Tag Archives: Education

Jan 18 2010

Nottingham – yes we can!

Readers of my blog will (hopefully) realise that I am passionate about my home City of Nottingham. I really do want the best for the City. Much of my work is based here so it matters about how the City looks in physical and social terms.

Nottingham - friendliest city in the world, probably


We haven’t always had a good press – especially on the crime front, but the figures show a reduction in the figures. There is still much room for improvement – but we are going in the right direction.

I was watching the brilliant TED last night and came across a talk by Kiran Bir Sethi which is really inspirational. If you have 10 minutes to spare – watch it here.

What is fascinating about the talk is the simplicity of the approach – engaging kids at an early stage.

Kiran talks about the kids going on a journey, which has three key components:

Aware – see the change
Enable – be changed
Empower – lead the change

The children were immersed in some real life experiments – which they then formed their own clear opinions on. They had such conviction about what they had learned that they went out onto the streets to ‘change the world’.

The lessons in the talk are just brilliant – and something we should think about!

I am involved in the early stages of a project with Outerarc where we hope to introduce a competition in schools with the Sheriff of Nottingham and Lord Mayor of Nottingham to reduce energy use in schools (not the PE sort of energy!). After our initial meeting we were thinking that the collaboration we will encourage for the project can be easily extended into other areas.

If we can get the kids engaged in the aspects of what makes a city great we might have a chance of making it an even better place. But then you come across the thorny issue of what makes a City great. Some ideas:

The Physical environment – great buildings and places.
People – in all their guises
Day and Night activities – including great food!
A Centre – the Market Square
Diversity – in everything
Art – including the Contemporary
Education – our celebrated Universities and Colleges

There’s then my mini-campaign to tell everyone that Nottingham is (probably) the friendliest place in the world.

We should have some new advocates – the children of Nottingham!

Jan 5 2010

Commerciality – what’s that?

Today with two colleagues I went back to Nottingham Trent University to meet up with Ann Priest and Peter Westland – both key figures in the School of Built Environment – breeding ground for Surveyors (and architects and other property professionals). We were treated to a tour of the new Newton / Arkwright link before Christmas – I blogged here about it. It was a really interesting discussion today around how best we can work with NTU in the future.

Nottingham Trent University


One of the topic areas raised by Peter was what the School did well at and what they could improve at. My firm have employed a number of graduates and sandwich students in the past – in fact my assistant is one such alumni! Of course I too am a graduate. It was an interesting question. The usual response from employers is that too much time is spent on the ‘theory’ or ‘academic’ side – and this was a view that I held firm. But today I think my view has changed and I think the academic side is important to develop an inquisitiveness.

We then arrived at the word “commerciality”. It was my suggestion that we would like it taught … but may be it can’t be?

But, rightly, Ann questioned the word itself. According to the Oxford English Dictionary it is a a derivative of “commercial” – which is concerned with or engaged in commerce or making or intended to make a profit. But this isn’t what I was getting at. It was a bit more difficult to pin down. To make matters worse some people have it – or get it easier – than others. We weren’t sure it could be taught? Not really very helpful then!

So we tried a bit harder as follows:

It has something to do with ‘seeing’ a big picture – beyond the job at hand. It has an element of ‘inquisitiveness’ on the part of the person – questioning the status quo. It requires an really good background knowledge (where the University come in) – as the base position needs to be established. You need to know if there is more than one option. It requires some tenacity and a real awareness of your surroundings. Most importantly it does hark back to money – the ability to see a profit in something.

So, can it be taught? I think it can, but perhaps not entirely in the University setting. The foundations can be laid – it was Prof. Neil Crosby many years ago who taught me valuation – and his philosophy was ‘question everything’. But the real learning ground does need to be Industry…I think!

There were some really interesting and positive things that came out of today – and I am really looking forward to working with Peter and Ann in the future. It was an interesting chat – and challenging too!

Nov 17 2009

A sense of Deja Vu

I was privileged today (with my colleagues) to be shown around the £90m refurbishment project at Nottingham Trent University. Both Arkwright and Newton buildings are undergoing a massive facelift – and the results are fantastic.

The space between Arkwright and Newton - a social space


It was quite a strange feeling as I was last in Arkwright when I did my HNC in Building Studies between 1981 and 1983. And then in Newton when I did my Degree between 1983 and 1988. I was a perpetual student!

