

‘I’m also looking forward to the future, todeveloping opportunities for staff, and toworking with the new students and theirparents. I want to make sure that the studentshave a skills foundation which gives thememployability skills and enables them toprogress to further and higher education. Our Academy’s specialism of Business andEnterprise is important and I’m lookingforward to developing this and also the corefunctional skills of English, maths andinformation communication technologies, as these are key skills for every student.’

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The annual award is given to aninstitution that has demonstratedexceptional performance in the pastacademic year, and Teesside was thefirst modern university to achieve thistitle. The top prize was presented to theUniversity for its ‘outstanding regionaleconomic strategy and strong financialperformance.’

On 2 July 1930 Constantine College wasofficially opened by the Prince of Wales. It wasnamed after local businessman JosephConstantine who contributed £80,000 to thecost of the building, although the first studentswere actually enrolled in September 1929.

The early years were very successful, andstudent numbers grew to 2,211 by theoutbreak of World War II. Until the mid 1960s,Constantine was both a further and highereducation college with some students asyoung as 15. At first, Constantine Collegeconcentrated on metallurgy, engineering andchemistry. Later, mathematics and computerscience were added and became majorstrengths. Work on the 11-storeyMiddlesbrough Tower building started in 1963

and in the late 1960s the former High School(now the Waterhouse Building) was acquired.

When re-launched as Teesside Polytechnic in1969, there were 17 degree courses and 600postgraduate students. The ClarendonBuilding was opened in 1973 and in 1978Teesside Polytechnic merged with TeessideCollege of Education and the Students’ Unionwas opened.

Leaving local authority control in 1989signalled renewed growth. In the 1990s newhalls of residence were built on WoodlandsRoad and overlooking Albert Park.

Student numbers had risen to 8,000 by 1992,when Teesside Polytechnic became theUniversity of Teesside – one of 14 newuniversities. The first Vice-Chancellorappointed to lead the University was Dr Michael Longfield, followed by ProfessorDerek Fraser. The current Vice-Chancellor,Professor Graham Henderson, was appointedin 2002.

The University’s expansion continued rapidlyin the 1990s. New degrees includingCriminology and Computer Graphicsattracted students from further afield and

helped Teesside gain an internationalreputation for its specialist courses.

The University has developed with over£120m in campus investment, starting withthe opening of the Europa Building in 1994,the Library in 1997, the Innovation Building(now Stephenson Building) in 1998, theCenturia Building and the Centre forEnterprise in 2000, and the Olympia buildingin 2004. The most recent campus additionsare the Phoenix and Athena Buildings, both in2007.

In 2010, with 28,000 full-time and part-timeundergraduate and postgraduate students,Teesside will open the latest addition to itscampus, Centuria South, a sports therapyand dental training facility. And next year,Teesside University will expand beyond itsMiddlesbrough campus, with the opening of a£13m five-storey building in the centre ofDarlington, to serve the wider Tees Valley.

Celebrating 80 years of excellence

This year Teesside University celebrated its 80th anniversary. Since its foundation asConstantine College in 1930, the University has expanded massively and now has a nationaland global reputation for excellence. This was recognised in 2009 with the accolade ofUniversity of the Year by the Times Higher Education magazine.

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Official opening of the ConstantineCollege by the thenPrince of Wales andfuture King EdwardVIII, 1930.

The Waterhouse Building, acquired in the 1960s.

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Centuria South, to open autumn 2010.

Phoenix Building

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She was a foster carer and mum-of-three in 1965 when she saw anadvertisement for a new HomeOffice course run at the College.

Now aged 85, the grandmother-of-eight said, ‘It was for maturestudents wanting to qualify towork in the children’s departmentof local authorities long beforesocial services existed. Thechildren’s department came intobeing as a result of the povertyand deprivation which wasdiscovered when massevacuation took place during theSecond World War.’

Molly said, ‘I was aged 40,married with three children. I haddone no formal learning sinceleaving school at 16 with a schoolcertificate to my credit. But I wasdrawn to applying for this courseand was accepted.’

