News archive

Published 11 February 2009

Graduands at this year's University of Brighton's winter award ceremonies will share the stage with educationalist, Professor Sir Tim Brighouse and former member of the university’s Board of Governors, Dr June Crown, CBE. The university will also be honouring the work of designers, Robin and Lucienne Day.

Dr June Crown, CBE, who retired from the university's Board of Governors at the end of July 2008, having served since August 2001 as one of the 12 independent members will be made a Doctor of Science at the afternoon ceremony at Brighton's Dome Theatre on Thursday 12 February.

Professor Sir Tim Brighouse, who recently retired as the first government-appointed London schools commissioner, where he worked to improve education in the capital, will be made a Doctor of Laws at the morning ceremony at Brighton's Dome Theatre on Friday 13 February.

Robin Day, a furniture designer and his wife Lucienne, a textiles designer, who both rose to prominence after World War II and believed in the transformative power of modern design, will have their work honoured at the morning ceremony at Brighton's Dome Theatre, on Friday 13 February.

More than 1,000 students are celebrating their success this year. They include:

• A PhD student from Taiwan who survived the devastating earthquakes which struck central Taiwan in 1999
• A Water and Environmental Management Masters student who has successfully secured a job and begun working for an international environmental service company even before graduating with a distinction
• A Masters student whose research has helped a Sussex travel business to understand their customers better
• Two university laboratory technicians who have graduated with the same Masters in Environmental Assessment and Management.
  

The new graduates will collect awards, which range from diplomas to doctorates, from the university's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Julian Crampton and the chairman of the Board of Governors, Lord Mogg, who will be attending the graduation ceremonies as chairman.

Professor Crampton said: "Award ceremonies are very special days for the university. I am struck by the wealth of talent and the sense of community which exists at the university."

"Universities are about people and it is the students and staff of the university that make these ceremonies possible. For staff, this is a high point of the academic year - for graduates, it is a significant milestone. I would like to offer all the students my warmest congratulations."

Dr June Crown, CBE, Doctor of Science

Dr June Crown (pictured below) retired from the university's Board of Governors at the end of July 2008, having served since August 2001 as one of the 12 independent members. She has served on a number of the board's committees and most notably as deputy chairman from August 2002.

Dr Crown was educated at Pate's Grammar School, Newnham College, Cambridge, the Middlesex Hospital Medical School and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She was director of the South East Institute of Public Health (to which she was appointed in 1991); previously she led the public health services in Brent and Harrow, and Bloomsbury Health Authorities. She chaired the review which led to the introduction of prescribing by non-medical health professionals in the UK and has acted as an advisor to the World Health Organisation and several overseas governments. She has undertaken work related to health services reform in central and eastern Europe, most recently in Russia.

She was President of the UK Faculty of Public Health and has been a member of the Board of Newnham College, the Queen's Nursing Institute, the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, the Institute of Orthopaedics, the Board of Management and Court of Governors for the LSHTM. She served as chairman of Age Concern England, is a trustee of Help the Aged, President of Medact and chairman of Fitzrovia Youth in Action.

She was awarded a CBE in 1998.

As a Fellow of the Faculty of Health and Social Science she is committed to its multiprofessional approach. She was extremely positive about the university's joint bid with the University of Sussex for the establishment of a medical school. She has been the representative of the Board of Governors on the BSMS joint board since its establishment. Dr Crown is a tireless and active supporter of the University of Brighton, and of the city of Brighton & Hove.

Professor Sir Tim Brighouse

Professor Sir Tim Brighouse recently retired as the first government-appointed London schools commissioner, where he worked to improve education in the capital. Before that his career started in the classroom and has taken in the role of Professor of Education at Keele University, as well as chief education officer in both Oxfordshire and Birmingham local authorities.

Professor Brighouse arrived in Birmingham as chief education officer in 1993. At that time, many schools felt neglected: they were at a low ebb with a shortage of resources to meet the innumerable challenges they faced. However, Professor Brighouse saw schools as "places full of suppressed energy that were simply waiting to be celebrated for their ideas and skill".

Eight years on, Birmingham had developed an enviable reputation for educational dynamism. Although many challenges remain, there is no doubt that Professor Brighouse has made his mark both locally and nationally. At the heart of his philosophy lies a commitment to the fundamentals of teaching and learning.

Professor Brighouse made a point of keeping in close contact with teachers and support staff across the city. "Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by the problems I am facing," he said. "I take a detour to a school to fill up my tank with the energy and optimism that I find in the classroom. I am inspired by glimpses of the journey of learning that teachers are undertaking with their pupils."

