| | | Higher education news Beheaded Syrian Scholar refused to lead Isis to hidden Palmyra Antiquities Khaled Al-Assad, who was a renowned antiquities scholar in the Syrian city of Palmyra, was brutally murdered by Isis militants on August 18th for refusing to lead them to where the city's most valuable treasures had been moved for safekeeping. After holding him hostage for a month, a board comprised of Isis militants laid out the charges set against him. They accused him of loyalty to Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad, maintaining contact with regime intelligence officials and of protecting Palmyra's collection of "idols". He was then hung in front of dozens of on-lookers at a museum in Tadmur, Syria and his mutilated corpse was left dangling from one of the Roman-era columns in the ancient city. For the full article, click here. (The Guardian) Academic Assassinated in Mosul, Iraq Dr Muhsen Saloom Ibrahem, the Head of Law at Al-Hadbaa University College, Mosul, was publicly executed by Islamic State militants on the 12th August in the city centre. It carries on a worrying trend of public executions for those that dare to speak out against the atrocities they witness on a daily basis. For more information, click here. (Cara) EU Provides Education Grant for Syrian Refugees The EU has given Jordan just over €60m to assist them in providing educational services to Syrian refugees. €55 million will go towards educating over 140,000 students in refugee camps and €5.5m will go to funding for the EU Erasmus+ program for higher education. To read more, click here. (University World News) Why has scientific progress stalled in many Islamic countries? Moneef Zou'bi, the director general of the Islamic World Academy of Sciences in Jordan, claims that scientific progress has come to a halt in Islamic countries, due to the "indifference shown by decision makers". In a series of essays published in Critical Muslim, he calls on Muslim states to actively partake in reforming the widespread "cultures of anti-science" and the over-dependence on expatriates to carry out multi-million dollar scientific projects. Other critics such as Martin Rose, former director of the British Council in Morocco, argues that the North African higher educational system is inflexible and finds great difficulty adapting to the needs of the modern world economy. For the full article, click here. (Times Higher Education). Why I should be free to cause offence In his article, Lincoln Allison argues that the oft-threatened academic freedom of expression is vital to the advancement of knowledge and the progress of society. He claims that the current generation of academics are finding it more difficult to express their opinions, due to research pressure, the censorship of "offensive" opinions and universities increasingly trying to protect their brand images and maximise profits. He then calls on academics to fight for their rights to be able to express their opinions freely. For the full article, click here. (Times Higher Education) | |
Events | 
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Manchester Food and Drink Festival 2015 Where: Manchester When: 10th-21st September Running since 1998, the Manchester Food and Drinks Festival is a city-wide celebrating the nation's best food and beverages. Over the years, it has achieved national status and has attracted huge names in the culinary arts such as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. Below is a selection of events from the huge programme list that you may find interesting: • The Great Manchester Bake Off (13th September) – Festival Hub, Manchester: Local residents in Manchester will compete with each other to find out who the city's best baker is. A panel of expert judges will determine who Manchester's baking champion is! For the event listing, please click here. • Chef Demo Day (12th September) – Festival Hub, Manchester: A day filled with fantastic foodie demo's brought to you by some of Britain's best culinary geniuses, including Michelin Star Chef Aiden Byrne! For the event listing, please click here. • Rudy's Pizza Making Night (20th September) – Rudy's Pizza Restaurant, Manchester: If you've always wanted to learn how to make great pizza, then head down to Rudy's for a tutorial on how to perfect Neapolitan pizza! For the event listing, please click here. For the full list of events running, please click here. Africa Utopia at Southbank Centre Where: London When: 10th-13th September Africa Utopia is an annual three day festival that showcases ways that Africa can lead the way in terms of culture, fashion, art, technology, sustainability and community in order to make the world a better place. A star-studded line up of performers from all around Africa or with African roots will be present, with previous performers including the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra and Mulatu Astatke, the "Godfather of Ethio-Jazz". For more information on Africa Utopia and events running during the festival, please click here. Totally Thames Festival Where: All along the River Thames When: 1st-30th September Totally Thames brings the whole 42 mile stretch of the River Thames to life with arts, cultural, music and river events every September. Come take part in riverside archaeological walks, discover the history of the Magna Carta or eat delicious foods while you listen to Britain's