OSCARs 2019
This year’s OSCARs took place on Thursday 24th October. Congratulations to all our award winners here in SAAS: Pete Broadhurst, for Excellence in Service Delivery, and the #HealthyDMU team, for Exceptional Contribution to the Student Experience!
Congratulations also go to our OSCAR nominees Leanne Herbert (Disability Officer specialising in autism – for Exceptional Contribution to the Student Experience) and Simon Baines (Enterprise Project Manager – for Outstanding Contribution to Internationalisation). Thanks all for all your hard work!
DAQ Departmental Meeting
This meeting involved a demonstration of a colourful and entertaining Student Voice Biteable video clip, mini speed dating, ‘practical and useful stuff we all need to know’ information and finishing off with an open discussion. All of this was helped with lots of cake and crisps provided by kindly colleagues.
Hall Visits with Student Finance and Welfare
During November the Student Finance and Welfare team embarked on their annual visits to halls of residence to talk to students about their finances. Over two weeks the team made evening visits to six halls around campus using tried and tested techniques in engaging first year students – free hot chocolate with all the trimmings, sweets and a prize draw! The team talked to students about their money management, with specialist advice on all aspects of student money matters. The visits are a great opportunity to talk to students about their spending patterns, and provide top-tips on issues such as saving money on your groceries and how to access additional funding. The team were able to promote the DMU Support Fund, designed to assist with general living and course-related costs, to those students that might need it the most. More information about the Support Fund is available on our website.
Transitions Trip
Strategic and International Partnerships kindly donated the DMU hospitality box to a Transitions Team care leavers’ event on 19th October. The Team were able to welcome new and returning care leavers to DMU by inviting students to a free lunch and seat in the DMU box. The Leicester City vs Burnley match at King Power stadium resulted in a 2-1 victory to Leicester. Free commemorative scarves were left on every seat to commemorate the late chairman, Khun Vichai. Transitions provides support for care leavers and estranged students at DMU, there are a total of 150 students in receipt of a bursary who are currently estranged from parents, or have left local authority care.
Thrive Pods
As part of #HealthyDMU, starting at the beginning of term, the Welfare Team have been running new weekly creative sessions for students to attend as part of Thrive. The classes are designed to give students a space to get together with their peers in a relaxed environment and try something new.
Pastel drawing, LEGO building, clay modelling and planting are just some of what has been offer this term and next term the sessions will include a visit from a registered therapy dog, knitting and art sessions. Staff can see what is available via My Gateway and recommend to students to come along to any of the classes on Wednesdays at 1pm in the Breathing Space. If students wish to attend please get them to book on MyGateway as spaces are limited.
New to DMU
At the beginning of every September, The Autism Team which sits within Disability Advice and Support, welcomes 30 autistic students onto campus for a four-day residential event called New to DMU.
Students experience a mixture of activities during their time at New to DMU, both academic and social including a scavenger hunt, library tour and a lecture on UDL. The students also stay overnight in Newarke Point, where they learn what it is like to live away from home including cooking their own dinner.
The team are helped by student ambassadors who are current autistic students to facilitate the social side of the event, including down time in the evenings.
We always get great feedback from both students and their parents saying how the event has prepared them for university life and that they now have a group of friends before they’ve even started at DMU.
Welcomes
Welcome to Andrew Thompson, Partnerships Manager (Quality); Abid Hussain, Senior Quality Officer (Student Voice and Annual Monitoring) and Kiera Cornish, Quality Officer (Partnerships) who have all recently joined the DAQ from outside of the organisation.
Also welcome to Paul Overton, Senior Partnerships Officer who has transferred from Admissions to be part of the Educational Partnerships within DAQ.
The DMUworks teams have welcomed some new staff; welcome to Vanessa Haye, who has joined the team as Project Manager of Leicester’s Future Leaders. Welcome back Leanne Easom, who has come back to Unitemps after maternity leave (congratulations!). Patrick McLintock has joined us in the ADH placements team and Vikesh Mistry has joined the Enterprise team. In the new year we will be joined by Phil Woods taking up a new role as our Careers Digital and Data Officer.
