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Day: 19 September 2012

Manchester falls in QS and Shanghai rankings

The University of Manchester has fallen slightly in the QS World University Rankings and the Shanghai Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities.

The QS ranking of 32nd is slightly lower than last year’s 29th and the Shanghai position of 40th is two places lower.

The QS rankings consider over 2,000 universities and rank over 700. They were used this year by the UK government in a poster campaign ahead of the London Olympics to endorse the excellence of its universities.

Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, said that “Of the many university league tables which are published, the Shanghai Jiao Tong is the one we use to measure our performance”.

It ranks the research performance of institutions around the world but this year the University fell in this as well. Dame Nancy called this “disappointing” and said that it “is partly because two universities in Paris merged and hence moved above us.”

Since the foundation of the University in 2004 the Manchester 2015 Agenda has promoted the institution’s mission to make it one of the top 25 universities in the world by 2015.

Writing in an updated version, published last year, Anil Ruia, Chairman of the Board of Governors, admitted that the original mission was “bold and ambitious” but promised “we remain committed to the Vision and believe it to be achievable”.

The high point for the University in the QS rankings was the employer reputation score, which placed it joint fourth in the world, alongside more elite institutions such as The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The low point was the ratio of students to faculty members, in which the University was placed 170th. Last year the university received a score of 66 in this area, but it dropped this year to 63.2.

This comes despite plans announced by the University last year to spend £20 million on recruiting between 100-200 new academic staff as well as a reduction of Home/EU undergraduate recruitment over the period 2010-2015, which is intended to work along with staff recruitment to address these ratio issues.

Results for individual faculties show that the best performers were Natural Sciences, who climbed seven places to 34th, and Life Sciences and Medicine, who climbed eight places to 35th.

But the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Science dropped three places to 35th and also fell four places to 36th in this year’s Shanghai rankings.

A University spokesman said: “The Faculty remains third in the UK, behind Cambridge and Imperial, with University of Oxford being in fourth place. With the recent initiatives across the Faculty we do expect to climb in the rankings going forward.”

UK university donations to reach £2 billion by 2022

UK universities “can expect to receive up to £2 billion per annum from some 630,000 donors by 2022” according to a newly published report.

The figure would be almost treble the donations received last year, which totaled £693 million from 204,000 donors.

Only 1.2% of UK alumni donate to their former university, compared with 10% of graduates in the US.

In 1874, ER Langworthy left £10,000 to The University of Manchester “to encourage discovery in Physics”.

The Langworthy Professorship was created and four holders of this position have since won the Nobel prize for Physics, including the current Langworthy Professor Andre Geim who co-won in 2010 for the discovery of graphene.

The Review of Philanthropy in Higher Education was led by Shirley Pearce, former Vice-Chancellor of Loughborough University, but was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and carried out by the More Partnership.

The More Partnership, a fundraising consultancy firm, published the report which states that investment in fundraising expertise is more effective than fundraising alone.

The report also asks to government to continue “matched funding”, since public investment of £143 million triggered around £580 million in donations to English universities between 2008-2011.

Tax incentives for charitable donations are recommended and the review welcomed the government U-turn in May on a proposed cap on such tax relief.

A separate report published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed that private funding for UK higher education is now 0.7 per cent of GDP and therefore above public spending at just 0.6 per cent.

Manchester has highest number of hate crimes

Greater Manchester has the highest ratio of hate crimes in England and Wales, according to Home Office data.

Just over 17 out of every 1,000 crimes are reported as hate crimes in the city, about six more than the national average.

In the data, collected in 2011-12, the force dealt with a total of 3,547 hate crimes, of which 2,974 were racially motivated, 303 motivated by sexual orientation, 180 by religion, 73 by an individual’s disability and 17 were trans-related.

Hate crimes involve any criminal offence which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice based on a personal characteristic.

Cat Gray, the University of Manchester Students’ Union’s Wellbeing Officer, said: “The Union is a reporting centre for hate crime, so if any student experience or witness a hate crime and want to come and report that they can do so in the Union in the Advice Centre.

