News...

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Sussex Shell Success

The seventh year of the Shell STEP scheme has proven a great success for both the University and the Sussex Innovation Centre. The scheme provides penultimate-year undergraduates with a tough eight-week industrial placement in which they have to complete a detailed project and then give a presentation to a panel of judges, who award marks for each sector. The competition is fierce, with the winner qualifying for a place at the national final.

Avneesh Bhatnagar who is studying Electronic Engineering/Computer Science in ENGG won this year's local competition. Avneesh, sponsored by Seeboard, successfully developed specialised thermal modelling software to be used by his placement company - Elektro Magnetix, based in the Innovation Centre. Unfortunately Avneesh was unable to attend the regional final, so his place was taken by runner-up Susan Tester from St Andrew's University, who was given a special commendation certificate and a prize of £100.

Rodin Conference at Sussex

An international group of scholars met at Sussex last month for a two-day conference which aimed to explore Auguste Rodin's associations with Great Britain. The conference was held in conjunction with the exhibition Rodin in Lewes, and was organised by the Centre for Research in the History of Art, in association with the Henry Moore Research Fellowship. The conference set out to develop ideas and issues raised by the exhibition in Lewes, which celebrated the brief return of The Kiss to its original Sussex home.

The Lewes version of The Kiss was commissioned in 1900 by the American collector Edward Perry Warren, then resident in the town. This provided the conference with two main lines of inquiry - to explore the collecting activities of Warren and his companion John Marshall, and to investigate Rodin's British connections: his champions, his critics, his women students and collectors of his work.

• There is still time to visit the exhibition, which will be open until the end of October.

New Registrar & Secretary for Sussex

Neil Gershon, currently Secretary of the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, has been appointed Registrar & Secretary, in succession to Barry Gooch.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr Gershon spent 20 years at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, including almost a decade as its Secretary.

The new Registrar has also acted as a consultant to the medical school of Queen Mary College, the Hong Kong University Grants Committee and the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council.

48-year-old Mr Gershon, who was educated at the University of York, will take up his appointment on 1 January 2000.

USIE makes the school first XV

The first comprehensive league table of teacher training, published in September, puts the University of Sussex in 15th place out of 77 teacher-training colleges and university education departments in England.

The figures were published by the Teacher Training Agency (TTA) and cover both primary and secondary teaching. The TTA index is based on scores for entry qualifications, OFSTED inspection grades and the proportion of trainees entering teaching.

Pat Drake, Director of the Sussex PGCE, said, "We have scored above average on all six scores and we have come top of the table in East and West Sussex. We are particularly proud of our very good track record with regard to trainees getting their first jobs in teaching." Staff in USIE work in partnership with local schools, as part of the Sussex Consortium for Teacher Education and Research. Pat Drake said, "This is a great result for USIE and the Sussex Consortium. The Consortium shows that school-based initial teacher training, combined with a good relationship between schools and the University, really works."

Cupboard clear-out reveals more University treasures

Porters Keith Fowler and Philip Noakes have found four more pictures from the University's art collection. They made the discovery while moving old blackboards out of a furniture store cupboard, located at the back of one of the teaching rooms in Arts D.

• Nude Woman with Mirror, by John Upton, probably dates from the late 1960s and was purchased by an individual or committee at the University.

• Francesca and Death, by Leukiewz, may have been borrowed from a museum. It was originally hung in the EAM lower common room.

• Bombay, by Lancelot Ribeiro, was bought through the Booker Fund and was probably displayed in the AFRAS common room.

• Passing Through, by Judith Marle, possibly belonged to the Gardner Arts Centre.

Simon Lane, who is compiling a catalogue of University-owned art work, would like to hear from anyone who has more information about any of the four oil paintings. He can be contacted on extension 3500.

Pictured below in the cupboard where they found the paintings are Keith Fowler (left), who is holding Francesca and Death and standing in front of Nude Woman with Mirror, and Philip Noakes, who is in front of Passing Through.