DMU863-AlumExtra AAD cover:Layout 1

Alumni Association
e
the gateway
Issue One | Summer 2008
extra
The magazine
for alumni and
friends of the
Faculty of Art
and Design
Welcome…
From the Dean
…to the first
Inside this issue
Welcome to the first Faculty of Art and Design
alumni magazine. As ever, we have much to
celebrate, from award-winning students to
acclaimed research and high-profile international
exhibitions. I hope that this first issue of The
Gateway-Extra will give you a flavour of some of
our successes and keep you in touch with the
activities of Art and Design at DMU. We value our
graduates and are always pleased to hear about
your successes and achievements.
06
The Fletcher Building was opened in November
1966 and was a state-of-the-art development
demonstrating significant investment by the city
into Leicester’s art and design education. 42 years
later, we are again the focus for investment with
the University planning a new art and design
building development on the waterfront. Planned
to open in 2012, the building will house all art,
design and architecture studios and workshops on
one site, covering the former Students’ Union
building and the area which was William Rowlett
Hall. I will let you know more about these plans as
they develop.
Meanwhile, we continue to achieve success in
many ways. In particular I regularly hear of graduates
working in high-profile jobs in international
companies. Some of our 2008 graduates have
already secured jobs with companies including
Wedgwood, Next and Abercrombie and Fitch
(New York).
I hope you will find the stories in this magazine
interesting. If you have any contributions to make,
do please let us know.
Dr Gerard Moran
Dean, Faculty of Art
and Design
02 gatewayextra
10
Features
Cover story – Sarah Graham
06-07
FAME 2008 (Fashion Arts
Media Eastmidlands)
15
Cultural eXchanges 2008
18
Faculty news, including
04-14
Leicester School of
Architecture Reunion
04
Boxing success
05
From Vietnam with love
08
issue of your Faculty alumni magazine
From the Editor
05
Welcome to the first issue of The Gateway-Extra.
This magazine has been put together for you, as a
graduate of the Faculty of Art and Design.
Results from the 2007 Alumni Survey showed that you
wanted more contact from us, and to hear more news
from your Faculty. So we’re very excited to be able to
bring you this Faculty-specific alumni magazine each
summer, alongside the main issue each winter. We
have listened to your feedback and have packed this
issue full of all the things you want to read.
We’ve also just launched our new Alumni Association
benefits and services package – a copy of the
brochure is available to download at
www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni – and
we’ll continue to work with
faculties to bring you new
and more personal benefits.
I do hope you enjoy reading this
new magazine. Please contact
us with your news and views on
what we are doing and how we
can continue to improve things
for you.
With best wishes,
DMU short courses provide
excellent support
10
De Montfort lecturer
films for V&A exhibition
12
Louise Henderson (CIM PGDip Marketing, 2004) Editor
Postgraduate study
14
opportunities and discounts
DMU news, including
15-18
Completed work frees
historic monument
16
DMU’s green design experts
advise Government
17
Alumni Association benefits 19
and services
Stay in touch
We’d love to hear from you
and would like to stay in touch.
Please contact us with any
news, updates, stories or
enquiries you may have at:
The Alumni Association
De Montfort University
The Gateway
Leicester LE1 9BH, UK
T: +44 (0)116 257 7027
F: +44 (0)116 250 6230
E: [email protected]
W: www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni
Cover image by Sarah
Graham and used with kind
permission – see page 6
for feature.
The views expressed in The Gateway are those of the individual authors and contributors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the University, the alumni community or the Editor. The Editor reserves
the right to edit contributions received and every care shall be taken to ensure accuracy of information.
The Gateway is distributed free of charge to all members of the worldwide alumni community, staff and
friends of De Montfort University and all antecedent institutions.
gatewayextra
03
Leicester School of
Architecture reunion
celebrates 111 years
On the 10th of April, 120 distinguished
architects gathered at the Royal Institute of
British Architects in London to celebrate
111 years of the Leicester School of
Architecture (LSA).
Hosted by DMU’s Vice Chancellor Professor Philip
Tasker, the reunion saw Leicester graduates from 1946
through to 2007 come together in the RIBA’s beautiful
Florence Hall to enjoy an evening of fine dining,
drinking, meeting old friends and making new ones.
