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David Kilburn talks to BBC about the retail picture in Christchurch

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David Kilburn, Associate Professor in Enterprise at BU, was featured on local BBC TV and radio programmes talking about the fact that Christchurch appears to be bucking current retail trends.

Christchurch has a much lower rate of shop vacancy than anywhere else in the South, and many believe it is due to the affluent older generation who live there.

David told BBC South Today: “I think a lot of them have lived here for quite some time, they have already paid the mortgage off, they may have held quite good jobs and therefore, they have got a reasonable pension.

“So they are reasonably well-off – some very well-off – and they like to spend their money.”

He also featured on BBC Radio Solent’s breakfast show speaking about the issue.

As part of a live broadcast from the Dorset town on Julian Clegg’s breakfast show, David said: “Certainly, Christchurch is a very dynamic town and it’s very appealing to all demographics and, of course, got ‘grey pound’ shoppers.

“You’ve got more time if you’re not working, but it’s a recreational activity as well as the shopping.”

But he added that it was not necessarily true that the older population was less likely to shop online, and so stick to the traditional high street shopping.

“I think with the older demographic, many of them really do have the time to spend learning about how to go online, so it’s not that difficult, but clearly there are some people – perhaps in their 80s – who might not really go for it quite as much.”

He said that other places could learn lessons from Christchurch, and recommended half price rent to fill empty shop units in areas that were having less success.

“At the end of the day, I think it’s a question of having a really good mix of retail outlets, which are both either national or independent.”

You can watch David on BBC South Today here

You can listen to him on on BBC Radio Solent here

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BU Business student in final of prestigious student awards scheme

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A BA (Hons) Business Studies student from Bournemouth University is through to the final of the prestigious Undergraduate of the Year awards.

Tom Heyes is down to the last ten for the Target Jobs Undergraduate of the Year in Commercial Excellence award, and will find out if he has won at an awards ceremony hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald.

Tom, who is currently on a placement year as part of his course, said: “It has been a lot of work to get to this stage, but I’m really happy to have got through to the finals – it’s one of those things you don’t expect to happen.

“I get to go to dinner with Trevor McDonald – so I’m happy even if I don’t win.

“The Business School have been really good and really supportive and have been backing me all the way.”

The Target Jobs Undergraduate of the Year Award in Commercial Excellence is sponsored by Nestlé, and looks for students with a winning mix of personal skills, career motivation and an excellent academic record.

The winner will receive a Raleigh expedition to Borneo in 2013 as part of an expedition team and the chance to undertake a 12 week internship with Nestlé in a commercial area of their choice.

“It would be a great experience to get that extra three months with a totally different company – especially Nestlé, which is one of the biggest companies in the world,” said Tom, 21, who is from Bournemouth and lives in Winton while studying.

“The seven weeks in Borneo after graduating would be amazing as well.”

Tom is currently undertaking a 12 month placement with Fujitsu, working as a Lean Practitioner – helping to manage change activities in different parts of the business.

He believes that the experience helped him during the gruelling application process – for which he had to write a critical report of the economic climate, do online tests and a group assessment day and interviews with Nestlé.

“I don’t think I would have got this far if I hadn’t had a placement,” said Tom, who lives in Reading while on placement.

“I have learnt an amazing amount. I have changed a lot in this year and grown up a lot.

“I think it helps when you can provide real world experiences. A lot of the other candidates were really strong academically and really intelligent but I think I was more outgoing in the group situation.

“I think that’s probably where I picked up points.”

The winners of the awards will be announced at a ceremony in Canary Wharf on 19 April.

Professor Tim Darvill talks about the origins of Stonehenge in The Observer

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BU Professor of Archaeology Tim Darvill was interviewed about his research into the origins of Stonehenge, for an article in The Observer.

The double page spread by Science Editor Robin McKie looked at the different speculations and theories around why the monument was built in the first place.

Professor Darvill believes that, as Stonehenge was built using stones believed to have magical healing properties, the sick and wounded travelled to Stonehenge to try and find a cure.

“This was a place for the living,” he said.

“I think that very early on Stonehenge was a burial ground but after 2600BC these burials stop. So how can this be a place of the dead?”

He added that the source of Stonehenge’s bluestones from quarries in the Preseli Hills in Wales, was important.

“These are all associated with sacred springs today,” he said.

“That association is a very ancient one. These stones were brought to Stonehenge because they were thought to have healing properties.

“That is why all that effort went into its construction. It was a place where people thought their illnesses might be cured and their lives saved.”

You can read the full article here.

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BU experts talk on ageing society

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BU’s Health and Social Care experts were in demand this week as a Lords committee announced that the UK is “woefully underprepared” for the social and economic challenges presented by an ageing society.

