The New University - Herefordshire

[Cloudberry]

For a brand new university to be successful in competition with existing universities it would need to attract top quality lecturers, and top quality researchers (teaching, research, and exploitation of research results are different skills). What would attract such people to Hereford? Could their expertise be paid for?

[Biomech]

The way I see it is that this is just a farce, it's going to be "lectures" spread across the city in different side buildings. There will be no standalone "university", they are just trying to posh things up the same way they do by renaming all high schools to "academy's" now.

 

I've done evening classes at the colleges, getting all excited for the college atmosphere only to find out one week the class is in sublet by the police station, the next week it's in a rented meeting room down some back alley. Quite disappointing.

[Cambo]

On 23/06/2014 at 12:32, megilleland said:

No grass cutting courses then? Seems to be a lot of American input here, don't we have any UK educational experts on how to set universities?

Karen usher is From the USA & she now lives in dorestone I dare say she has some good connections in the US? & personally i wish her the best of luck & hopefully she can turn it into a reality as I think a university is a good idea if it happens?

[Denise Lloyd]

Does anybody know how much the Council paid for Franklin House.  

[Denise Lloyd]

LUNCH WITH SIR ANDREW WITTY
 
Just to say there are still a few places left for the lunch with Sir Andrew Witty, the Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline plc, in Hereford this Friday.
 
Details are as follows:
 
12.30 pm for 1 pm
Friday, June 27th 2014
Hereford College of Arts, College Road Campus, Hereford, HR1 1EB
 
The cost of the lunch is £20 per person and must be booked online.  To book your place, simply click here.  The lunch is being organised in association with Herefordshire Tertiary Education Trust.
 
Sir Andrew Witty is Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline plc, the fourth largest company on the London Stock Exchange.  He has served in numerous advisory roles for governments around the world, including in South Africa, Singapore, China and the UK. In October 2012 Andrew was appointed Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.  Last year he produced an independent Review of Universities and Growth for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
 
Andrew is a terrific speaker, this should be an excellent event and I do hope you can join us.  
 
All best,
 
Jesse

 

 

An invitation not to be missed mind you you have to pay - no such thing as a free lunch!

[twowheelsgood]

Does anybody know how much the Council paid for Franklin House.  

 

West Midlands Advantage paid for it.

[Denise Lloyd]

So the Council own Franklin House but some other organisation paid for it coo that's the way to do business.  

[twowheelsgood]

Advantage West Midlands is no longer - tories got rid as soon as they came into power. So, yes, one of many hidden bonuses the council have received which they were keen to sell a little while ago. There were other buildings and sites paid for by AWM, can't remember them all off hand, but I believe the hideously ugly Blueschool House (Planing Office) is another.

[megilleland]

Advantage West Midlands is no longer - tories got rid as soon as they came into power. So, yes, one of many hidden bonuses the council have received which they were keen to sell a little while ago. There were other buildings and sites paid for by AWM, can't remember them all off hand, but I believe the hideously ugly Blueschool House (Planing Office) is another.

 

Assets and Liabilities Transition Plan 

Advantage West Midlands 

January 2011 

 

Land & Buildings Assets and Liabilities

see page 17 LB10 Three Elms Trading Estate

 

Short-Term Market Disposals

see page 18 LB36 Kington Hospital

 

Annex 2 

Contingent Assets from Land and Buildings Investments

Capital Financial Return (post March 2012)

see page 151 asset names 12 to 18

[dippyhippy]

Franklin House is listed isn't it??

[Ubique]

From BBC Shropshire - seems that Shropshire are doing the same.......?

 

Councillors have approved plans to spend £1m to help establish a new university in Shrewsbury.

 

The institution would start life as a part of the University of Chester, but the long-term aim is to turn it into a free-standing university.

 

The first courses are expected to start in September 2015 and cater for up to 400 students.

 

At a meeting of full council there was cross-party support to approve a £1m budget to develop plans.

 

Keith Barrow, leader of the Conservative-led Shropshire Council, said it was good news for the county.

 

"It's good for young people, it's good for Shropshire, it's good for business and the research facilities that will come along with it," he said.

 

"The original research the university did suggested says it would bring £60m a year into the Shropshire economy.

 

"I think the long-term effects will be even greater than that."

 

Final locations for the university are expected to be approved within the next few months.

 

Sites suggested include the Guildhall in Frankwell, the town library, the council's Shirehall offices, Abbey Foregate car park and Rowley's House.

[megilleland]

They are all going to run courses on "Transformation"!

[Denise Lloyd]

We would like to invite you to the launch of Harrison Willis, which will provide research led search and selection recruitment services across key functional areas of a business. This well-known global brand will provide complimentary services to sister company www.herefordshirerrecruitment.co.uk, enabling the businesses to provide a complete recruitment service offering to clients and candidates alike at rates commensurate with the local area.