“The Union continues to fight against all forms of oppression and would support students in reporting hate crime.”

Despite the high figures, the figures represent a drop in reported cases. The same data collected for 2009-10 found that 5,348 hate crimes had been reported in the Greater Manchester area.

Garry Shewan, Assistant Chief Constable for Greater Manchester Police (GMP), told the Mancunian Matters new site: “We recognise that all forms of hate crime are under-reported, and tackling this remains one of GMP’s main priorities.

“We are working hard to raise awareness of what hate crime is, how to report it and the support available to victims.”

Universities could lose £1.5 billion

UK universities could lose £1.5 billion in tuition fees after accepting 52,000 fewer students compared to this point in last year’s admissions cycle.

This is a 15 per cent drop from last year’s totals and the money would have come from three years of tuition fees.

The data was released by UCAS, who were prompted to do so for the first time ever by rising concern over the fall in this year’s student intake.

This year’s higher fees have had an impact on application behaviour according to the first report from the Independent Commission on Fees, which noted that almost 15,000 “missing” applicants who were expected to apply failed to do so.

A controversial system was also used restricting the numbers of students with A-levels below AAB that each university could take, which combined with the first decline in A-level results for twenty years to damage admissions.

Dr Wendy Piatt, Director General of the Russell Group said: “The difficult choices faced by admissions departments this year means students who wanted to attend a leading university and had the right qualifications have not been able to even though those universities wanted to accept them”.

A statement from the University of Manchester admitted that “undergraduate admissions will be down this year compared to last” but stressed that “the University has been implementing a planned reduction in Home/EU undergraduate recruitment over the period 2010-2015 anyway.”

It goes on to state that this, as well as recruiting more staff, is an attempt to address the “structural issue” of high student-staff ratios to improve the consistently low National Student Survey results.

Speaking to Times Higher Education, one Russell Group university revealed it was 260 students short of predicted AAB numbers and around 500 short of last year’s total undergraduate numbers, equivalent to around £13.5 million lost in tuition fees.

The University of Southampton has been the most vocal about its student shortfall, revealing at the start of the month that they had taken 600 fewer students than last year. A spokesman for the University complained about the AAB system, saying “surely it cannot be right” that they have been “forced to turn away gifted ABB students”.

David Willetts, the universities and science minister, introduced the AAB system hoping it would allow top universities to expand, but it has prevented elite institutions from making up any shortfall in students.

The government tasked the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) with estimating the numbers of high performing students but the decline in A-level results meant that the 79,200 AAB students fell short of Hefce’s estimated 85,000.

Despite the problems now faced by universities, the government could save over £400 million this year through having to provide less student finance than expected.

British cycling success continues on home soil

The unprecedented summer of British sporting success continued in cycling’s Tour of Britain with Jonathan Tiernan-Locke taking the overall victory by 18 seconds over Australia’s Nathan Hass.

Having taken first and second at the Tour de France and achieving an astounding eight Gold Medals at the 2012 Olympic Games, it was perhaps surprisingly not one of the British cycling’s household names taking the title. Instead, it was a relatively unknown rider outside the cycling world riding for a second tier pro team who continued the golden period for British cycling.

Although not taking a single stage over the eight days of racing, Tiernan-Locke rode himself into the leader’s gold jersey with a strong showing in the Welsh mountains in the 6th stage from Welshpool to Caerphilly. Dropping the peloton, he set off solo chasing down the break to come second on the day 2 seconds away from taking the stage victory.

Taking the General Classification was not the only good showing from the British as they took the King of the Mountains jersey and four other stage wins, with three of those victories coming to reigning world champion Mark Cavendish in what is likely his last race in the rainbow striped jersey. The upcoming parcours for the world championship race in Holland are unlikely to suit the ‘Manx Missile’. The route is a particularly hilly one, and it’s doubtful that Cavendish’s sprinting legs will be able to keep up with the leading group.

