Meditation on Fridays

meditation-chakras

 

Meditation Fridays takes place in MB1008 between 12.10pm – 12.50pm.

The Ecumenical Christian Meditation Group is open to all students and staff.

If you feel the need for some peace and calm in your life, you are welcome to join us without obligation.

Guidance in breathing and posture will be given.

Media students create calendar for charity

dates

Media students Jemma Harrison and Jessica Ball have created and are selling a calendar to raise money for the Lincoln County Hospital Breast Unit.

They have designed and printed a tasteful topless calendar in order to raise awareness of breast cancer.

The money raised will be split equally between the research at the Hospital Unit and for support services.

The Lincoln School of Media has supported and covered the cost of our printing, which means that all the money we raise can go directly to the charity. 

The calendars are £5 and can be bought in The Shed, the Tower Bar and the Students’ Union.

The University of Lincoln Library celebration today

National-Library

The University of Lincoln Library invites staff and students to join a national day of celebration.

National Libraries Day, which takes place on Friday 7th February 2014, is a free-to-join gathering of people who believe in the importance of libraries in our communities, personal lives and education.
The library team at Lincoln will mark the special occasion with a number of displays in the Atrium as well as the GCW Library, to demonstrate the pride visitors take in their library, which will be on show from Thursday 6 – Friday 14 February.
There will also be a celebratory event in the library on Friday 7 February, when visitors will receive goody bags from 10am and be invited to take part in a competition. There will be 10 laminated signs hidden around the library, which should be presented at the customer service desk in exchange for a prize.
The National Libraries Day celebration follows a recent YouGov poll, which revealed that over half of the UK population has a current library card, and 47% have used a public library in the past year.
Staff and students are also being asked to tweet their favourite book, and let the team know why the library is important in their lives. Users can tweet the team @GCWLibrary with #NLD14 #YourLibrary or share thoughts via our Facebook.
For more information, please visit the University of Lincoln Library blog: http://library.lincoln.ac.uk/news/2014/02/06/national-libraries-day-celebrations/

National Libraries Day celebrations – Friday 7 February

Library

The University of Lincoln Library invites staff and students to join a national day of celebration.

National Libraries Day, which takes place on Friday 7th February 2014, is a free-to-join gathering of people who believe in the importance of libraries in our communities, personal lives and education.

The library team at Lincoln will mark the special occasion with a number of displays in the Atrium as well as the GCW Library, to demonstrate the pride visitors take in their library, which will be on show from Thursday 6 – Friday 14 February.

There will also be a celebratory event in the library on Friday 7 February, when visitors will receive goody bags from 10am and be invited to take part in a competition. There will be 10 laminated signs hidden around the library, which should be presented at the customer service desk in exchange for a prize.

The National Libraries Day celebration follows a recent YouGov poll, which revealed that over half of the UK population has a current library card, and 47% have used a public library in the past year.

Staff and students are also being asked to tweet their favourite book, and let the team know why the library is important in their lives. Users can tweet the team @GCWLibrary with #NLD14 #YourLibrary or share thoughts via the Facebook Page.

For more information, please visit the University of Lincoln Library blog: http://library.lincoln.ac.uk/news/2014/02/06/national-libraries-day-celebrations/

Revised Academic Year Calendar and new schedule for Resits

General Black Portrait

Revised Academic Year Calendar

Following consultation with staff from across the University and the Students’ Union, Academic Board has approved changes to the Academic Year Calendar from 2014/15. The 2014/15 Academic Year will now begin with Welcome Week, starting on Monday 15 September 2014 (previously planned to be 22 September 2014).

The changes to the Calendar have been made to allow Schools more flexibility to tailor teaching time in line with the needs of individual programmes and to foster academic research across the University.

Core dates in the Calendar, such as Clearing, Welcome Week, Enrolment, Examinations, Vacations and Graduation, remain fixed across the University.

As Academic Year Calendars from 2014/15 will differ slightly from School to School, a set of standard requirements has been agreed to ensure the appropriate level of contact hours and teaching weeks are available to all students

Schools are developing detailed 2014/15 programme calendars for approval by Academic Board. These calendars will be available online for staff, current and prospective students from Easter 2014 and via subject pages on the University website and Blackboard.