The committee said “the gift of longer life” could lead to “a series of crises” in public service provision, and Keith Brown, from BU’s National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work, and Anthea Innes, from BU’s Dementia Institute, were on hand to tell radio listeners what this could mean for their respective industries.

Speaking to Julian Clegg on BBC Radio Solent’s Breakfast show (and tying in nicely with the morning show’s biscuit theme), Keith Brown said, “I wonder whether listeners see the NHS as a tough ginger nut or a crumbling cookie at the moment.”

Keith continued, “One of the things that is often missing on these reports is that the majority of the elderly in our society have always been cared for by their family. We really need to think about how we are going to support people to care for the elderly in their own community.”

The conversation moved on to the subject of paying for all of the expertise needed, with Keith stating, “We have got to get some sort of stability in the system. We in society need an honest debate about how we value the elderly in our society and how are we going to care for them.”

Anthea Innes, Director of Bournemouth University’s Dementia Institute, was asked to comment on the same story for local radio station Wave 105. Anthea spoke about the pressure that will be put on dementia carers with the rise in elderly people.

She stated that, “Dementia has more of a financial burden than cancer on the NHS already” and that the financial burden would only get heavier as the number of elderly people increases.

For more information about the work of the National Centre for Post Qualifying Social Work you can visit their website.

For more information about BUDI you can visit BUDI’s web pages.

BU graduates celebrate Oscar and BAFTA success

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A number of Bournemouth University (BU) graduates celebrated nominations and wins at high-profile award ceremonies this year.

Graduates of the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) in BU’s Media School worked on the visual effects for blockbusters nominated at both the 2013 Oscars and BAFTAs.

Steve Twist, who completed a BA in Computer Visualisation and Animation and an MSc in Computer Animation and Visual Effects at BU, worked on the visual effects for Life of Pi – which won both the Oscar and BAFTA in the Visual Effects category.

Steve worked for California-based Rhythm & Hues Studios as a Character Rigger – and helped create the skeletal structure, muscles and body, and face controls for the computer-generated animals on the lifeboat during the film.

“It was an amazing experience to work on Life of Pi,” said Steve, who graduated in 2010.

“The artists at Rhythm & Hues are an incredible group of people, and it was quite a journey to see the film develop.

“When I saw the movie in the movie theatre, I was very proud to have played my small part to bringing the characters of the movie to life.”

Unfortunately, the company recently filed for bankruptcy protection, so Steve said winning the awards was a “bittersweet moment”.

“It’s amazing that our work was so well received, both by audiences and by critics,” he said. “But, needless to say, I probably felt every emotion possible during those few days.”

Meanwhile, visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin, who co-founded VFX company Double Negative and received an Honorary Doctorate from BU in 2012, and graduate Andy Lockley, who completed an MA in Digital Effects in 2000, were BAFTA-nominated for their visual effects work in Batman film The Dark Knight Rises.

Emma Clifton, who completed a BA (Hons) Computer Visualisation and Animation degree in 2005 was among BU graduates and ex-lecturers who worked on the Oscar and BAFTA-nominated visual effects for The Hobbit.

And two 2010 graduates of the BA (Hons) Computer Visualisation and Animation degree course at BU worked on the Oscar-nominated visual effects for Snow White and the Huntsman.

Dante Harbridge-Robinson was part of a team at BlueBolt Ltd. who helped design and create the castle in the film, while Daniel Georgiou worked on it as a matchmove artist for Double Negative.

Daniel, who now works as a lighting technical director, also worked on visual effects for Les Miserables and Skyfall, which were both nominated for numerous high-profile awards.

It wasn’t just visual effects that BU graduates received recognition for. BA (Hons) Television Production graduate Teddy Leifer was part of the team nominated for Best Documentary for a feature he produced called The Invisible War.

Teddy, who graduated in 2005, was executive producer on the film, which explores the topic of sexual assault in the US military.

Stephen Jukes, Dean of the Media School, said: “We live and breathe the industry in the Media School and we are extremely proud of our graduates who go on – which increasing success – to carry off some of the most prestigious awards.

“I believe we offer a unique combination of academic learning and professional practice which sets students up extremely well to flourish in the rapidly changing and highly competitive media world.”

Dr Philip Alford comments on keyword advertising for BBC article

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Dr Philip Alford, director of the Digital Hub at Bournemouth University, spoke about whether keyword advertising on search engines is effective in an article on the BBC Technology website.

Companies can pay to have keyword advertising, which means that their website appears more prominently when a person searches for a particular term related to them.

But a recent eBay study found that most people who visited their site as a result of keyword advertising would have done so anyway.

