Big week for Bill

The School of Sociology and Criminology is celebrating the receipt of a Keele Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching by its Head of School, Dr Bill Dixon. Bill was selected from a very strong field of 25 applicants. Over 120 nominations were received for the teaching year 2010-11 from students for staff across the University, with nine members of staff from the School of Sociology and Criminology receiving nominations.

The Week@Keele notes that "[t]he record number of nominations and the high quality of the applications testify to the excellence of the teaching at Keele, and the increasing institutional emphasis on nurturing and recognising excellence in teaching and supporting learning." The winners receive a prize of £1,000 and will be presented with their awards at a summer graduation ceremony.

Bill has also been making the headlines with an appearance on Radio 5Live's Morning Report, where he was interviewed about 'frontline' policing. This followed the publication of a report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary on the deployment of the police workforce in 'an age of austerity'.

Criminology Summer School at Grenoble, France in July 2009

Five Keele students who have been studying in Australia and five Australian students who have been studying at Keele, have successfully participated in a three-week Criminology Summer School at the Institute of Political Studies in Grenoble, France. In all, 30 students from Keele, Maribor University (Slovenia), Grenoble University, Flinders University (South Australia), Monash University (Victoria), University of Western Sydney and Griffith University (Queensland) met with lecturers from these universities for a Summer School on the theme of Security: local, global and supranational. The students heard lectures on topics as diverse as people trafficking, child sexual abuse, transnational policing, local safety councils in Slovenia and security policies in France and Italy. The Summer School concluded with a student conference at which all students made presentations.

The Summer School was part of a three-year Criminology programme funded by the EU, in which students from the seven universities named above exchanged for 6 months before all meeting up at the Summer Schools, the first two of which were held at Keele in 2007 and Slovenia in 2008. The students received full funding for the whole of the programme and have reported that it has been the experience of a lifetime. In addition to their studies, they had a great social life and have made new friends from other European countries and Australia. The top photo shows all the students and several staff; the bottom photo shows five Keele students and four Australian students who studied at Keele, with lecturers Professor Susanne Karstedt and Professor Anne Worrall. The programme has been run at Keele by Criminology staff in partnership with the Centre for International Exchange and Languages. Other Keele staff who attended the summer school were Professor Philip Stenning, Dr Annette Kratz and PhD student, Clare Jones.