The reunion was attended by 120 Architecture graduates.
A good time was had by all, and it was a great
disappointment to many when the reunion came to
an end. Some went home to bed, but others caroused
the night away, exactly how every reunion should go.
You can see photographs from the reunion in the
Past Events section of our website at
www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni
Enjoying the party - from left to right: Manpreet Bassan, Diane Starkey,
Charnjit Pattar, Melanie Richardson, James Yeomans, Alexander Liu.
The evening included speeches by LSA graduates
Ian Purdy, who graduated in 1946, and Ken
Shuttleworth, who has designed numerous famous
buildings including the Swiss Re Tower in London.
Ian talked about his experiences at the LSA and
proposed a toast, while Ken presented snapshots of
the LSA’s history.
Duncan Webster (Grad Dip Architecture, 1985) said
“The first thing I noticed at the pre-dinner drinks
was the number of different generations that
attended the evening, from the retired in their 90s to
those starting out on their architectural careers. This
was reflected in the photographs shown on the
night of changing student fashions, parties and
architectural attitudes, all celebrated with a tribute in
the traditional LSA style, the charged glass.”
Leonard Manasseh was a special guest at the reunion.
Sue Thompson (Grad Dip Architecture, 1984)
added “Ken Shuttleworth amusingly reminded us of
the delights of architectural field trips, the Instant
Suburb project, life in the studios and William
Rowlett Hall! What a great walk down memory lane!”
The reunion was sponsored by Sarnafil.
04 gatewayextra
Boxing
Success
Textile
Design
graduate
packs
in the
achievements
Linda Marie Young graduated from DMU’s
Textile Design course only a year ago, but she’s
already winning industry awards and recognition.
Linda works from a home studio in Leicester to
design and make beautiful paper and fabric
stitched boxes for interior decoration, indulgent
gifts, or to treasure keepsakes and memories.
Linda’s box – Wedding Rose.
At New Designers 2007 she was selected to exhibit
in the Knitting and Stitching Show’s graduate showcase which toured Birmingham, London, Dublin and
Harrogate.
She said about the experience “I gained exposure to a
knowledgeable audience, press, contacts with
established designers and makers and I made lots of
sales. Since then, I have undertaken several private
commissions, I sell through three stockists and have
my work in seven galleries.”
Her degree gave her a solid platform on which to
build her successful ventures as she experimented
with textiles from metal to paper and fell in love with
hand stitching and free-machine embroidery. She also
learned how to turn her design talents into a business
using Dreamweaver to create her website, by writing
press releases and promotional packages and pricing
her work. However her biggest help was the close-knit
community of artists fostered by the course.
Even more impressively she has just won the
Embroiderers’ Guild £1000 Scholarship award
2008/09 and she has been selected to exhibit in the
prestigious ‘One Year On’ event at New Designers, an
annual exhibition which showcases the work of
graduating students.
Since graduation Linda has registered as a
self-employed freelance designer and maker and has
sold several designs to Woodmansterne cards.
You can view Linda’s work and find out where it is
being exhibited on her website –
www.lindamarie.co.uk
gatewayextra
05
Gnome with apples.
06 gatewayextra
Sweets
to the sweet
You may have seen Sarah Graham
(BA Fine Art, 2000) in The Metro
newspaper at the beginning of April.
Her work, in her own words “creates
engaging and playful twists on reality
using vibrant colour and striking subjects.
Toys and sweets are themes that have
dominated my work and I love painting
them because they provide an unlimited,
colourful world of possibilities, meaning
and intrigue.”
Sarah in her studio.
Sarah is now a self-employed artist represented
by Washington Green. It wasn’t just her artistic
skills she honed at DMU though. The course
exposed her to the business and promotional
side of being an artist, and most importantly,
taught her how to sell her work. It was these
early sales that convinced Sarah a career as
an artist was a possibility. It didn’t happen
overnight, however, and Sarah’s road to
success was long.
“I always believed that if I kept painting,
something would HAVE to happen! Last year I
looked into getting published because I was
getting frustrated that my work was becoming
too expensive for my friends and young people
generally! I thought “how cool would it be if I
could get signed by a good publisher who
could produce quality but affordable prints?”
