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Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL)

Programme Highlights

Keynote

We were delighted to bring Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter FRS OBE to WorldCUR-BCUR 2023 as the Keynote Speaker. He is Chair of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Centre for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge, which aims to improve the way that statistical evidence is used by health professionals, patients, lawyers and judges, media and policy-makers. He was knighted in 2014 for services to medical statistics, was President of the Royal Statistical Society (2017-2018), and became a Non-Executive Director of the UK Statistics Authority in 2020.

Keynote title: 'How to Not Fall Flat: Communicating Research to Different Audiences'

Synopsis:

It is challenging, and possibly frightening, to move from communicating with academic colleagues to engaging with popular media and the general public. I started this change 15 years ago, and can now tell stories of some successes - and some disasters. But between the laughs at my failures, I will give some advice about working with non-academic audiences, and how creative - and fun - this can be.



Closing Plenary

Our Closing Plenary was opened by Professor Jo Angouri, Academic Director for Education and Internationalisation at Warwick. Jo introduceed our alumni panel, which was led by David Metcalfe, the first Editor and co-creator of Reinvention: an International Journal of Undergraduate ResearchLink opens in a new window, currently in its 17th year of publication. David spoke about his undergraduate research journey at Warwick and where it has led him in his current career. He then facilitated a conversation with three more recent alumni, Paulina Zelmanova, Yi Ting Loo, and Fernando Conde Nodal, who have all worked on Warwick’s International Conference of Undergraduate Research (currently celebrating its 10th anniversary) or ReinventionLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window. The panel discussed the impact of participating in undergraduate research and its dissemination.

Professor Gwen van-der-Velden, Deputy Pro Vice Chancellor (Education), then reflect on the alumni panel and the WorldCUR-BCUR events more widely and Professor Jonathan Heron, Director of the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning, brought proceedings to a close.

The Closing Plenary took place in the Butterworth Hall, Warwick Arts Centre, from 4pm-5pm on Thursday 6th April.

International Student Research Project (ISRP)

The AGUR Committee were keen to provide opportunities for students to network and research together before the Conference and to share their findings at WorldCUR.

To achieve this, the team at Warwick created the International Student Research Project (ISRP) to bring together students from across the world to devise, undertake and present a research project of their choice at WorldCUR. The team at Warwick, led by Professor Jane Bryan, were also particularly keen to design the ISRP project to provide postgraduate students the opportunity to acquire supervision experience.

Student researchers from different institutions and countries were formed into seven interdisciplinary, international teams, each team supported by two co-supervisors (one an established academic and one a postgraduate doctoral student).

Whilst many of our ISRP students were able to attend WorldCUR-BCUR in person, the model for the project did not require this. The project was designed to enable students unable attend in person to use the connectivity created by video conferencing to have an ‘internationalisation at home’ research experience.

The innovative ISRP model is a low-cost, easily replicable ‘internationalisation at home’ format, which enables students to undertake international research projects and build international connections and intercultural awareness despite restrictions on their mobility. The projects have also developed the skills and employability of student researchers and novice postgraduate supervisors.

The ISRP would not have happened without the support of Dr Maher Khelifa (Qatar) Professor Julio Rivero (Carroll), Professor Maria Iacullo-Bird (PACE) and the amazing ISRP students and supervisors.

Theme Sessions

During the conference, research was presented in thematic sessions to encourage interdisciplinary conversations and facilitate professional networking and project development.

Find out more about WorldCUR-BCUR Themes.

Complementary Sessions

Throughout our programme we were hosting sessions and workshops that were complementary to our main spoken, poster, exhibit and performance research presentation sessions. All details were available on the programme on Oxford Abstracts.

Find out more about the complementary sessions Link opens in a new windowwe had to offer.