Teaching Awards – nominate now
More than 500 nominations have been made already for the Teaching Awards - the Students’ Guild’s annual awards that recognise, celebrate and promote excellence in the University’s staff. The categories this year are: Best Lecturer, Innovative Teaching, Research Inspired Teaching, Best Feedback Provider, Supportive Member of Staff, Best Employability Support, Change Agents Champion and Best Postgraduate Teacher. Simply go to the Guild website and name your chosen staff member(s) and say why they’ve made a difference. Nominations are open until 1 March and winners are announced on 3 May. Further info from Hannah Maher.

Student Information Desk (SID)
In advance of the Student Services Centre opening in the Forum a new integrated Student Information Desk (SID) has been launched. SID online provides a way of viewing student support information and is accessible 24/7 for students to find the answers to questions ranging from accommodation, Uni card, fees and funding, to international student support, exams and graduation. In its first month SID dealt with over 8500 student questions, answering 71% with the remaining questions being assigned to specialist student services teams. Access SID online via MyExeter and click on the ‘Help and Support’ tab to search FAQs or ‘Log an Enquiry’. Or visit the team in room 153 of Northcote House, Streatham Campus.

Timetable access improved
Over the next few weeks all students will be upgraded to a new online timetable service called ‘MyTimetable’ which will show your timetable in a diarised format. You will find it in the timetable tab in the MyExeter portal and can export it to multiple formats eg Google calendar, Microsoft Outlook and most Smartphone or tablet devices. Full instructions will be supplied. An example screenshot can be viewed here and for info please contact Tim Hortopp.

Exam timetable confirmed soon
Preparations are underway for the May/June exam period with the exam timetable due to be published in early March.  Please check your Exeter email account regularly as further information will be sent as soon as personal timetables are available online via MyExeter.  If you have any questions or queries about exam timetables or exams in general this term, please email exams@exeter.ac.uk or call into the Student Information Desk, Room 153, Northcote House.

Fantastic volunteers
It is National Student Volunteer week. University of Exeter students carry out over 72,000 hours of volunteering a year – an all-time high. This week has launched a new Student Volunteering Charter, and the Give a Little Gain a Lot guide to getting volunteering recognised and accredited, so that it has a positive impact on employability. Fri 24 Feb sees the first South West regional Community Action student volunteering project where around 45 students from Universities across the region will share best practice whilst redecorating the St Sidwell’s Community Centre.

Sports success hopes
The University is currently projected to finish eighth out of 148 in this year’s overall British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) rankings – this matches our ranking for 2010/11. Our top scoring sports are hockey, tennis, lacrosse, rugby union, golf and squash. 5,426 students are part of a Sports Club, around one- third, placing us among the highest participation rates of any UK university.

Widen your career options
Next week is the start of Widen Your Options fortnight – it runs from 27 Feb to 9 March. It gives ideas for careers and what to do after graduation, as well as enhancing your employability skills. Events have been arranged on all our campuses, with presentations and panels from industry professionals, including Exeter alumni. Sectors represented include media, marketing, environment and sustainability, the voluntary sector, publishing, event management, the travel industry and more. Widen Your Options is open to all students. See full listing online.

Get enterprising
Students will discover how their ideas could spark successful creative solutions to everyday problems during Spring Enterprise Week (Mon 5 – Fri 9 Mar). This is an initiative organised by the Employability and Graduate Development team, Research and Knowledge Transfer and Students’ Guild. Workshops include Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property and Commercialisation, Creative Lab Initiatives and 3D Entrepreneurship, and Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs among many others. Events to look out for include an Enterprise Fair where students can be an entrepreneur for a day, an interactive XING game competition, an enterprise idea competition and an entrepreneurial guest speaker event. More info online or via the Exeter Award.

National Student Survey
Final year students should have received emails reminding them to fill in the National Student Survey. If not, you can still fill it in on The National Student Survey website before the end of April. The confidential survey is a nation-wide initiative that finds out how universities support the student learning experience.

Research data survey
Researchers and PGR students could win a Kindle by taking part in a short online survey. The Open Exeter project needs to understand what kind of research data is being used, how it is stored and managed, and what type of training would be useful as well as finding out opinions on Open Access. The project aims to build an institutional data repository for all types of research data.