I wrote to Washington Green and months later,
I was signed.
“After graduation I applied to do an MA, but
was unsuccessful. I wasn’t surprised as I knew
deep down my work wasn’t ready. I took a trip
to Thailand, came back, got a part-time gallery
job (where they’d sold a painting from my
degree work) and found my first studio. With
my first ‘Affordable Art Fair’ (AAF) in London
on the cards for that autumn, I decided to
become self-employed.
“Washington Green buys my originals, so as
long as I’m painting I have a regular income.
On top of this I also get royalties for prints and
they license out my images for cards and other
things. I have an incredible support network
behind me, including 65 galleries in the UK,
a marketing team and a lovely man called Keith
who collects my paintings from my studio!”
“I did the AAF for seven years and showed in
galleries in and around Berkshire, London,
Brighton and Cambridge, as well as art fairs in
New York, Sydney and Melbourne. Sales were
my main source of income, but I had to take on
various part-time jobs too, from becoming
curator in a gallery to being a bouncer.
So what’s next for Sarah? “Keep painting as
long as possible. My hero Gerhard Richter has
an interview on his website called ‘A Lifetime in
Paint’. I’d like to be able to say the same when
I’m 76.”
You can view more of Sarah’s work on her
website – www.sarahgraham.info
gatewayextra
07
From Vietnam with love
Tessa adjusting lenses.
Ninh So – bamboo making village.
Tessa Bunney is in Vietnam where she’s
taking some time off from her job as a selfemployed freelance photographer to work
on a personal project she has been thinking
about for a while. The 2004 graduate of
DMU’s MA Photography course is photographing domestic labourers in the suburbs
and villages in and around Hanoi to be
exhibited and published in 2009.
When asked why she’s taking a six-month
sabbatical in Vietnam she replied “Around 75% of
the population of Vietnam are farmers. As Vietnam
moves towards urbanisation, the country’s
agricultural labour force faces the prospect of
losing its land and its way of life. With Vietnam’s
growing population also making less land available
for farmers to work, families unable to sustain
themselves are turning to the creation of various
08 gatewayextra
Le Mat – snake catching village.
products in rural areas. These ‘craft’ villages have
become the meeting place between rural and
urban, agriculture and industry.”
Tessa’s work has featured in some impressive
places and she regularly freelances for Observer
Life, Guardian Weekend and The Sunday Times
magazine as well as doing a wide range of
commissions and residencies nationally and
internationally.
She clearly loves the work she does “Photography
as an occupation has enabled me to travel the
world meeting interesting people living in amazing
places; to discover the area around where I live and
to share the skills I have with people of all ages
and abilities.”
Tessa’s blog can be viewed on
www.tessabunney.wordpress.com
Elizabeth fuses her
studies and the
working world
Elizabeth Cole is a BA Design Management
and Innovation student at De Montfort
University. She’s also enjoying a six-month
work placement as a project manager with
digital marketing agency Fuse Digital. Fuse
builds websites and web-brands for products
such as Lucozade and Chupa-Chups.
Elizabeth said “Fuse offered a placement to a
previous DMU graduate who kept in contact with
our module leader. When she left Fuse, she came
to visit us on our course and said that Fuse were
looking for project managers. I went for an interview
and they phoned me later that day to offer me
a placement.”
For a placement, it’s a highly pressured job “A client
will call me up and say ‘this is what I want for our
website’. I then brief the development and build
teams and liaise with the client.”
Does she enjoy it? “It’s an eye opener! I don’t know
what I want to do after university, so this is a great
experience. I also like that I get to meet all kinds of
people and that every day is different.”
Chi Shing and his winning design.
RNID to sell
student’s earplugs
RNID, the charity for deaf and hard of hearing
people, is planning to manufacture and sell
earplugs designed by a De Montfort University
student to protect the hearing of young people
at nightclubs.
Chi Shing Lo, a Product Design student, won the
RNID competition entered by 100 students from
some of the UK’s top design universities, for his
‘Earcard’.
It is a flat-pack earplug system the size of a credit
card which would be easy to manufacture and
cheap to produce.
Shing, who is from Hong Kong, said “When needed,
the earplug can be quickly and easily assembled.
The judges said they particularly liked its convenient
shape and potential to be used in a large range of
environments.”
