Notice Board
May 2008
RGU short-listed for Getenergy Award
Mohamed Amish of the School of Engineering represented RGU at the Getenergy 2008 Awards in London from 26-28 March, where the University was short-listed from an international field in the category of Education / Training Provider of the Year.
RGU participated in the awards - an annual event committed to forging relationships between oil and gas companies, governments, universities and other training providers - at the invitation of Shell.
The University was recognised for playing a key role in delivering high quality courses that encourage students both to enter and remain in the oil and gas industry. The University provides a wide portfolio of innovative degrees and professional training to companies worldwide including Shell, PDVSA, Sonatrach and PetroChina.
Professor Iain Steel, Head of the School of Engineering said, "The oil and gas industry is experiencing a serious lack of engineering talent and is keen to attract new recruits from other disciplines while also retaining existing staff. RGU, together with our commercial arm Univation Ltd, is working closely with companies to provide the tailored training they require and in 2007 more than 450 students were enrolled in these programmes. Although we didn’t win, our short-listing is recognition of the contribution that RGU is making in providing the sector with industry-ready graduates."
Paper short-listed for SAGE prize
Professor Norman Bonney, an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Public Policy at Aberdeen Business School, was short-listed recently for the SAGE Prize for Innovation and/or Excellence 2008.
The SAGE Prize is awarded annually to one paper in each of the BSA’s four prestigious journals. Although he didn’t go on to win, Professor Bonney made the Editors’ Shortlist for his paper on 'Gender, employment and social class' which appeared in the Work, Employment and Society journal last year.
Applied Social Studies staff have their say at conference
A number of members of staff from the School of Applied Social Studies presented papers at the recent British Sociological Association Annual Conference.
Addressing the theme of Social Worlds, Natural Worlds in 2008, the conference took place at the University of Warwick from 28-30 March. Donncha Marron, Christopher Yuill in collaboration with L Crinson, and Valerie Sheach Leith in collaboration with J Brownlie were given the opportunity to present their papers on ‘Credit, consumption and freedom’, ‘Capitalism, cortisol and the bio-chemistry of alienation’ and ‘The infant body’ respectively.
Learning network for social services
An online learning hub for those working in the Social Services sector across the North of Scotland has been developed by Grainne Hamilton, e-learning communications manager at the School of Applied Social Studies, in collaboration with the University’s IT Services department.
The Learning Network North Portal (lnnportal) supports virtual communities of practice (VCoP), eLearning and opportunities for inter-disciplinary networking and sharing of practice. Current members of the portal are using it to engage with colleagues, lead or participate in interactive learning and communicate with team members.
Anyone in the Social Services sector in the North of Scotland can create an account to make use of the Learning Network North Portal. To find out more visit:
Sustainable relationships key to environmental planning
Abhishek Agarwal, a doctoral student and part-time lecturer at Aberdeen Business School, recently returned from a visit to the prestigious Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
During his visit to the University, Abhishek delivered a presentation on ecological modernisation to its Department of Environmental Science and Engineering.
Since it was established in 1984, the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University has played, and will continue to play, a major role in environmental sustainability in China.
Vice-Principal Professor Peter Robertson, who is heading up environmental and sustainability plans at RGU, added: “Tsinghua University is not only one of China's leading universities but is also one of the world’s leading research institutions. It is a tremendous achievement for Abhishek to have been invited to present his research, further enhancing RGU's research reputation at such a prestigious Chinese university."