Teaching opportunity
Employability and Graduate Development are launching an exciting new initiative for aspiring teachers in association with the Graduate School of Education and Outreach. The Aspirational Teachers Programme will place a total of 50 Exeter undergraduate students with a passion for teaching from Exeter and Cornwall campuses into selected local schools. Placements will last for 5 days and will be held between 11 and 15 June. Further info and application form online, deadline 24 Feb.

Guild elections
A record 6,501 votes were cast in the recent Students’ Guild elections. The Sabbatical Team for 2012/13 is: President - Nick Davies; AU President - Joe Batten; VP Participation and Campuses - Jon Bagnall; VP Welfare and Community - Grace Hopper; VP Academic Affairs - Imogen Sanders. See more online.

Lecture recordings on mobiles
Lecture recordings available on ELE can now be viewed on iPhones, iPads and Android devices, in addition to PCs, laptops and Netbooks. Audio podcasts can also be downloaded from ELE to mobile devices. For further information please contact Tim Hortopp.

Student employee competition
The deadline to enter the national Student Employee of the Year competition is 13 April. Last year postgraduate student Sandeep Menon Nandakumar won the International Student Employee of the Year category.

International Sport Month
The first ever International Sport Month takes place in March. It aims to celebrate our cultural diversity through sport and engage international students to take part in popular sports or health and wellbeing pursuits or just watch. Events range from football to rackelton and yoga to dodgeball. The events are open to all students and most are free.

New bird and bee homes
The Birds and Bees campaign is collaborating with WildSoc to build and install bird nest boxes and homes for solitary bees across the Streatham Campus. This will increase the biodiversity on campus and create a legacy for WildSoc, with monitoring the boxes becoming an annual activity, which will feed into the campus as a Living Laboratory initiative. More info on Facebook or the Biodiversity Enhancement Plan 2010-2015.

Olympic music
Student music groups are joining the University Music Scholars and musicians from the EMG Symphony Orchestra in a ‘Music to celebrate the Olympics’ concert on Sun 4 March in the Great Hall, Streatham Campus. A new work by Marion Wood, Director of Music, will be premiered - ‘International Songs of Sea and Water’ is an arrangement of sea songs from across the globe, inspired by suggestions from international students.

Emergency services training
An emergency services training exercise will take place on our Streatham and St Luke’s campuses in the morning of Sat 24 March. The Harrison building and St Luke’s car parks will be occupied by decontamination tents. 50 student volunteers are needed in Streatham and 15 in St Luke’s – find out more online and register by 5 March.

Open wide
The Peninsula Dental School is hoping to attract around 300 people to its Dental Education Facility in Heavitree, Exeter, to receive basic dental treatment free of charge and to help train the next generation of dentists. It is open for treatments Monday to Friday, 9.15am to 4.00pm, from 12 March until mid July. Call 01392 405350.

Psychology survey
Undergraduate psychology students are conducting a study on low mood, and need a wide section of society to fill in a confidential and anonymous online survey. For info contact Caroline Farmer.

Until 16 March
Exhibition:behind a camera in front a hawza - images by massimiliano fusari
Location: The Street Gallery, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Streatham Campus
Exhibition open: 9am-5pm. More details online

Until 23 March
Dickens at 200 exhibition from the University’s Special Collections
Location: Bill Douglas Centre, Streatham Campus

Thurs 23 Feb, 5-6.30pm
Creative Encounters: Neuroscience meets the Arts
Baroness Susan Greenfield CBE and Professor Christopher Bannerman discuss the interaction between neuroscience and the arts.
Location: Amory C501, Streatham Campus, and via videolink to SR8, Peter Lanyon building, Cornwall Campus
Register by email or contact Helen Butler on 01392 726208

Thurs 23 Feb, 5.30pm
Annual Dodderidge Lecture - 'Mapping the Law'
Professor Michael Lobban (Queen Mary, University of London)
Location: Bateman Lecture Theatre, Building:One, Business School, Streatham Campus

Fri 24 Feb, 4pm
The Age of Excess: excavating supermodernity
Alfredo González-Ruibal (Institute of Heritage Sciences, Spain)
Location: Room 320 Laver building, Streatham Campus
Project info online. Contact Marisa Lazzari

