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Bowman's Strategic Clock is a model that explores the options for strategic positioning– i.e. how a product should be positionedto give it the most competitive.
Typology: Study Guides, Projects, Research
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Meet
WENDY CRAIG
Welcome
This academic year promises a return to a more normal way of campus life, with in-person teaching, events and sporting activities now able to take place. Looking ahead, we will see the progression of our ambitious campus masterplan, and soon the launch of our new Alumni Engagement and Development Strategy, which will set out the aspirational vision for our wider Teesside network.
Our University community is inspirational, global in reach and passionate about making a real, tangible impact. We are not a University that stands still, and despite the challenges of the pandemic and an increasingly uncertain landscape in the Higher Education sector, we are ready to rise to the challenges of the times. We generate and apply knowledge that delivers impact for our students, partners and the communities we serve.
Teesside is committed to ensuring that students from all walks of life have the opportunity to succeed. Through the Teesside Transformation Fund we will continue to support our students in realising their potential, through scholarships, prizes, mentoring, internships and coaching, ensuring our graduates become the leaders of the future. I hope you will enjoy reading about the stories and successes of your fellow Teesside alumni, and will join us in our mission to deliver an outstanding student and learning experience, level-up opportunity and generate positive social impact. I look forward to working with you in achieving and celebrating this ambition.
Professor Paul Croney Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive
Contents
Transforming
LIVES
The Teesside Transformation Fund supports students through the direction of scholarships, prizes, and transformational research projects. Funding can also be coupled with the provision of bespoke mentoring and internship opportunities, providing students with a comprehensive package of support to help realise their full potential. The University already contributes more than £2m a year to the Fund, but with the help of local businesses, supporters, and the wider Teesside alumni community, the ambition is to increase this to £10m by 2025. Donations support the overarching fund and scholarship programme, or can be targeted towards particular themes. Teesside University’s Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Professor Paul Croney said: “Through education enriched by research, innovation and engagement with business and the professions, we transform lives and economies. “We are acutely aware of the power of education and the life-changing opportunities it can bring. We believe that individuals should be able to achieve their full potential and are committed to creating an inclusive learning environment that
embraces diversity and supports students.” Social housing provider Thirteen Group, was the first organisation to contribute to the Teesside Transformation Fund. Alongside a Scholarship programme open to Thirteen residents, the organisation has also funded an initiative that provides support to budding entrepreneurs. Thirteen Group Executive Director of Business Growth Chris Smith added: “We are delighted to be sponsoring this inspirational and innovative project to help people in our community heartlands who are thinking about developing their own businesses. “It is a vital tool to help regenerate the local economy and create new jobs and opportunities. Thirteen is developing its Community Resilience Strategy to build on the strengths that already exist and co-create interventions with residents and partners that will really have an impact, helping develop a sense of optimism for the future.”
To find out more about the Teesside Transformation Fund and how you can make an impact, please contact Lauren Bradshaw at [email protected]
Teesside University is proud to have launched a flagship scholarship and bursaries scheme that transforms students’ lives.
“Jane was an incredible woman and I was privileged to work with her many different projects. Her loss as a leading inspirational figure in our region is significant. Jane influenced more change than anyone else I know. She was never one for just talking, she did it; she was so resilient and created a hub of activity. Anyone who met Jane was genuinely the better for it. She was a figurehead and a role model throughout the region, not just in the Tees Valley and change happened because of her. She put the region on the map and increased our visibility. She brought national organisations here and put levelling up on all our agendas. She was a daughter, a mother, a friend and a colleague and she will be sorely missed.” Jessica Williams, the managing director of Just Williams, worked with and supported Professor Jane Turner’s mission to encourage and empower girls and women to push through barriers, to use their talents and to recognise the role they could play in changing their own, and the region’s, economic future. This feature was intended to be a conversation between the two of them,
to discuss the importance of female role models in business and to share ways in which alumni can support young women to fulfil their potential and ambitions. Sadly, Jane passed away before the interview could take place. We spoke with Jessica about the influence that Jane has had on her own work. You were in the first cohort of mentors to join The Girls Network, why? The Girls Network is a national charity. It’s been in Newcastle for two years and we have just come to the end of its first full year in the Tees Valley after Jane launched it here. We now have 120 mentors, all professional women who are matched with a girl aged 14-18. Some mentoring can be transactional, but this is transformational. You are involved with your mentee on a daily basis. Mine, Amy Blakemore, is 18 and has just left Bede Sixth Form College ahead of going to university. We met in September last year and I have done ten formal, hour-long mentoring sessions with her. Watching her develop, increase her confidence levels, find her writing style, express herself and create goals has been an absolute honour and privilege. The way she engages with people
inspiration
A SOURCE OF
In a poignant tribute to Professor Jane Turner OBE, the University’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor who recently passed away, we speak to entrepreneur, champion of women in business and alumna Jessica Williams about how she has been inspired by Jane’s example.
