You can now take a sneak peek at what the
new campus centre in Luton will look like
thanks to the wonder of modern technology.

A visual fly-through of the near £22
million project is available to view at: http://www.beds.ac.uk/aboutus/facts/phase1b/flythru

The building, which is the Phase 1B
development on the Park Square
campus in Luton,
is where the reprographics department used to be between the Learning Resources
Centre and the Vicarage Street
building.

Ash Carline is the University’s capital
projects manager who is in charge of the Phase 1B development.

It was the magnificent seven as the University of Bedfordshire inspired the best young athletes in the county to national glory.

The Beds county schools’ athletics squad met at the University’s Bedford campus on Thursday morning, prior to setting off for the prestigious English Schools’ Track and Field Championships in Sheffield on Friday and Saturday.

The 25-strong squad consists of the most talented sporting boys and girls aged 13-18 from schools across Bedfordshire who were competing against the top athletes in the country.

Seven of the athletes took medals at Saturday’s finals –

Gold: Deji Tobias senior boys’ 100m.

The Knowledge Hub at the University of Bedfordshire has announced a new project to provide free leadership and management training to employees working for small and medium-sized enterprises.

‘Supporting Graduates in Employment’ offers graduates, who live in Bedfordshire, access to a 12-week course leading to the Certificate in Leadership and Management from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) at level 5.

Training is open to all graduates including those who have not recently completed their degrees. Employees within SMEs may also be accepted if they have work experience equivalent to graduate level. Eligible employees must be resident in Bedfordshire, although their place of work does not have to be in the region.

The sums could soon be adding up for students
on the Bedford campus at the University of Bedfordshire.

Renovation work on A block to house business,
accounting and law teaching at Polhill will be completed by September.

The new facilities will include a 70 seater
lecture theatre, 40 seater project room, boardroom/seminar room and creativity
room - all modelled on the facilities currently available at Luton.

The state-of-the-art project room will also
include video cameras to facilitate practise mooting for the law students.

University of Bedfordshire social care expert Dr Donald Forrester contributed to a BBC Scotland documentary on children in care.

The programme, Home Is Where The Hurt Is, which was broadcast last night (Tuesday 14 July)investigated whether more children should be taken away from their families and into care.

The common assumption is that the best place for a child is with family. But this does not take into account families where drug use, violence and other problems mean that parents can’t care for their children.

The system operates as if children should only be taken away from their parents as a last resort.

University of Bedfordshire Vice Chancellor Les Ebdon CBE has called on the Government to find more money to fund student support in a bid to ease the looming crisis in the higher education system.

Official figures released last week revealed a shortfall of nearly 50,000 places at university this autumn. Applications to study degrees have soared nationally by nearly ten per cent and the Government has capped the number to reduce spending.

At the University of Bedfordshire the number of applications is rising weekly and is up 29 per cent on last year – putting the University in the top five in the country for increases in applications.

New creative blood from the University of Bedfordshire
showcased their talents at an annual exhibition in London.

The annual D&AD (Design and Art
Directors) show ran for three days at the National Hall, Olympia, with a private viewing on the first
night.

The national student exhibition, entitled
New Blood ’09, allowed more than 30 graphic design and illustration graduates
from the University to exhibit their work in front of industry chiefs.

Senior lecturer Noel Douglas said: “It was
for students to showcase their talents and it’s good for them to compare their
work with others from around the country and even with those from abroad.

“Some of them have got placements and
interviews from their work being displayed, which is good news in these
difficult times.”

University of Bedfordshire Vice Chancellor Les Ebdon CBE has welcomed the Prime Minister’s promise of more university places.

Speaking to a committee of senior MPs, Gordon Brown said there will be extra places but did not put a figure on the expansion.

He said an announcement would be made “in a timely manner” after consulting the sector.

Professor Ebdon said: “I am delighted to hear that there will be extra places for students this autumn. This is the right thing to do in the present economic climate. Thousands will be disappointed if additional places are not found.”

The Government has done the right thing in a recession – that’s according to University of Bedfordshire Vice Chancellor Les Ebdon CBE and chair of the think tank million+.

Professor Ebdon was speaking about the news from Lord Mandelson that the Government will fund student support for an extra 10,000 places this autumn.

It follows a million+ campaign to highlight with Ministers and MPs the serious mismatch between the number of funded places and the number of people applying for university places in September 2009.

Professor Ebdon said: “By investing more in student support and allowing universities to recruit within their tolerance band, the Government has done the right thing in a recession.

The first students to have studied for
their degrees at the University
of Bedfordshire since
its inception have graduated with flying colours.

The class of ’06-’09 arrived just after the
University was created by the merger of the University of Luton and the Bedford
campus of De Montfort University in August 2006.

The graduation ceremonies took place during
the week of 13-17 July at St Mary’s Church in Luton and featured graduands from
the University’s four faculties – the Business School,
Health and Social Sciences, Creative Arts, Technologies and Science (CATS) and
Education and Sport.

Hundreds of students attended the
ceremonies to receive their degrees in front of family, friends and academics.