Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering

Professor Steve HomansPro-Vice-Chancellor

Convocation Saturday 15th June 2013

Funding• EPSRC: £5.5M partnership with Northumbria Water Ltd.

• NERC: £2.7M SINATRA (Susceptibility of catchments to INTense RAinfall and flooding) Project

• EPSRC: £1M as part of an 'underpinning power electronics' scheme, enabling the University to play a strong part in a National programme for power electronics

• Coastal Community Fund Bid/European Fisheries fund: £1M towards a larger £1.3M scheme to create a collaborative environment in the heart of the Port of Blyth

• EPSRC: £960,699 for research into High Frequency Degenerate Mode Acoustic Sensors

• EPSRC: £746,938 to study Energy Efficient Rural Food Processing Utilising Renewable Energy to Improve Rural Livelihoods

To achieve and sustain research excellence

To achieve and sustain research excellence

Appointments & Achievements• Director of NIReS: Professor Phil Taylor - leading expert in renewable energy and

academic lead for the UK’s largest Smart Grid £54M project

• Synthetic Biology: Natalio Krasnogor - EPSRC Leadership Fellow (Synthetic Biology) and Professor of Synthetic Biology

• Professor Ian Metcalfe awarded a €2M ERC Advanced Investigator award

• Dr Feng Hao and Dr Nick Walker awarded ERC Starting grants • Professors Elaine Martin and Ian Metcalfe received FREng status

• Mr Jeff Neasham devises £40 ultrasound machine that could be used by health professionals in developing countries where standard ultra sound machines are not available due to cost

• Lady Elsie Robson officially opened the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation PET Tracer Production Unit (Cyclotron) in conjunction with the School of Chemistry and Northern Institute for Cancer Research

Undergraduate recruitment

Institution Name 2012 2011

Change in number of accepted

places

Change %

Newcastle University 4669 4357 312 +7.2

University of Southampton

4499 5189 -690 -13.3

Northumbria University 5714 6290 -576 -9.2

University of Sheffield

4711 5197 -486 -9.4

University of Liverpool 3945 4369 -424 -9.7

University of Leeds

6428 6844 -416 -6.1

University of Birmingham 5135 5520 -385 -7.0

University of Manchester

7861 8114 -253 -3.1

University of Nottingham 7160 7187 -27 -0.4

University of York

3749 3701 48 +1.3

Durham University 4026 3800 226 +5.9

Faculty Name 2012 Apps

2013 Apps

% increase

(2012/2013)

Faculty - HSS 13,553 15,389 13.55Faculty - Medical Sciences 6806 7801 14.62Faculty - SAgE 6955 8115 16.68 SchoolSchool – Agriculture, Food & Rural Development

875 981 12.11

School – Biology 663 716 7.99School – Chem Engineering & Advanced Materials

752 1167 55.19

School – Chemistry 653 655 0.31School – Civil Engineering and Geosciences

559 621 11.09

School – Computing Science 688 967 40.55School – Electrical & Electronic Engineering

376 434 15.43

School – Marine Sciences and Technology

585 588 0.51

School – Mathematics and Statistics

715 872 21.96

School – Mechanical and Systems Engineering

1040 1052 1.15

Figures include Home, EU and International applicants

Postgraduate Research Students

• 15% increase in number of applications from potential home research students this year

 • 31% increase in number of applications from international research

students

  PRES 2013

Question CategoryQ17.a. Overall, I

am satisfied with the experience of

my research degree

programmeSupervision Facilities Research

Culture

Research Skills

Development

Professional Development

Response Rate

Positive Score (Average)

Positive Score (Average)

Positive Score (Average)

Positive Score (Average)

Positive Score (Average)

% Agree

Faculty of SAgE 50.0% 85.8% 89.0% 68.3% 90.3% 83.8% 84.5%

Newcastle 55.1% 84.6% 83.8% 68.3% 87.3% 79.7% 83.5%

Russell Group 43.4% 83.4% 80.3% 66.7% 84.9% 76.6% 82.4%

Sector 41.8% 83.3% 78.2% 64.5% 84.8% 76.3% 81.6%

Internationalisation (Singapore)

School of Electrical & Electronic

Engineering

BEng Honours in Electrical Power

Engineering

School of Chemical Engineering &

Advanced Materials

BEng Honours in Chemical Engineering

School of Agriculture, Food & Rural Development

BSc Honours in Food & Human Nutrition School of Marine

Science & Technology• BEng Honours in Marine

Engineering• BEng Honours in Naval

Architecture• BEng Honours in Offshore

Engineering

School of Mechanical & Systems

EngineeringBEng Honours in

Mechanical Design & Manufacturing Engineering

Research

Industry Engagement

Internationalisation (Science without Borders)

• Between 2012 – 2016, Science without Borders (SwB) will provide 10,000 Brazilian students with the opportunity to study in the UK

• 48/49 students across SAgE Schools in 2012; expecting 78/81 students in 2013

“I have no complaints at all. This experience has overcome my best expectations.All the services that I have used so far have been excellent and really helpful.. As I talk to other SwB students from other universities, I see that Newcastle University is one that is most well informed about the program and offers the best support for the students.”

SwB 2012 Feedback Questionnaire

Excellent%

Good%

Satisfactory%

Unsatisfactory%

How would you rate the quality of your programme 

55.8 44.2 0.0 0.0

How would you rate the quality of the support you have received from your School?

51.2 46.5 2.3 0.0

How would you rate your overall experience at Newcastle University? 83.3 16.7 0.0 0.0