The WISE Awards is an annual event that aims to recognise inspiring organisations and individuals in the UK involved in promoting science, engineering and construction to girls and young women. If you know an individual or organisation who has done outstanding work in this area, you can nominate them for an award now. The Award Ceremony will be held on 19th October this year at The Institution of Engineering and Technology in central London.

There are three different WISE awards:

• The WISE Excellence Award – open to women who are in the early stages of their SET career, and who have shown a high level of commitment to their profession and to the promotion of SET to other girls and women. The winner will receive a prize of £1,000 and an engraved plaque
• The WISE Champion Award - open to schools, industry, universities, colleges, charities and professional bodies who are actively encouraging girls and young women in to STEM (science, technology engineering and mathematics) education and careers. The winner will be awarded an engraved plaque
• The WISE Advisor Award - open to career advisors, teachers, ambassadors, mentors and educators who have encouraged and motivated girls and young women to study STEM subjects. The winner will be awarded an engraved plaque.

There are also two more awards, organised by partnered organisations: The FORD WISE prize for students studying to become a chartered engineer or training to become an incorporated engineer; and the Primary, Secondary and Advanced Leaders Award for STEM, which challenges female students (aged 5-19) to interview female STEM processionals about what first excited them about their subject and how they have furthered their careers.

The WISE Awards provide an opportunity for organisations and individuals to be praised and recognised for their good work in this area. If you think that someone you know or an organisation is suitable to receive an award, you can fill out an application form and email it to the UKRC. You can also nominate yourself or your own organisation. The deadline for nomination applications is 5pm on Friday 16^th September 2011.

If you would like to find out more about the awards, the criteria for nominations and how to nominate yourself, someone else or an organisation, please visit – www.theukrc.org/news-and-events/wise-annual-awards-2011

About the UKRC

The UKRC is the lead organisation for the provision of advice, services and policy consultation regarding the under-representation of women in science, engineering, technology and the built environment (SET). It works with employers; professional bodies; education institutions; women’s organisations and networks; policy institutes; sector skills councils; the government and many others to promote gender equality in SET.

You can read an article written by the UKRC about careers and study for women in SET in our recent issue of i-SECT – please click here.

Due to unprecedented demand for its Summer Schools, NUI Galway in Ireland has added an extra date to its programme of events across the disciplines of computing, engineering and science.

Aimed at students in transition, the summer schools are specially designed to give prospective students a real taste of university life through a wide range of hands-on practical activities.

An Engineering Summer School will take place on Friday, 24 June, offering a taste of experiences as wide-ranging as remotely controlling a wastewater treatment plant, building an eco-house and designing a go-kart.

Participants in the Engineering Summer School will be the first students ever to use the University’s new engineering building. The state-of-the-art facility opens to all students in September.

Limited places are still available for the Computing Summer Camp, which runs from Monday 13 to Friday 17 June, and will introduce computing in a novel, fun and interactive way. Participants will have the opportunity to use leading-edge technologies, from constructing and controlling robots that can interact with their environment, to directing a virtual ‘mini-movie’ that can be uploaded to a website and shared with friends.

From Monday 27 to Tuesday 28 June, the Science Experience Summer Event will offer students two whole days to delve into a wide range of scientific disciplines. The workshop will feature all disciplines of the College of Science including biology, chemistry, maths and physics.

Caroline Loughnane, Director for Marketing and Communications at NUI Galway, said:

“We are delighted with the demand for our Summer Schools, as we feel they are a great opportunity for younger students to see what subjects and courses they will be best suited to in college. It is encouraging to see such high levels of interest in computing, engineering and science – all of which are flagged as key areas of growth for our smart economy.”

Spaces for all Summer Schools are limited so early booking is advised. The last date for receipt of applications is Tuesday, 31 May. To find out more about the Summer Schools or for applications visit: www.nuigalway.ie/international-summer-school/

To learn more about living and learning in Ireland, why not read the i-studentadvisor Ireland magazine.

Undoubtedly there has been progress since the times when women weren’t allowed to study at all. UNESCO reports that more girls and women are in education than ever before, from primary through to tertiary education, and evidence supports this. For example, in Chile, last year the number of women in higher education topped the number of men- at 51% and similar figures are seen in Australia. In the UK, figures show that over half of women in England are now going into higher education (as of 2010), compared to just 1 in 20 in the 1960s. Reports in the US showed that in 2010, women doing PhDs in the USA outnumbered men. In the protests against tuition fee rises in the UK last year, women were often at the forefront of the action – organising, planning, leading.