She fondly remembers her twoyears at Constantine College,saying, ‘It was a whole change oflifestyle for me to move into alearning situation. We studied lawrelating to the juvenile court andthe procedures for taking childreninto care as well as sociology,social history and many branchesof human growth anddevelopment.’

Molly went on to a varied career,ending up working within thefamily courts where estrangedcouples fought over the custodyof access to their children. Mollyadded, ‘An emotionalenvironment, but those two yearsat Constantine College stood mein good stead’.

Patricia, from the little village ofMarske-by-the-Sea, was amazedat the size and buzz of the grown-up College, which then tookstudents from the age of 16upwards.

‘In those days women were stillsecond-class citizens in terms ofopportunities and very few of uswent on to further education afterleaving school,’ she recalls.

‘But I loved Constantine andthought I had really made itstudying among so many olderstudents. Middlesbrough was likea big city in comparison andbeing at Constantine was an eye-opener. Many of the olderstudents were doing things likemarine engineering at a higherlevel. Some were from such exoticplaces as Keighley and therewere even some foreign students,but we were too shy to talk tothem.’

Patricia, now 68, pictured with aphoto of her younger self, opted

for arts subjects and studiedEnglish Language and Literature,French, History and Geography.

She got her big break into thenewspaper advertising worldwhen she became the first femaledisplay advertising rep in theentire Thomson Newspaperempire. This included the localEvening Gazette, where she stillworks part time.

Looking at the campus today,Patricia is amazed at itstransformation. She said, ‘Therewas just the one building when Iwas there, but it all seemed sobig and busy. Incredible to thinkthat we didn’t have a properlibrary then! We used to have topop across to the referencelibrary. Now just look at the place,the University’s own Library is afour-storey palace and there arejust so many more students. Weonly had a few thousand, if that,when I was there.’

As Teesside celebrates its 80th anniversary, UNIverse meets the diverse graduates ofConstantine College and Teesside University.

A big educational adventure

Back in 1958, teenager Patricia Hope was anticipating a big adventure, by enrolling as a GCE student at Constantine College.

How Constantine setMolly on her career path

TEESSIDE’S TALENTED ALUMNI

Molly Moody’s two years’ studying at Constantine College stood her in very good stead for her chosen career.

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Andrew Scott has fulfilled a teenageambition by qualifying and working asa barrister. He is based at Park LanePlowden Chambers in Leeds and is a Door Tenant at the chambers of the high-profile barrister MichaelMansfield QC. A Door Tenant isdefined as a barrister who has beengranted permission to join a set ofchambers and work with them frompremises outside his home chambers.

Andrew’s legal career is a sharp contrast tohis previous 14-year career as a nurse. Hiscareer change was launched by his first-class law degree from Teesside University,achieved after five years of part-time study.

After consistently high marks at Teesside,Andrew successfully applied for a MasterBedingfield Scholarship from Gray’s Inn,London. This enabled Andrew to fund aone-year Bar Vocational Course inNewcastle, setting him onto his new careeras a barrister. His 12-month pupillage (alegal apprenticeship) was at DoughtyStreet Chambers in London.

Father-of-two Andrew, 41, lives in Skelton,Tees Valley and commutes to the LeedsChambers. He said, ‘Without a shadow of a doubt going to Teesside Universitychanged my life. It’s been a fantasticjourney qualifying as a barrister but now I have a job that’s intensely interesting andrewarding, you can help people who aresometimes in dire circumstances. Law isinteresting, practical and stimulating,whether you’re young or more mature, it doesn’t matter what age. Education is for life.’

Andrew hasn’t forgotten his old University.He has donated an annual prize which isawarded to a high-achieving law student atthe November graduation ceremonies.

Graduating from the hospital to the law courts

TEESSIDE’S TALENTED ALUMNI

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In May 227 new MPs joined the House ofCommons. One of the 2010 intake wasTom Blenkinsop, a Teesside graduateand new Labour MP for MiddlesbroughSouth and East Cleveland. Tom’s routeto the Commons was tinged withsadness, as he succeeded the previousconstituency MP, Dr Ashok Kumar,following his sudden death in March.

