Chalkface

PEOPLE

INTERNATIONALLY renowned best-selling author Brian Callison has been appointed a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Dundee University. He will work with the University's learning enhancement unit on its "Write Right" programme, helping undergraduates develop their academic or creative writing skills. Students can get free consultation with Callison by booking an appointment. Born in Manchester, Callison was educated at Dundee High School and the then Dundee College of Art. He continues to live and write in the area.

NEWS

A NEW series following the fortunes of six teaching graduates from Aberdeen University as they embark on their first year of work is to be shown on BBC1 Scotland. The wet-behind-the ears recruits starring in Teacher Teacher include a former slaughterman and a guitarist in a punk band. The series begins on 22 November at 8:30pm.

PUPILS at Eco Schools in Fife have put together a newspaper called the Eco Echo, to promote environmental issues.

The paper is the first in a biannual series that will be written by the pupils of Fife's Eco Schools and will be a forum for sharing ideas and information. The Eco Echo was launched at an Eco Schools conference, held at the Auctherderran Resource Centre, Cardenden, on 11 November.

THE LEARNING Exchange, the world's first interactive library of digital learning resources for social work education, has been launched by the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education.

It will be available to all social work educators in Scotland, placing at their fingertips a rich online library. It has been developed over the past two years at a cost of 800,000, funded jointly by the Scottish Executive and the Scottish Funding Council.

The institute is a collaboration between nine Scottish universities, and is based at Dundee University. Strathclyde University led the development of the exchange.

AWARDS

TWO SCOTTISH students have each won 25,000 in the first UK Science Enterprise Centres' National Business Plan Competition, co-ordinated by the Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE). Susanne Olsen, 26, of Robert Gordon University, and Michael Bowes, 23, of Glasgow University, were honoured at an awards ceremony in Edinburgh on Monday night. Olsen has developed a method for separating greenhouse gases while Bowes has invented an automatic drinks vending machine.

STRATHCLYDE master of business administration (MBA) student Stephen Koepplinger has been named AMBA Student of the Year 2005 at a ceremony in London. Koepplinger, a part-time student, gave up his job as a well-paid consultant engineer to work as a teacher in Glasgow and now his social enterprise initiative 4SEA is promoting after-school activities to pupils.

EVENT

NAPIER University's School of Computing is holding an IT Careers Update at its Merchiston Campus on Tuesday 29 November. Speakers will tell advisers about the latest version of the government-sponsored Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA/3), explaining what it means for future IT careers in Scotland. Speakers will include Gerry Docherty, managing director of Real Time Engineering, a provider of business consultancy and IT solutions.