Elizabeth started her six-month placement in January.
DMU swept the board, also taking second and third
prizes in the competition which was launched by
RNID after its own research found that 90 per cent
of young people have experienced the first signs of
hearing damage after a night out.
gatewayextra
09
Lighting the way
Jon Santacoloma Moro came to DMU from
Spain to study for his Product Design degree,
specialising in lighting. He graduated in 2000
having had a great experience at DMU.
“It was excellent. Excellent in personal work
and excellent in intercultural relations –
different languages and cultures and a global
consideration have been very useful.”
Returning to Spain, Jon founded Ideilan Design
and became an entrepreneur.
DMU short courses
provide excellent
support
Anna Metzler Murray is one of many students
who come to DMU to study short courses
each year. She studied Corsetry and Bra
Making and now she owns and operates her
own lingerie business, Inner Strength, where
corsetry is the skill she uses most. Anna said
“Of the skills I now use every day, I probably
learned as much in the weeks at DMU as I
did in my whole degree course.”
Jon’s award-winning outdoor lighting designs.
“I’ve developed collaborations with several important
firms. As a result I have contributed to the creation
of several products, for which we have won awards.”
These awards include the International Design
Award 2007 (Los Angeles); Best of Year 2007
organised by Interior Design (New York); an
honourable mention at Red Dot design awards
2008; Industrial Design prize for the Asociación
Española de Profesionales del Diseño; and the
Delta Awards Selection.
More information can be found about Jon at
www.ideilan.com
As well as running Inner Strength, Anna is mum to a
small child so her days are always busy. She said
“Inner Strength designs and produces high class
underwear. I specialise in corsets, which can be
worn as tops or under a dress. My main customers
are brides and ball or party-goers, but I also supply
boutiques in Glasgow and New York.”
You can view Anna’s designs on her new website –
www.lingerieandloungewear.co.uk
Anna’s corset designs have been a hit in the UK and the USA.
10 gatewayextra
An
uplifting
alum
Megan Powell Vreeswijk (Art and Design,
specialising in Contour Fashion, 1996) fell in
love with underwear when she was just 13.
From that moment, she knew she wanted to
make lingerie and with DMU providing the
world’s only degree course in Contour
Fashion, that’s where she needed to be.
Nearly all her technical knowledge was acquired at
DMU through some great teachers, enabling her to
enter the industry and expand her skills. It also gave
her the opportunity to venture into different areas of
the fashion industry.
Megan Powell Vreeswijk.
The World’s first backless and strapless bra for C-GG cups.
She said “I realise that my work ethics and enjoyment
principles were confirmed at DMU and I am forever
grateful for this. Both Maggie and Thelma – our
technical ladies – inspired me with their knowledge
of bras and open-office attitude. If you’re reading
this ladies, thank you!”
Her life after DMU has been varied; from working
for great underwear and sportswear companies to
running her own hotel in the French Alps, all the
time making bras.
In her current role she has developed the Faveo®
Freedom Bra, the world’s first backless and
strapless bra for C-GG cups, and now heads the
development department. Her favourite moment
is when she made a journalist cry!
She revealed “I fitted her in our Faveo® Freedom
Bra and she was so overwhelmed with joy, being
able to wear skimpy clothes like her colleagues, that
she broke down in tears. Not only was she happy,
but I was so pleased to have helped that I was
glowing for days.”
So where to next? Well, with another new bra in
development, she hopes to invigorate the industry
with a new way of looking at breast support, and
says “The sky is definitely not the limit!”
gatewayextra 11
De Montfort lecturer
films for V&A exhibition
A De Montfort University lecturer’s filmmaking
has been on show at London’s world famous
Victoria and Albert Museum.
Su Ansell, Senior Lecturer in video production at the
University’s Photography and Video Department,
filmed a series of interviews with internationally
renowned theatre designers for an exhibition at the
V&A last year.
Su recorded and edited the interviews for an
interactive exhibit – called Digital Profiles – in the
exhibition Collaborators: UK Design for Performance
2003-2007.
Su filmed the interviews, which were conducted by
Kate Burnett of the Society of British Theatre
Designers. The co-directors worked together on
creating the exhibit, accessed by V&A visitors via
two touch screens at the museum in Kensington.
