Welcome to this first newsletter of the 2018/2019 academic year. Our undergraduate students have recently arrived back to start their studies including many joining us in Newcastle for the first whilst many of our clinical and postgraduate students have been with us for several weeks. Meanwhile, we also welcome new staff to the Faculty. If you are reading this newsletter for the first time, I hope you will join us in our events programme or want to submit a small grants application for a project that you would like to carry out.
Details of our event programme are included in this newsletter. Our monthly Journal Club continues and I would like to thank Luisa Wakeling for continuing to run this programme, our contributors who present papers for us to read and for all of you who attend and contribute to the ensuing lively professional discussions. Our seminar programme is also planned and we have speakers talking on a wide range of issues including assessment and widening participation.
One event I would like to highlight is the workshop in November from Sella Jones-Devitt on Student Voice. This is a leadership Foundation-funded project and I attended the inaugural workshop in Sheffield earlier in the year. I can promise this thought-provoking and stimulating session. I am still planning the programme for after Christmas and while I have some speakers lined up there are still spaces if people have somebody in mind they would like to invite. I am also planning to start a Writing Group as a mutual self-help group for people want support in writing for publication. Details about this will follow soon. Finally, our first Faculty Learning and Teaching Forum is on December 8th so please make time to join us for that event.
The ERDP Small Grants scheme continues next year. We are publishing submission dates in advance and this year have made a small change to those dates by making them quarterly rather than three times a year. At the same time, can I remind you that we are prepared to accept applications for support where there is an immediate need. So, please start thinking now about projects you might want to initiate or a short period of study leave that you might wish to undertake.
Another full year of activity is ahead of us and I look forward to meeting many of you at one or more of our events during the year.
Prof Steve McHanwell, Director of the ERDP Network