Goodbyes
Goodbye, thank you and good luck to Alexina Adley-Sweeney, Partnerships Officer who is to leave us at the end of this year to pastures new.
Goodbye to Jack Merry and Azima Ajij, from the internships team, who have both moved on to pastures new.
Fiona Malcolm is leaving the HLS placements team after 24 years and organising over 50,000 placements! She had a great send-off on 28 November with many members of faculty attending.
Goodbye to Allison Skellern, Career Development Manager for CEM, who has taken a new position at the Open University. Her position has been filled by Amardeep Panasar.
Sadly for us, Sally Cleere will be leaving us in February to start a new role at Nottingham University Business School. We wish her well!
Team of the Month
Academic Support Office
The Academic Support Office (ASO) team have a varied remit, our work currently includes:
- Providing executive and administrative support to our Executive Director and Heads of Divisions.
- Supporting the SAAS directorate with H&S matters and financial administration.
- Providing administrative support to key SAAS projects.
- Managing student complaints and academic appeals.
- Managing student discipline cases across the institution as well as major academic offences cases that require a formal committee hearing.
- Managing and coordinating exam deferrals for all UG and PG
- Providing a wide range of information (sometimes in response to the most obscure questions!) to staff and students across the institution. students.
If you require any further information about the team or the work they do, please feel free to contact Lisa Allden directly who will be happy to assist you.
Acronym of the Month
Northern Universities Consortium (NUCCAT)
NUCCAT is a practitioner body consisting of a group of universities in northern England and the Midlands. It provides a forum for those in Higher Education with an interest in the design, implementation and regulation of credit-based curricula and its implications for the student experience and academic progression. NUCCAT offers an annual seminar programme to both member and non-member institutions, and runs a research programme for colleagues from member institutions which provides funding for them to undertake original research in the areas of NUCCAT’s interest.
Who’s Who: Carmen Bayliss
What is your role at DMU?
I am the Administrator within the Department of Academic Quality (DAQ).
How long have you been with us?
I began employment at the University on the 28th November 2011 as Secretary to the Head of Business and Law Post Graduate and left as Secretary to Politics and Public Policy to join DAQ three years ago.
Describe your average working day…
I begin each day checking my emails, assessment board emails and SAAS Local Buyers emails, actioning any requests as required. I then view my task list which all members of the team can input into and work through each task, from booking travel, estates requests, sending out academic regulations, setting up meetings, research and anything else which may be required.
What interests you most about your work?
The variety of my tasks, I don’t know from one day to the next what I will be doing and therefore it can sometimes be challenging. I also enjoy working with all of my colleagues within DAQ and enjoy the banter that goes with the job.
What do you do in your spare time?
I love to walk my springer spaniel, called Webster, around the fields where I live (when they’re not in flood) and also counted cross stitch and reading crime booked based in the UK, both fiction and non-fiction.
Tell us something about yourself not many people who work with you would know…
My bucket list is to visit every state in America, so far I have visited twenty so far so have quite a way to go.
Who would you like to see playing you if a film was made of your life, and why?
Catherine Zeta-Jones, I’ve been a fan of hers since she was in the Darling Buds of May and love her sassiness.
What scares you most?
Heights are not good for me, when I visited the Grand Canyon it was like looking through a ping pong ball when I leant over a balustrade to take a photograph, it wasn’t until the fog cleared later that I discovered I was actually leaning over a 200 feet drop, let just say I wasn’t a happy bunny.
What achievement are you most proud of in your life?
Dealing with mental health issues, it isn’t until you have suffered yourself that you can truly understand the impact that this can have on a persons’ life.
If the world were to end tomorrow what would you do today?
I would meet my husband at our local pub with the dog and have a gin and tonic.
Cascade 