Su Ansell, who filmed theatre designers for the V&A exhibition.
Merchant Taylors’
Reception
Based in the heart of London, Merchant
Taylors is a magical setting and the perfect
location for the textiles reception that took
place on 2 April. The event was hosted by
Professor Philip Tasker, DMU’s ViceChancellor, and attended by Martin Clarke,
past Master of the Worshipful Company of
Merchant Taylors and former Chair of the
University’s Board of Governors.
The evening reception was attended by distinguished
guests including alumni, friends of DMU and leaders
in the textiles industry. Presentations by members of
the Department of Fashion and Textiles followed and
current student work was displayed for all to admire.
The event is one of many planned for the year
ahead, helping to strengthen the University’s
relationships with alumni and friends in the
textile industry.
The City from the garden at Merchant Taylors Hall.
12 gatewayextra
Pioneering photographic
research wins
prestigious book award
A photography book by a De Montfort
University Professor, which accompanies an
internationally acclaimed exhibition, has won
the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Book Award.
Over the past 14 years Roger Taylor, Professor of
Photographic History, has gathered a unique collection
of British calotypes — works of exceptional beauty
and rarity made from paper negatives – from the
beginnings of photographic art.
His ground-breaking book about the collection and
the photographers behind them, Impressed By
Light: British Photographs from Paper Negatives,
1840-1860 (Yale University Press), was one of six
books across the world short-listed for the awards.
They are the UK’s leading awards for books published
in the fields of the moving image and photography,
with a total prize fund of £10,000 split between the
winners of the two categories in the awards; moving
image titles and the photography category.
The winners were announced at the London Book
Fair in April.
A calotype featured in the exhibition Impressed by Light, which
was the basis for Professor Taylor’s award-winning book.
The Colosseum, 1856 – by Jane Martha St. John
(English, 1803 –1882)
Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Professor Taylor’s ground-breaking exhibition of
some of the calotypes was launched at the New
York Metropolitan Museum of Art last year and has
also been to the National Gallery of Art in
Washington DC and the Musee D’Orsay in Paris.
Student’s designs
prove to be a sporting
success
A student from De Montfort University is well
on her way to achieving her dream job after
landing a placement at swimwear brand Zoggs.
Fashion and Contour Design student Rebecca
Knight, 21, beat off competition from more than 30
other students to win Zoggs’ ‘Triathlon Design
Project’. She will take up a two-week work placement
at the firm’s Surrey headquarters in July. The
competition was to design a triathlon range for
men. Her designs include an all-in-one suit and
a vest and short set for use as both training and
race day outfits.
Rebecca Knight with her winning designs worn by models.
gatewayextra 13
The Faculty of Art and Design
specialises in innovative and
creative postgraduate and
professional courses.
Professional courses, including Design Innovation MA/MSc, offer
a choice between creative practice or research-focused pathways –
or a combination of both in more than 12 different subject areas.
Unique opportunities in Fashion Bodywear
MA, the only specialist postgraduate course
of its kind in the world
Innovative possibilities with the new Design
Entrepreneurship MA for business
Postgraduate and research opportunities:
•
•
•
•
Extensive specialist facilities, including
suites of high-performance multimedia
equipment, design studios and workshops,
specialist laboratories, individual study areas
and drawing and painting studios
High-quality, professional teaching, support
and supervision by leading researchers and
practising artists and designers
A vibrant research culture fostered by
research seminars in Art, Architecture and
Design, with contributions from staff,
students and visiting specialists.
•
•
•
•
•
Architecture BArch
Architectural Practice PG Dip
Design Entrepreneurship MA
Design Innovation MA/MSc Pathways in:
Animation; Applied Crafts;
Contour Fashion; Design Management;
Fashion; Footwear; Games Design;
Graphics; Interactive Design;
Interior Design; Product/Furniture Design;
and Textiles
Fashion Bodywear MA
Fine Art MA
Independent Study MA
Photography MA
Art and Design Research MPhil/PhD.
For more information on our postgraduate
courses please email
[email protected] or visit
www.dmu.ac.uk/artanddesign
Alumni Scholarships are available for some
courses – please see
www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni for more information.
