| May 2009 | View back issues |
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| May 2009 | ||
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Saltire Foundation student success A group of Strathclyde students has been given the opportunity of a lifetime after securing places on the prestigious Saltire Foundation's 2009 International Undergraduate Internship Programme. A total of 40 placements were offered to students across Scotland, and nine Strathclyde undergraduates have been successful in gaining a placement. Of the nine, seven are students from the Business School. Strathclyde's careers service organised a programme of events to help with the recruitment and interview process for the Internship scheme, which aims to promote a culture of enterprise amongst undergraduates and to expand their horizons. Standards are high for acceptance on to the programme and students are selected on their individual merits, with academic achievement being only one of the factors considered. The successful students will gain invaluable insight into the workings of high-level international business operations on a practical level. The Saltire Foundation aims to generate a pipeline of confident, entrepreneurially-driven executives, equipped to seize the opportunities Scotland has to offer. By broadening horizons and opening doors, the aim is to encourage candidates to develop their confidence, skills and capacity to succeed. Projects for 2009 include posts with such companies as Bayer Healthcare, RBS Securities Japan, Bilfinger, Roche and the Wood Group, in locations throughout Europe, America, Asia, the Middle East and Australia. The Saltire Foundation has the backing of Scottish Enterprise, GlobalScots and Scotland's International Advisory Board. Find out more about the Saltire Foundation at www.saltirefoundation.com Back to top Launch of the Barca Report on the future of EU cohesion policy  Professor John Bachtler (European Policies Research Centre) participated in the launch of the long-awaited Barca Report on the future of EU
cohesion policy which took place at the Berlaymont in Brussels on April 27, hosted by EU Commissioner Danuta Hübner and Director-General Dirk
Ahner.The independent report was written by Dr Fabrizio Barca (Director General, Ministry of Economy & Finance, Italy), at the request of Commissioner Hübner to assess the effectiveness of cohesion policy to date as well as a series of proposals on how to reform cohesion policy for the period after 2013. Prof. BachtlerWith extensive support from EPRC, the preparation of the report involved a wide-ranging review of the economic literature and empirical evidence, as well as hearings and seminars with academic experts and policy makers. The report discusses the economic rationale and motivation of an EU place-based development policy and provides an assessment of EU cohesion policy. In addition, it identifies a limited number of core priorities on which to focus cohesion policy. Finally, it presents recommendations on key pillars of cohesion policy governance pinpointed for reform. As part of the research team supporting Dr Barca, Professor Bachtler contributed to the review of the evidence base, co-authored the proposals on the future of the policy, and together with Carlos Mendez, organised and led the debate with policymakers from 27 EU Member States. Carlos Mendez also co-authored one of the ten working papers which contributed to the final report. Further, the report draws on EPRC research carried out by Professor Douglas Yuill on the regional policies of Member States and by Dr Martin Ferry on the challenges of demographic ageing in the EU. The Barca report and supporting papers are available at http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/policy/future/barca_en.htm Back to top EPRC at EU Ministers Meeting in the Czech Republic Professor John Bachtler (EPRC) was an invited speaker at the informal meeting of EU Ministers for Regional Development hosted by the Czech Presidency of the EU in Mariánské Lázně from April 22-24. The aim of the informal meeting was to provide a forum for an exchange of views on the main principles and goals of a future cohesion policy and for a discussion on territorial cohesion as one of the policy's aspects, and to provide an opportunity for a presentation of the preliminary outputs of the public debate on the Green Paper on Territorial Cohesion and for an exchange of ideas regarding the contents of territorial cohesion. The meeting agreed a communique on the future objectives, coverage and focus of EU regional policy. Professor Bachtler made an introductory presentation on each of the two days of the meeting, addressing respectively the future of EU regional policy and integrated local development. Further details on the meeting can be found at http://www.eu2009.cz/event/1/521/ Back to top Two Hunter Centre events The Scottish Entrepreneurship Research Doctoral Workshop Programme took place on May 29 at the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship. Friederike Welter made the keynote speech on 'Reflections on the doctoral process - a Supervisor's Perspective'. Dr Marina Biniari spoke on, 'Making the