However, this progress is not seen in every country. Two thirds of the world’s illiterate adults– of which there are just under 800 million – are women, and less than 40% of countries provide equal access to education to both sexes.

Even in the western world, there are still massive divides and inequalities in representation, especially in certain subjects. As an example, there are far less women studying engineering than men in most countries – in Australia, the number of women in engineering and related fields is just 4.6%. This is despite initiatives designed to combat this such as the UKRC in the UK, who support and promote women in science, engineering and technology.

This inequality is seen in the world of employment as well as in education. Despite continuing pressure and campaigns, women in Britain earn on average 10% less than men for doing the same jobs, and this pay gap is not only experienced in the UK. Women hold only 11% of the world’s parliamentary seats. In Germany, women  hold just 5% of management positions, according to official figures. There are many more examples.

Although great leaps forward have been made, it seems women still do not experience full equality, whether it be in education, work or life. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been quoted as saying: “There’s still a lot to do to obtain real equality in a real everyday sense”, and this seems true also in the world of education. Hopefully International Women’s Day will raise awareness, and developments will continue to be made to make education accessible to all women.

To read the United Nations’ Secretary-General’s message about International Women’s Day, click here.

This is the second year for this unique European summer school, organised in collaboration with eight leading universities in biomedical engineering and medicine. The eight universities include Trinity College Dublin, the University of Groningen, Ghent University, Brno University of Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, RWTH University Aachen, University of Applied Sciences Regensburg, and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

“Current healthcare challenges, such as the ageing of Europe’s population as well as big killers such as cardiovascular disease, require multidisciplinary approaches for diagnosis and treatment. The focus therefore of this unique summer school is to establish a platform of cooperation between medicine and engineering across Europe starting at an undergraduate level,“ explained Professor Richard Reilly, Director of the Trinity Centre of BioEngineering and organiser of the Summer School.

With different working cultures and educational backgrounds, the aim of the European Society for Engineering and Medicine Summer School at Trinity College has been to teach students how to work together efficiently by getting small groups to design new, novel medical devices targeting specific medical and clinical problems.

To have the educational basis to undertake this challenge, the students are taking courses delivered by 15 leading Professors of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine, who also join the students at Trinity College. The medical students are instructed in bioengineering methods (materials science, mathematics, biomechanics, signals and systems) necessary to successfully work in biomedical engineering while engineering students are instructed in anatomy and physiology at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Both groups of students are taught design methodologies for furthering their understanding and capability to understand, analyse and successfully conceptualise innovative medical device concepts using a multidisciplinary team approach.

“There are currently over 11,000 medical technology companies in Europe, exporting €65 billion worth of products annually and employing 500,000 people. It is critical that we can demonstrate to these students that engineering innovation and creative design can meet the challenges in healthcare, continue the growth of medical device sector and the delivery of the best medical care possible,” concluded Professor Reilly.

Dean of Engineering Professor Gary Hawley and the University’s Vice Chancellor Professor Kevin Edge recently attended the 90th anniversary celebrations of the HIT in China, taking place in the official ceremonial proceedings held at the HIT sports stadium.

Professor Edge said: “We have had informal research links with HIT in the past but this agreement is an important step as we seek to develop a substantial and mutually beneficial partnership with one of the top universities in China.”

The visit also included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to promote the relationship between the two departments of engineering.

Professor Hawley outlined the new programme for elite engineering students which will allow the top 5% of students, who are in the Elite Scholar Programme at HIT, to move into the BEng in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Bath. The scheme is expected to start next year.

The University of Bath is one of the leading universities in the UK, ranked in the top fifteen of The Guardian, Times, Sunday Times and Independent national league tables. It is also a member of the 1994 Group, which represents nineteen of the UK’s leading student-focused research-intensive universities to promote excellence and teaching.

Attending the event were the university’s Vice Chancellor, Dr. Peter Noyes; the Director of Higher Education Wales, Amanda Wilkinson; Arvid Peteresen, Global Executive Chairman of Study Group as well as a range of past and present students at the centre.