Despite being protected by a strong squad including Tour de France winner Wiggins, runner up Chris Froome and Jonathan Tiernan-Locke, a repeat result of last year’s race looks improbable.

Lewis Hamilton to swap chassis’ in 2013?

As Lewis Hamilton stormed to victory in the Italian Grand Prix in Monza, talk in the pit lane continued on his future. He’s been linked with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes and, as with most gossip, it can be dismissed with relative ease. However, the link with Mercedes appears to be almost as good as a done deal with the involved parties McLaren, Hamilton and Mercedes making no moves to dispel or deny such an arrangement.

The BBC’s F1 pundit Eddie Jordan has claimed that Mercedes and Hamilton have agreed a contract allowing him to make the swap at the end of the current season, though McLaren have confirmed as far as its concerned Hamilton and their representatives are still in negotiation over a new contract.

Why Hamilton would want to leave McLaren is on the face of it unclear. After all, McLaren have guided his career from the karting circuit from the age of 13 to World Champion. Mercedes sit 5th in the Constructors Championship and have only won one race since their return to the sport as a fully fledged team opposed to an engine supplier, whereas McLaren have won the last three a row.

McLaren have shown that they have the more competitive car in comparison to the Mercedes counterpart; they both run on the same engines the chassis being the only difference. The 2013 season will be the first year that McLaren have to pay for the Mercedes engine knocking a considerable chunk from their budget which could have otherwise been used to persuade Hamilton to stay.

There have been rumours that Hamilton was offered a reduced salary in order to keep McLaren competitive in research and development. Hamilton, a World Champion Driver, already earns less than half of Alonso’s salary, so it may be the case that the larger offer from Mercedes will be too much to turn down.

Regardless of what decision Hamilton makes, F1 principle Martin Whitmarsh is still confident of having a competitive driving duo on the grid at the start in 2013.

Bizarre Sports #2 – Air Sex

The date is June 2012. In Tampa, Florida, Chris Trew walks on stage before the judges of America’s Got Talent. This is his breakthrough moment; for three years he has been pioneering a sport close to his heart in championships across America. Here, he hopes to see his sport explode into the mainstream.

The music starts as this large, bearded American prepares himself. He is alone onstage. He holds out his hand in front of him, carefully supporting a face that is not there. He holds the air tightly, lovingly. He begins to kiss his imaginary partner, his tongue exploring and caressing in time to the beat. On his face is a look of intense passion, every expression demonstrating the intimacy of the moment. His other hand reaches behind his head, pulling his hair back as he begins to gasp and pant.

There is a loud beep. After less than a minute, the judges have had enough. Chris has failed in his maiden attempt to see the sport of Air Sex be accepted in the mainstream… for now. “Clearly I was robbed,” he says, “I will get my revenge and prove to the world that the Air Sex Championships is a legit sport”.

Air Sex is exactly what you think it is. It involves men and women, mainly clothed, performing simulated sexual acts with an invisible partner, set in time to music. Similarly to diving, the act is judged by a panel and given an average score.

The origins of Air Sex can be traced back to Japan in 2006. J-Taro Sugisaku invented the phenomenon in Tokyo along with, unsurprisingly perhaps, a group of bored friends who did not have girlfriends.

The sport made its way to America when a showing of the BBC documentary Japanorama at a convention resulted in a spontaneous Air Sex competition. Since then, it has gained significant popularity. Founded in 2009, Chris hosts The World Championships, crowning victors in over thirty cities across North America and often bringing crowds in the hundreds.

Slain diplomat mourned by gaming community

A US diplomat prominently known in the online gaming community has been killed in Benghazi as a result of violent protests over the anti-Islamic movie Innocence of Muslims.

Sean Smith, 34, who had worked for the US State Department for 10 years as an information management officer was known to players of the MMORPG EVE: Online as Vile_Rat.

Smith was highly regarded amongst the 400,000 players of EVE: Online, where as in real-life he fulfilled the role of diplomat. He was elected by players to the Council of Stellar Management (CSM), a panel who relay concerns of players to the developer CCP. Smith was thought of as a legend amongst EVE: Online players for his incredible ability as an in game diplomat, able to shift the balance of wars featuring tens of thousands of gamers.

