Author Archives: ematthews

About ematthews

Status: ACTIVE. Multimedia Reporter

Face blindness formally recognised by NHS Choices, after work by BU academic

Posted on by

Following work with Dr Sarah Bate from BU’s Centre for Face Processing Disorders, NHS Choices have formally recognised prosopagnosia (face blindness) as a condition.

The ‘Introduction to Prosopagnosia’ can be viewed on the NHS Choices website here.

Dr Bate said: “I’m delighted by this news and so pleased to have been a part of the process. This small action will really help to increase understanding among the general public and ensure that people with prosopagnosia receive the recognition and support they need.”

Since 2004 Dr Bate and her colleagues have been researching this little-known condition, which is characterised by the inability to recognise faces. Until the last decade it was thought the disorder was very rare, acquired following a brain injury. We now know 2% of the population are born with a developmental form of the condition. This includes 300,000 children in the UK alone.

Prosopagnosia can vary depending on severity. Some sufferers struggle to put a name to a face whereas others simply cannot recognise people they have known their whole lives. It can be as severe as not being able to recognise your own child at the school gate or even to pick out your own face from a line-up of photos.

It is the effects that are most problematic though. In extreme cases people can withdraw socially, become depressed, leave their job, or suffer endless embarrassment.

The action by NHS Choices comes after Dr Bate’s extensive outreach programme instigated the tabling of an Early Day Motion to raise awareness of face blindness in the House of Commons.

Local MPs asked questions in Parliament on her behalf and in July 2013 Minister of State for Care and Support, Norman Lamb MP made the commitment.

“NHS Choices will be including information about prosopagnosia in the A to Z of medical conditions on its website,” he said. “This will help to promote better understanding among the wider general public and ensure that people with prosopagnosia receive the recognition and support they need”.

The NHS Choices page on prosopagnosia is informed by Dr Bate’s work and links to BU’s Centre for Face Processing Disorders. It is hoped this will help people to recognise prosopagnosia and direct them to the best possible support available for them.

“Now prosopagnosia is formally recognised by the NHS we’ll be in a much better position to tackle our next goals,” explained Dr Bate.

“Prosopagnosia is a very challenging condition. People experience social isolation, often leading to depression and other difficulties. It affects their education, working life and relationships.

“Ideally we think prosopagnosia should be covered in GP training, teacher training and in school special needs provision. Only then will people really get the recognition and support they so desperately need.”

Just last week Dr Bate hosted a roundtable in the Commons calling for greater public awareness of the condition. Read more about this event and the outcomes here.

Prof. Colin Pritchard’s research into child mortality featured in Sunday Times

Posted on by

Professor Colin Pritchard’s research highlighting the issue of child mortality rates in Britain has been featured in the Sunday Times.

Professor Pritchard, a Researcher in Social Psychiatry at BU, found that the UK has one of the highest rates of children’s deaths among developed countries, coming fourth overall in the rankings.

He also found that there is a direct correlation between poverty and income inequality and child mortality in the Uk, with at least 1,827 children dying in 2010 alone.

“British children are trebly disadvantaged,” says Professor Pritchard in The Sunday Times article.

“They live in a country with the worst income equality in the western world, they live in the joint-lowest funded health system, and our under 15s are dying at a rate that puts us near the bottom of the world’s richest nations.”

Trailing behind the UK in the ratings was America, where on average 2,437 children per million died each year. Canada and New Zealand also fell below the UK’s record.

However, Professor Pritchard also found that there are improvements in Britain’s figures, with a fall of 62% since the 1979.

By Anushka Naidoo, BA (Hons) Communications and Media student

BU helps host face blindness roundtable event at House of Commons

Featured

Posted on by

A roundtable event at the House of Commons has called for greater public and professional awareness of the condition prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness.

The event was hosted by Dr Sarah Bate from the Centre for Face Processing Disorders at Bournemouth University (BU) and Tobias Ellwood, Bournemouth East MP and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Health.

Prosopagnosia is a cognitive condition which means people find it difficult to recognise familiar people from their faces – sometimes leaving them unable to identify even their closest relatives or their own reflection in the mirror.

Although it is thought to affect around 1 in 50 people it is not a formally recognised condition, and so people often find it difficult to access support and guidance.

The breakfast roundtable event called for measures to promote greater public and professional awareness of prosopagnosia – especially in schools, workplaces and the healthcare system.

Dr Sarah Bate, a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at BU, said: “The roundtable was a fantastic opportunity for us to present our awareness campaign to key influencers, and we are very grateful to Tobias Ellwood for hosting the event.

“We demonstrated whDSC_8746at it is like to live with face blindness and why awareness needs to be raised, and are now looking forward to working with the roundtable attendees to progress our campaign.”

The event was supported by a Public Engagement Grant that was awarded to Dr Bate by the British Psychological Society (BPS), and further assistance was provided by the Encephalitis Society.

Representatives from both organisations attended the roundtable, and continue to support the awareness campaign.

Members of the London Faceblind Group also spoke at the event, talking about their experiences with the condition and the need for greater awareness and support.

Hazel Plastow, who has a developmental form of prosopagnosia, said: “The impact is physical, social, emotional – it’s huge.

“But those more formal forms of support aren’t available to people with face blindness.

“Thousands of people out there struggling on a daily basis, wondering why they find things difficult when other people seem to sail by, so these are the people we need to reach.”

Jo Livingston from the group spoke about the impact that the condition can have on children at school – including problems socialising or being incorrectly diagnosed with behavioural disorders.

She said: “Children are growing up with it and teachers are most unlikely to have heard of it.

“Even the smallest primary school will have one or two face blind children but most are growing up with no knowledge of the condition and have no help or support.”

She added: “It would be of great help if face blindness could be included in teacher training courses and career courses to alert teachers to the fact that this is a real condition and they will already know many children who are affected by it.”

The awareness campaign has a number of aims, including formal definition and classification of prosopagnosia; the development of a national face blind organisation; and promoting awareness and key guidance in a top-down manner in schools, workplaces and the healthcare system.

Tobias Ellwood MP, who later blogged about the event, said he was keen to support the campaign.

“I’d be delighted to be part of that in any way that I can,” he said. “It is something that is very important and affects a lot of people.

“It is not hard to provide that assistance and make their lives far more simple in terms of education, and understanding and practical guidance.

“But the first thing is to get recognition so those who do have it know what it is and aren’t shy in coming forwards about it.”

The roundtable event featured the premiere of a face blindness awareness video, created by the BU Centre for Face Processing Disorders, the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Encephalitis Society and funded by the BPS’s Public Engagement Grants scheme.

Watch the video

 

David Willetts MP to open BU’s Festival of Learning

Posted on by

Minister of State for Universities and Science, the Rt Hon David Willetts MP, will open BU’s Festival of Learning on Monday 9 June.

The visit, which coincides with Universities UK Week, is an opportunity to showcase BU’s excellent student work and world-leading research to this influential government figure.

The Minister will begin his visit with a tour of the University, taking in a range of Festival of Learning events including ‘Are you a super-recogniser’, ‘VeggiEAT’ and an exhibition of student projects.

The tour will be led by BU Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney, along with Chancellor The Rt Hon The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, MP for Bournemouth West Conor Burns and Chairman of the BU Board Sue Sutherland OBE.

Following the tour, Mr Willetts MP will give an opening speech about the Festival and the value of Higher Education. This will be followed by a Q&A session.

The Festival of Learning allows professionals, students and members of the public to find out more about BU’s work and how it can impact the lives of those around the world. More details about the events Mr Willetts MP will attend are as follows:

Some people are exceptionally good at remembering faces, whereas others are very poor at this skill and may have ‘face blindness’. This event assesses where you lie on the spectrum through a live experiment.

This event is a graduate exhibition by the BA (Hons) Interactive Media Production course, with the opportunity to experience work from award-winning students about to enter the industry. The scope of work ranges from computer games to alternative realities, and projection mapping to brain-powered lamps.

VeggiEAT is an EU project addressing the global challenge of reducing obesity and coronary heart disease. This event will introduce VeggiEAT and investigate if there is a reason why you like or dislike vegetables.

To book an event or find out more information, visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/fol.

Events Management student discusses choosing BU in The Guardian

Posted on by

BU BA (Hons) Events Management student Leroy-Winston Scott has appeared in The Guardian, discussing his reasons for picking and sticking with BU.

Leroy, aged 27, was featured in the Education section of the newspaper, and highlighted Bournemouth University as his top choice for travel opportunities.

His excursions with the student union’s Raising And Giving (RAG) charity hitchhike Leggit, and a possible opportunity to travel to South Africa as part of his final semester were among his top reasons to attend BU.

When asked the best way to secure these opportunities at BU, Leroy advised students to take advantage of the many extracurricular activities available to them.

“Lecturers want to know what you’ve done outside of your 16 or so hours contact time in first year – so pick activities that will make the lecturer look at your CV and think, ‘They’ll really make the most of an overseas experience’.”

Speaking after the article was published Leroy said: “Bournemouth the town and Bournemouth the uni matches my character and allows me to express myself and grow.

“I hope by being featured in The Guardian, it has allowed me to spread a message that says to somebody somewhere that they can grab a part of Bournemouth and BU and enjoy it. And for the ones already doing it? Keep going – you got this.”

Read The Guardian article

By Anushka Naidoo, Final year BA (Hons) Communications and Media student at BU

BU graduate who wrote & directed feature film back to give advice

Posted on by

A Scriptwriting graduate who has since gone on to write and direct his own successful feature film was back at BU to share his advice and experiences with current students.

Ben Cookson – who graduated from the BA (Hons) Scriptwriting for Film and Television  degree course in 2006 – wrote and directed Almost Married, a feature film which was released in cinemas across the UK in March.

The comedy drama – which stars Emily Atack and Philip McGinley – follows a groom-to-be who returns from his stag do with a sexually transmitted disease.

Ben was back at BU to share his experiences with current students, as well as give advice on how to break into the industry.

“The biggest challenge is coping with the stress of basically working on a project for effectively three and a half years,” he said.

“You have put all your eggs in one basket and it could go wrong.”

Ben graduated with a First Class Honours degree, as well as winning the Alan Plater Award for Best Screenplay for his final project.

After leaving BU, he ran a scriptwriting competition for the European Independent Film Festival in Paris and was a regional winner in BAFTA’s Sixty Seconds of Fame film competition.

He said that winning the awards helped him get ahead in the industry.

“To get an agent and getting your scripts read by anyone is pretty difficult,” said Ben, who is now working on his next project – a romantic thriller set in Paris.

“The thing that made me stand out was the award I won for my final project, so when I contacted agencies, it meant they did read my script and so did a lot of producers and off the back of that I did get an agent.

“Winning something does help open doors.”

He added networking was key, and that rejection should be seen as a positive.

“If every door you knocked on just opened and it was easy, you’re never going to develop as a person to the stage where you can properly succeed,” he told the students.

“You need to want it a little bit more than everyone else and you’re only going to get that by wanting to prove people wrong.”

The event also featured a screening of the Almost Married, which was shot in just 18 days.

Ben said he wanted to come back to BU as he had been inspired by guest lectures from the likes of director Anthony Minghella while he was studying, and felt he owed his career to the course.

“It nice to come back and see some of the teachers who taught me because I wouldn’t have got where I am without them,” he said.

“I came to uni to get my head down – I was a geek and I went to every lecture. You have got to work hard and not waste your time here.

“Three years is nothing and it’s so important to make the most of it and go to your lectures.”

BU students broadcast live EU Election coverage

Featured

Posted on by

Students from across BU’s Media School streamed live analysis and debate during the European Parliamentary Elections to try and encourage student engagement in politics.

Going live Weymouth House on Talbot campus after the polling stations closed, dozens of students were involved in the BUEU2014 project.

The students were a cross-course team from The Media School including students from politics, journalism, media and communications, and TV production courses. Led by a core group, they brought their unique skills together to collaborate on the project.

The broadcast was the most recent in a series of events around the European Parliamentary Elections including televised hustings and a five day trip to Brussels for a group of Media School students.

The trip was financially supported in part by BU’s Fusion fund and part directly from MEPs. The fact-finding mission gave thirty students the opportunity to learn more about the European Parliament, interview MEPs and produce video for the BUEU2014 event.

Doug Tham, a second year BA (Hons) Politics and Media student and president of the Student Politics Society, was one of the organisers of the Brussels trip.

He began fundraising and contacting MEPs over a year ago and hopes to continue to keep the student body engaged in politics in the run up to next year’s general elections.

He said: “I wanted to show students that with politics you need to start from the small ‘p’ and then go to the big ‘P’. And politics, it involves everyone every day in their daily lives but people just need to see that.”

BA (Hons) Television Production student, Ed Lawrence was another of the key instigators for the project. Describing the idea behind BUEU2014, he said:

“There are young voters that are wanting to get interested in politics but finding it difficult to be engaged by the parties so this is a kind of experiment – we’re trying to get a lot of young people involved in this event to get them into the European elections and see what content we can produce.”

Jason Collins, a BA (Hons) Communication and Media student was the studio anchor for the broadcast, reading out the breaking election news live as it happened.

As a previous non-voter Jason said of the project: “I’m not from a political background and prior to applying for the Brussels trip I had no knowledge in the area.

“It wasn’t until I got to Belgium, conversed with other students by debating and got to meet the MEPs that I realised the importance of politics and Europe in our day to day lives.”

“I found myself becoming increasingly passionate and after the trip I formed more of a voice in the area and felt compelled to help with the coverage of the European Parliament Elections.”

Although BUEU2014 is a student-led endeavour it has been supported and encouraged by BU teaching staff and academics throughout.

Dr David McQueen lectures in Politics and Media at BU and has actively encouraged the students to be proactive in politics.

He said he hopes that this type of collaborative working will continue in the School, adding: “The professional manner in which the students have worked together and the degree of engagement in EU political matters has been outstanding.”

Photo courtesy of Neil Goridge

Winners of BU National Student Survey prize draw chosen

Posted on by

Final year BU students who completed the National Student Survey (NSS) have received prizes including £1,000 of holiday vouchers and VIP graduation packages.

Nine winners were chosen at random, for completing the NSS – an independent national survey which gives final year students the chance to feed back on their course and university experience.

BSc (Hons) Psychology student Scott Freemantle won the top prize of £1,000 of holiday vouchers.

He said: “When I first found out I’d won, I was slightly in disbelief. I’m thinking I’ll possibly go to the Caribbean with the vouchers.

“It’s great to know that I can hand in my dissertation, do my final exams and then head off somewhere. It’s a really good end to the year.”

Three students received the prize of a VIP graduation package – which includes overnight accommodation, gown hire and photographs, along with two guest tickets for the ceremony.

The winners were BA (Hons) Events Management student Naomi Kay; BSc (Hons) Computing Framework student David McBeth; and Robyn Gribble, a BSc (Hons) Sports Psychology and Coaching Sciences student.  

“It’s well worth filling out the survey – I’m definitely happy that I did it, as now I’ve got a VIP graduation package,” David said.

“It’s important to give feedback and you might end up with a really great prize! I even got a free smoothie while I was doing it as well!”

Robyn added: “Because I’ve won the graduation package, it’s going to be a really nice end to my university experience, ending it on a high.

“It was definitely worth filling out the survey – if you don’t give feedback and let people know about things, then nothing will ever happen.”

Five students won tickets to this year’s Summer Ball – which is now sold out.

They were:

  • Samuel Whiffen (BSc (Hons) Computing Framework)
  • Jessica Jegathesparan  (BA (Hons) Advertising with Marketing Communications)
  • Dale Scholey, (BA (Hons) English)
  • Yusef Javed  (BA (Hons) Scriptwriting for Film and Television)
  • Kim Doolan (BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing)

Samuel said: “Summer ball is the best night of the year and I’m really looking forward to it. I already had a ticket so I’m going to give it to a friend from back home so they can come too.

“It’s well worth doing the survey – it only takes five minutes and it’s good to give your feedback to the university.”

Yusef added: “I’m really pleased. I didn’t manage to get hold of a ticket, so I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to the Summer Ball, but now it gives me a reason to dye my hair blue as part of the costume idea I’ve got!

“It is definitely worthwhile to get your views heard. I’m a Student Rep as well, and I think this survey is good as it covers the whole university experience, as well as your courses.”

The winners of the BU NSS Prize Draw were chosen at random by Ipsos Mori, the independent market research company who carry out the survey.

They received their prizes from Professor John Fletcher, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at BU.

Work begins on Bournemouth University International College

Featured

Posted on by

Work has begun on a new Bournemouth University International College, which will offer international students academic programmes to prepare them for degree courses at BU.

The Bournemouth University International College, located on Holdenhurst Road, will comprise of a four storey academic block and a 16 storey residential block and will welcome 600 international students every year.

The college will offer preparation programmes, which will give students the academic and English language skills to go on and study undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at Bournemouth University.

It will be run in partnership with Kaplan International Colleges, who collaborate with universities to prepare international students for studying degrees in the UK.

At a ground breaking ceremony held to mark the start of work on the building, BU Vice-Chancellor Professor John Vinney, said: “This literally is a ground breaking moment for Bournemouth University, as this new partnership with Kaplan is the start of a new opportunity for us that will help us to realise our global ambitions.

BUIC groundbreaking“The Bournemouth University International College is a tool for enabling more students from around the world to experience the education we have to offer, with such potential for talent from around the world to develop at BU.”

Linda Cowan, Managing Director of Kaplan International Colleges, added: “We have worked with Bournemouth University over a number of years and are excited by the opportunity to develop further our relationship with this significant investment in the university and the wider Bournemouth community.

“We will be delivering programmes on the university’s Lansdowne campus, and with BU’s strong reputation in areas like media and tourism – along with the new facilities that are being developed, integrating study, cultural and social space – we have a very strong offer for students from around the world.”

The construction work on the development will be carried out by Watkin Jones, and the building is due to be completed and open by September 2015.