a helping
hand
From counselling in hospitals to
helping adults in custody, our alumni
community volunteer in a wide
variety of different settings.
LENDING
Between 2016 and 2020 she also regularly volunteered in schools, alongside her studies, to develop her repertoire of teaching skills. The BA Hons education studies graduate, who now teaches at a school in Stockton, had been teaching in an international school in Saudi Arabia before completing her teacher training in Ingleby Barwick. “Working abroad does make you appreciate how fortunate we are in this country to have free education of a very high standard,” said the mother of two boys. “The volunteering was great and the longer I was there the more responsibility I was given. I loved teaching English to three pupils with dyslexia to progress their learning and hope one day to be a literacy lead.”
Emma Nelson’s volunteering saw her helping children with dyslexia as she expanded her experience for a career in teaching.
Heather Carabine was diagnosed with a basal cell carcinoma when she was 47. “I couldn’t have general anaesthetic as it made me ill and had to have local,” said Heather, of Middlesbrough. “Because I was awake they involved me – and I thought I want to be part of an NHS team delivering world class care.” The mum of two enrolled on a BSc (Hons) Psychology and Counselling course at Teesside University, joined the Therapeutic Care Volunteers at James Cook Hospital and also volunteered with the Tees, Esk and Wear Valley NHS Foundation Trust, putting her in prime position for a permanent job. “The volunteering definitely gave me the right experience to start my career – it’s why I am where I am today,” she said.
A patient was inspired to work for the NHS by the medical team who reconstructed her face as she lay awake on the operating table.
Heather Carabine
The Teesside University BSc (Hons) Forensic Psychology graduate now works for Middlesbrough Children’s Services and, while studying for her masters, also volunteers with the mental health charity Mind as an appropriate adult for people in custody. “I have always done something I love and it’s the same with volunteering,” said Anita, originally of Lithuania, now Stockton, who used to be a professional pianist until injury pushed her towards psychology. “I learn something new every time I am there and, while supporting people at their toughest time, I also gain a greater insight and understanding which helps me in my job.”
For forensic psychologist Anita Rutkauskaite volunteering comes from a passion to help others that also gives her a greater insight into her work.
“We were deployed to help with testing in Liverpool and Manchester and while I was there I met someone who led me to my current job,” said James, of Middlesbrough, who studied a BEng (Hons) Aerospace Engineering with Industry and is now doing his masters.
“This shows just how much volunteering can help you. It was great being involved in the testing programme and now I’ve just started a new job with Italian defence company Leonardo, working on electronic warfare systems, as a result of meeting that person.”
Volunteering with the RAF Reserves proved to be pivotal for defence systems engineer James Brown.
James Brown
Anita Rutkauskaite
Emma Nelson
After walking into Teesside Launchpad, an on-campus incubator for emerging enterprises, looking for a social enterprise he is now manager of a community bakery. The idea of the University’s Head of Enterprise Steve Dougan, the project is the result of a partnership involving a similar venture in Newcastle, The Big River Bakery, which was founded by Andy Haddon. It seeks to inspire students to channel entrepreneurship into positive action, help people in the community living in social exclusion and food poverty and has also linked up with refugee charities including Open Door North East and the Ubuntu Cultural Centre. “Launchpad is not just commercial, it’s there for the university to project its civic mission out into the community,” said Steve. Enterprise co-ordinator Lizzie Dixon said “I visited the Big River Bakery in Newcastle with Andy Haddon to get it off the ground.” Fran added: “It is wonderful to be able to share bread with people. There’s nothing like freshly baked bread; the process of making it is therapeutic and it is a great way of breaking down barriers. Making it gives people a sense of pride. Hopefully the passion will come across in all the classes we do together.” Steve added: “It doesn’t matter what your cultural background is or language you speak, we can all appreciate the smell and taste of bread. Hopefully this will bring groups together as they see this as a safe space and help us address food inequality.”