Changes to 2014 resit arrangements

Following the introduction of the revised Academic Year Calendar for 2014/15, Academic Board has agreed that the 2014 resit week will be brought forward, in line with the new schedule, to allow the release of results to students on 8 September, ahead of the start of the new academic year. Key dates are now as follows:

  • 7, 8 and 9 July 2014(midday) – Publication of first sit results, all levels
  • 25 July 2014 – Final resit exam timetable to be published
  • 11 August 2014 – Hand in resit coursework (previously 1 September)
  • w/c 11 August 2014 – Resit week (previously w/c 1 September)
  • w/c 18 August 2014 – Design Work resit submissions (Architecture)
  • 8 September 2014 – Publication of resit results (midday)
  • w/c 1 September – resit Examination Boards

In order to minimise any disruption for students related to the change in resit week; any student who can provide documentary evidence that they have, as of yesterday, Tuesday 4 February 2014, already booked and confirmed immovable arrangements (for example an in-patient procedure, their own wedding, a family holiday) that will make them unavailable, if subsequently required, to attend resit examinations during w/c 11 August 2014, should make this known to the Extenuating Circumstances Team now.

This should be done via e mail with appropriate evidence attached (for example confirmation of holiday booking, hospital/appointment letter confirmations) by Friday 28 February 2014 to studentsrecords@lincoln.ac.uk. All evidence submitted will be considered and where approved, alternative examination arrangements will be made and notified to students as soon as possible after first sit results are released in July.

Students who have any questions about the above arrangements are asked to contact their Personal Tutor, their School Office or the Student Support Centre for further information and advice.

Chris Spendlove

University Registrar

 

Free workshop on start-up businesses

starup

A free workshop for start-up businesses is taking place on Thursday 13 February at The Showroom, Lincoln 5.30pm to 8pm.

The event will put county entrepreneurs, those looking to start a new business, in touch with start-up business coaches who can advise on available funding and the best routes to market. This event is suitable for those who:

  • are  in education and are now looking to self-employment
  • are unemployed and are now looking  to self-employment
  • are in the armed forces and are looking to self-employment as part of their Re-settlement
  • are in employment but are looking to go self employed
  • are part of an established business which has an idea they would like to ‘hive out’
  • have an idea or concept that has the potential for commercialisation

As well as this, there will be a chance to meet with experts across all business disciplines such as finance, marketing, legal requirements and much more.

At the end of the event guests will leave with hints, tips and knowledge – as well as free pre-arranged one-to-one consultation with the presentation speakers.

Marie Pritchett, from the Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Our aim is to provide free advice to those wanting to start a new business”.

“There will be several presentations about business planning, avoiding financial pitfalls, business banking, legal considerations, as well as branding and marketing. And there will be a chance for guests to hear from people who have launched their own business, and are reaping the rewards”.

The event will begin with half an hour of networking around the exhibitions stands, followed by presentations from Streets Chartered Accountants, Barclays, NBV Enterprises Solutions, Lincolnshire County Council, Systematic Print and a webinar from HMRC.

During the final half hour of the event there will be an opportunity for delegates to book as many one-to-one appointments with the speakers.

The event is being organised by Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce, Streets Chartered Accountants and Lincolnshire County Council.

Sessions include:

  • Business planning
  • Avoiding the pit falls from an accountant’s perspective
  • Business banking
  • Making first impressions count
  • How BusinessLincolnshire.com can help you

To book a place on this event email natasha.clegg@lincs-chamber.co.uk or call Marie Pritchett on 01522 846923 

For more information, click Start Up and GO Flyer

Online student timetables

Working with the laptop

Online student timetables are currently showing incorrectly.

They show the timetable for week 23 rather than this week (week 19). 

In order to view your timetable correctly, please click the ‘Prev’ button to week 19 on your timetable. Please note that this will show the wrong w/c date but the timetable is correct for this week. 

ICT are working on the issue and will have it resolved as soon as possible.  We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

If you still have further queries please email the ICT Service Desk – helpdesk@lincoln.ac.uk – or call the ICT Helpdesk on 01522 886500.

 

Lincoln researchers transform standards of 999 care for heart attack and stroke patients

Ambulance blue lightsThe introduction of checklists and better feedback for ambulance crews as part of a national quality improvement project led by Lincoln researchers has significantly improved the standard of care for heart attack and stroke patients across England, a major new study has shown.

Between them, heart attack and stroke are the most common cause of death in the UK. There are more than a quarter of a million heart attacks (acute myocardial infarction) in the UK each year and two fifths result in sudden death. There are another 150,000 incidences of stroke annually.