Dr Alford, a senior lecturer in Tourism and Hospitality Marketing at BU, said that eBay was an established brand and that keyword advertising may be more useful for smaller companies.

“eBay has become a household brand name, they already have a highly engaged user base,” said Dr Alford, adding that many people would search for the website directly.

“With Google ad words, particularly for smaller organisations, it can make a lot of sense because for some of them, their websites aren’t at a stage yet where they have been sufficiently indexed by Google, so they struggle to come up in natural searches for terms.”

You can read the full article here

Professor Les Ebdon praises BU’s work in widening access

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Professor Les Ebdon, Director of the Office For Fair Access (OFFA), has praised the work Bournemouth University is doing to widen access and participation in higher education.

OFFA is an independent body which helps safeguard and promote fair access to higher education, and Professor Ebdon visited BU to talk to staff, students and the public about the importance of making higher education accessible to all.

Professor Ebdon said: “I believe that higher education is a life-transforming experience which opens up a wealth of opportunities.

“It is about transforming lives and giving people that opportunity that we had to make a difference in our lives and to make a difference to other people’s lives.

“I am delighted to be here at BU where you have done so much.”

A number of schemes are currently running at BU to work with people from under-represented groups in higher education – such as care leavers, people with disabilities or additional learning needs, and those from lower income backgrounds.

These include the AimHigher outreach project, where teams go into schools and colleges to give young people a feel of what university is like through workshops and taster days.

BU also runs schemes to support students once they get to university, such as Peer Assisted Learning and the Grow @BU project, which provides mentoring and support to students from under-represented backgrounds.

Professor Ebdon said he had enjoyed finding out more about the work BU was doing around fair access.

“I think BU has an excellent record in widening participation and has gone out to a lot of people in this area and I wanted to see what work was being done,” he said.

“It is clearly a challenge that is taken very seriously here at BU, and particularly in terms of contributing to national research on these issues.”

He added that he was impressed with the Grow @BU project, and the work being done with primary schools in the area to help children and their parents see university as an option from an early age.

“I was particularly impressed to see the work the university is doing with primary schools and hear how effective it is in really raising the aspirations and motivation, and how that is linking in with parents and the staff. That is very powerful.”

He added: “I think the Grow @BU project is particularly good.

“It is not just enough to ensure that students from widening participation backgrounds come to university, but also making sure that they are successful, and don’t withdraw from programmes as a result of barriers.”

Professor Ebdon spoke to staff and students from the university during the afternoon and at a public event at Talbot Campus in the evening.

The events also heard from past and present BU students from under-represented groups, and Jackie Green, headteacher at Malmesbury Park Primary School in Bournemouth, who has been working closely with BU outreach teams.

Professor John Vinney, Vice-Chancellor of Bournemouth University, said: “Every student who has the ability and the academic capability to succeed at university should have the chance to do so.

“It is an increasing priority and focus for many universities and something that we certainly take very seriously at Bournemouth University.”

Following the visit, Professor Ebdon raised the work being done at BU in a Parliamentary committee.

While speaking at the Business, Innovation and Skills committee about student admissions and fair access, he mentioned the schemes which support students from under-represented backgrounds.

He said: “Only last week I was at Bournemouth University looking at how one of their programmes is really effective.

“They have already seen a 2 per cent improvement in their retention record. Young graduates are spearheading the programme.

“They know what the experience of going through university life is like and what the challenges are. I could see it was a very effective programme in the making.”

First vice-chancellor of BU passes away

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Dr Bernard MacManus, the first Vice–Chancellor of Bournemouth University, died on 10th March.

Dr MacManus joined the Dorset Institute of Higher Education in 1983 and under his leadership it grew significantly and achieved polytechnic status, which in turn enabled Bournemouth to become a university under the Further and Higher Education Act of 1992. Dr MacManus played a significant role in extending BU´s Talbot Campus and established the second campus at the Lansdowne.

He retired from BU in 1994 and in 2007 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University.

Renowned comedy writer inspires students during talk at BU

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Comedy writer Laurence Marks – who helped create some of Britain’s best loved sitcoms – shared his experiences with postgraduate students at Bournemouth University.

Laurence, who created the likes of Birds of a Feather and Goodnight Sweetheart with writing partner Maurice Gran, talked about his career to Master’s students from across BU’s Media School.

Laurence, who was a journalist before moving into writing, said the pair were inspired to begin writing together after winning competitions at a writing and acting workshop that they only attended because it was cheaper than heating their flats.

“I was a journalist, so I was at least writing and putting words on a page but I was a crime reporter, which is a long way from comedy,” he said.

“What I found was that the moment I sat down at my typewriter and started to write, not only did it flow out of me as if it had been welling up, but I had to write comedy. It was just flowing out of me.”

