Director of Planning gives talk about new Waterside Campus

On Tuesday 20^th January 2015 Neil Rowley, Director of Planning at Savills visited the University to talk to third year Geography and Environmental Science students.

Neil Rowley, Dr Janet Jackson, and the students

Savills are the main consultants dealing with the planning application and Neil Rowley’s talk was based around how the planning process operates and how stakeholders are consulted.  Students attending the talk are taking the Sustainable Development: Land Use and Policy module, taught by Dr Janet Jackson.  This third year module covers a range of topics from land degradation, sustainable land use and planning, to Environmental Impact Assessment.  The students are currently working on an assignment related to the planning application for the new University of Northampton Waterside Campus, which is expected to be open in September 2018.  The students took this opportunity to ask Mr Rowley lots of questions related to their assessment.

Research Excellence in the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences

Just before Christmas the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences received an early present with the release of the results of the Research Excellence Framework.  This is a national assessment of research activity carried out by the government in all British universities, and the outcome determines how much core research funding they receive over the next six years.  The Department was very pleased with the result of our submission to the Geography and Environmental Studies panel; over 40% of our research papers were rated as “world leading” or “internationally excellent”, with most of the rest being “recognised internationally”.  In addition some of the Human Geography staff working on children’s geographies were entered into the Education unit of assessment, which also did well.  For a young, mainly teaching-focused, non-research-intensive institution such as the University of Northampton, it was an impressive result.  All of this research feeds directly into the student experience, by way of case studies and cutting-edge findings, bringing the subject alive and relevant to the modern world.  

Congratulations!

Many congratulations to all of you who graduate today!

We hope you have had a fantastic time at Northampton and wish you all the best for the future!

Tropical field course opportunities available to students

A partnership between the Department and the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) is giving our students the opportunity to undertake conservation field work in Africa and Asia by taking part in one of their field courses in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar and Borneo.

The TBA is a non-governmental organisation that was established in 1993 and involves 44 university departments (including our own) and research institutions in its subscribing membership. The TBA’s offices are located in Cambridge (UK) and Nairobi, Kenya.

The TBA aims to promote expertise in tropical ecology and conservation by giving both students and conservation practitioners practical experience and training in management of biological resources, monitoring of biodiversity and research in tropical biology. In addition, participants on TBA courses learn the skills required for research project design and execution.

TBA courses are unique because they bring together in equal numbers African and European students and academics. The value added to the students’ degree studies is clear for both the African students (who encounter the most up to date ideas and techniques within the field) and for European students (who are exposed to the particular issues around tropical conservation biology, usually for the first time). This significantly increases their employability, and in fact previous European and African TBA alumni are now employed at universities or as conservation practitioners in their home countries and return each year to teach on TBA field courses.

This approach also enables continued exchange of expertise and funds after the courses by catalysing collaborative activities between European and African institutions. To date the TBA has trained some 1500 biologists from Africa, Asia and Europe and the USA during the more than 50 courses it has run since 1994. Although not strictly a social enterprise, nonetheless the TBA fulfils many of the criteria of being one as it works within the community of researchers and students (both in Europe and Africa), enhancing their expertise and employability. The TBA directly employs staff within the UK and Kenya and any profits made from fund raising and so forth are directed back to support TBA activities.

For more information on how to apply for one of the TBA’s field courses, visit their website: http://www.tropical-biology.org/