Professor Brighouse has written extensively, especially on school improvement, and his books include, What makes a good school? and How to improve your school.

On retirement, he leaves behind the London Challenge, a scheme to make London a world leader in education by offering extra support to 70 disadvantaged schools and five low-performing boroughs. A model that is soon to be extended to other cities.

Robin and Lucienne Day, will be made Doctors of Letters

Robin Day, a furniture designer and his wife Lucienne, a textiles designer, who both rose to prominence after World War II, believed in the transformative power of modern design to make the world a better place. He experimented with new materials and inexpensive furniture, while she revitalised textile design with vibrant new patterns.

They met where they both trained, at the Royal College of Art in London.

Early on, Lucienne designed dress fabrics, while Robin concentrated on exhibition and poster design. Robin won first prize in the storage section of the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture in New York in 1948, with his cabinets made from plywood. This led the company, Hille, to hire him to design modernised furniture. His sparing use of materials and economic approach meant he was not only making a design statement but was also solving practical problems.

The Days rose to prominence during the 1951 Festival of Britain. Robin was commissioned to design the furniture for the Royal Festival Hall. Lucienne created her revolutionary furnishing fabric, Calyx, an abstract pattern inspired by plant forms. Heal Fabrics saw this and embraced the contemporary style, and over the next 20 years Lucienne produced over 70 outstanding patterns for them. She also designed carpets, wallpapers, tea towels, table linen and ceramics, as well as acting as a colour consultant to several clients. In the late 1970s, she developed silk mosaics.

Robin is best known for his polypropylene stacking chair, which he invented in 1963. It was one of the first pieces of furniture that fully used the mass-manufacturing opportunities of injection moulding and now over 20 million have been manufactured. He won the Chartered Society of Designers' Minerva Medal, its highest accolade, for a lifetime of achievement in the field of design.

In 1999, Habitat reissued the polypropylene chairs and a duvet with Lucienne's black leaf design. In 2001, Lesley Jackson wrote the book, Robin and Lucienne Day: Pioneers in Modern Design.

Guaei Casilisi

A Brighton student from Taiwan who survived the devastating earthquakes which struck central Taiwan in 1999 celebrates today having received a PhD in social work.

Guaei Casilisi (pictured above with his family) was attending his first day at National Chi Nan University, in central Taiwan, as a masters student when the earthquake struck, killing 3,000 people and leaving thousands homeless.

Following the disaster Guaei led a group of senior social work students to provide tutoring and counselling to aboriginal youths who lived in makeshift houses. He was also employed by the Puli Christian Hospital to supervise the delivery of home care and meal deliveries for older and disabled people belonging to Taiwan's aboriginal communities.

The welfare of Taiwan's aboriginal communities is close to Guaei's heart being from an indigenous tribe in Taiwan himself. "The experience not only increased my understanding of Aborigines problems and needs but also justified my decision to devote myself to this profession," says Guaei, who went on to help found the Pingtung County Aborigine Tribe University, where he worked as chief secretary.

It was this devotion which led him to Brighton and became the subject of Guaei's PhD at Brighton. His PhD explored the opinions and life experiences of aboriginal older and disabled people in the Paiwanese group to find out how they experience health care and social care services in different settings. Guaei explains: "My interest came about in this area of research because not only am I Paiwanese but my family and relatives face the same situation and problems. Paiwanese older and disabled people are dependent groups within an already disadvantaged population and their traditional model of care has come under threat, not only from Japanese and Chinese invaders but also from modernisation, western religion and medicine and the movement of young people to the cities."

Guaei first came to study at Brighton in 2004 to study English at the university's School of Language, Literature and Communications before embarking on his PhD. Along with adapting to the inevitable cultural changes and language barriers, Guaei also had to cope with leaving behind his wife and child. "Apart from the language, missing my wife and child was the biggest challenge for me. I also missed Taiwanese food – it's very different. As my parents said, everything is different except the blue sky!"

Now working as a part-time assistant professor in National Dong Hwa University, located in the east of Taiwan, Guaei credits his PhD as helping him to secure his current role, which will become permanent in August of this year. As for the future, Guaei plans to find a full-time job in south Taiwan closer to his hometown.

Janak Pathak

Among those graduating today is Water and Environmental Management masters student Janak Pathak, who has successfully secured a job and begun working for an international environmental service company even before graduating with a distinction.