Mon 27 Feb, 3-4.30pm
'Metaphors of Medical Migration: descriptive and normative perspectives'
Egenis seminar with Dr Teodora Manea, Visiting Researcher at University of Exeter,
Location: Byrne House, Streatham Campus
Info: Claire Packman

Weds 29 Feb, 4.30pm
Tremough Seminar Series
Gender, Theatricality and Spiritualism in Florence Marryat's Fiction
Dr Tatiana Kontou (University of Sussex)
Location: LT 2, Peter Lanyon, Cornwall Campus

Weds 29 Feb-Sat 3 March 7.30pm
The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
By Bertolt Brecht
Exeter University Theatre Company
Location: Exeter Northcott theatre

Thurs 1 Mar, 1pm
Centre for Ecology and Conservation seminar
Phil Stephens (University of Durham)
What can we learn from long-term data sets on mammals?”
Location: LTA, Daphne du Maurier building, Cornwall Campus

Thurs 1 March, 5pm
Classical Association Lecture
Alexander in the Age of Shakespeare
Dr Richard Stoneman
Location: LT1 Queens, Streatham Campus

Fri 2 March, 9am-2pm
Farmers’ market
Location: Forum Piazza, Streatham Campus

Fri 2 March, 6-8pm
Book launch: Riptide volume 7
With music, readings and an address by Ben Bradshaw, Exeter MP
The event is free but, as numbers are limited email editors@riptidejournal.co.uk for tickets.
Location: the newly refurbished Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter.

Sat 3 Mar, 2pm
Olympic Rings family music workshop
Location: Kay House, Streatham Campus

Sun 4 Mar, 7pm
Concert: Music to celebrate the Olympics
Location: Great Hall, Streatham Campus

Mon 5 Mar, 8.30pm
Cafe Scientifique
How much should we do to keep our pets alive?
Dr Chris Eirmann, Companion Care vet
Location: Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street
Free

Tues 6 Mar, 5pm
Imagining Literacy: the Gremlin, the Matrix and other Triumphal Tales
Professor Mary Hamilton (University of Lancaster)
Location: BC114, St Luke’s Campus

Wed 7 Mar, 1pm
'Social reform laws in colonial India and women's empowerment'
Dr V. S. Elizabeth (National Law School of India University, Bangalore) International Visiting Fellow (Exeter Law School)
Location: Pearson Teaching Room, Building:One, Business School, Streatham Campus

Wed 7 Mar, 8am-2pm
Workshop: Carbon Matters – creating tomorrow’s low carbon technologies
Chaired by the Environmental Sustainability Knowledge Transfer Network with speakers from the Eden Project and Zero2050.
Tickets are available online. Contact Jenny Pilkington.
Location: Innovation Centre, Streatham Campus

Thurs 8 Mar, 10am-4pm
International Women’s Day Vintage Clothes Swap & Sale, with the University of Exeter Oxfam Group.
Location: Lemongrove, Cornwall House, Streatham Campus

Thurs 8 Mar, 1pm
Centre for Ecology and Conservation seminar
Richard Bardgett (Lancaster University)
Linkages between, plant, soil microbes and ecosystem nutrient cycles
Location: LTA, Daphne du Maurier building, Cornwall Campus

Thurs 8 Mar, 4.15pm
Human/Cultural Geography Seminar
Experiments in Audio Geography: Sounding Ruins
Michael Gallagher, University of Glasgow,
Location: LT 1, Peter Lanyon building, Cornwall Campus

Thurs 8 Mar, 5pm
The First Etruscans: Greek Inventions of the Tyrrhenians
Miriam Gillett (Macquarie University)
Location: Amory 105, Streatham Campus

Thurs 8 Mar, 6.30pm
International Women’s Day open evening, quiz and short-documentary
Location: Global Centre, Dixs Field, Exeter city centre

Sat 10 Mar, 10am-2pm
Workshop: Montage as Practice – Learning how to narrate visually
Led by Massimiliano Fusari, professional photojournalist. Tips on editing montages of photographs.
Bring your own laptop, loaded with the program Lightroom.
Location: Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Streatham Campus
Free to attend. Register: workshop@massimedia.com

Weds 14 Mar, 5.15pm
The Nicholas Orme Lecture in Medieval History 2012
King Athelstan: The Maker of England?’
Michael Wood, Independent Scholar and Broadcaster
Location: LT1, Queen’s, Streatham Campus