transition from PhD student to lecturer, while 'The publishing process' was a hands-on session led by Professor Sara Carter together with other academic staff. The Scottish Entrepreneurship Research Seminar took place the previous day, May 28, again at the Hunter Centre. Professors Colin Mason and Sara Carter chaired and spoke at the seminar, with Dr Marina Biniari also taking part. Speakers attended from Jonkoping International Business School, University of the West of Scotland, University of Newcastle and the University of Leeds as well as Strathclyde. Back to top VIP Symposia on Internet related research Jaszmina Szendrey and Dr Viktor Dorfler of the Management Science Department took part in the VIPSI 2009 (VIP Symposia on Internet-related research) conference which ran from April 2-5 in Belgrade. Several world-leading experts from various fields were speakers at the conference, including Martin Perl, Michael Flynn, Yale Patt, Katsuhito Iwai and Felix Hong. Dr Dorfler presented a paper on understanding creativity in which he described creativity through jokes, and discussed the role of freedom and responsibility. Viktor Dorfler's paper Back to top EPRC lunchtime seminar The European Policies Research Centre (EPRC) hosted a lunchtime seminar on May 20 as part of its lunchtime seminar series. Professor Jim Rollo, Co-Director of the Sussex European Institute, University of Sussex, spoke on 'European Integration and the Transition Economies' in the Graham Hills Building. Back to top Strathclyde Business Forum entrepreneur event The Entrepreneurship Group of Strathclyde Business Forum hosted "3 in 1" - an evening with three of Scotland's leading entrepreneurs: John McGlynn, Scott Allison and Nelson Gray - on May 7. The students - from postgraduate courses in the Department of Management - organised the event themselves. Scott Allison said he and the two other members of the Entrepreneurial Exchange board who had attended thought it had been a successful evening, with about 30 students attending in all. Back to top Book features in textbook guide A book published last year and co-edited by Professor Chris Warhurst of the Department of Human Resource Management with colleagues from the Universities of Stirling and Trier featured recently in the Times Higher Education textbook guide. The book, Work Less, Live More? published by Palgrave Macmillan brings together cutting-edge research on the changing relationship between work and life. Back to top Living wage research  Even with the National Minimum Wage, 700,000 workers in Scotland are 'officially' low paid. Most are in the retail and hospitality industries
but many work in the public sector.As an extension of recently completed US-backed research examining low wage work in the EU and the US, Professor Chris Warhurst of the Scottish Centre for Employment Research in the Business School has been working on a steering group for the Poverty Alliance to develop a Scottish Living Wage. Professor Christine Cooper of the Department of Accountancy & Finance was an academic adviser in the calculation of the living wage figure for Scotland which came out at £7 per hour. The Living Wage Campaign, which has received backing from the Scottish Government, trade unions and faith Prof. Warhurstgroups, was launched on May 5 in Glasgow's East End. The launch was attended by a number of MSPs, and the Leader of Glasgow City Council, Stephen Purcell, was the recipient of the first 'award' to an employer in Scotland for paying a living wage, after the council increased the pay of all their low paid staff to the Scottish Living Wage level. Technical support for the launch was provided by Graham Lynch of the Department of Human Resource Management. Back to top Students in marketing competition  Fourth year marketing students took part in a competition to come up with a winning promotional campaign for a Scottish newspaper. Four
teams, two from SBS and two from Edinburgh's Queen Margaret University, made it through to the final of the marketing challenge run by News
International and leading marketing agency DADA, which asked them to find ways to get as many students as possible to register their details
on the newspaper's student website, with the incentive of five students being picked to win a cash prize.A total of 22 groups entered from Strathclyde's BA Marketing (Honours) and Queen Margaret's BA (Honours) Marketing Management courses, and were also tasked with coming up with ideas for a new promotional offer that could work for a daily Scottish newspaper. The final took Dr. Eleanor Shawplace on May 1 in Glasgow with the judging panel including S1's head of marketing David Craik, Joanne Steele, assistant brand manager at News International, and Oli Norman, DADA managing director. Up for grabs for the winning team was a trip to New York to visit a high profile news corporation and a work placement opportunity at News International's offices in Glasgow. The Strathclyde teams narrowly missed out to a team from Queen Margaret's. Dr Eleanor Shaw, marketing department, said, "All students worked exceptionally hard on this project which has formed an important part of their final year of study. Strathclyde