Events

The third annual Provost’s Awards for Public Engagement were held on 25 January. Ben Davies was there to applaud the winners.

Academia, it seems fair to say, can be a little inaccessible to those outside the loop. Accusations of academics operating with an ‘ivory tower’ mentality do seem increasingly unfair, but there is still an element of the mysterious about the whole endeavour; having studied Philosophy, one of the more mysterious subjects offered at university level, I know that a subject that fails to communicate will be seen as esoteric, perhaps even a waste of time.

This is not only a great shame when the truth is that academic research is of great relevance to the public, but is also damaging to universities themselves. More than ever, public engagement is vital to higher education.

The seriousness with which UCL treats its own public engagement, therefore, can only be a good thing. The awards ceremony was organised by the university’s Public Engagement Unit, which supports staff and students in communicating with the public in a constructive way, and whose staff were thanked by UCL President and Provost Malcolm Grant for “leading on public engagement for the institution as a whole”.

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Dan Martin, UCL Corporate Events, writes about this year’s scholarships reception.

Every year UCL celebrates the achievements of its scholarship recipients at an annual scholarships reception, and on 15 December, President and Provost, Professor Malcolm Grant and Vice-Provost (International) Professor Michael Worton addressed a packed auditorium of 350 scholarship recipients, their guests, embassy officials, scholarship sponsors and UCL senior staff.

Beyond the significant investment that UCL makes in its various scholarships, it is clear from the many organisations and individual benefactors in the audience – who through their generosity help the university’s exceptional students to take forward their studies – that many share and support UCL’s vision of excellence and global citizenship. Scholarship sponsor John Howe, a trustee for the Frederick Bonnart-Braunthal Trust, which since 2000 has been funding three-year MPhil/PHD scholarships at UCL, addressed the audience on behalf of the sponsors in the room, speaking very positively of his support for UCL and the funding of scholarships.

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In April 2011 the geographic split that has divided the UCL Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment (GEE) for many years was brought to an end when approximately 90 academic staff, students and support staff moved from Wolfson House to the newly refurbished Darwin Building on Gower Street. The move brought them together with the UCL Genetics Institute (UGI) which is to become a hub for statistical genetic and bioinformatics research.

Yesterday marked the completion of this £5.5 million project when the Darwin Building was officially reopened by the UCL Provost. The event included a mini-symposium entitled “What can evolution tell us about today?” before Professor Steve Jones invited the Provost to cut the ribbon and declare the building open for business.

Professor Malcolm Grant, President and Provost, UCL, cuts the ribbon to re-open the Darwin Building

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UCL Migration Week featured a series of lectures, panel discussions, conferences and exhibitions, exploring migration from a number of academic perspectives. Tom Palmer, (third year BSc Economics) describes the debate that took place on 6th April at the Policy Podium, which was organised by Professor Christian Dustmann of the UCL Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM).
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