In
the news
The
first Leeds graduate to go into space will be Piers Sellers.
The 47 year old will fulfil a lifelong dream when he joins
the NASA Shuttle flight 112 in August according to the
Yorkshire Post. Mr Sellers received a doctorate
in biometeorology at the University in 1981.
The
New York Times reported that the British
claim to work longer hours than their European and American
counterparts but are less productive. However, "the
long hours are beginning to take a toll, it seems. Only
16 percent of those questioned said they would work longer
hours than they do to help their organisation, compared
with 21 percent who said they would in 1992," explained
the business school's Professor Peter Nolan. His work
on the UK labour force survey was also cited in Hansard's
record of parliamentary debates.
Health-related
activities at Leeds were profiled in the THES's
feature on universities and the NHS. The University 'realigned
its structures' to better reflect the needs of the local
NHS trust and appointed a general manager with NHS experience
to head the school, Peter Noble. The school and trust
now share a research and development strategy. Professor
David Cottrell explained the benefits of partnership with
Bradford for widening participation: "The approach
is in tune with NHS thinking on multi-professionalism,
giving flexible entry into different professions rather
than wasting talent."
An
early England exit from the World Cup would have an impact
on the FTSE 100 index claims the business school's
Dr Bill Gerrard, (see page 5). The study by Dr Gerrard
and Robert Hudson from the international institute of
banking and financial services gained coverage across
the national and regional media with the story appearing
in the Daily Star, Express,
Independent, Yorkshire Post,
Yorkshire Evening Post, Financial
News and on Real radio and BBC
Radio 5.
The
league table season continued with extensive listings
in the Guardian. The subject guide highlighted
geography at Leeds, which was placed 4th in a ranking
of UK institutions. Earlier rankings in the Times
had placed geography provision at the University in 9th
place. Meanwhile general engineering at Leeds appeared
in the Times' top 20 but not the Guardian's:
another example of league table inconsistencies.
Dr
Richard Howells from the institute of communications studies
joined BBC TV's The Heaven and Earth Show
to discuss if life really was better 50 years ago. As
part of the Jubilee-based programme Dr Howells argued
that: "Something we do a lot of in Britain is re-imagine
the past through the golden haze of retrospect."
As
the Reporter goes to press, we have heard
that Dr Dean Waters from biology is due to feature on
BBC TV's Tomorrow's World. He will be talking
about research that applied his knowledge of bats to develop
devices helping people with visual impairments.