Tom, 29, from Saltburn, first worked as avolunteer in Dr Kumar’s Guisborough officeand then as constituency researcher andliaison officer. In this latter role Tom madecontact with local industry, charities, tradeunions and educational establishments onbehalf of Dr Kumar. Tom followed this byworking as a regional officer for theCommunity trade union for two years.

He said, ‘Ashok was an honourable, hard-working, nice guy who worked his heart outfor this area and his locality. After he died

several party members approached askingme if I wanted to stand, but becoming an MP wasn’t something I’d thought about. Only three weeks passed between Ashok’sdeath and being selected as a candidate. It was fantastic to be selected by my fellowmembers, people I’d known for a number of years.

‘I was amazed to be elected; I’m still gettingover it! It is a massive honour to be an MP,representing somewhere I grew up. Duringthe election I got to talk to so many peopleand listened to their views. I have taken theseon board and want to ensure their voices areheard in the Commons. That’s my priorityabove anything else, to repay the investmentpeople have put into me.’

Tom found entering the Commons amemorable experience. He said, ‘I’m a hugefootball fan and it was like walking intoWembley for the first time. I was surprisedwhat a very small chamber it is but I was still

in awe of all the sense of history, visualising all the past national figures like Nye Bevanwho’ve stood in there.’

Tom has fond memories of his time atTeesside University, where he achieved adegree in Politics, Philosophy andEconomics, and followed this with a master’sin philosophy at Warwick University. Headded, ‘Education isn’t purely classroombased, the range of different people I’dstudied alongside was also important. Youmet people with real-life experience, such asa fellow student who’d served in Bosnia.Teesside’s award of University of the Year isfantastic and well-deserved. The Universityperforms a massive social role for thecommunity and the local economy, bringingeducation and investment.’

Tom’s wife Vicki is also a Teesside graduate,achieving a Master of Creative Multimedia.

Teesside graduate joins the 2010 Commons intake

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State-of-the-art services from new building

A team of five teaching staff will delivertailored courses to the first cohorts of 12dental nursing students and 12 dentaltherapy students, who will begin theircourses in October. The team has over75 years’ combined experience ofworking in dental practice, in the UK andabroad. Dental hygiene and therapystudents will achieve a BSc (Hons) inDental Hygiene and Dental Therapy afterthree years’ full-time study and DentalNurse Practice students will be awardeda certificate of higher education followingtheir one-year course.

Centuria’s dental suite has 20 dentists’ chairsand practice ‘phantom heads’ and an on-sitedentist will also be recruited to examine,diagnose and treat patients. The dentist willrefer patients to be treated by the students.Patients will be drawn from the localcommunity which may include theUniversity’s staff and students.

The Sport & Exercise facilities will include a purpose-built sports therapy clinic andbespoke hydrotherapy pool, anatomylaboratories and dedicated strength andconditioning and physical activity space. The new facilities will be used across anumber of undergraduate and postgraduateprogrammes in Sport & Exercise.

The Sport & Exercise teaching team of 25have a wealth of expertise across a numberof disciplines. Further developments in sportstherapy provision, in collaboration with theSociety of Sports Therapists and externalbodies, will be enhanced by these newfacilities, which include a Sports Injury Clinic.Both the University and the wider communityare able to benefit from the Clinic togetherwith a Sports Science Consultancy staffed byexperienced Sport & Exercise scientists.

For more details on the Dental courses emailsohsadmissions@tees.ac.uk and for Sport &Exercise sssl-ug@tees.ac.uk, or check theUniversity’s web site at www.tees.ac.uk

A new £17m dental education and practice facility and Sport & Exercise complex, includingsports therapy dedicated facilities, will open at the University this autumn. The Centuria Southbuilding will provide a state-of-the-art teaching and learning environment for students fromdental nursing, dental hygiene and therapy, potentially dental technology, sports therapy, andstrength and conditioning for sport and exercise.

Principal lecturer for Dental Care, Erica Clough with some of Centuria South’s new facilities.

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For the 100th company has beenlaunched by the DigitalCity Fellowshipscheme based at Teesside University,which has been supporting digitalentrepreneurs for nearly seven years.