His death prompted an outpouring of grief amongst fellow gamers. Already, 200 player made space stations in the online game have been renamed out of respect for Smith.  His impact amongst gamers was even recognised by Hillary Clinton as she eulogised Smith.

Ned Coker of CCP said, ”CCP and its employees are overwhelmingly saddened by the news of Sean Smith’s passing, as we are when we learn of any player who is tragically lost. Many of us interacted with him professionally and personally and, honestly, it feels like our words are lost adrift–amongst such a tremendous, soul-affirming outpouring from the EVE community.”

Mark Heard, President of the CSM, said of Smith “Sean made the world we all play in much more dangerous while simultaneously making the world we all live in that much safer”

He is survived by his wife Heather and his two children Nathan and Samantha.

Manchester Athletes Set For Triumphant Return

The heroes of London 2012 are to be honoured in a parade through Manchester’s Albert Square. The event, set to take place on October 26th, will see many of the athletes born or based in Manchester return to celebrate their sporting roots.

Though London was host, it is perhaps fitting that Manchester, arguably the nation’s sporting capital, had its part to play in the historic Games. Over 60 of Team GB were from Greater Manchester, claiming 16 medals between them, including 11 golds. Were Manchester a separate county, it would have placed 8th in the Olympic medal table, a staggering achievement.

Etienne Stott, who claimed gold in the men’s canoe slalom, was born in Manchester, while cyclist Jason Kenny, who grabbed two golds and smashed the world record in the team sprint, was born and bred in Bolton. The Paralympics were also a great success for the region, as Heather Frederiksen, from Wigan, won gold in the 100m backstroke, while Sarah Storey, from South Manchester, claimed a further four golds for her glittering collection. Storey, who had previously won gold in Paralympic swimming, has now turned her hand to cycling, where she has cemented her place as Britain’s most successful ever Paralympian.

The University of Manchester also has its claim to fame at the London 2012 Games through Paralympian Matt Walker. Walker, a swimmer, represented the North West at youth level before going on to win gold at Sydney, Athens and Beijing. At 34, Walker is in the twilight of his athletics career, but that did not stop him from winning a bronze medal in the London games. Walker is an alumnus of the University of Manchester, having graduated with a Masters in Business in 2001. The swimmer dedicated his medal to father Alan, who passed away in June after a battle with cancer.

In addition to the wealth of Manchester-born athletes, many of Team GB were based in Manchester prior to the summer Games. The city’s excellent sporting facilities, many of which were created for the Commonwealth Games in 2002 are a particular draw for athletes. Britain’s cycling team, who contributed an incredible eight gold medals, train at the National Cycling Centre in SportCity; the likes of Sir Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins, Laura Trott and Victoria Pendleton owe much to the facilities that Manchester has to offer. The Manchester-based athletes are not limited to cycling, as gold medal-winning Jade Jones and the GB Taekwondo team also call Manchester their home.

These athletes are among 130 to be invited to the parade, along with many of the volunteers who helped to make the games such a roaring success. The event is set to be the biggest Olympic celebration outside of London, and is a chance for everyone in Manchester to show their support for the athletes that have so inspired the nation.

Manchester was also home to one of the select out-of-London venues of the games. Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United, played host to several of the Olympic football ties. These included the quarter final between Japan and Egypt, the semi-final between Brazil and South Korea and of course Team GB’s own clash with Senegal. Averaging crowds of over 60,000 people, the extradition of some of the Olympic football to the North West was a great success.

Now that London has passed the Olympic and Paralympic baton on to Rio, the country can look back on what will no doubt go down in history as a legendary summer for British sport. Manchester will always be remembered as part of this due to the athletes it has produced and the venues it contains. And who knows, maybe one day Usain Bolt, potentially the biggest star of the 2012 Olympics, will find his way back here too-if he can twist Sir Alex Ferguson’s arm enough.