Both buildings are grade II* listed – for quite different reasons. Arkwright was originally a School of Design in 1843 – and famously had D H Lawrence as a student. Newton was built in the 1950′s – and was listed for its external ‘beauty’. The buildings were accidentally thrown together and the connectivity comprised covered walkways – with some fairly basic toilets!

But what is happening is a Sir Michael Hopkins connection – ‘The Link’. And it looks fantastic now – when it is open I think it will be truly inspiring! The spaces being created are being opened up and are light and airy. And I loved the Glulam beams! A new entrance is being created which will feed into the new Link.

There is a business feel to the whole – especially the business school in Newton. But I think the School of Architecture, in particular, will really enjoy their new home. I am sure that Sir Michael will have loved to study in the spaces he is creating. When you think that this part of the building is over 150 years old – and survived an attempt by the Luftwaffe to remodel it – it shows that the original designers got it right. The space was wrecked in the 1970′s by mezzanine creations – but has been opened up to its former glory…

Glulam banana shaped beams!


In the Newton building there is an amazing lecture theatre – which Diarmuid Gavin will be the first lecturer – I am sure he will be impressed too! The long corridors marked out with their grey lines of battered lockers are all gone. Double glazed sound-proofing partitions have replaced the internal walls. Hi Fi and Wi Fi are order of the day – with smart boards. It really is a learning environment fit for the 21st Century.

One of our hosts, Ann Priest Pro VC, said that the environment was really important. Students tend to live their learning life in a bedroom (some good, some bad) – and the University should provide space to ‘live’ outside that bedroom. So the lecture space may be centric to their course, but as important is the social space. The ability to eat / relax away from that bedroom is key. There are lots of social spaces built in – both in and out. And places to ‘hang out’. With wi-fi flooding this will become a home from home.

This really is going to be a jewel in the University’s crown. I just wish they had done this thirty years ago so I could have learned there – now I am feeling old! But I am really pleased that the young people studying now can learn in such inspiring surroundings. And I did learn a lot in the Penthouse bar of the Royal Hotel back in those days! Honest.

Nov 14 2009

To what degree?

It’s been a week of education in the spotlight.

Against a backdrop of 44% of Graduates in the dole queue, the Degree has found its way into the news.

Jade Garratt

Bright Oxford Graduate with degree (aka my daughter Jade)


From 2013 all would-be nurses will have to complete a three-year nursing degree, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Government have announced. I am not sure that this is entirely a good thing. I had thought Nursing was about ‘caring’ first and foremost. I wonder if we are slowly turning Nurses into Doctors – if so I am guessing they won’t be paid quite so much. Not that I have an issue with Doctors pay – just with pushing more responsibility onto Nurses – who, in my view, are not paid enough.

I am a Licenced Assessor for the RICS which means that I (with two other Assessors) stand between a candidate being able to call themselves a Chartered Surveyor and a dreaded ‘referral’ – in old money a ‘fail’. The basic entry point is a Degree, but the real test on the assessment day is not just a test of knowledge – but how to apply that knowledge. It never ceases to amaze me that some of the best paper candidates turn out to be quite average on the day. The mix of knowledge and application is critical.

I also heard Desert Island Discs in the week with Anthony Julius – the lawyer who famously represented Princess Diana in her divorce from Prince Charles. When asked about what made a good lawyer, I though his answer rang true. He said that the ‘intelligence’ part (measured by Degree?) was a given. But what shone? Good judgement was the answer. An ability to look beyond the current problem and think through the clients short, medium and long term positions.

I spend most of my day making judgements – and so often have to weigh up ‘commercial realities’. Sometimes they may go against the technical legal position, or even against ‘fairness’. So often we can get bogged down in the detail – so stop seeing the bigger picture.

My point is that a Degree in certain business or other work scenarios may be the starting point – but actually what counts is what Anthony Julius said – it’s good judgement. And that is difficult to teach. But in nursing, the judgement call might be when someone needs some care. I hope that the nurses who are good at caring are not put off by the apparent need to get an education to this level! That would be a shame. I am not knocking those who do get a degree!

We have become a society obsessed with teaching to test. Sometimes we should appreciate that vocational work has as much to offer – even if it is different to the academic approach. And nursing, I think, is first and foremost a vocation.