Maureen Bows Out After Nearly 40 Years at University
New Technologies for Care at Home
McLeary Tees up Against Europe's Best at Gleneagles
New Nursing Facilities on the Horizon
Scottish National Training Centre for Tennis Nets Lottery Funding
Kylie Stays on Top
Date released: Monday 1 August 2005
Stirling University student Kylie Walker continued a run of good form when she won the Mackie Bowl 36-hole Women's Open tournament at Gullane on Sunday 31 July.
The first year Sports Studies student and Scottish internationalist, tied with another Scotland international player, Louise Kenney (Pitreavie) on 143. They had similar rounds of 70 and 73. The tie-breaker was a comparison of their last nine holes in the second round with Kylie coming out on top.
Kylie’s win comes on the back of a second place finish at last weekend’s Irish Open Strokeplay Championship.
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
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Raleigh Gowrie Sports Performance Manager University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Maureen Bows Out After Nearly 40 Years at University
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| Pictured above: Maureen, third from left in front row, says goodbye to the Career Development Centre team. |
Date released: Monday 1 August 2005
The University of Stirling bade a fond farewell to its longest serving member of staff last Friday when Maureen McKerracher retired after nearly forty years service.
Maureen, who is from Stirling, joined the University in February 1966 when, aged just 18 and fresh out of secretarial college, she landed a job as a shorthand typist. After performing a number of administrative roles over the years, Maureen was most recently a careers assistant in the University’s Career Development Centre. However when she first arrived there was no such service, in fact there was no University. Maureen was one of only half a dozen staff given the task of preparing for the launch of the University in 1967.
She said: “We all worked in a converted house on Logie Road at the rear of the campus with the first Principal Tom Cottrell. I was the office junior. Although it was like working on a building site, there was a great feeling for both students and staff of experiencing something new and exciting. The University was so small at that time that everyone knew everyone else.”
In 1967, the University had 164 undergraduate and 31 postgraduate students. Today there are almost 7,000 undergraduates and 2,000 postgraduates.
With less than two years to go until its fortieth anniversary, the University would like to hear from members of the community as well as former staff members and students willing to share their memories and photographs of the campus. Please write to Miss Lesley Pollock, Media Relations Manager, External Relations, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA or e-mail: lesley.pollock@stir.ac.uk
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
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Maureen McKerracher University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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| Tel: +44 (0) 1786 474422 |
New Technologies for Care at Home
Date released: Monday 1 August 2005
New technology could soon be available to enable elderly and disabled people to continue to live independently. The Universities of Stirling, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow have today been awarded £1.3 million by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council towards technologies to support care at home. The four-year project, led by the University of Stirling, will also involve professionals from the fields of social work, healthcare, housing provision and technology development.
Project Technical Director, Professor Ken Turner said: “The percentage of older people in the population is gradually increasing. It is therefore desirable to extend the period during which they, as well as those with a disability, can live in their own homes. Our goal is to develop advanced technologies to allow them to remain at home in a familiar environment, close to family and friends. The project will help to maintain their independence, improve their quality of life, enhance the care they receive at home, and ease the burden on their carers and services.”
The research team will create home networks to link various devices in the home. For example, movement sensors will be linked to lights so that a path through the house is properly illuminated at night. Lifestyle monitoring will also allow carers to remotely check someone’s living patterns for abnormal situations.
Professor Turner explained: “Suppose someone normally rises at 8am and goes to the kitchen to make breakfast. If that does not happen, the system could alert a carer in case the person is ill.”
The project will also be looking at developing speech communication. For example, someone could ask for lights to be switched on or to be reminded verbally about appointments. Other assistive technologies include a gas monitoring system that could trigger a verbal warning if a cooker has been turned on but not lit. If the problem is not attended to, a carer might be notified by mobile phone that the user could need urgent help.
The project will combine its results in a new demonstration centre that will showcase what can be done to care for people at home.
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
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Professor Ken Turner University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1786 467423 or (0) 1786 832602 |
McLeary Tees up Against Europe's Best at Gleneagles
Date released: Wednesday 3 August 2005
University of Stirling golf scholarship student, Jamie McLeary, has a chance to compete against Europe’s leading professional golfers after accepting an invitation to play in this week’s Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
The third year Computing Science student received the invite after finishing as Scotland’s top amateur golfer last year. He finds himself in the company of a number of illustrious counterparts including Colin Montgomerie, making his first competitive appearance since his 2nd-place finish at last month’s British Open, Ryder Cup player Paul Casey and former major winners Sandy Lyle and Paul Lawrie.
The 72-hole strokeplay event takes place over the PGA Centenary Course, venue for the 2014 Ryder Cup. McLeary hopes to find the form that saw him win last year’s St Andrews Links Trophy and Craigmillar Park Open as well as this year’s Scottish Universities’ Strokeplay Championship with a record-winning score.
McLeary is part of Stirling’s strong golf scholarship programme that allows talented young golfers to combine academic study with high-performance sport. His compatriots include Walker Cup player Richard Ramsay and Scottish internationalist Kylie Walker, recent winner of the Mackie Bowl Trophy. Past scholarship holders include Solheim Cup players Catriona Matthew and Maria Hjorth, former British Amateur champion Gordon Sherry and current European Ladies Tour player Lynn Kenny.
This year, the University of Stirling achieved the grand slam in student golf – winning the Scottish and British Universities’ men’s and women’s team strokeplay and matchplay titles.
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
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Raleigh Gowrie Sports Performance Manager University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1786 466906 |
The Whole Hogg
Date released: Friday 5 August 2005
James Hogg, known from his humble beginnings as the ‘Ettrick Shepherd’, is currently undergoing a critical reassessment. A new exhibition at the Writers’ Museum, ‘The Whole Hogg’, will include a broad selection of Hogg’s writing as well as a first edition of his most popular work, Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824).
Exhibition organiser, Dr Janette Currie, Research Fellow in the University of Stirling's Department of English Studies, said: "The Writers' Museum is the natural place for an exhibition on Hogg as he is closely connected to the three permanent residents of Burns, Scott, and Stevenson. The self-taught shepherd's earthy songs and stories depicting social hardships of rural life and his often racy, humorous tales, derived from his impoverished Ettrick childhood, made him the natural successor to Burns.”
She added: “But Hogg was also steeped in the oral tradition of the Borders and through these he corresponded as an equal with Scott on matters of balladry and folklore. In Stevenson's fiction there are traces of Hogg's darkest, supernatural work, most notably in The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Master of Ballantrae. I am grateful to the Writers' Museum for the opportunity of displaying Hogg's life and work so prominently. I hope visitors to the exhibition will realise the important role Hogg played in our Scottish literary heritage."
Elaine Greig, curator at the Writers’ Museum said: “This exciting exhibition is the first to display such a breadth of Hogg’s literary talents revealing one of Scotland’s greatest nineteenth-century writers.”
The James Hogg Exhibition at Bowhill has kindly loaned some of Hogg’s personal belongings and these will be displayed alongside literary material drawn from the extensive Hogg collection at Stirling University Library. Exhibition displays will include correspondence, original manuscripts and the earliest song-sheet ‘Donald M’Donald’.
The Whole Hogg will be showing at the Writers’ Museum in Lady Stair’s Close on the Lawnmarket (Royal Mile) between August 6 2005 to March 25 2006. Hours Monday to Saturday, 1000 to 1700 and Sundays during Edinburgh Festival, 1200 to 1700.
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
For further information:
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Janette Currie University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1786 467496 |
Stirling's Sporting Successes
Date released: Monday 15 August 2005
Stirling University student Todd Cooper won a silver medal at the World University Games on Saturday in the men’s 4 x 100 freestyle relay. Todd has the opportunity to add to his medal tally tonight when he swims in the final of the 100m butterfly. He was the fastest swimmer in qualifying with a time of 53.33.
Stirling University alumnus Mark Lewis finished seventh in the 200m butterfly final on Friday night with a time of 1.59.50. While fellow alumnus Nick Neckles qualified in seventh place for the 200m backstroke final. Swimming in lane 1, he maintained his seventh place with a time of 2.02.92.
Team GBR swimming, led by Scottish Institute of Sport National Coach and the University’s head swimming coach Chris Martin, have struck gold twice so far in the pool. Glasgow University student Rebecca Cooke took gold in the 800m freestyle, while Loughborough University’s Liam Tancock touched home first in the 50m backstroke. Rebecca has also added silver in the 400m freestyle to her medal tally, and narrowly missed out on another medal when the women’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay team finished fourth.
Meanwhile third year Sports Studies student Richard Ramsay fulfilled a lifetime ambition by turning out for the GB Walker Cup team at the weekend in Chicago. He played in the Saturday morning foursomes alongside Lloyd Saltman, winning 4 & 3 over American pair Kyle Reifers and Billy Hurley. Ramsay and Saltman paired up one again in the Sunday morning foursomes, this time recording a 4 & 2 defeat to Anthony Kim and Brian Harman. The USA team won the Walker Cup 12 ½ - 11 ½ over GB.
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
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Orla Gilmore University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1786 466906 |
New Nursing Facilities on the Horizon
Date released: Monday 15 August 2005
The University of Stirling’s provision of Nursing & Midwifery education in the Highlands will be boosted by the construction of a £15 million world-class Centre for Health Science in Inverness. Work on the state-of-art the facility, funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, adjacent to Raigmore Hospital began today (Monday).
The first phase of the project is expected to be completed by autumn 2006 and the facility will be leased from the HIE by NHS Highland and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) as well as the University.