University is a place of useful learning and this project has certainly provided our students with the opportunity of putting into practice many of the marketing theories they have learnt about over the four years of their degree." Back to top Marketing department supports Young Enterprise The Department of Marketing continues to support the activities of Young Enterprise Dunbartonshire which develops entrepreneurship within schools. Professor Stan Paliwoda is the liaison person who sits on the Area Board. At the start of the school year, schools submit a team that has then to develop a commercial idea and so over the course of the year, students progress from a basic idea to researching it, costing it and actually offering a product or service at a market stall at the Royal Concert Hall in December. The students also have a report writing and presentation session at Strathclyde, and the year ends with the submission and presentation of a company report. The Final Review and Awards ceremony took place at Strathclyde on April 29 with Jo Swinson MP as guest speaker (as the youngest MP, she had done the YED programme at Douglas Academy, Milngavie, 12 years earlier). Professor Paliwoda presented the Marketing Award, which is sponsored by the Marketing Department, to the winning team, "The Nine Misskateers" from Dumbarton Academy. The winning team produced a book for young children called 'The Big Tea Search' that built a storyline on places in and around Dumbarton and to prove their worth had it professionally produced and printed and sold all 500 copies. They are now looking for a publisher.  Professor Stan Paliwoda presents the marketing award to the winning team Back to top Students chosen for Language Village Six Strathclyde students have been chosen to participate in the Language Village in Tunisia over the summer. Students are invited to participate at the beginning of the calendar year and the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and La Manouba University's English Language Department in Tunisia select the students. This year, three of the Strathclyde six are from the business school, specifically from the International Business and Modern Languages course, and are: Dawn McKerracher, Kyle Watt and Katie Maxwell. The Language Village is a unique summer education abroad opportunity for undergraduate students to study in the Middle East/North Africa region and engage in an intense learning experience with Tunisian university students. It is now in its third year. In total, 600 upper-level undergraduate students take part in two two-week programmes at Nabeul in Tunisia, with around 300 students taking part in each programme. Back to top Virtual community for local counsellors Local counsellors support MBA and MSc students at international centres by providing a local context and facilitating their engagement with each subject. They now have a 'space' to share practices, exchange materials and interact with Glasgow-based subject co-ordinators, teaching faculty and learning support staff, thanks to work carried out by Dr Catherine Demangeot (Department of Management), Iain Small, IT manager and Derek Irving, on-line developer at the business school. The Local Counsellors' virtual community of practice was developed by them following extensive consultations with local counsellors. The virtual community consists of local communities, subject communities, a global community and a Glasgow news area. It supports Strathclyde's commitment to 'one MBA' and 'one MSc' and leverages the expertise and diversity present across its network of nine international centres. Back to top Paper presented at risk symposium Professor Lesley Walls and Matthew Revie of the department of Management Science presented papers at the Advances in Risk and Reliability Technology Symposium held at the University of Loughborough in April on their projects related to Historical Exploration Risk and Modelling Reliability within Defence Procurement. Back to top Institute for Advanced Studies Programme: Investing in an uncertain future A proposal made by Professor Tim Bedford (Management Science), Professor Colin Eden (Management) and Professor Kim Swales (Economics) from Strathclyde, with Professor Peter McKiernan (St Andrews) and Professor Simon French (Manchester), has been chosen for the Scottish Institute for Advanced Studies in the second half of this year. The programme will look at different methods for assessing and valuing future long-term investments, in particular in the public sector. The programme is being supported by the Horizon Scanning Centre, based in the Government Office for Science in London, and will culminate in the hosting of a meeting of the Future Analysts Network in December. More information about the programme is available on the IAS website: www.instituteforadvancedstudies.org.uk Back to top Cascade Technologies research project  The first phase of a multi-phase research and development project sponsored by Cascade Technologies Ltd, Stirling, has been completed by Dr Tibor Illes (John Anderson Research Lecturer in Optimization, Management Science Department) and Dr Tony Mulholland (Mathematics department).