168 students have enrolled at the centre since it opened two years ago with two routes into undergraduate study available to them, one for students of law and business the other designed for students of future engineering and science. Last year sixty students progressed from the WISC into universities in Wales, including Cardiff and Aberystwyth.

Vice Chancellor, Dr. Peter Noyes said at the event: “International students bring different cultures and different ways of learning to our campus and we’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback from all of our students. The Students’ Union has started social clubs to appeal to our international students and welcome them to the university. We want to achieve the right mix of students here and we value the two-way benefit that currently exists between UK and international students. We’re currently satisfied with a 10-15% internationalisation of the student population.”

Dr Noyes also believed that international students represent a positive future for Wales saying that many of these students would go on to be heads of industry in their countries and a are therefore an essential business prospects for Welsh industry.

The event was a joint celebration of two years of the WISC and a thank you to Study Group , the organisation responsible for running the WISC. Arvid Peterson, Global Executive Chairman of the leading international education provider said: “We’ve found on a global basis that the recipe for International Study Centre success is to encourage a diversity of nationalities, there are around 23 at the WISC at the moment, to study numerous disciplines. The WISC fully immerses its students treating them as members of the university from day one. This allows them the best possible preparation for their future undergraduate and postgraduate courses.”

One such student at the WISC is 19-year-old Raisa Mia from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Raisa described how she had always wanted to study law, ever since she was a child. She is currently studying a business foundation degree and has just been offered a conditional place at Cardiff Law School. Describing her time at the WISC, Raisa said: I’m the only Malaysian at the WISC but it hasn’t stopped the feeling of extended family that I have become accustomed to. All the teachers act as personal mentors as well which makes it really easy to settle in and progress with your studies.”

The WISC is one of twelve successful ISCs located on campuses across the UK.

The majority of the academics (half of whom are American, four of whom are British and the rest of whom are from Brazil, France and Germany) hold senior positions in science and engineering, fields which many nations are currently striving to prioritise.

The researchers will take up positions across 13 Canadian institutions, many of them accompanied by staff and graduate students, receiving $10 million over seven years.

Ian Gardner, formerly a professor at the University of California, is leaving San Francisco to resettle at the University of Prince Edward Island. An epidemiologist, Gardner cited the smaller size of the campus and the increased focus on his specialisation – the health of fish stocks – as being key factors which influenced his decision to take up the position.

Another leading academic figure making the move to Canada is Professor Adrian Owen, a Cambridge neuroscientist renowned for his successes in communicating with patients in a vegetative state. In Owen’s case the lure of long-term funding for his research was too strong to resist, and expects to be able to establish a team of between 20 and 30 researchers.

To find out more about studying in Canada read the latest i-studentadvisor Canada guide.

The new school will be guided and supervised by the University of Ottawa, offering a fully accredited programme that will allow students to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Communication awarded by the University of Ottawa.

The collaboration between Ottawa’s Faculty of Arts and CIC’s School of Engineering will also allow for undergraduate engineering and computer science courses to be taught at the new Egyptian school, in addition to providing for student exchanges between the two schools. The CIC’s courses are intended to mirror Ottawa’s, allowing for greater collaboration in the future.

During the first five years of operation almost 1,500 students are expected to register for the new school, with around 200 of those in the first year. The first graduates of the Canadian School of Communication are forecast for 2015.

Allan Rock, President of the University of Ottawa, said: “This initiative gives the University of Ottawa unique visibility in an area of the world where there is a strong interest for high-quality university education. It also provides an opportunity for Canada’s university to be present in Egypt, the Arab world and countries of the Middle East, by delivering some of its academic curriculum in a state-of-the-art facility in Cairo.”

Research from the Ministry of Higher Education and Research found that Morocco was the largest provider of foreign students to France, totalling around 30,000 individuals.

12% of France’s 1.4 million strong student population are foreign, more than a third of whom are based in Paris or the Ile-de-France region.

44% of those foreign students hailed from Africa, followed by 24% from Asia, 22.6% from Europe, and 8% from North and South America.

The research found that the largest foreign group, Moroccan students, were most likely to study science, engineering and technology subjects. Their 27,100 Chinese counterparts, a steadily increasing figure, are “well represented” in business, engineering and arts schools.

Almost 40% of foreign students in France are studying doctorates.

Look out for our i-studentadvisor Europe guide later this year, covering France and a variety of other European nations.