Warwick Network: Breakout Sessions - AM

001: Increasing Citations - Nicola Owen

‘Top 50’ world-class universities share a number of common characteristics – including a concentration of the world’s best researchers. One potential measure of this are citations indices and the strategy seeks to increase the number of ‘Highly Cited’ staff at Warwick to 45(the current number is 5).

This session will explore some of the issues around citation measures, strategies for achieving the goal and issues of change management for the University associated with the goal.

002: Introducing the Warwick Institute of Advanced Study - Alison Bell

The Warwick Institute of Advanced Study was established in April 2007 to promote collaborative research projects of international calibre and profile across the full range of University Departments, Schools and Research Centres.

This session will start with the concept of ‘Institutes of Advanced Study’, with a brief exploration of other IASs around the world. It will then focus on Warwick IAS’s goals and how they fit with the University’s strategy.

The current IAS programme will be explained with details of the 3 funding awards (Incubation Awards, Integration (Bedding-in) Awards and Impact Awards) and 2 fellowships (short-term Visiting Fellowships and the projected Residential Research Collaborations), including examples of awards already made.

Participants will be encouraged to share ideas on:
-How can Warwick IAS be distinctive?
-What does Warwick need and how can Warwick IAS help?
-Which areas of interdisciplinary research could be encouraged?

003: Accreditation and the University of Life - Professor Michael Whitby and Sean Russell

(now running as a joint session)

Accreditation - Warwick's distinctive model of teaching and learning has served well many generations of learners. It is based on, amongst others, a particular synthesis of research-led teaching with employability-related personal development. This workshop will consider the challenge of examining and developing this model and will focus on rewarding socially responsible activity by accreditation of the Warwick Volunteers programme.

The University of Life: developing key skills in our graduates - The development of student skills is very high on everyone’s agenda. Under this heading are employability and study skills. The perceived ‘customer’ culture has given this discussion an extra edge in recent years. This session will explore how we can deliver the best experience for students in helping them achieve their potential and to prepare them for life after Warwick. Your views and opinions will form the core of the session.

004: New Ideas From Concept to Launch (The International Gateway for Gifted Youth) - Ken Sloan

Through the new strategy, everyone has been encouraged to come up with ideas for new ventures and fresh thinking and many of us across the University have been keen to do so. However, selecting the right set of ideas, testing them, securing buy-in, securing resources, and making the ideas real can present real intellectual and psychological challenges. This session will discuss these factors against a recent case example, the International Gateway for Gifted Youth, describe what has been done well, what could have been done better, and outline positive and negative lessons for the future.

005: Introducing Warwick Context - Tom Abbott

This session has been cancelled.

This session will introduce a new News and Events service – Warwick Context - which will bring together a range of exciting online and offline communications activities to provide a comprehensive view of research and expertise at the University of Warwick.

The session will review the project to date and invite ideas for future development from attendees.

006: Future Plans for WISER - Professor Phil Mawby and Professor Phil Eames

WISER was set up during the last academic year. The aim of the institute is to promote interdisciplinary activity across the university, bringing together a wide range of diverse activities. This will enable the University to have a presence in the vital area of energy research, and for it to become a recognised centre of excellence both in the UK and internationally. In addition the institute will have a strong focus on ensuring new technologies are commercialised to benefit the local economy.

The session will focus on the current position of WISER and look at how it develops from here.

007: Top 50 by 50 - Dr Giles Carden and Edward Harcourt

The new University strategy aspires for Warwick to become "a universally acknowledged world centre of higher education by 2015, firmly in the top 50 of world universities". Through analysis of existing international rankings of universities this session will examine what it will take for Warwick to become a top 50 university by its 50th anniversary.

008: Establishing Global Partnerships - Dr David Law

This session will outline the place of international partnerships in the achievement of Warwick’s strategic goals. In particular it will focus on what the University can achieve through the newly developed project to establish an “international quarter” on our campus. Participants will be able to give advice and guidance on possible target institutions and organisations that are likely to see mutual advantage in a partnership of this kind. We will share our thinking on how to develop negotiations and achieve a successful conclusion. Emphasis will be given to the importance of interaction between academic colleagues.

009: Living and Breathing Environmental Sustainability at Warwick - Nick Hillard

Environmental issues are attracting an ever-increased profile across the university, the sector, media, government and public. Find out in this session how the university is responding to this challenge, but more importantly, come prepared to contribute towards future improvements in effecting behavioural change, reducing energy use, assisting in green procurement, sustainable transport, waste and recycling, biodiversity etc.

Through the spreading of existing and potential good practice, you will help to establish a series of University-specific best practice measures to contribute towards “living and breathing environmental sustainability at Warwick”.

010: Departmental Management- how can we best support the information needs of our Heads of Department and Administrators? - Leonie Aspinall, Sharon Neal, Mark Wright

How well do we support the management information needs of Heads of Department and their Administrators? What support do we offer new Heads of Department and Administrators in grasping the management milestones in the academic year?

The Warwick Futures consultation exercise showed that we could do more and better to support Heads of Department and Administrators, both in academic and non academic departments.

In this session we will explore some of the initiatives that have been developed over the past few years and are currently in development (e.g. Department Management Handbook, tailored support for new Heads of Department). Participants will also be offered the chance to consider what they might do in their own departments to support or provide management information and to suggest ways of developing new support mechanisms/making support more effective.

011: The Root of all evil, or the source of all freedom? The independent funding of Warwick’s activities - Steve Wilkes and Dr Ken Flint

Is Warwick’s funding from HEFCE really “free”?

In order to be free to control our own academic direction and strategy in research and teaching and be financially secure in the future, is the way forward to seek funding from alternative sources, or does this approach cause more problems to Warwick’s independence than it solves as we become answerable to other stakeholders?

Within discussion groups, this session seeks to consider Warwick’s alternative sources of funding, the risks and rewards associated with each of these different approaches to funding and to reach an opinion on the most preferential long term financial strategy for Warwick…

012: Personal Tutoring - Judith Everington

The session will include:

An introduction to some of issues raised by personal tutoring at Warwick and (using a recent case study), some suggestions for the development of support for personal and senior tutors.
An opportunity for pair and whole group discussion of issues raised by participants’ experiences and their views on the development of a support system.
An opportunity to draw up a series of recommendations that can be passed on to the various teams involved in managing and supporting the personal tutoring system.

013: First Impressions - Student Induction - Catherine Thomson

What is student induction? When should induction start – and end? How do we identify new students’ needs? What should an induction programme cover? By what methods should induction be delivered? Do we need an induction week? Whose responsibility is it anyway?

This session will address these questions and explore how current good practice may be shared and developed across the University’s academic and administrative communities. The session will be underpinned by the notion that effective student induction is everybody’s business.

015: Departments & Donations - “Show me the money!” - Gavin Maggs and Faye Jennings

Who gives more? A French alumna who left Warwick in 1982 or a male graduate who studied Maths in the early 90’s? How many scholarships have been funded by Warwick alumni and friends since 2000? What was the last legacy gift received by the University of Warwick Foundation and for the benefit of which area?

Come and find out the answers to these questions plus learn more about the work of DARO and the Annual Fund.

016: Simplifying Process - Holly Kinnear

This session stems from ideas that emerged through ‘Warwick’s Future’ concerning process at the University and ways that it could be rationalised. Many of us have examples of what processes are problematic at Warwick, this session is about reflecting on the good as well as the bad and considering what makes ‘good process’. Are there specific qualities that are common to every ‘good process’; how easy is it to evaluate and create processes by these criteria; is the problem the process or the implementation of the process; what practical suggestions do we have to improve process at Warwick?

017: Art, the campus and the university community - Sarah Shalgosky

This session has been cancelled.

Warwick is unique among British universities in its open display of its collection of contemporary art. This session will give participants the opportunity to develop ideas and themes for a new phase of commissioned artworks and will give them insight into the commissioning process.

018: Bikers Convention – Map the requirements for cyclists on campus - David Wilson

This session will explore the opportunity to increase participation in cycling both around the University campus and discuss ideas for improving facilities for cycling to work users. Cycling is the ultimate green form of transport. Increasingly when new development takes place car parking on site is becoming restricted. How can we encourage more cycle use? Apart from the environmental benefits, cycling is possibly one of the healthiest ways of travelling. Safety is a real concern – what can we all do to reduce health and safety risks for bike users?

019: Professional Jugglers – Family friendly policies - Debbie Castle

What can Warwick do to make life easier for its staff members with family responsibilities? Could there be an on-site facility (perhaps including sports clubs) to look after older children during school holidays?

Objectives- To discus the issue of family-friendly working policies. What is meant by “family-friendly”, does the university already do enough or could they do more. Should there be more facilities on campus to support employees with families, what could these include?

020: Making and nurturing partnerships: The CAPITAL Centre: teaching Shakespeare (and more) through collaboration between a university and arts organizations - Dr Susan Brock

Making and maintaining partnerships will be important in implementing the University’s Strategy. Come and find out what the CAPITAL Centre is doing with small and large arts organisations to create vibrant and productive partnerships, and think about what your department or centre could do.

021: Team Development days for undergraduate students - Professor Tim Bugg

This session has been cancelled.

The Department of Chemistry has since 2001 organised team development activities for undergraduate students in Years 1 & 2, which we find beneficial to students’ learning and orientation into groups. The session will illustrate the kind of exercises that we use (with an opportunity to try one), and we shall discuss the possible benefits of these activities for enhancing student learning.

