Dr Terry Tudor discusses resource efficiency in the healthcare sector

Dr Terry Tudor, a senior lecturer in Waste Management in the School of Science and Technology, was recently part of a panel examining challenges and opportunities for enhancing the resource efficiency within the healthcare sector. The discussion took place in the ‘Circular Economy Connect’ theatre, at the RWM recycling and waste management event, at the Birmingham NEC. RWM is considered to be the biggest such exhibition and seminar event in Europe.

In addition to Terry, the panel was comprised of James Dixon, waste manager and sustainability lead, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Alexandra Hammond, associate director, sustainability, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. The session was chaired by Rob Holdway from Giraffe Innovation.

James and Alexandra outlined various strategies that are being employed within their trusts, while Terry gave a more overarching view of the state of the sector. There were also opportunities for the audience to participate through the usual questions, as well as voting.

With the Health and Social Care sector in the UK coming under increasing pressures to meet financial and environmental targets, examining options for minimising wastage is both crucial and timely.

Dr Terry Tudor and colleagues

Second year Geography students learn about experiences of homelessness

‘Geographies of homelessness’ is a key topic within the second year module GEO2028 Issues in Human Geography. We had already spent some time reading, researching and debating about homelessness… But actually meeting people with first-hand experiences was a very different, eye-opening experience.

On Monday 10^th November, second year Human Geographers met two guest speakers with first-hand experiences of working with homeless people:

• Sarah Passam – Day Centre manager at the Hope Centre: a leading source of support for homeless people in Northamptonshire;
• Brian Hinton – a final year Geographer who is currently conducting dissertation research with homeless young people in Worcestershire.

Across a really interesting Q&A session we heard about:

• some of the significant everyday challenges and risks encountered by local homeless people (including some upsetting facts about mortality rates and violence against homeless people);
• impacts of drug and alcohol misuse, including some emerging issues associated with ‘illegal highs’;
• experiences of young homeless people;
• limitations of official statistics about homelessness (according to Local Authority data there are ‘15’ homeless people in Northampton… but the Hope Centre is used by 140+ people each day, and has 10,000 people on its books!)

Sarah Passam receives donations from some of the students

Human Geography students and staff brought in donations of food and clothing to be used by Hope Centre users. In an excellent display of generosity, more than 100 items were donated to the Centre. A number of students have also expressed interest in volunteering at the Centre in future.

Geography staff and students donated food and clothing to the Hope Centre

Third year Geography students explore how childhood has changed over time

On Thursday 23^rd October third year Geographers studying the optional Children’s Geographies module travelled to London to visit the Museum of Childhood and the National Portrait Gallery.  The aim of the trip was to explore how childhood has changed over time.

At the Museum of Childhood students learned about how experiences of childhood vary across time and space.  Playing with the toys prompted reflections on continuity and change in the nature of toys over time.  

Children's Geographies students enjoying the hands-on activities at the Museum of Childhood

The NationalPortrait Gallery provided opportunities to explore how children have been represented in art from Tudor times up to the present day.  We examined how clothing, objects and stance can give indications as to the ways in which childhood has been viewed.

First year Geographers visit London

Tweeting

On Friday 17^th October first year Geography students visited London.  Working in groups, they explored key sites in central London, taking photographs and making observations in relation to a particular theme.  The exercise was designed to help students develop skills of thinking creatively and critically about a particular topic, select appropriate information to support an argument, work effectively as part of a group, and observe and record data in the field.  Findings were reported in real time, as each group ‘tweeted’ their photographs and observations.  The themes explored included ‘control’, ‘change’ and ‘sustainability’.  The exercise also provided a good opportunity for students to get to know each other.

Landscapes south of Northampton

On Saturday 18th October two coach-loads of first year students spent the day travelling around various landscapes south of Northampton.  This trip is part of module ENV1107 Principles of Physical Geography.  

Four sites were visited: Dunstable Downs, Heath and Reach, Stony Stratford and Courteenhall. At each site the students were encouraged to work in small groups to describe the landscape. Students needed to consider topography, scale and how the landscapes compared to each other. Using inclinometers they took slope angle measurements which will help with their descriptions and allow comparisons between the four landscapes. 

Valley at Heath and Reach

At Heath and Reach each group used the inclinometers and a tape measure to measure the cross profile and long profile of a valley. Following the field trip the groups will use these data to produce to-scale diagrams of the valley. These will be presented to the tutors as part of the assessment for this module - a group interview.  

The group at Stony Stratford

Wells for India Director visits Northampton University

Kevin Cook

On Thursday October 9th Om Prakash Sharma, the Director of the Wells for India Office in Udaipur, Rajasthan, took time out from a busy schedule of meetings to visit the University of Northampton to talk to first and second year geographers and international development students. 

The first year geographers had been set the task of raising the funds to enable the charity to provide 22 biosand filters for families living in a village in the Thar desert in Rajasthan. Each filter costs £30 and by carrying out tasks such as selling Wells for India Christmas cards, making cakes or simply asking for donations, they hope to raise the £660 for the project to proceed. Working in teams, they will be contributing to the university’s social responsibility agenda.

Om chose to concentrate on two main ideas in his illustrated talk to second year students. Firstly he contrasted the top-down, large scale approaches to providing water with small scale, community focused projects. Using the massive Indira Gandhi canal as an example, he showed that, whilst it has irrigated many thousands of hectares, it has also bypassed the poorest desert villages providing drinking water mainly for urban areas.

Referring to the work of Wells for India, Om emphasised the urgent need to return to the traditional water harvesting techniques used throughout Rajasthan for many thousands of years. He blamed large scale approaches such as the Indira Gandhi canal for downgrading schemes such as taankas leading to the ancient technologies almost being lost.

A single family taanka in the Thar Desert

These two themes are an important part of Wells for India’s philosophy. The charity works with the poorest of the poor at the village level and is providing the funding to construct hundreds of water harvesting projects in three contrasting areas of Rajasthan. In the Aravali Hills region it is using gully plugs and anicuts to increase water recharge and raise water tables. In the Thar desert it is constructing taankas and beris to store monsoon rainfall and thus reduce the distance women have to walk to get their water. In the Sambhar salt lake region it is installing roof water harvesting systems.

Fields of wheat in the Aravali Hills made possible 

following the construction of check dams across the valley

The university is most grateful to Om for joining us for an afternoon. For more information about the charity and about Om’s work in Rajasthan visit the Wells for India website.

Om and Kevin

Graduates return to the University to talk to students about careers

This week we welcomed two recent graduates back to the University to talk to our third year Geography and Environmental Science students about life after University.  Tommy Fojut spoke about his current role as a Graduate Transport Planner.  He spoke about what the role involves, what the application process was like, and about the importance of getting relevant work experience.  Matt Gibbs outlined how he had used speculative applications to gain an internship in the marketing sector.  He explained how this internship had led to an opportunity for a paid position, and described his current role.  Both Tommy and Matt answered questions from the students and gave tips on what they could do now to enhance their employability.

University of Northampton graduates Matt and Tommy