best up and coming artists, among many other events! For more information and the full list of events, please click here. Birmingham Weekender Where: Birmingham When: 25th-27th September Birmingham's major arts organisations are coming together on the weekend of the 25th September to stage a free outdoor arts exhibition. Come see the Compagnie Transe Express' Maudits Sonnants, an orchestra of baroque-bell ringers who will stage a live night-time performance or be surprised by the pop-up acrobatics and circus performances throughout the city! For more information and the full list of events, please click here. City & Guilds of London MA Fine Art Show Where: London When: 9th-13th September The Art School at the City & Guilds of London is hosting an Art Exhibition, showcasing works of exceptional quality from resident artists and graduating MA students. The exhibition will showcase Innovative works that have been developed from the traditions of painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking. For more information and opening times, please click here. | |
The Forgotten Victim: Gaza's Higher Education | 
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Stopping a nation's citizens from developing critical thinking skills in higher education is tantamount to preventing its development. Israel's Operation Protective Edge, a relentless 51-day assault on the blockaded Gaza Strip between July and August 2014, was widely publicised for the high number of Palestinian civilian casualties incurred: 1,462, a third of them children. This came 5 years after Operation Cast Lead, a 22 day conflict that commenced at the end of December 2008 that resulted in 962 civilian deaths, 286 of them children. In both conflicts, while the world's eyes remained fixated on the dire humanitarian circumstances, Gaza's higher education system became one of the neglected victims. During Cast Lead, 15 out of the 16 higher education institutes in Gaza were damaged by Israeli forces, with 6 of them coming under direct attack. Reconstruction efforts, as measured by the Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza were estimated at $21.1m. Having barely recovered from the setbacks during the 2008-9 operation, they were again targeted in 2014. A report by the UN independent commission stated that 3 universities in Gaza were attacked directly by Israeli missiles and 8 more suffered collateral damage. In an article published on Middle East Monitor, Ben White states that around 420 students at Higher Education Institutions (HEI's) were among those killed during Protective Edge, as well as 9 academic and administrative staff, with 21 more suffering injuries. A recent report by Al-Fanar Media showed that one year on from the conflict, university professors have had their salaries cut by half, been forced to share offices due to the lack of funds, and are not being provided with adequate resources to carry out their scholarly work. Professors such as Majed Turban, who teaches Journalism at Al-Aqsa University says that the Israeli blockades on Gaza have prevented him from attending 12 international conferences for fear he would not be allowed to return. The $16m worth of damage inflicted in 2014 means that campuses have still not been re-constructed and rising costs to the universities has left many students unable to pay crippling tuition fees. Classes are often cancelled due to electricity cuts and students are unable to submit their work on time, hampering their education and future career ambitions. UNESCO has claimed that Israel has carried out a significant amount of "material, human and educational damage". These harrowing facts beg the question of whether these attacks on higher education institutions and the general restrictions placed on people are a matter of coincidence or a continued effort to silence those that have the ability to speak out. For this author at least, in order to breed the nation's next generation of academics, more needs to be done by the international community to protect them and the institutions that they can carry out their invaluable work in. Hussam El-Kurd Cara Fellowship Intern | |
Funding Opportunities 
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Four Prestigious Post Graduate Research Studentships – Sustainable Engineering Where: University of Derby, United Kingdom Amount: Full tuition fee award and maintenance grant at UK/EU Level Deadline: 9th September 2015 The Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Engineering and the College of Engineering & Technology at the University of Derby announce four Post Graduate Research Studentship opportunities starting in September/October 2015. These are sponsored collaboratively by Rolls-Royce plc, one of the world's leading engineering companies, the Department of Computing & Mathematics and Institute for Innovation in Sustainable Engineering at the University. We are seeking resourceful and highly motivated individuals, who are critical thinkers and seeking to make significant contributions to further our research knowledge and capabilities. For these studentships, you should already have a first degree (1st or 2:1 Class Honours) in Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics or in a related / relevant subject area. The studentships will be in the following areas: - Augmented Reality applications for high integrity product lifecycle management and training - Automated horizon scanning (technology watch) using advanced analytical techniques - Optimisation of High Performance Computing (HPC) to achieve improved resource efficiency - Advanced data analytics to extract meaningful knowledge from big data-sets For more information on this studentship opportunity, click here. 19 Fully Funded Doctoral Research Scholarships Where: University of Westminster, United Kingdom Amount: Full tuition fee waiver plus £16,000 pa stipend Deadline: 30th September 2015 The University of Westminster's Graduate School is pleased to announce 19 new MPhil/PhD scholarships in support of high-quality, innovative early career research across our five Faculties. Applications are now invited from eligible candidates for these scholarships, which will commence in January 2016 on a full-time basis and cover a stipend of £16,000 p.a., plus full tuition fee. For more information on this funding opportunity, click here. MPhil/PhD Scholarships at the University of Greenwich – Multiple Fields in Science Where: University of Greenwich, United Kingdom Amount: Full tuition fee waiver plus £14,057 pa Deadline: 30th September 2015 The science departments at the University of Greenwich pursue internationally recognised research in a number of areas across the broad science discipline. To support and strengthen these activities we wish to recruit at total of two fully funded PhD studentships. Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact the identified member of staff to discuss opportunities within a theme before submitting an application. For more information and a list of all the departments offering a scholarship, click here. Full-time funded PhD Studentship in Architecture Where: Oxford Brookes University Amount: Full Tuition Fee Waiver and £10,000 pa for 3 years Deadline: 1st October 2015
The School of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University is pleased to offer a three year full-time PhD Studentship to a new student commencing in January 2015. The successful applicant will receive an annual bursary of £10,000 for three years (with no inflation increase) and the fees will be paid by the University. This Studentship is available to Home/EU students only. The successful candidate will work within the Place, Culture and Identity Research Group, under the supervision of Dr Marcel Vellinga, Professor Robert Adam and Hugh Petter.
Topic of research: Legacy and Land The project will analyse the key role that land-owners can play in the realisation of high quality urban development by setting standards that are in excess of those which can be delivered by house-builders and the normal planning system. The research will look at how this approach to development has worked across the UK over the past three hundred years and will include case studies of a number of current schemes, investigating how these projects are regulated during construction and, once complete, to ensure that the original vision is not diluted. The conclusions of this programme will help inform landowners, planners, architects and house builders as to how they can collaborate more effectively to create new distinctive and enduring places of high quality. The project will be in collaboration with ADAM Architecture. For more information on this funding opportunity, click here. The Clyde Higgs Scholarship 2015/16 Where: University of Newcastle Amount: £5,000 (5 Awards) Deadline: 6th September 2015 An award of £5,000 is available for to up to five Postgraduate home students on the following courses: • MSc Agricultural and Environmental Science
• MSc Organic Farming and Food Production Systems
• MSc in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security Eligibility Criteria To be eligible for this award you must:
• be a home student, ordinarily resident in the UK
• have been accepted onto one of the above courses For more information, click here. | |
Employment Opportunities | 
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Senior Research Assistant – University of Hertfordshire – Mechanics Development Location: Hatfield Salary: £26,274 to £31,342 per annum Hours: Full-Time (37 hours per week) Contract Type: Temporary Contract (36 months) Deadline: 13th September 2015 Our highly successful and expanding Microengineering and Microfluidics Research Cluster seeks to recruit an enthusiastic engineer to support our portfolio of applied research and development projects. The Cluster has a long record of developing prototype bio-analytical instrumentation for clients such as Dstl (UK MoD), the BBSRC, the EU, Innovate UK and commercial partners. The Cluster is well-integrated and multi-skilled, operating flexibly to deliver novel, instrumentation solutions. Staff are primarily dedicated to R&D projects. The appointee will hold a good engineering degree, enjoy 'hands-on', lab-based experimental work and welcome working in an informal, dynamic, client-focussed atmosphere with emphasis on research project delivery and problem-solving. For more information, click here. Post-Doctoral Research Assistant - University of Reading – Polymer Physics Group Location: Reading Salary: £28,695 per annum Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Temporary Contract (21 months) Deadline: 14th September 2015 A position as Post-Doctoral Research Assistant is available within an EU grant of Dr Patrick Ilg in the Theoretical Polymer Physics group at