Annual Report

1998-99

 

The year that has seen the opening of the Scottish and Welsh national assemblies has also witnessed the setting up of the English Regional Development Agencies to promote economic development and social and physical regeneration. Central Government policy is giving progressively greater weight to the regional role of higher education too, and this University will be part of the new Higher Education Regional Development Association for the South West.

It already plays an important role in the region. In its sheer physical presence the University has a profound influence on the City of Bristol and the South West.

The University

  • employs over 4,000 staff
  • generates an estimated further 3,000 jobs in the South West Region
  • has 12,000 students
  • feeds about £150 million into the regional economy by capital, revenue and employee spend
  • owns and maintains 370 buildings of which 70 are listed
  • owns 400 hectares of land

In addition, 24% of its graduates who go into permanent employment remain in the region. The University is a major source of sports facilities and cultural events and hosts a wide range of open lectures, conferences and exhibitions. Members of the University contribute to many local organisations, official and voluntary.

Currently 16% of the University�s undergraduates come from the South West. As part of the University�s strategy to widen participation it aims to double the intake from local state schools over the next two years. The following items give a small selection of the many recent initiatives to forge even closer links with the region.

Six steps to fame: one step to heaven
Six steps to fame - one step to heaven was a mini-musical based on the hopes and aspirations of young people living in an area where obstacles to success are legion. It was written by the actors themselves and facilitated by students. The performance took place before a large and enthusiastic audience drawn from the local community in Knowle West, a district of Bristol hampered by high levels of social exclusion. The actors were members of the Eagle Centre, the only youth club on the estate.

For third-year students in the Drama Department this was the culmination of their half-year course on Democratising Performance. Run by Baz Kershaw, Professor of Drama, the course draws on an international movement to reinforce democracy through the arts and includes training in facilitating and organising workshops, as well as study of the democratic potential of theatre. At the Eagle Centre in Knowle West and also at the YMCA Youth Club in nearby Totterdown, students led interactive workshops to develop drama and theatre skills, and aimed to extend the creative vocabulary of the young people, exploring such issues as sexism, racism and family life in the community. Out of the workshops grew Six steps to fame and, at Totterdown, An evening of Forum Theatre.

Phil Cotgreave, the Manager of Youth Services for South Bristol, was especially impressed by the performance, and both youth clubs are anxious for a return visit next year. The students, fully supported by the Drama Department and their Professor, developed professional relationships with youth service workers and creative partnerships with the young people. They were assessed at the end of the course on the basis of written academic work, the culminating performances, and a critical review by each student of his or her own contribution. The effect of the project on the young people and their communities is impossible to assess at this stage, but there are plans to extend it in the near future.

Improving standards of care in surgery
Who judges the success of an operation? The surgeon and the General Practitioner are aware of the outcome, but what of the patient? In a new project Martin Birchall, Consultant Senior Lecturer in Otolaryngology (ENT), is organising focus groups of patients recovering from head and neck cancer, and their carers. Their experience and interpretation of �success� of treatment will be used alongside the judgement of the doctors to determine measurable standards for the process of cancer care, with a meaningful patient and carer viewpoint.

A further three-year study, using regional audit data, is examining �pathways of care�. The research team is plotting the route of patients with head and neck cancer through various forms of treatment, in and out of hospitals in the region. The information will be fed back to clinical teams and will result in more efficient care and, it is hoped, improved quality of life for the patients. In fact, the results will be useful across a wide range of cancers in due course.

Both projects are funded by the NHS South & West Regional Research and Development Organisation and show that, in Martin Birchall�s words, �the University Division of Otolaryngology continues to be the main focus for quality improvement in head and neck cancer care in the South and West Region.�

Bristol leads regional training for engineers
Market surveys in the South West showed a need for professional development courses for graduate engineers. These courses should provide a combination of management, engineering and technology training and be presented close to the industries in which the graduates worked. Raymond Hale, who runs the successful Aerospace Integrated Graduate Development Scheme, brought together a consortium of ten institutions to bid for funding for such a programme.

Now all the universities in the South West, plus one higher education college, are acting together to provide training for graduate engineers working in the regional industries. This imaginative scheme, entitled Competitive product engineering, is co-ordinated by Bristol and directed by John Wood in the Faculty of Engineering. Five main partners (Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth and the University of the West of England, Bristol) will award degrees and provide modules, and five associated partners (the Universities of Bath and Portsmouth, Cheltenham & Gloucester College of HE, the Open University and the Royal Military College of Science) will supply modules. The delegates (as the students are known) will undertake part-time study and project work towards a Masters Degree. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council is providing funding towards the start-up costs of this scheme which starts in 2000.

Telecoms Centre

Toshiba Corporation, the major Japanese electronic and multimedia company, set up a new telecommunications research centre in Bristol in August 1998. The Telecommunications Research Laboratory is headed by Joe McGeehan, Professor of Communications Engineering, who will divide his time between the Laboratory and the University. Bristol was selected as the site for the new Laboratory because of the presence of the University, well known as a centre of excellence for research in mobile communications technology.

Professor Joe McGeehan with
Dr Tsutomu Sugawara, Deputy Managing Director of Toshiba Telecommunications Research Laboratory

The new research laboratory will undertake advanced research in the next generation of digital cellular phone formats and wireless access technologies. The technology being developed for third-generation mobile �phones will enable them to do anything a fixed line can do, such as sending video images and enabling online shopping.

Toshiba has agreed to invest �1 million in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering to support a Chair and Lectureship and provide funds for collaborative research projects between Toshiba and the University.