Though now living and working in the UK, Janak (pictured below) is originally from Nepal. He was brought up in an international children's organisation called the SOS Children's Village from the age of five. Founded in 1968, the village was established to help the plight of children on the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal.

"I was brought up in the SOS village in Sanothimi, located outside Kathmandu", says Janak. "In general it is a small village with more or less 16 to 20 houses, so in one village there are approximately 200 to 250 including working staff. It has its own school, playgrounds, sports and musical facilities. It was a great privilege to be brought up in SOS Children's Village and I was accommodated with all kind of facilities for my future career development."

From Nepal, to Brighton and now to North Wales for his new post, Janak took up his role as a water management consultant at the company AMEC Earth and Environment UK Ltd whilst still working on his final dissertation. Interested in flood management, his dissertation examined technology to monitor and predict incidents of pollution in the river Ouse, East Sussex. He says this dissertation, along with the experience he gained studying and working part-time at the university as a laboratory technician to support himself financially, has significantly helped him in new role now.

Looking back on his time at Brighton, Janak says: "A highlight of the course was the cooperation and support from the university's staff who have encouraged and helped me to overcome the difficulties during my stay in Brighton. It was great to get to know the people from diverse cultural backgrounds worldwide at the university."

Franka Steinkopf

Award-winning research from Masters student in Tourism Management, Franka Steinkopf (pictured below), has helped a Sussex travel business to understand their customers better. The student from Frankfurt in Germany was commissioned to undertake the research by Grand Breaks, a company which specialises in short UK breaks exclusively for grandparents and grandchildren.

Franka's dissertation research explored how today's grandparents like to spend leisure time with their grandchildren and revealed that grandparents perceive themselves to be a lot younger in their lifestyles than people of their age in previous generations. Furthermore, their age is no longer seen as a constraining factor to travel.

Such was the success of her dissertation that Franka has received the Dean’s Prize from the university in recognition of attaining a MA Tourism Management with Distinction, coupled with her outstanding performance demonstrated in her research and dissertation. Speaking about her dissertation Franka says: "The highlight of my Masters degree was definitely the dissertation as it was also the most challenging part of the course. I like to deal with people and interviewing groups of parents and grandparents was fun and challenging on a personal level and analysing the data was definitely a challenge from the scientific perspective. I was thrilled to see patterns emerge and to know that new information was generated here. And of course, to know that there was a benefit for Grand Breaks in the results of this work was a bonus and an important motivational factor, too."

Grand Breaks Managing Director, Charles Grimaldi said: "Grand Breaks was delighted to assist Franka and congratulates her on this invaluable, award-winning research. The findings, with indications of a more fun seeking, adventurous and younger at heart style of grandparents have sparked images of today's grandparents as the 'Peter Pan generation' of grandparents!"

Until now little research has been conducted into this area, despite the fact that grandparents now represent over 20 per cent of the UK population and the over 50s possess some 80 per cent of the nation's wealth. This is an important market in the current economic climate as more women are having to return to work and the responsibility of childcare is falling to kinship carers such as grandparents.

Now back home in Germany, Franka has successfully secured a trainee position in the service sector. Looking back on her time studying Franka says: "The experience of making this degree as a whole has certainly shown me once more what I am capable of doing. With an experience like that, the effort I put in and the results I got out, I definitely went into the job interviews for my current job with higher self-confidence."

Peter Mathers and Christopher English

Two laboratory technicians who work alongside each other in the university's School of Environment and Technology both graduate today with the same masters in Environmental Assessment and Management.

Peter Mathers and Christopher English (pictured below), who support the Geo Science and Civil Engineering laboratories, say studying together proved to help both with mutual support along with some healthy competition.

"Studying at the same time as a colleague was an essential part of getting through the course", says Peter, who has worked at the university for 15 years. "When you undertake courses part-time in some ways it divorces you from full-time students as you face slightly different deadlines and problems. Working with someone in the same boat makes it easier to gauge your own progress and encourages progress."

Peter, who had previously completed a joint honours BSc in Geography and Geology within the university, says his qualifications have been beneficial in his role at the university: "There is no shadow of doubt that they have contributed to my overall worth as an employee of the university, both in terms of the depth of knowledge they have given me in relation to the Earth Science courses offered within the school and in giving me a greater understanding of the pressures and problems faced by students working to tight deadlines."

So looking back and remembering all the hard work, would they study again? "When I finished my BSc three years ago I said never again," says Peter. "That lasted about six months then I was itching to learn more! I had the same attitude at the end of my masters but I'm starting to miss the process again, so yes, I would study again given the chance.