the Department of Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Reading. The research will use nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, as well as nonequilibrium molecular and hybrid simulations, in order to establish macroscopic constitutive equations from the underlying microscopic system of interacting polymer molecules. For examples of previous activities in this field please see www.researchgate.net/profile/P_Ilg/contributions. The project will benefit from strong links to the Polymer Physics group at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as well as other international experts in the field. Applicants will have a PhD in physics or closely related field, excellent analytical and computational skills, experience in polymer physics or soft matter physics and statistical physics, a background in computer simulations (Molecular Dynamics and Monte-Carlo methods), the capability to carry out independent research work and strong motivation and good ability to learn new techniques relevant to the project. For more information, click here. Post-doctoral Research Assistant - University of Central Lancashire – Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery System Design Location: Preston Salary: £24,057 to £27,864 per annum Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Temporary Contract Deadline: 20th September 2015 The School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) seeks to appoint a postdoctoral Research Assistant to work within the research group of Dr Mohamed Albed Alhnan. The drug delivery project in which the applicant will be involved is funded by University of Central Lancashire and is related to developing 3D printing technology for pharmaceutical applications. The successful applicant will work with Dr Mohamed Albed Alhnan to undertake individual and collaborative research aimed at developing latest advances in additive manufacturing for pharmaceutical applications. The project may involve a placement in a major biomedical company to develop one of the project objectives. Applicants should have research experience at PhD level or above in pharmaceutical sciences, physical chemistry or additive manufacturing. Knowledge of and proficiency in dosage form design manufacturing and testing is required as well as an ability to independently perform and generate data for scientific research. Experience in product design, material science, CAD software is also desirable.
For more information, click here. Research Assistant in Power Electronics - University of Sheffield Location: Sheffield Salary: £24,775 to £28,695 per annum Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Temporary Contract Deadline: 11th September 2015 The Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering invites applications to undertake research on lifetime estimation and on-line modelling of passive components in power electronic drives, with particular focus on automotive applications as part of a project funded by the EPSRC National Centre for Power Electronics. The project requires in-depth knowledge of prognostics methods in electronic systems, instrumentation design for electric drives, electric drive control algorithms and embedded systems design. This project will make extensive use of modelling and simulation tools such as Matlab/Simulink and familiarity with these tools is essential as well as demonstrable practical experience with real-time control and control electronics. The successful candidate will use facilities available within the Electrical Machines and Drives group and the project partners to design, construct, commission and test a prototype on-line prognostics system based on a pre-existing machine/drive. This will act as a technology demonstrator. The post provides an ideal opportunity to undertake high quality research in collaboration with leading researchers in the field. Applicants should possess a MEng and a PhD in power electronics and control of electrical drives or have equivalent industrial experience. In addition, a strong scientific background in electrical drives and power electronics is essential. For more information, click here. Research Assistant – University of Strathclyde - European Policies Research Centre Location: Glasgow Salary: £26,274 per annum Hours: Full Time Contract Type: Temporary Contract Deadline: 10th September 2015 The European Policies Research Centre (EPRC), in the School of Government & Public Policy, is seeking to appoint a Research Assistant to contribute to the comparative European policy research undertaken in the Centre. The appointee would participate in academic and policy research programmes on regional development, particularly with respect to the design and regulation of national regional policies and national development strategies, EU Competition policy and regional aid, and the implementation of European Structural and Investment Funds. The post would suit an applicant with a relevant first degree and subsequent work experience on regional development or potentially a post-doctoral researcher in a relevant discipline. Applicants will need to be completely fluent in English, French and Russian. Fluency in any other European languages is desirable. The post would be for two years in the first instance, with the possibility of renewal thereafter. For more information, click here. | |
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