 

Aligned to the focus of attracting exceptional talent to Herefordshire we are delighted that Karen Usher Co-Leader “A New University for Hereford has agreed to present to this audience on two areas

·         An update on progress with a new University for Herefordshire

·         How the new University will interact with and support businesses in the region.

 

The evening will commence at 6.30pm with drinks and canapés,  presentations will be conducted between 7.00 pm 8.00 pm and there will be an opportunity to network and ask any questions following the presentations.

 

Both Karen and the Herefordshire Recruitment team hope that you will be able to join us at the event.

 

To confirm your attendance, please can you email Lee.symonds@herefordshirerecruitment.co.uk by 27^th August 2014.

 

Kind regards

 

Stuart Blake

 

 

This invite is from Hereford Recruitment the organisation that Keyte has just become a director of.  It certainly is all very intertwined HC/HUFC/University 

[Aylestone Voice]

I would urge people not to support any event in which Keyte is linked and in this case he is part of Blake's Herefordshire Recruitment. He is primarily responsible for the predicament that HUFC finds itself in.

[twowheelsgood]

You would have thought that a well-known (to whom? Not me) global brand (really? Like Nike for instance?) would be able to type the correct web address for its sister company www.herefordshirerrecruitment.co.uk. Perhaps they're too busy 'adding value' and the such like to bother with the basics. Big mistake.

[flowerpotter]

Hereford College of Arts has had all Uni courses based at College Road since summer of 2013, so they're no longer spread across the City :) They took over the former Royal National College for the Blind building (RNC has moved most of its teaching over the road to thePoint4 building)

 

I work at the College and there are loads of success stories from the degree courses (have a look here if you like: http://www.hca.ac.uk/About/News)

 

On a personal level, I think if the University can match the successes of HCA and the degree students at Hereford & Ludlow College, Herefordshire will be onto a winner. There are over 400 BA (Hons) and Masters students at HCA (which is likely to grow with the 'new' campus), many of whom achieve incredible success before they even leave HCA (selling work to top designers, exhibition & competition success, work placements and so on), and HCA is the only specialist college in the Midlands dedicated to The Arts. I think the University's aim to be a specialist Science/Tech facility will not only complement the existing provision in the county (HCA & Degree courses at Hereford & Ludlow College) but could well be the way foward.

[Ubique]

As an old geezer who is out of touch with modern education it's really good to have a post/ comment from a person who is very satisfied with the education at HCA . Thank you , may it continue for a very long time.

[gdj]

The Higher Education Funding Council has just published some research on provision of Higher Education across England - a really useful graphic showing first the actual provision and then the provision based on population.  It looks to me like this area is in the lowest 10th on both counts.

 

Sorry,  can't insert the actual map image but this is the link

 

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/crosscutting/coldspots/heprovision/

 

Another fascinating, but very worrying bit of research was on the proportion of young people going on to Higher Education (universities) and this is on an interactive map and you can drill down to see different parts of Hereford and Herefordshire.  The urban area south of the river is in the lowest category.  North of the river - West is about half way, and East near the top.  A stark picture of the relative levels of deprivation/prosperity even in a small city like this.  Don't know what the solution is because I don't know what the cause is, but it is clear that the potential of many young people, especially in South Wye, is not being realised.

 

This is the link in which you can zoom in to Hereford

 

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/ourresearch/polar/mapofyoungparticipationareas/

[megilleland]

On 15/03/2014 at 01:50, Biomech said:

Let's be realistic here, if this "university" goes ahead, it's not going to be a nice university campus, it's going to be lectures in meeting rooms and back alley buildings dotted around the city. Look at the art college, that's now spread to various "media" centers all over town, filling old rooms and buildings like the old job centre.

 

Looks like there could be something in this university plan and may save the Working Boy's Home.

 

Quote

Wednesday 8 October 2014 in Hereford Times News by Bill Tanner

 

City centre campus plan for University of Hereford

 

THE University of Hereford is going to have a city centre campus - and local know how could make it happen.

 

This week the project confirmed that county architectural firm Architype will work with London-based Niall McLaughlin Architects to create the campus master-plan.

 

Ross-on-Wye based Chartered Surveyor Jonathan Preece has been retained to advise on the project's property needs and secure suitable city centre sites.

 

No sites have been confirmed as yet.

 

The master-plan spreads teaching venues, administration offices and student accommodation across a swathe of the city centre from Hereford Station in the north and the River Wye in the south and from the A49 to the west across to Commercial Road.

 

"We expect to adapt a number of existing buildings and develop some new and striking buildings," said university project leader Karen Usher.

 

"We are very keen to hear from the Citys property owners who may be looking for new or additional uses for their investments," she said.

 

Initially, enough start up space is needed for around 300 students.