022: Finding the Brightest and Best - Professor Mark Harrison

This session has been cancelled.

In Economics there is an annual search for new talent among finishing PhD students worldwide. There are very substantial benefits – and costs – of engaging in the scramble. It is hard to choose the best available, and it is sometimes also hard to reconcile choosing the best with ensuring equal treatment for all. The session offers an opportunity to compare how other disciplines organise their own searches for talent – sometimes, with profound differences.

023: Beyond the Thesis: What Warwick Can Offer the Postgraduate Researcher - Professor Jackie Labbe, Esther Meininger, International Office and Rachel Hardy, CSDE

This session will discuss how we can identify the needs of PGRs outside the supervisory relationship. We will discuss PGR training, career paths, and expectations, using as a template the long-running Arts Faculty PG Training Seminars as well as the seminars offered by the Graduate School. Is ‘training’ a necessary supplement in today’s academic market? How involved should supervisors be? Should departments be more pro-active in encouraging their PGR students to attend the sessions that are available? How can such seminars be used to integrate the PGR into life at Warwick? How does teaching factor?

The University welcomes a number of overseas PGR students every year, many of whom arrive with very different needs and expectations. How far can we, as a host institution meet those expectations? What are the key issues that affect how easily new PGRs integrate into the academic community or into life in the UK generally? Find out how the International Office offers induction and ongoing support to all international students, and what further support students say they need. The session will also look at the key domiciles our PGRs come from, and consider how factors such as the increased likelihood of students bringing families, their location off campus (compared to the majority of the overseas population), and their arrival outside the traditional autumn induction period influence the quality of their experience at Warwick.

024: Knowing Me, Knowing You - Sue Bennett

This session has been cancelled.

The University employs a lot of people in a bewildering variety of jobs, and it is difficult to get to know people from outside your own work area. Sue set up Warwick Acappella who sing together every Tuesday lunchtime. Come and find out how she set up the group, and consider what you could do to create an interest group.

025: Working with the media: Why bother and how - Peter Dunn

A session designed for academic staff and postgraduate researchers to explain the personal, departmental and institutional benefits of working with the media and how best to do it.

026: Supporting international students and staff - Michaela Borg, Gerard Sharpling, Laura Goodall, Rachel Hardy

The University of Warwick is an international institution, which brings together students and staff from a wide variety of countries and linguistic backgrounds. This contributes to the vibrancy of the learning opportunities found here, but it can result in difficulties and misunderstandings within the University community. This session will provide opportunities for discussion and the exchange of ideas with people at Warwick who are at the front line in working with international members of our community. We will look at existing ways to support international students and staff, ways to reduce misunderstandings and consider ways to improve support within the University.

027: Stressbusters- what’s on offer at Warwick? Try Acappella singing for beginners - Bruce Knight (Voice Coach)

Most of us want to find a better balance between work and home. Many of us would like the opportunity to relax and try something new or creative, during the working day or outside it. If you’ve always wondered if you can sing and make music, but have never had the chance to try out your talent, then this could be a great place to start.

Everyone can sing- some of us are simply have more practice or are more confident than others. It doesn’t matter whether or not you can read music, or have had formal singing tuition, or even whether you have sung in a group before. Find your voice and do something relaxing and creative, by learning to sing acappella with voice coach, Bruce Knight.

Bruce has lots of experience in teaching beginner singers to make music. In one hour, you’ll discover how to relax your voice, how to listen to and learn harmony parts and how to put a whole piece of music together with other singers to create an amazing sound.

028: Competency models, who needs them? - Paul Stephenson

This session has been cancelled.

Many organisations use competencies to define the skills and attributes they need in their staff, and the University already uses this approach in Warwick Commercial. This session will look at whether the use of competencies can help the University improve the performance of its people to better enable delivery of strategy.

029: Public Sector Park - Kevin Johnson

(session has moved from the afternoon)

The Lyons Review - Well Placed to Deliver? Shaping the Practice of Government Service (March 2004) – concluded that the pattern of government service needed to be reshaped and be less London-concentric. Just over half of the 20,000 civil servant relocation target has been met. How can the University support this process and bring more public agencies and jobs to its environs? What benefits can Warwick demonstrate in having such posts based next to a centre of academic and teaching excellence? Against the background of public service and constitutional reform agendas, how can the institution create and deliver a more ambitious vision?

030: Masterplanning the Campus - Joe Wrigley and Chris Churchman

New session - added 21/08/08

Joe Wrigley of MJP (McCormack Jamieson Pritchard – Warwick’s masterplan consultants) and Chris Churchman (Warwick’s Landscape Architect) will outline how professional design teams approach masterplanning and some of the major issues addressed at Warwick. Given a free hand, how would you organise the campus? E.g. incorporating the HRI land, centralising campus around the ring road, relocating departments, making campus architecture more distinctive.