The new company is a science-basedenterprise, Gold Extraction and PurificationTechnologies, and Andy Robinson is thebrains behind it.

The aim – as its title suggests – is to extractgold from rock and waste materials and purifyit to 99.9% purified gold for medical research.

Andy, 29, was born in Middlesbrough andnow lives in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees. He is an electrical engineer by trade andspent six years working with the steel industryas a consultant, advising on how to makehigh-value products such as stainless steelout of scrap steel.

He believes the same can be done with gold,and says, ‘Over the past decade, gold has

become a metal of great interest in the fields of science and engineering as newcommercial opportunities have opened up. This, however, has been coupled withincreasing prices of gold as well as increaseddifficulties in extracting new gold sources.’

With this in mind, and in conjunction with theInstitute of Digital Innovation (IDI) at TeessideUniversity, Andy has been working to developdigitally based reaction mechanisms that will:

> reduce reaction development time

> increase the profitability of gold extractionand purification

> minimise the amount of waste producedthrough gold processing.

‘In many ways, the greatest innovation withthis project is moving a heavy element ofprocess design onto a computer screen andout of the laboratory where the greatestexpenses occur. There is an additional benefitin that the resulting gold won’t have any toxic

impurities associated with current extractiontechniques – especially important for medicalresearch,’ he explained.

At present gold is often extracted from rocksand waste material using dangerouschemicals such as arsenic and cyanide –hardly appropriate for use in developingproducts to support cancer research.

Andy has been provided with a DigitalCityFellowship grant funded through theEuropean Regional Development Fund andOne North East along with space in the IDIdigital labs at the University, as well as withadvice and other support from experts.

He has also been mentored by Andrew andSylvia Dean from another of the DigitalCityFellowship science-based companies, NanoAgrochemicals, which was launched twoyears ago.

For more details on DigitalCity Fellowships callCheryl Evans on 01642 384324, emailc.evans@idi-uk.org.

A major milestone has beenreached in Teesside’s bid to makeitself one of the global capitalsfor the digital revolution.

100th company spun out from

Teesside’s digital revolution

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The Agency carries outinstitutional audits of highereducation institutions everyfive years, and in its latestreview of academicstandards and the quality of learning opportunitiesprovided for students atTeesside, the Universityachieved top marks.

Professor Caroline MacDonald,Teesside University’s DeputyVice-Chancellor (Learning andStudent Experience), pictured,was delighted with the outcomeand the small number ofrecommendations for action by the QAA in the institutional audit.

‘The language used by the QAAis very restrained, particularlywhen compared with OFSTEDinspections of schools whichuses terms like “Outstanding”’,she explained.

‘The role of audit is to look at twoaspects of our provision anddecide whether the QAA canhave confidence in thesoundness of our academicstandards and the quality of thelearning experience available tostudents both now and in thefuture. In both cases, the auditorssaid they had confidence inTeesside University, which is thebest results you can get,’ saidProfessor MacDonald.

‘I am particularly pleased thatthey highlighted the partnershipwe have with the Students’ Unionand the way we listen to studentsthrough things like the NationalStudent Survey. It is one of thespecial features of Teesside. Thestudent voice is important to us and helps us to enhance thestudents’ learning opportunities.’

Teesside gets vote of confidence from Higher Education watchdogs

> the proactive use of a range ofoutcomes from external evaluations toenhance student learning opportunities

> the effective partnership between theUniversity and the Students’ Union to support student representationprocesses on taught programmes at all levels of the institution

> the development and implementation of a comprehensive and responsivestructure to support e-learning

> the effective alignment of strategic aims and inclusive staff developmentactivities in support of the University’smission

> the systematic programme foradmission, induction and support ofpostgraduate research students at boththe institutional and school level.

The features of good practice listed by the audit team included:

Teesside University has received an importantvote of confidence from the Quality AssuranceAgency (QAA) for Higher Education.

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The sculpture is the work of influentialartist Anish Kapoor and Cecil Balmond, one of the world’s leading structural engineers, and is sited inMiddlesbrough’s Middlehaven area.