The pair’s first big hit was Shine On Harvey Moon, in 1982, and they then moved to Hollywood – where they were part of the team of writers working on Cheers.

After 14 months, they moved back to the UK and worked with Rik Mayall on political sitcom The New Statesman, which went on to win the BAFTA for Best Comedy Series.

Laurence told the students that, while writing in a partnership could be difficult, he would not want to do it alone.

“That instant feedback in comedy is your first audience,” he said.

“If he doesn’t laugh, ten million people aren’t going to laugh. I like to be in a room where there is somebody with you, crafting something. It’s more fun.”

“It helps if you know the person you are working with for a long, long time, as you have the same reference points.”

He added: “It was very difficult at first. Someone once said a writing partnership should be exactly the same as a marriage – except you never take your clothes off in front of each other.

“We argue all the time – the whole dynamic is argument and debate about what is going to work.”

He also likened writing to building a house – saying that you need an architect to make sure the structure is right before starting to decorate.

“Writing is the easy bit, like decorating,” he said. “But there is a lot of work to do before then in making sure the structure is right – it’s the planning, the story, the characters.”

His advice to the students – who came from Master’s courses including scriptwriting, cinematography and directing – was to find their own voice, and create characters that people wanted to watch.

“It is really first and foremost about character. You are building up this piece of a real person – because without truth, comedy doesn’t work,” he said.

“What we did was acknowledged what was being made and then wrote something different.

“Do what you want to do but it has to conform to what is, after all, a 28 minute show divided into 3 parts with great characters.”

Eating Disorder Awareness Week runs at Bournemouth University

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A series of events were run at BU to raise awareness of eating disorders and the support available at the university and in the local area.

The week of events ran during National Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and included sessions on the recognition of eating disorders and the impact it might have on individuals, the role of the internet and the local services available to provide support.

There was also a poster presentation of research being done by BU Psychology students into eating disorders, and sessions run by Jess Griffiths, director of local eating disorder charity I*EAT.

Jess, who herself has had an eating disorder, started the charity at Bournemouth University, running a weekly support group on campus before receiving external funding and moving elsewhere.

She said: “I ended up agreeing to run a drop in for an hour a month at Talbot Medical Centre [on BU’s Talbot Campus] and put a poster onto the back of toilet doors just to see what would happen.

“I think I also just knew that my experience was never going to be wasted, I kind of knew that once I had recovered I was going to use the experience for good and to help others.”

She added: “After this week, we are launching a drop in service for an hour in the Chaplaincy on campus so that we will see more students coming forward. It is the best way for students to get in contact and then we can refer them to GPs and get them some professional support.”

There is now also a weekly clinic at the GP surgery on Talbot Campus, run by Micki Bennett, a clinical specialist nurse in eating disorders, who sees students who present to the GPs there displaying symptoms of eating disorders.

Micki said the clinic was important in providing an easily accessible and unobtrusive place for students to get additional support and monitoring for eating disorders, but also to increase awareness of the conditions among GPs.

She said: “Staff from the GP surgery can come to me and say ‘I have just seen someone and I’m a bit worried.’

“There is a much more informal communication, which has heightened the awareness of what is going on.

“If there is somebody who isn’t motivated to come and get help, the doctors and nurses can talk to me and I can help treat them by proxy almost.”

Another session run as part of the week heard from Alice Jackson, who recovered from her exercise addiction and received treatment and support for her eating disorder whilst studying at BU.

She said that it can be hard to spot if a friend or housemate has an eating disorder, adding that if people are concerned they should look for changes in habit.

“When you have anorexia you are not eating normally and you don’t really want to socialise in terms of how you are eating. It is noticeable but not in some ways so it depends on what your accommodation is like.

“I had a room with a bathroom and the only things I ate were things I could do in my room. It is difficult to spot but if someone is not engaging in food and are eating things that are very different.”

The programme of events was run and supported by a number of organisations including charity I*EAT, Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust and organisations and services at BU – including the Students’ Union, Equality and Diversity service and the Psychology group within the School of Design, Engineering and Computing.

Dr James Palfreman-Kay, Equality and Diversity Adviser at Bournemouth University, said: “The events have been attended by more than 250 people, including schools, parents, students and academics.

“It shows that we are putting partnership into practice, with the collaboration between Dorset Healthcare, BU and I*EAT.”

I*EAT will be launching a drop in clinic at the chaplaincy service, in Talbot House on Talbot Campus, from 3-4pm every Monday.

Anybody who is concerned about themselves or a relative or friend with an eating disorder is welcome to pop in. For more information about the charity and the support they offer visit www.i-eat.org.uk.