Graduate Fran Hammill is helping the university
break bread with the community in a project
that’s reaching out through food.
ON^ the rise
Once a student, now a mentor to others, Lisa Tomlinson is a beacon for resilience over-coming countless obstacles in the relentless pursuit of her dreams.
Life is on the up for fine arts graduate Cameron Lings if his sculptural installations are anything to go by.
dreams
The band 4 nurse, who left Teesside University with an FdSc Nursing Association qualification, works in outpatients, orthopaedic outpatients and lung health clinics and the Medical Rehabilitation Day Unit at North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Trust. Her journey to success saw her having to re- sit functional skills after her certificates were destroyed in a fire. But after 15 years working as a care assistant for the Trust she was determined to become a nurse, overcoming three serious health scares. In 2007 she beat cervical
cancer, aged 31, only to see it return in 2015 in her appendix, and had another operation two years ago to remove a benign growth on her liver. Covid-19 forced her to reschedule her wedding to partner Colin Cowie five times and cancel honeymoons, but they hope to marry in April. “I met a great bunch of people at Teesside who are now friends for life and the lecturers were wonderful helping me so much when I felt I was struggling,” said Lisa.
Huge larch timber fan sculptures trace the fortunes of the British economy over the past 50 years; based on official data, they reflect a huge drop off in output because of the pandemic. Cameron's current practice allows us to visualise the relationship between Science, Maths and Art in a new light. Funded by the Gillian Dickinson Trust, he is currently exhibiting 13 works, made from British Larch Timber, at Cheeseburn Sculpture Gardens. "Official data, collected in the North East throughout the pandemic, is used to generate an artistic sculptural form,” said Cameron. “It is a means of realising art,
which I have found to be fascinating. And there is plenty that I can learn from these studies going forward." That optimism is keeping the 22-year-old from Scunthorpe busy since he graduated from Teesside University’s MIMA School of Art & Design with a first class BA (Hons) Fine Art. “As soon as I saw Teesside University’s facilities I knew I could realise my potential there more than anywhere else in the country,” he said. “The pandemic has been massively challenging but also a unique opportunity to transform my creative practices.”
Graphic design graduate Emma Woodward has her career well and truly boxed off after a leading employer created a post to match the skills she honed at Teesside University.
The 23-year-old, from Darlington, went for a CAD operator’s job at Durham Box, Bishop Auckland, but when they realised she had a BA (Hons) Graphic Design and Illustration from Teesside University’s MIMA School of Art & Design they offered her a new role instead. As a junior graphic designer, she now helps develop the
artwork printed on myriad packaging including for a number of breweries. She said: “I hadn’t planned to go to university straightaway but did well in graphics at college so applied to Teesside. I loved it there and was thrilled when my designs were used in the new Cornell Quarter student accommodation complex.”
Emma Woodward
Cameron Lings
Lisa Tomlinson
LIVING THEIR
Wendy Craig CBE is one of Britain’s best loved
television actresses with a career spanning 65
years. Best known for her roles in sitcoms like
Not in Front of the Children and Butterflies in
the 1970s and 80s, as the title role in the drama
Nanny and as Matron in The Royal.
She also appeared in films including The Servant with Dirk Bogarde and The Nanny alongside Bette Davis. Wendy was born Anne Gwendoline Craig in County Durham, in 1934, and went to school in Durham, Darlington and Yarm before training at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She was awarded an honorary degree by the University in 1994 and the CBE for services to drama and charity in 2020. Wendy lives in Berkshire.
How does a girl born in County Durham in the 1930s make it to prime time TV? I started in Sacriston. My parents took me to see Goldilocks the pantomime at the Theatre Royal or the Empire in Newcastle when I was three or four. I fell in love with the theatre then, it just brought something to life in me, like a switch going on. I came home and re-enacted the show in front of the fire for them all. I'm sure my parents thought ‘what on earth have we bred?’, but I never wavered from then on.
Teesside alumnus Neil Walsh tackles global
terrorism while battling a range of chronic
health conditions.
Working
But the affable Irishman doesn’t let his health interfere with his day job of being a cyber thorn in the side of organised crime using a skillset developed in the lecture rooms of Teesside University. Belfast-born, Neil’s path to crime fighting began with an IRA bomb blast when he was just 12 and shopping in the city centre with his father. Fortunately they survived but not without witnessing the carnage outside. With an aim to work in law enforcement, Neil came to Middlesbrough at 18 to study one of only two courses of its type in the country, a joint honours degree in criminology and psychology. “If I had my time over I would not change a thing,” says the father of four, who is Chief of the Cybercrime, Counter-Terrorist Finance and Anti-Money Laundering Department at the United Nations. “The tutors on the course were inspiring
and made me want to be better and the skillset I developed I still use today. When I thought about taking my masters in Criminal Investigation I had no hesitation about coming back to Teesside because the quality of teaching and the place felt like home.” After leaving Teesside, Neil had hoped to become a police officer but spotted an opening for a strategic intelligence analyst. “I thought it sounded like me and from 6, applicants I got the job,” he recalls. Working in intelligence around the cocaine trade to the UK and Western Europe from South America, and now just 23, he was then asked to advise after the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York. His next step was working at Europol in The Hague running international surveillance and arrest operations. “It was just brilliant and I loved it,” he says, only leaving when he spotted his dream job of working for the UN.
Now 41, his job involves combatting crime in a fractured world where COVID has played into the hands of organised criminals, cyber- sex traffickers and terrorists. He also works in preventive diplomacy trying to keep the peace in cyberspace globally. “Criminals rapidly exploit any vacuum that appears and the pandemic has seen governments switch to health and vaccines in preference to countering crime,” he says. “Online sexual abuse has risen at an horrendous pace, particularly of children. It is of such a scale that sometimes your brain does feel like it is going to pop like a champagne cork so you have to find methods to cope with it yourself.” These same methods he uses to compartmentalise his almost 20-year
battle with chronic and almost fatal health problems. “I’ve come back from the dead so many times that my doctors call me Lazarus,” says Neil, who has had to endure bouts of cancer, multiple complex operations, a cardiac arrest, brain haemorrhages, liver failure, osteoporosis and pulmonary embolisms. He has just been told his pancreas is now not working as it should. “Waking up every day is pretty much a victory,” he says. “And knowing that I may not be here in five years’ time, or even next year, drives me to do all I can to make a difference in the time I have left and make the best of the skills I developed at Teesside University.”
AGAINST
THE ODDS
The tutors on the course were inspiring
and made me want to be better.
Talented students, renowned academics and
dynamic businesses are coming together in a
joint enterprise to ensure the future prosperity
of the Tees Valley.
Led by Dr Elaine Hooker, Head of Business Innovation,
a close-knit team of experienced industry professionals
works on different projects, across multiple sectors to
help businesses in the Tees Valley and beyond.
Collaborating
WITH BUSINESS
tees.ac.uk/business
Part of a national network of innovation and growth specialists, with access to a global business and innovation eco-system, the EEN team focuses on helping companies exploit their business potential by driving innovation, protecting and harnessing intellectual property and accessing international markets. The team also provides support to companies considering funding research and development and the new product commercialisation.
Enterprise Europe Network (EEN)
Connecting businesses to expertise, facilities, networks and grant funding to drive growth through innovation, Business Innovation Managers (BIMs) help organisations develop new products and services which disrupt business models to increase market shares and competitiveness. The team supports consortium development, grant funding application development and ongoing project and relationship management.
Business Innovation Managers
This team provides non-accredited leadership and management programmes and currently has three fully funded leadership programmes, each designed to develop the skills of people at different stages of their leadership journey. The programmes are practical and are designed around enhancing leadership and management skills, both from the University learning and from like-minded business peers. They are very interactive, supportive and thought provoking and, the team likes to think, fun.
Leadership and Management
Grow Tees Valley
Grow Tees Valley helps Tees Valley’s ambitious SMEs access the funding and expertise they need to grow. Whether SMEs want to improve or develop a product, embed a new service in their organisation or enter new markets, Grow Tees Valley points them in the right direction. If companies already have a project in mind, Grow Tees Valley will assess its potential and draw up an action plan.
I know now how long it takes me to plan, to write and to edit. I’m disciplined and like a routine.
Running out of ideas is not something that worries me, human beings are so complex there's a lot to explore – jealousy, love, hate, brilliance, there are infinite plots and characters… it's more likely that I'll run out of time.
Because I’ve written 21 bestselling novels in 21 years, I feel very established and respected by my peers, I feel I have a seat at the table. However, I’m not complacent. I’m always proving myself and I want to stay at the top of my game, to keep readers entertained and for each book to be better than the last. I'm quite confident about my own place now and want to pass on a bit of wisdom if I can. I’m a judge for the Costa
Book Awards and The British Book Awards which is a great privilege. I’m a proud Ambassador for the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency's Reading Ahead Award, a scheme that encourages emerging adult readers. Reading is so important for education, empowerment and entertainment. If your vocabulary is expanded then you are more empowered because you can express yourself better and it will help you get on in life. It's a really important part of mental health; most young adults are under a lot of pressure, this is a really difficult time to grow up, yet reading gives you the opportunity to have so many experiences through the page. I can’t bear literary snobbery. We shouldn’t judge anyone for what they choose to read, it doesn't matter as long as they are reading.
It’s really important for children to own a book. Libraries are free, but most people only go into a library if they are already confident about reading; if there isn't a book in your house in the first place then you’re unlikely to go to a library. It's great when new mums get books in their new baby packs. The most important thing is for parents to have confidence to read to their own children. If you know somebody who's had a baby, buy them a little outfit or a toy by all means but spend a couple of quid on a book as well. I visited Teesside regularly pre-COVID because my mum and dad and sister are there , it's still very much home: the warmth, people who’ll have a chat and make time for you, the sense of humour, the sharpness, the banter. Where I come from is very
important to me and being recognised with an honorary degree was really meaningful. People saying we're proud of you and want to honour your achievements is wonderful, and my parents were ecstatic! What Teesside University is doing is really exciting. In the north we have a tendency not to shout about our successes, but the university quite rightly celebrates its students and their achievements; it’s exciting and vibrant. In the late summer I’ll start thinking about plots for my 2023 book. I'm hoping to go to LA in September because two of my novels, Both of You and Just My Luck, are in development with Hollywood scriptwriters. I’m planning quite a lengthy stint there which is incredibly exciting.
What Teesside University
is doing is really exciting.
Small and-medium-sized enterprises and freelancers in the creative industries are benefiting from the launch of a new programme of financial resources and support. Teesside University is part of Creative Fuse Tees Valley and North East, a partnership funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the European Regional Development Fund, which, in conjunction with DigitalCity, has devised a high-impact scheme to help enterprises working in the creative, cultural, heritage and digital sectors. The programme will be delivered by business advisory and financial professionals firm Edale. Free to eligible individuals or companies, it includes four masterclasses, plus one- to-one mentoring support from industry experts covering investment, grant applications and securing funding from a wide range of sources.
Sharon Paterson, associate director of Culture and Engagement at MIMA and Teesside University, said: “Creative Fuse Tees Valley is here to help identify how SMEs and freelancers in these sectors complement each other, sharing best practice and encouraging innovative ways of working. “This project will be absolutely vital to the future success of individuals and companies in our region at a time of further economic difficulties facing the sector – and also directly supports the objectives of the Tees Valley Combined Authority’s £1m cultural industries and visitor economy recovery programme, which was launched by Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen.” For more information contact Business Development Manager Wendy Parvin at [email protected].
THINKING
Creative
Creative industries across the Tees Valley are
being helped to bounce back from the impact of
the pandemic thanks to an initiative backed by
Teesside University.
This project will be absolutely vital
to the future success of individuals
and companies in our region.
BUDDYING UP FOR
Students have access to real-world, practice- based opportunities from the day they join until after they graduate. Staff work with industry partners to develop confident, enterprising and proactive graduates who are civic in thinking, enterprising in attitude, collaborative in action and global in outlook. Module Buddies help academic tutors to develop real world practice in the curriculum and support students to enhance their knowledge, skills, behaviours and experience. They help students become ‘work ready’. The university is looking for practitioners who would like to be involved. They will commit to:
Supporting a nominated academic professional to exchange knowledge and help inform the curriculum Deliver a minimum of two inspirational guest lectures Participate as an external consultant at course approvals and reviews Support academic research groups and advise on commercialisation of research Participate in panels and topical breakfast events
Buddies will need experience in the functional areas of their business and partnership working within multi- stakeholder groups. They will also have an understanding of Higher Education and access to extended networks. In return they will be kept informed of the latest opportunities to access students as interns, have the chance to participate in either the Business Clinic or the Marketing Clinic and be kept aware of the latest funding opportunities. Buddies will have opportunities to engage with research projects and be invited to appropriate University events. Principal Lecturer in Enterprise and Business Engagement Suzanne Withrington said: “We recognise the importance of providing students with the opportunity to meet the region’s business leaders. Their input and experience are incredibly valuable in supporting students to be ‘work ready’. Likewise, the business leaders have access to our incredibly talented students.”
Students are being offered the perfect blend of
academic excellence, entrepreneurial thinking,
and real-world orientation thanks to the skills
of the University’s modern enterprising and
dynamic Business School.
business
EXPANDING OUR
While health concerns, financial anxiety and bureaucratic delays caused many overseas students to put their plans to study abroad on hold, Teesside University has continued to attract strong interest from international students.
Strong partnerships with higher education institutions abroad – particularly in India and China – and the University’s decision to open regional offices in key markets have led to a significant rise in its international profile.
Teesside University continues to develop new partnerships around the world, most recently with Prague College in the Czech Republic, Kaplan Myanmar University College in Myanmar and Vishwanitketan Institute of Design and SRM Institute of Science and Technology in India.
As a result, the University has opened a
regional office in Lahore to support the recruitment of students from Pakistan and the surrounding region, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Iran and Bahrain. A host of new recruits have been taken on to strengthen the University’s international team, both in the UK and abroad. A team was recruited in Lahore to staff the new Pakistan office, led by Regional Director Syed Abidi, a veteran with 25 years’ experience in international education, particularly in the Pakistan and wider Middle East/North Africa markets. In the UK, the Department of International Development has added five new staff since January, including International Marketing Manager Laura Peat, International Recruitment Managers Grace Dickinson and
Imran Rashid, International Student Mobility Manager Alizée Cordes and International Recruitment Assistant Luke Cumiskey. The University’s reputation abroad has also been boosted by overwhelmingly positive feedback from its students via the International Student Barometer Survey, which has the average satisfaction rate as 95.8% in 2020*. Teesside was particularly well equipped to handle the switch to online teaching necessitated by the pandemic because of the University’s long-standing focus on digital and hybrid learning. As part of its Future Facing Learning Strategy, the University has been providing iPads pre- installed with software including lecture capture technology to students upon enrolment on a full-time undergraduate
course. In the International Student Barometer 2020, the satisfaction rate with the virtual learning environment was 91.7%*. In March this year, the UK government launched the revised International Education Strategy (IES), aimed at increasing the number of international students at UK higher education institutes and revenue from education exports. Teesside University was ahead of the curve because it had identified internationalisation as a key part of its five-year corporate strategy in back 2015 and had already launched its own 2021 International Strategic Plan. *(780 students participated) See tees. ac.uk/international/isb2020.cfm for more information.
A major increase in international students is
continuing despite the pandemic, prompting
Teesside University to open new offices overseas
and recruit more expert staff.
international
footprint