 

Architype, with an office at Upper Twyford, near Hereford, specialises in sustainable buildings.

 

In the county, Architype has been involved in the records and archives centre, the in-patient unit at St Michael's Hospice, a new factory site for TRP Sealing Systems and Staunton-on-Wye primary school.

 

Niall McLaughlin projects put a strong emphasis on the "inventive" use of building materials, qualities of light and the relationship between the building and its surrounds.

 

Talks between the project and Massachusetts based Olin College of Engineering over a collaborative partnership  were underway in the USA last week.

 

The project intends to establish a "collaboratory" with three Russell Group universities to share and develop Olins teaching methods in the UK.

 

Last month, Massachusetts based Olin was ranked amongst the USA's leading undergraduate engineering programmes.

 

As reported by the Hereford Times, the University of Hereford project plans to adapt Olins innovative techniques to the UK.

 

Also starting work this month is the project's philanthropy company which will raise at least £25 million identified as needed to see the university through its first years.

[megilleland]

I have just spoken to Jonathan Preece and asked if the Working Boy's Home could be part of the University's campus plans. He was very helpful, but said that at this early stage he was unaware whether the buildings were being considered. I mentioned  that as the planning application for the fire station was imminent and that a large number of objectors had raised the use of the buildings for campus use, it may be helpful to put a comment into the planning office as soon as possible. He said he would contact the Board and let me know of the outcome of any views or decision.

[flamboyant]

What a bloody cheek they pinched my idea! Will I get a prize?

 

Posted 31 December 2013

Rather than build a University why not convert the empty shops into classrooms turn our town centres into learning hubs? Radical I know but it could work it certainly puts more people in the heart of our city. Our aging population could help by passing on skills and knowledge to our teenagers. I can actually see this working, but I do have some very strange ideas. I like the idea of a learning village, with shops classrooms day care and perhaps some student accommodation. It might attract businesses, selling books, computer equipment, sports equipment, anything students might require all in one place. Just a crazy thought to get people brain storming! But there must be some other use for these empty shops because it's only going to get worse. Could the Council offer an incentive by dropping the rates for the first year? I don't think it's a good idea to simply leave them they are starting to look very scruffy. After all we are in an age of recycling, so let's stop building new and look to recycling our old buildings?

[dippyhippy]

Well done Megilleland!

 

Excellent work!

[stupidfrustration]

flamboyant - I love your idea.

I think you have a nugget of gold here.

 

We have too many shops for "today" and that is only going to get worse with the way we shop now.

 

Taking over a unit and turning it into learning would help the town center as we whole.

 

Genius! 

[Cambo]

My understanding is that if the fire station planning application is rejected? then the university will have first choice on the old boys home? That came from the lady who did the radio interview this morning.

[flamboyant]

Thanks, Stupidfrustration, I thought it was great idea myself, how clever of the Council to take it on board! I suggested this back in December on the empty shops thread copied above. I think they should donate a substaintial amount of money to the Voice for facillitating their idea! lol maybe they re trying to flush me out lol!

[SON OF GRIDKNOCKER]

'We expect to adapt a number of existing buildings'.

 

From an unimpeachable source yesterday came the revelation that Herefordshire Council is obligated to offer first to our embryonic uni any buildings which it owns and which are surplus to requirements  Blue School House (presently a discotheque) and poor old unwanted Franklin Barnes House are already on the list.  When asked what their reaction would be if the former Working Boys Home was to be added to the list, the uni folk said they'd jump at the chance, because it could almost instantaneously become their hq - from where it would do its master-planning, aided by Messrs Hine and Preece - then later it might be the subject of a full-blown refurbishment.

 

So all things considered - and what with the local government elections now only seven months away - wouldn't Council Leader Tony Johnson's best move be to despatch Cllr Bramer over to Worcester to tell the firemen that the dotty 'land swop' deal is no longer on the table?  Then simultaneously instruct HC's somnambulent transportation experts to pull their fingers out and bring forward the closure of the under-used Country Bus Station by 12 months? 

[stupidfrustration]

From an unimpeachable source yesterday came the revelation that Herefordshire Council is obligated to offer first to our embryonic uni any buildings which it owns and which are surplus to requirements  Blue School House (presently a discotheque) and poor old unwanted Franklin Barnes House are already on the list.

 

 

If Blue School House is refering to Play discotheque - I am awear that it is privately owned by a Hereford man and not the council.

[Harry Beynon]

The latest from Jesse Norman MP

 

BUILDING A NEW UNIVERSITY IN HEREFORDSHIRE

 

A few weeks ago I found myself driving up the M5, destination Warwick University. I was going to take part in a unique experiment: an extended discussion over several days about the future of engineering and tech education in this country.

 

Those taking part included engineers, technology specialists and educators from Warwick, from Bristol University, from Olin College in the USA and from Quest University in Canada, as well as key companies like Airbus and Siemens.

 

They discussed what should go in a 21st century engineering and tech curriculum; how these subjects should be taught; how to recruit more students, and especially women, into engineering; the role of arts and design education in engineering; team-building; campus design; corporate-university ties, and a host of other things.

 

And why were they there? Because of the new Herefordshire University project. Because the projects leaders Karen Usher and David Sheppard and a host of volunteers and supporters around the county have a vision for engineering and tech education. And because they are determined to make it happen in Herefordshire.

 

Its all too easy to knock the British manufacturing economy, and there have been plenty of doomsters and gloomsters around over the years to do so. Yes, the service sector has outstripped manufacturing, especially over the last thirty years. But the fact is that UK remains one of the largest manufacturing countries in the world.

 

Not only that, but the government has a clear industrial strategy: to support value-added manufacturing and services. Thats why sectors from the advanced automotive supply chain to basic science to specialised semiconductors are booming.

 

Even so, as a country we need more and better engineers, and we will continue to need them for decades. Thats why there is such an opportunity for us in Herefordshire: to rethink the nature and purpose of such an education, and to establish a national or even world-class new university focusing on these areas.

 

We have a beautiful county packed with engineering and tech specialists of different kinds; we are located close to research centres in Malvern and Cheltenham; we have a cathedral city just waiting for the social and economic energy which a university will bring; we have thousands of young people who deserve the chance to study locally.

 

If can pull this off, it will be the most transformative project for this county since Hereford Cathedral was built. So lets make it happen.

[gdj]

I would be pleased if this works, but the financial implications look worrying for local students.  This is one of the lowest wage areas in the country but students would need to find a lot of money to attend.

From the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11449486/NMITE-Britains-newest-university-all-you-need-to-know.html

Quote

 

Q. How much will fees be?

 

NMITE has not yet decided. It is a not-for-profit private university, so it is not limited to a £9,000 cap on fees. The University of Buckingham, which operates under a similar model, charges £12,444 a year for undergraduates, for instance.

Q. As it is a private university will I be entitled to a student loan?

Yes, but only up to £6,000 a year less than the £9,000 a year that standard university students can get.

 

So higher fees and lower loans - students may need to find up to £6000 per year whilst they study.  And the comparable New University of Buckingham isn't doing all that well.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/education/ng-interactive/2015/may/25/university-league-tables-2016

 

 

Let's hope, if things progress, they emulate Warwick and Bristol.

[megilleland]

President announced for Hereford's NMiTE, Hereford's new engineering university

In the Herefordshire Times - 29th May 2017
 

THE leader of Hereford's new university will be starting in July and is moving from Canada where he helped set up a new engineering programme.

Professor Janusz Kozinski has been appointed as the founding president and chief executive officer of NMiTE, Hereford's new engineering university.

He said he embraced the opportunity to take the job and bring a new way of teaching engineering to Britain.

The motto of the university will be, 'No lectures, no exams, no text books.'

He said: "When they come to the university they will focus on solving problems, together with professionals, in small groups. We are completely flipping the educational model.

"We are going to go one step further. The majority of engineering programmes are delivered in four or five courses at the same time and then they have exams at the end of each semester.

"We decided to change that and develop a new way of delivering a programme. It will be delivered in blocks.

"They will study one subject at a time for three weeks. And industrial partners, such as Cargill or Heineken, would then have a group of students working on that project together with people from sciences and economics and business and law and of course from the company.

"Within three to three and a half weeks they have to either design something or manufacture something. Rather than just studying theory they will be able to learn by doing."

Lectures will be available online for students to watch whenever they want to.

Mr Kozinski, who was brought up in Poland, is no stranger to a new model of teaching.

He was the founding Dean of the Lassonde School of Engineering at York University in Toronto, Canada. This $250-million academic start-up created a new concept of engineering education with a broad ‘Renaissance’ curriculum including humanities, law and business, a ‘flipped classroom’ model of teaching without lectures, and launched a commitment to become the first engineering school in Canada to achieve a 50:50 gender balance.

Mr Kozinski, aged 57, said within three and half years of setting up the programme they went from 250 students to almost 3,000.

He said: "We created something that resonated with young people."

Mr Kozinski had been to Hereford before as he carried out some research using the organ at the cathedral on how sound and music affects the brain and perception.

He said: "With regards to Hereford itself, there is strong potential for the university to become, let's call it an engine of social mobility. If you have so many young minds and young people that are driven. They are professional because engineering is a professional skill. So you hope that the university will certainly contribute to the economy of the county.

"Maybe even within time it may become one of the drivers of the economy and certainly be able to contribute to the culture of the city."

The NMiTE University project - to be officially named in September - will open in 2020 in the city of Hereford and will be home to 5,000 students.

 

An interesting individual. Plenty on the internet about him.