Celebrity-backed
creative careers
project
Iconic fashion designer Zandra Rhodes
supported De Montfort University’s
inspirational annual careers event for the
creative industries this year.
Zandra was the keynote speaker for the annual
FAME (Fashion, Arts, Media Eastmidlands) event,
which was held on Wednesday 12 March.
Zandra said “It’s a great initiative to try to give so
many young people an insight into the creative
industries and I hope I’ll be able to inspire some of
them to be ambitious about their dream careers.”
The FAME event attracted nearly 1500 visitors
including students, graduates and members of the
public from around the region who are looking to
kick-start or switch careers in the flourishing creative
industries sector.
It is the biggest creative industries event in the
region and included seminars on topics including
games design, e-commerce, journalism and PR,
fashion, animation, web design, broadcast media
and working as freelance artists, musicians or
performers.
Jacqueline Cawston, FAME organiser and
De Montfort University’s Employer Development
Manager, said “FAME is a fantastic opportunity for
students, graduates and employees in the East
Midlands to get the inside information about how
to get in and get on in the creative industries.”
Zandra Rhodes, the keynote speaker at this year’s event.
gatewayextra 15
DMU completes work to
free historic monument
De Montfort University has completed work to
free the historic Magazine building.
A project to reroute the city’s inner ring road was
completed on Thursday 20 March. The scheme has
restored the 15th century Magazine to its original
setting. It had previously been marooned on an
island in the middle of four lanes of traffic.
Work to reroute the road began last year and
included the closure of two pedestrian underpasses
and the creation of pedestrian crossings.
Work to create landscaped public squares leading
up to the Magazine began in March along with initial
construction of the University’s new £35 million
Business and Law building. The squares are
planned to be completed for summer 2009.
The ring road before work was carried out – the red arrows
show where the new lanes of traffic were created.
De Montfort Students’ Union
fosters understanding
between faiths
De Montfort University students have taken part in
a groundbreaking initiative to promote understanding
between the many different faiths on campus.
DMU’s Students’ Union last year became the first
student body to secure funding from the
Government’s Faith Communities Capacity Building
Fund. It won £18,900 for the 12-month project.
Students pictured during a visit to Kings College
Cambridge, which was part of the initiative.
During the spring term, students and their union
representatives worked with student members of
faith groups to meet on and off campus and visit
places of worship to better understand each other’s
religions. In all, more than 200 people have been
involved.
The project included mixed-faith visits to the church
at Kings College in Cambridge, the Balaji Hindu
Temple in Birmingham and Birmingham Central
Mosque.
16 gatewayextra
DMU’s green design
experts advise
Government
Experts from De Montfort University visited
the House of Lords in February to advise the
Government on how businesses can reduce
waste through eco-design.
Researchers Holly McCain and Lizzie Dutton
discussed the pioneering work of DMU’s Resource
Efficient Design (RED) Initiative, which helps
businesses reduce their environmental impact and
achieve attractive and affordable design solutions.
The RED Initiative offers advice and assistance for
small and medium-sized enterprises across the East
Midlands.
The researchers were invited to attend the Science
and Technology Select Committee as part of the
House of Lords Waste Reduction Inquiry.
Houses of Parliament where the House of Lords is located.
DMU helps to broadcast
global warming awareness
DMU helped to organise a 24-hour radio
broadcast and conference aimed at educating
young people about climate change.
C-Change is a collaboration between DMU’s
Institute of Energy and Sustainable Development,
the Woodcraft Folk, and the Centre for Alternative
Technology.
Students from sixth forms and colleges across the
capital headed to London City Hall for the event in
January. It was organised by C-Change and the
Greater London Authority.
C-Cast, the live web-based radio show, included
interviews with green guru George Monbiot and
popular science presenter Adam Hart-Davis.
gatewayextra 17
A scene from choreographer Matthew
Bourne’s stunning interpretation of Swan
Lake.
Booker Prize winner Ben Okri.
Author Sue Townsend. Photo by Niall McDermid.
Arts festival draws major players to Leicester
Booker Prize winner Ben Okri, Turner Prize
winner Grayson Perry and poet laureate
Andrew Motion were among the big-hitters of
the arts who came to De Montfort University
for cultural eXchanges in February.