Head of the University of Stirling’s Department of the Nursing & Midwifery, Mr Tom Starrs said: “The University has been a major provider of Health related education in the Highlands for 10 years. However the ability to increase and extend the support we offer to health professionals both in education and research has been limited due to space constraints. This facility is therefore greatly welcomed and will allow us to maximise our contribution to the Health Care services, staff and the population of the Highlands. We look forward to the opportunities afforded by sharing this state of the art facility with the other organisations involved to the benefit of all. HIE is to be congratulated for delivering on what has been a complex process with a facility which will be second to none.”
The start of construction was marked by a turf-cutting ceremony undertaken by Allan Wilson MSP, Deputy Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning, and William Roe, chairman of Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
For further information:
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Kathleen Murray University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1786 466342 |
Scottish National Training Centre for Tennis Nets Lottery Funding
Date released: Monday 22 August 2005
Rising tennis star, Jamie Baker took a break from training today (Monday 22 August), to cut the first turf to mark the start of work at the Scottish National Training Centre for Tennis. Based at the University of Stirling, the new centre will provide a first class training facility to support the development of talented tennis players, helping them to reach the pinnacle of their sport.
Supported by an award of £500,000 from the Lottery funded Building for Sport Programme, the new facilities will include two indoor acrylic and two outdoor clay courts, together with office space for performance staff, to complement the four indoor courts at the existing tennis centre.
Additional funding for the project has been received from the Lawn Tennis Association (£450,000), University of Stirling (£325,000) and Tennis Scotland (£25,000).
The centre, which will run as a partnership between the University of Stirling, Tennis Scotland and the Lawn Tennis Association, will provide training and education programmes for players and new performance coaches, to help them to progress to world class standard. Players will also have access to the University’s stateof-the-art resources, including conditioning and sports science programmes.
The centre will be used by players from across Scotland, including athletes from the Scottish Institute of Sport which is based in close proximity to the University campus. Institute athlete, Jamie Baker is just one of the players who will benefit from the new facilities.
The facility will also be available for use by the local community, schools and University students. The University also hopes to encourage local tennis clubs to use the facilities regularly, helping to improve playing standards in the area.
Professor Grant Jarvie, Head of Department of Sports Studies at the University said: “It is crucial for Scotland, British sport and Higher Education that Scottish universities are able to keep up to pace with the very best sporting provision in English universities.
“Higher Education has a crucial part to play in the delivery of and provision of sport in the UK. Through the International Sports Scholarship Scheme and the Gannochy National Tennis Centre, Stirling University has been both a supporter of and investor in tennis for more than 20 years. The development of the Scottish National Tennis Centre at the University will help to consolidate Stirling's growing reputation as the natural Loughborough of the North.”
Charles Trippe, President, Lawn Tennis Association said: “The LTA is dedicated to supporting the tennis champions of tomorrow throughout Great Britain and we are delighted to have been able to help make this project happen.
“This excellent facility will do so much to ensure that leading Scottish players get the support they need to realise their talent and I'm sure the local community will also make good use of the centre.”
Jim Campbell, Chief Executive, Tennis Scotland, said: “At Tennis Scotland we would like to thank sportscotland, the LTA and the University of Stirling for their support and investment in making this project a reality. We look forward to working closely with them to provide a focal point for aspiring players, giving them access to superb training facilities.”
Jamie Baker said: “In light of the recent surge in Scottish tennis over the past couple of years, it is fantastic for the players to know that our home facilities are being strengthened. The new developments with the Scottish National Training Centre, along with the Scottish Institute of Sport will ensure that we have as an attractive home training base as our fellow competitors.”
Julia Bracewell OBE, Chair sportscotland, added: “We are delighted to be supporting the development of the Scottish National Training Centre for Tennis at the University of Stirling with an award of £500,000 from the Lottery funded Building for Sport Programme.
“This dedicated venue for performance training will play a key role in ensuring that talented players have the facilities they need to develop their skills and reach their full potential, helping to further our standing on the world stage.”
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
For further information:
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Elise Clayton Press Assistant sportscotland |
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Tel: +44 (0) 131 472 3340 (direct) or 0131 317 7200 (switch) |
Landscapes by Design
Date released: Monday 12 September 2005
Man has modified our landscapes from time immemorial. Our perceptions of what is harmonious and attractive in a landscape are based on our appreciation of both natural and man-made features.
Landscapes by Design is the theme of this year’s Forth Naturalist and Historian’s Man and the Landscape Symposium. Speakers will address issues such as:
- What is the future for landscapes of the past?
- How have literary and artistic works influenced our taste in landscapes?
- Is our contemporary concern for biodiversity a key to landscape quality?
- Can we re-create landscapes of the past as an aid to understanding the present?
- How should we plan to preserve or enhance landscape special qualities?
The event, now in its 31st year, will take place on Saturday 12 November and tickets are priced £12 (half day £6).
Booking enquiries should be directed to Marilyn Scott, tel: (01786) 467269 or e-mail: mbn1@stir.ac.uk
Lesley Pollock
Media Relations Manager
(01786) 467058
For further information:
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Marilyn Scott University of Stirling Stirling FK9 4LA UK |
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Tel: +44 (0) 1786 467269 |