Perspectives Issue 2 / December 2016

Fostering water and agricultural research innovation in Malta

Beautiful and historic Malta is a popular holiday destination for many British tourists. Its hot and sunny climate however also means this Mediterranean island is the most water-scarce country in Europe – and is in the global top 10. It has few exploitable surface water resources, with available supplies heavily dependent on groundwater and desalination. The former is under intense pressure due to long-term over-abstraction, and rising and competing demands from agriculture, tourism and the environment. This means understanding future agricultural demands, their impacts on water resources, and identifying opportunities to promote innovations in water management are major strategic environmental and agro-economic priorities for the Maltese government. We are a partner, together with CIHEAM (International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies) and Spain’s Universitat Politechnica de Catalunya, in a European Commission-funded Horizon 2020 Twinning project to help address these concerns. The project is being led by the Maltese College for Arts, Science and Technology (MCAST). Professor Jerry Knox from the Cranfield Water Science Institute is collaborating with colleagues from our Soil and Agrifood Institute (Professor Andrew Thompson, Dr Stephen Hallett and Dr Ruben Sakrabani) to share expertise in agriculture, water management, plant science and agri-informatics. This involves delivering a range of training activities for MCAST staff, supporting implementation of a demonstration site on the island to showcase water and agricultural innovations and providing scientific support to build local capacity and foster longer-term research links. Jerry, who leads the project for Cranfield, envisages this could be the platform for a much longer-term strategic alliance with Malta. He said: “This has provided the catalyst to rekindle our links with Malta – over a decade ago, soils colleagues were instrumental in developing the first soil information system for the island (MalSIS). Now with rapid advances in agri-informatics and concerns regarding food security and water sustainability, there is major potential to build on this Twinning initiative. “Working with our Mediterranean counterparts, our long-term plan is to secure funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in the UK and the European Commission to establish a centre of excellence and computerised island observatory on Malta. This will ultimately support strategic research in water scarcity, agri-informatics and drought risk management for agriculture in the region.”

What our students are telling us

Every year we gather substantial data on the Cranfield student experience, with this feedback used to drive forward improvements towards our goal of providing a UK top 10 postgraduate learning experience. Our taught students were again encouraged to take part in the national Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) in April. Run annually by the Higher Education Academy, this captures feedback on the academic experience and is used to benchmark our academic provision with national and leading postgraduate institutions. PTES 2016 highlights: • There has been a marginal increase in satisfaction in all areas compared to 2015 – see ‘How we faired’ below • ‘Resources and services’ remains our greatest area of satisfaction and is consistently higher than national and Russell Group averages • Cranfield continues to be rated highly as an inclusive culture where staff support the diverse range of students • ‘Assessment and feedback’ remains the area of least satisfaction and where we fall significantly behind national and Russell Group averages • 80% of respondents were satisfied with the quality of their course and 89% would recommend Cranfield – both figures are an increase on 2015 • 14% of respondents felt they had experienced barriers to learning. How we faired The results show we have improved in each of the indicators that students were questioned about compared to 2015. On a scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent), the scores were: Professor Lynette Ryals, Pro-Vice-Chancellor – Education, said: “We are delighted that our students rate us so highly on learning culture and to see that they are also very pleased with the learning resources and services we provide, the project work they are able to carry out while at Cranfield and the skills development they receive. “I would like to thank staff for their engagement with PTES and the encouragement they have given to students to complete the survey. Feedback is essential to ensure we are providing a learning environment attractive to the world’s best talent.” Reports A number of reports have been produced, all of which are available to read on the intranet – ‘Services’ tab > ‘Education Services’ > ‘Student Surveys’ > ‘PTES’ . These include individual school reports and a University dashboard which provides course level analysis. If you experience problems with the dashboard report, which is in an SWF file format, please contact the IT Service Desk as your settings may need updating. What next? A number of initiatives are underway which are being driven by the University’s Education Committee, including: • Assessment and feedback – a project has been launched looking at overhauling the amount of assessment carried out and the ways we assess our students which then positively impacts on the time taken for work to be marked and feedback given • Course portfolio review – we have been actively refreshing our course portfolio, reviewing and updating current courses and introducing new ones • Innovation – working with course directors and delivery teams to increase innovation in course design and the use of technology in course delivery • Course feedback – a project is underway related to how we collect module feedback and introducing consistency to our approach. Indicator 2016 2015 Teaching and learning Student Engagement Assessment and Feedback Dissertation or Major Project Organisation and Management 3.98 3.89 4.05 3.94 3.51 3.30 4.07 3.93 3.75 3.67 4.33 4.28 4.05 3.94 4.28 4.09 Resources and Services Skills Development Culture

Momentous year for Best Factory Awards

The annual Best Factory Awards run by our School of Management have celebrated their 25th anniversary this year. It is an identical milestone for the long-standing Director of the Best Factory Awards (BFA), Professor Marek Szwejczewski (pictured at the awards in October at the National Conference Centre, Solihull), who said: “UK manufacturing has seen a huge amount of growth over the last 25 years and the industry continues to develop rapidly. It was great to see such a wide range of factories represented, from inkjet systems to gas sensor analysers, in this year’s shortlist.” The Brose factory in Coventry, part of the €6 billion family-owned Brose Ltd business, was crowned Britain’s Best Factory at this year’s awards. The awards, which aim to recognise and reward manufacturing excellence across the country, again saw backing from Toyota Material Handling UK which has provided sponsorship for over a decade.

Perspectives Keeping staff informed December 2016

Perspectives online: Intranet > 'Communications' > 'Perspectives'

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