University for the Creative Arts
Will Alsop
The man who designed the Hôtel du Département des Bouches-du-Rhône (“Le Grand Bleu”) in Marseilles and the Stirling Prize-winning Peckham Library in South London joins the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury as professor of architecture. Will Alsop said that the institution is “the only place in this country, with the exception of the Royal College of Art, where you can learn to be an architect in the same building as you can learn to be an artist”. It used to be “commonplace” for fine art and architecture to be in neighbouring or the same buildings, he observed, “but that all started to change back in the 1960s when someone decided architecture was a science. Not that it doesn’t involve some science, but you don’t have to headline that in particular.” He said that the “time is ripe” to re-examine how architects are trained. “I think they need to be more Renaissance… I’m exaggerating a little bit, but there has [recently] been a period where architectural institutions thought you should be training people to work in an office, which is actually a very boring thing to do.” Professor Alsop said that he wished to “diversify the whole experience from something that’s very practical to something that’s fun – but always in a learning environment”. He was formerly a tutor in sculpture at Saint Martins School of Art (now part of Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, a constituent college of the University of the Arts London).
University of Nottingham
Emma Sims
The University of Nottingham has appointed an alumna as its new head of access and communities. Emma Sims, who took her undergraduate degree in history and postgraduate certificate in education at Nottingham, will lead a new section in student operations and support, bringing together a range of existing areas including widening participation, community partnerships and the academies unit. Ms Sims, who began her career as a teacher, took an MA in educational leadership and innovation at the University of Warwick and later held senior posts at an educational trust. In her new post, she will assist in the development and implementation of Nottingham’s community engagement and widening participation strategies, particularly in relation to the university’s sponsorship of local academies. “I feel I will be able to use my experience in the sector to find further opportunities for collaboration and to engage even more of the communities where we operate,” she said. Ms Sims previously worked at the University of Northampton as director of employability and engagement.
University of Brighton
Tony Metcalfe
The new professor of burns and wound healing research at the University of Brighton has reflected that we are in “exciting times for interdisciplinary science”, particularly in his own and associated fields. Tony Metcalfe will explore healing and tissue regeneration at Brighton’s School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences as part of a joint appointment, at the same time taking on the post of director of research at the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation, which works to assist medical professionals in treating burns survivors and patients with soft tissue injuries. “Recent advances in regenerative medicine will allow us to create a new legacy and initiate exciting collaborations to develop novel technologies and therapies,” he said. Professor Metcalfe graduated from Lancaster University with a BSc in biochemistry and a PhD in molecular genetics. He has experience in wound healing and tissue repair, working most recently at F-star, an antibody engineering company in Cambridge, where he was a director. Previously he worked as head of research and scientific opportunities at Renovo, a bio-pharmaceutical product company specialising in the development of drugs to reduce scarring, improve wound healing and enhance tissue regeneration.
University of Helsinki
Jukka Kola
The current vice-rector of the University of Helsinki has moved up a position to become the institution’s new rector. Jukka Kola, who has held the post of professor of agricultural policy since 1992, has been vice-rector since 2010 and served as dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry from 2004 to 2009. Helsinki’s board, which elected Professor Kola to the top job, concluded that he had a “realistic vision for the development of the university” and that his strengths included a broad and integrative perspective, along with an attentive and interactive style of leadership. “We can become one of the world’s 50 best universities by improving our basic functions but we have to keep the economic situation in mind and adjust our goals accordingly,” he said. Professor Kola added that the greatest challenge in the near future was to recruit international student talent from all over the world, noting that “Finland’s best students already apply to the University of Helsinki, but to stay on top we need the best students and researchers from abroad as well.” His relationship with the institution is a long one: he studied for an MSc, pre-doctoral degree and PhD at Helsinki. Professor Kola has also studied at the universities of Arkansas and Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Other changes
Royal Holloway, University of London has appointed Cheryl Newsome to the post of director of human resources. Ms Newsome, who takes up the position in July, has worked at University College London as director of HR consultancy, organisation and staff development for the past five years. “Royal Holloway is made all the more familiar by [my] having been here before as a parent. I am looking forward to joining, having already been made to feel so welcome,” she said.
Gill Sandford has been made dean of the Faculty of Creative Industries at the newly formed University of South Wales. Ms Sandford, who studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, was previously deputy dean of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan, which this year merged with the University of Wales, Newport to form the new university. Ms Sandford held senior roles at the University of the West of England before moving to Glamorgan in 2011.
Richard Jobson, the frontman of Scottish punk band The Skids who later became a film-maker, has collected an honorary doctorate of the arts from Edinburgh Napier University. Other honorands included James Holloway, the former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, and Sir John Arbuthnott, president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Gail Anderson has been appointed head of veterinary education at the University of Surrey. She will take up her role in Surrey’s new School of Veterinary Medicine, which opens in 2014. A surgeon, educator, administrator and researcher, Professor Anderson has worked in senior clinical and leadership roles in private practice and at higher education institutions around the world, including the University of Adelaide in Australia and the School of Veterinary Medicine at Ross University in St Kitts, West Indies.
To send submissions – with pictures – to the People section email: people@tsleducation.com