From the Chalkface

Published on Tuesday 22 September 2009 20:14

DR Hazel Hall of Edinburgh Napier University has been appointed to the newly-established Library and Information Science Research Coalition. Dr Hall will be seconded to the organisation for two days a week to help implement a co-ordinated approach to library and information science research in the UK.

&#149 PROFESSOR Dorothy Miell has been appointed as the new vice-principal and head of the College of Humanities and Social Science at Edinburgh University. She joins from the Open University, where she was dean and director of studies of the Social Science faculty.

NEWS

GLASGOW school pupils will be offered mentoring from employees of Morgan Stanley after the bank entered into a partnership with the Prince's Trust.

The two-year project will see bank staff work with pupils from 18 secondary schools in the city on community and enterprise projects as well as modules preparing pupils for the world of work. It is being run as part of the trust's "xlerate with xl" programme, which aims to re-engage pupils aged between 14 and 16 with education.

&#149 STUDENTS studying for a counselling skills certificate in Stirling will be able to continue their studies after a Perth company stepped in to deliver a course discontinued by Forth Valley College. Rowan Consultancy has announced it will run the training in Dunblane, allowing students mid-way through their studies and those on the waiting list to work towards the Counselling and Psychotherapy in Scotland Counselling Skills Certificate.

&#149 A 750,000 fund to help enterprises coming from Dundee University has been launched. The University of Dundee Venture Fund LP has been set up in conjunction with Frontier IP and will offer support to start-up companies emerging from research undertaken at the institution.

&#149 RESEARCHERS in the field of systems biology will benefit from new facilities at Edinburgh University after the 7.2 million CH Waddington Building opened its doors. The centre, which will house 62 researchers, is one of just six sites dedicated to this field, which uses maths and computer modelling to examine challenges in biology. It was funded by the Biological and Biotechnology Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

&#149 THE first batch of graduates from the Perth arm of the prospective University of the Highlands and Islands will receive their degrees on Friday. The professional qualifications, which will be the first under the institution's new degree-awarding powers, mark a significant step along the path towards the college achieving university status.

EVENTS

THE grandson of Mahatma Gandhi will appear at Dundee University next month, to talk about world peace.

Arun Gandhi – himself a political activist – will deliver the Margaret Harris Lecture on Religion at the University's Dalhousie Building on 7 October.

The talk, entitled 21st Century Peace-Making: The Gandhi Way, is part of a year of events co-hosted by the University's Students' Association. Mr Gandhi will also open a photography exhibition in the Dalhousie foyer displaying images from 1960s India.