The two children, from Abingdon PrimarySchool, were taking part in the University’saward-winning Meteor programme, whichaims to inspire primary school children toconsider further and higher education. Their visit aimed to given them a flavour ofTemenos before they visited the Universitycampus to take part in the twelfth annualMeteor summer school, where they designedand built their own ‘mini-Temenos’.

During the summer school, 500 year sixprimary school children (aged ten to eleven)visited the University for a range of activities.They came from across the Tees Valley and,for the first time, were joined by twoDarlington primary schools.

Mark Hopgood, Project Director for Temenos,delivered daily presentations about thesculpture to the children, with a time lapsevideo showing the construction of Temenos,before starting their own designs.

Heena Akram, 11, from Abingdon School,said, ‘It’s so interesting seeing Temenos upclose, the way the structure’s built. I’d like it toinspire other young people to build their ownstructures in the future. The activities we’vedone for Meteor in school have been reallyfun and I want to go to University when I’molder. I want to study to become a doctor as Ilike helping people.’

Classmate Shaan Hussain, 11, said, ‘I reallylike the shape of Temenos; it’s interesting andgood for Middlesbrough. It made me lookforward to building my own structure at theUniversity. I liked the Zoolab Meteor tourwhen it came to our School as we got to seelots of different animals. I also want to go toUniversity when I’m older.’

Mark Hopgood, Project Manager forTemenos, said, ‘I was delighted to come intothe University to talk to the Meteor pupils. Itgave them an opportunity to engage in amajor art development in their own town andit was very interesting to see which structuresthey decided to make, whether they weresimilar to Temenos or they felt inspired to goin a completely different direction. Temenoswill be here for 120 years so it’s important thatyoung people and their families come downto see it, they are the future.’

Meteor was launched by the University in 1999 to inspire local primary Year Six (aged 10 to 11) pupils to think about further andhigher education. It offers a series of activitieson and off campus covering a wide range ofcurriculum based activities. Meteor alsoprovides an opportunity for pupils to meet andtalk to the University’s students, who mentorthe pupils.

A Meteoric mission to TemenosMiddlesbrough primary school children have been on aMeteoric mission to view the town’s new £2.7m, 48mhigh sculpture Temenos, up close.

Mark Hopgood is pictured with Emma Hutchinson, a Meteor student mentor and MSc Criminology student, with Abingdon pupils Shaan Hussain and Heena Akram.

Teesside University has again achieveda top three placing among participatingworld-wide higher education institutions(HEIs) for ‘Overall Average Satisfaction’in a survey of international students.

The twice-yearly International StudentBarometer (ISB) is the largest globallybenchmarked study of international studentsin the world. Teesside has now scored topthree placings internationally in the last foursurveys for ‘Overall Average Satisfaction’.

The survey is divided into three categories inthe summer wave: Living, Student Supportand Learning with an additional categorylooking at Arrival in the autumn wave, withindividual attributes within each category. The ISB is independently administered by theInternational Graduate Insight Group and hasgained feedback from over 500,000 studentssince its launch.

The most recent survey, for autumn 2009,explored the views of students from 57 HEIsin the UK and 123 world-wide. TeessideUniversity came third globally for ‘OverallAverage Satisfaction.’

In addition, the University was ranked firstamong 57 UK HEIs for nine attributes withinthe four categories. Teesside was rated thetop university in the UK for Technology,Language support, Library, Careers advice,Financial support, Living cost,Accommodation cost, Meeting staff (onarrival), and the Finance office.

Dorcas Onyike is one of Teesside’sinternational students. Dorcas, 24, fromNigeria, has already achieved a BA (Hons)Marketing and Public Relations degree at theUniversity and also received the DTW Prizefor best overall performance on the course.She has returned to study for a master’sdegree in International Management andsaid, ‘Life is full of challenges and being atuniversity is full of them. However, Teessidereduced some of these challenges educationwise by providing both practice and theoryand, of course, the lecturers who do the greatjob of making sure this happens.’

Teesside keeps scoring in international top three

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