Research Uncovered lecture series begins

The Research Uncovered lecture series began this week after students nominated and voted the most inspiring pieces of research they have come across while studying at the University of Exeter.

The researchers who received the most votes will be presenting open lectures across this term. Monday night say Professor David Boughey from the Business School deliver the first of these lectures, “Adventurous Capitalists and the Forging of Multinational Enterprise“.

The next lecture will be Prof. Tim Harries from Astronomy on The Birth of Stars, 27th January 6pm – 8pm.

The lectures are open to all students as well as the local community with five lectures in the Alumni Auditorium, one in an Exeter community centre and one in Penryn.

Vice President for Academic Affairs, Alex Louch told Exeposé: “Research Uncovered is a celebration of the world-class research being produced by the outstanding academics at the University and represents the fantastic partnership that exists between staff, students and the Students’ Guild. We know that our students value their relationship with the research community at Exeter and the Guild is keen to bring students even closer to innovative research.

Research Uncovered offers students – as well as staff and local residents – the opportunity to connect with research in more depth or from disciplines other than their own. I am excited by the success of the scheme so far this year and I am looking forward to seeing the lecture series progress.”

The Research Uncovered lecture series is based on the success of the “FRUNI” (Free Range University) series across 2012/13. The initiative saw Exeter join with similar institutions across the UK to open the most inspirational research at the university to all.

During the FRUNI lecture series, 350 students submitted nominations or voted for the research that they found most exciting. The following five lectures received the most votes and were delivered to more than 1000 people in total.

To find out more about the lecture series and the lecture schedule, head to the Students’ Guild website.

Olivia Luder, Online Editor

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Returning students' timetables released

Image credit: Jisc infoNet

Timetables for the coming academic year for all returning students have been released today, whilst new students’ timetables will be available on Monday 9th September.

There are two ways to access the schedules. A simple list view is available via the iExeter smartphone app. iExeter is a free app that provides all current and new students with personalised information and services to help you make the most of your life and studies at the University.

As well as this, students can access the ‘MyTimetable’ service by logging into the ‘MyExeter’ portal. Here, a full calendar view of a student’s individual teaching schedule is displayed.

Any timetable enquiries should be sent to the relevant college for each student’s field of study.

Tom Elliott, Online News Editor

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Students charged over £280,000 in library fines in last 5 years

The University has accumulated a total of £283,188.55 through library fines since 2008, Exeposé can reveal.

Photo credits to the University of Exeter

Last academic year the library made £63,574 through fines alone, and this academic year they had obtained £25,832 by the beginning of January 2013.

The library has also regularly obtained over £60,000 from library fines annually since 2008. This information was obtained after Exeposé submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOI) to the library.

The library’s Customer Services Manager, Stephen Mossop, stated: “Library resources, no matter how extensive, are finite, and the library is under an obligation to ensure that they are held in common for the benefit of all members of the University.”

He also explained: “We often waive fines where there are extenuating circumstances or where we are convinced that there has been a genuine misunderstanding. Last year we waived fines totaling almost £22,000 for such reasons.”

Mossop outlined that the money accumulated through fines is used to help “facilitate purchases identified from direct student requests under the ‘I Want One Of These’ scheme.”

Some of the money collected on particular days is also given to charity, and approximately £700 was raised for Children in Need and other RAG charities last November.

Mossop explained that the money is “used across the range of library services that are in place to support students, such as book and journal spending, study space provision, equipment and facilities.”

The library cannot, however, provide an exact breakdown of where and how this money is spent.

Some students have expressed dissatisfaction with this lack of transparency. A second year English student commented on the fines: “It’s ridiculous that we aren’t able to see exactly where this large amount of money is going. How can we know if it is benefitting us at all? Those who have accumulated £50 library fines for forgetting about a ready text for a short amount of time deserve to know what their money is going towards.”

Imogen Sanders, VP Academic Affairs, commented: “Having sat on the Library Budget Governance Group, I have seen how the library is making considerable investments to ensure that students are at the forefront of its expenditures.”

One great scheme in particular is Library Champions, which allows students to tell the library which books they want them to buy if they don’t already have them.”

By Clara Plackett, Arts editor