Together they have developed new optimization models for estimating gas concentrations from experimental absorption spectra. The next stage
of the project will see them develop numerical methods to solve the optimization projects efficiently. The project plan for the next phase
has been agreed and those involved are engaged in raising funds for the continuation of the project.Dr. Tibor Illes
Back to top Optimization research A team of Strathclyde researchers – Dr Jan Sefcik, Dr Peter Grancic and Dr Tibor Illes – has been working on a project entitled, "Development of robust and quantitative population balance models" which is funded by Bridging the Gap. Dr Peter Grancic spent three months working on this project under the supervision of Dr Sefcik (Chemical and Process Engineering Department) and Dr Tibor Illes (Management Science Department). Lots of optimization aspects of these problems and models have been identified based on in-depth literature review and special knowledge of participants. These efforts form a solid basis for further research in this very important area of applied chemistry. Back to top World University Presidents Summit 2009 Dr Viktor Dorfler (Management Science) participated in the World University Presidents Summit (WUPS 2009), organised by the University of Belgrade, with the topic of 'Current Trends in Higher Education'. He chaired a session, "Universities as Catalysts in Promoting Regional Innovation" where the speakers - university presidents from Peru, Turkey and Serbia - shared their diverse visions of the future with the audience. Dr Dorfler also conducted a discussion session on "Strategic Management and New Challenges of Competitive Universities" featuring representatives from different countries expressing their different approaches to the same problems in different cultures. Back to top MDP team finish in pole position The three teams of finalists from the first year Management Development Programme (MDP) presented their business plan for a holiday company to Deloitte staff on May 6. MDP is a compulsory SBS class which runs in years 1-3 (www.strathmdp.com). The students were selected from a total of 530. They had been working on their project for 10 weeks, allowing them to demonstrate their effective interdisciplinary team working, creativity, research and presentation skills. All teams received prizes and individual commendations from Deloitte. Deloitte partner Jim Boyle said, "Our congratulations go to all three finalists. The bar goes up each year and the three boardroom presentations were delivered with great polish, composure and assurance, and the task of choosing a winner was almost certainly the most difficult we've ever had. "It's very easy to forget that these are first year students. In the end our view was that the MDP1 Fast Track team deserved to finish in pole position. They came up with a great idea, created and then lived the brand and presented with a passion, energy and enthusiasm that in the end proved very persuasive indeed." The runners-up were EX-Clusive: Zoe Davidson, Euan Cannon, Stephen Kirwan, Beatrice Mayer, Callum Donaldson, Scott Docherty, and ARC: Andrew James, Sean Mirner, Abigail MacQueen, Lori Wright, Darren Meldrum, Stephanie Ann Beattie.  Back row L-R: Scott McKenna and Alistair Stewart Front row L-R: Cassandra Frame, Francesca Ercolino, Jim Boyle (Deloitte) and Clare Moss Back to top Work, Employment and Society As co-editors of the journal Work, Employment and Society, Professors Chris Warhurst and Philip Taylor of the Department of Human Resource Management organised plenary sessions at two recent conferences: the International Labour Process Conference (ILPC) in Edinburgh and the British Sociological Association (BSA) in Cardiff. Both plenaries were part of the launch of a new section of the journal, 'On the Front Line', which seeks to encourage the submission and publication of first-hand accounts of the experience of work and employment. At the BSA Conference Professors Warhurst and Taylor also participated in a 'Meet the Editors' session alongside the editors of all the BSA's journals. Back to top Professor speaks at economic forum Professor Phil Taylor of the Department of Human Resource Management was a panel speaker at a forum entitled 'The Economic Recession - How Should Unions Respond?' which took place in Manchester on April 29 and was organised by the Union Ideas Network. Other speakers were Fran Hont (NW Regional Secretary, Unison) and Adam Lent (Head of Economic and Social Affairs, TUC). Back to top Research talk circuit Dr Tibor Illes (Management Science) gave four research-based talks during April as follows: at the Research Seminar of Mathematical Programming Study Group on April 29 at London School of Economics; at a management science seminar at Judge Business School, Cambridge University, on April 27; as part of the Systems Engineering Seminar Series on April 22 at Imperial College, London; and at the Research Seminar of the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Optimisation Modelling Applications on April 21 at Brunel University, London. Back to top |
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