Timely treatment given by ambulance clinicians before a patient reaches hospital is a major factor in their chances of survival and recovery. Paramedics are using standardised packages of assessment and treatment known as ‘care bundles’ for these and other emergency conditions. A care bundle is a series of actions that are clinically recognised to improve a patient’s prognosis.

For heart attack, it involves: taking verbal pain scores; giving aspirin; administering a drug called glyceryl trinitrate (GTN); and offering pain relief. For stroke it includes: the FAST (face, arm, speech, time) assessment; a blood glucose reading; and a blood pressure reading.

Crucially, these care bundles should be followed in full whenever a heart attack or stroke is suspected. Until recently, there was widespread geographical variation between English regions in how consistently these steps were followed.

Researchers from the University of Lincoln, working with East Midlands Ambulance Service together with all English ambulance services, have led a national quality improvement programme, the Ambulance Services Cardiovascular Quality Initiative (ASCQI), to attempt to address these regional disparities.

This type of project – known as a Quality Improvement Collaborative (QIC) – has been used in some healthcare sectors for more than 25 years. However, this was the world’s first large-scale national QIC focussed on ambulance clinicians. It involved all 12 publicly funded English ambulance trusts, which between them employ more than 22,000 ambulance clinicians, and was funded by the Health Foundation.

It encouraged frontline staff, and their management, to introduce small procedural changes, such as checklists, aide memoires, and individual and group feedback. It also enabled sharing of information within and between different trusts.

The first full analysis of the project’s results (published January 2014) in the international online academic journal Implementation Science, shows statistically significant improvements in all 11 ambulance trusts who completed the project.

The study examined the period between January 2010 and February 2012. Across England overall, the percentage of emergency cases where care bundles were delivered in full increased from 43% to 79% for heart attack and from 83% to 96% for stroke.

Detailed analysis suggested the introduction of checklists and other aide memories, coupled with better mechanisms for feedback for frontline staff, had the most profound impact.

Professor Niro Siriwardena, from the School of Health and Social Care at the University of Lincoln, who led the ASCQI project, said: “We know that paramedics are good at making accurate diagnoses of heart attack and stroke. What we needed to understand better was how they actually manage emergency patients with suspected heart attack or stroke before they reach hospital. It is important that care bundles are followed in full for each case, even if an initial diagnosis is not clear-cut.
“Our analysis shows that this national quality improvement project – the first of its kind anywhere in the world – has led to significant increases in the use of care bundles by ambulance crews responding to heart attack and stroke patients. We found that frontline staff were willing to make small changes to the way they worked because they were able to see the benefits for patient care.”

Future research will investigate the impact of these improvements on patient outcomes, such as survival, and whether similar changes could benefit emergency patients with other conditions, such as asthma.

To learn more about the project, visit the website of the research team: http://www.cahru.org.uk/

Or read the research paper online: http://www.implementationscience.com/content/9/1/17

NUS International Student Survey

BBC online

The National Union of Students (NUS) has developed a short survey to campaign against the proposals in the immigration bill. They are looking for international students to answer questions about their thoughts on the bill proposals which we will use to argue against the changes to MPs and Lords.

You can find more information via http://www.nusconnect.org.uk/news/article/international/URGENT-Survey-for-International-Students

The link to the survey is https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ImmigrationBill  & students can win one of 5 £50 Amazon vouchers. Three vouchers will be drawn at 5:00pm on January 13th and 2 more on January 31st when the survey will close. NUS will use the completed survey data to lobby the Lords ahead of their vote on the bill.

Can a toad be sad? Survey on attitudes towards animals

ToadAre cats moral or amoral? Can a toad be sad? Take part in an academic survey which considers people’s attitudes towards animals.
 
Dr Emile van der Zee and Prof Todd Hogue from the School of Psychology at the University of Lincoln have developed a questionnaire that measures people’s views on whether animals can think, have emotions, or feel pain.

Our attitudes towards animals are an important predictor for our thinking about animal welfare (do pigs need to roam freely when farmed?), how we interact with them (why do we pet cats but rarely snakes?), and what effects animals have on us (e.g., petting a dog slows your heart rate, and increases your levels of oxytocin, making you feel good).

There is an opportunity for you to participate in this research.

The attitudes towards animals questionnaire is available online. Apart from asking your opinion about the characteristics of certain animals, the research is aimed at finding out how these opinions arise. Do we have our opinions because of our age, our gender, our religion, etc.?

Please click on the following link http://bit.ly/animal-feelings if you are interested in participating. Whether you like animals or do not like them, your opinion is important to the study.