Season's Greetings from the Vice-Chancellor

Friday 16 December 2011

The holidays are rapidly approaching, and Bournemouth University has received an early, but extremely welcome, Christmas present.

I'm delighted to say that we have been awarded a Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education. This national honour recognises the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA)'s contribution to the computer animation industry through its pioneering research and excellence in education. Congratulations to all those students involved whose talent, expertise and hard work has helped BU achieve such a prestigious honour.

You and BU

Following the launch of BU's new Vision & Values, BU2018: Creating, Sharing, Inspiring earlier this term, I invited all staff and students to help shape the strategies that will support and underpin our vision.

We set up a series of Strategy Focus Groups for students and staff to get your thoughts and feedback on the draft headlines of the new strategic plan, and how we can set about bringing BU2018 to life. The Focus Groups were extremely well attended and I want to thank everyone who gave up their time to help shape the future of the University. Your comments and ideas have been captured in the notes of the Focus Groups, and will be available to view shortly on the student portal.

We will be feeding this information, along with all the other feedback that we have received via the dedicated email address, into the final draft of the strategic plan that will go to the BU Board on 27 January 2012. There is still plenty of time to have your say though - please send any further comments to strategy@bournemouth.ac.uk by 13 January.

Lots to be proud of

There have been many great successes of note over the past few weeks:

• We are very proud to be hosting the 2011 Commonwealth Powerlifting and Bench Press Championships this week. There are over 250 competitors from 11 countries across the Commonwealth, including two of our very own students – Owen Hubbard and Lisa Hinks
• The Centre for Global Perspectives and Environment & Energy Team were finalists for a Times Higher Education Award 2011 and two Green Gown Awards. Well done and thank you to all the students who continue to champion environmental responsibility at the university
• Congratulations also to all the winners at last month's New Media Writing Prize awards evening. There were some very impressive entries that demonstrated the brilliant talent both at BU and across the industry as a whole
• Congratulations also go to Hospitality Management student Cara McElroy in the School of Tourism who won a HOSPA (Hospitality Professionals Association) Career Investment Development Scholarship and was invited to attend the organisation's annual conference for hospitality professionals
• And well done to Marketing student Anna Ward who won first place in a local entrepreneurship competition supported by the University. Anna will now have the opportunity to run a franchise business after her studies, and runner-up and fellow BU student Kajal Bakrania was awarded a year's work placement with a local accounting firm.

It's great to hear about the many achievements of students at BU. Please keep sharing them with us by emailing internalcomms@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Looking ahead

In the New Year every final year student in the UK will be invited to take part in the National Student Survey (NSS). The purpose of the NSS is to capture the views of undergraduate students about the quality of the teaching and education they have experienced during their time at university. The feedback from the NSS will be used by prospective students to help make choices of where and what to study, and will help universities to shape future investment and enhance the student learning experience.

National NSS data is also used by many newspapers to create University League Tables, which help to influence the public perception of Bournemouth University. So if you're proud of your university, this is your chance to tell the world! Every final year student at BU will be contacted by Ipsos MORI, the independent agency conducting the survey, in the week commencing 6 February. Please look out for the survey and I encourage you to take the time to give us your thoughts and feedback.

Following the launch of the Fusion Seminar Series this week, the next seminar will be held on Wednesday 18 January. For more details please visit the BU Research Blog.

In February we will welcome Professor Janet Beer as part of the higher education policy lecture series. Professor Beer, who is Chair of the Higher Education Public Information Steering Group, Chair of the University Alliance, and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University, will deliver a lecture titled ?Putting Students at the Heart of the System: How to make the reality live up to the rhetoric'. All students and staff are invited to attend and more information will be published on the staff and student portals in the New Year.

As always should you have any feedback on this update please send me an email at jevinney@bournemouth.ac.uk.

For many of you, term finishes today. I hope you have a wonderful break and look forward to seeing you on 9 January 2012. Season's Greetings to you all and I wish you a very happy and successful 2012.

Best wishes
John Vinney Vice-Chancellor.