Now in its seventh year, cultural eXchanges gives
final year Arts Management students a real life
festival to plan and run.
Tony Graves, Director of the festival, said “This
year’s cultural eXchanges has proved to be the best
ever. We had record attendances with a fair number
of sold out events.
“Poet Laureate Andrew Motion summed up the
response of our guests by enthusing about his
experience, saying the festival is exemplary in
comparison to other events. It feels to us like this
year it’s really come of age.”
As well as the appearances by Ben Okri, Grayson
Perry and Andrew Motion, other guests were author
Sue Townsend, choreographer Matthew Bourne,
comedian and political activist Mark Thomas, and
former politician Roy Hattersley.
DMU receives £4.4m
De Montfort University has received £4.4
million to support the development of higher
level education and training for regional
employers.
The grant was one of the highest made as part of
the Higher Education Funding Council for
England’s Strategic Development Fund.
The funding will especially help employers running
small and medium-sized enterprises and those who
want to pursue training opportunities while remaining
in the workforce full-time.
18 gatewayextra
John Rance, DMU’s Director of Enterprise and
Commercial Partnerships.
John Rance, Director of Enterprise and Commercial
Partnerships, said “Following a consultation process
with the business community, we aim to
be in a position to offer a number of training
programmes from autumn 2008.”
Alumni Association – Your benefits and services
As a member of De Montfort University’s Alumni Association, there are many great benefits and
services available to you. These include:
• Invitations to alumni reunions and events both on
and off campus
• Discounts with many alumni-owned and international
businesses
• Specialist help and advice for holding your own
reunion or event
• Discounted fees and scholarship opportunities on
selected postgraduate courses
• Help with finding and contacting lost friends
• Free access to DMUworks, the new online job site
for DMU alumni
• Feature in your own online profile or update your
friends in Life After DMU
• Associate Membership of De Montfort University
Students’ Union and discounted John Sandford
Sports Centre and University Library memberships
• Careers advice for graduates with Careers DMU
• DMU gifts and merchandise in association with the
Students’ Union Shop.
We’re constantly updating the benefits and services that we offer, so for a complete and up-to-date list, please
visit our website www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni where you are now able to download your new Alumni Association
Benefits and Services brochure.
If you’d like to offer a benefit or discount, or there’s something you think we’ve missed, please get in touch.
Are you a part of the global alumni web community?
It’s now even easier with four on-line communities to suit your needs…
www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni
The most comprehensive of our sites
Featuring:
• Latest news in full
• Latest events in full
• How to host your own reunion
• Benefits and services in full
• Alumni profiles.
Members’ Area:
• Update your details
• Alumni Directory
• Find a Friend service
• e-Newsletter.
Facebook Group
Myspace Group
LinkedIn Group
De Montfort University and
Leicester Polytechnic Alumni
Association
De Montfort University and
Leicester Polytechnic Alumni
Association
De Montfort University and
Leicester Polytechnic Alumni
Association
The most rapidly-expanding
social networking site online
http://demontfort.facebook.com/
group.php?gid=2616840595
The most-established social
networking site online
groups.myspace.com/dmualumni
The biggest professional
networking site online
linkedin.com/e/gis/39222/
0B5AF349CCBE
Featuring:
• More than 1,400 contactable
alumni
• Private or public messaging
• Discussion boards
• News and events in brief
• Links to DMU related Facebook
Groups.
•
•
•
•
•
Featuring:
Private or public messaging
Discussion boards
News and events in brief
Links to DMU related groups
Share your favourite music,
pictures or videos.
Featuring:
• Private messaging
• Valuable business networking
with course mates and other
DMU alumni
• A panel of industry experts
willing to help answer your
business questions.
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Alumni Association
Graduating from DMU
doesn’t mean losing touch...
...it’s the beginning of a relationship
that lasts a lifetime
www.dmu.ac.uk/alumni
T: + 44 (0)116 257 7027
Editor Louise Henderson Sub Editors Julia Breens, Terry Gibson
Staff Writers Julia Breens, Louise Henderson, Terry Gibson, Alison Dawes
Design The Studio, De Montfort University
Photography Nigel Essex, Stuart Hollis, Mike Inch and alumni contributors
Print Printank
Produced and Published by De Montfort University Alumni Association
De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK