Wednesday 11 April 2018

Staff Newsletter issue 66

Welcome website

We're preparing for the arrival of the Aug / Sep cohort of new students, and we want to make sure that the Welcome website includes as many activities taking place as possible. If we haven't already been in touch with you, please email welcome@dundee.ac.uk.

Spam by numbers

Spam and phishing emails continue to circulate to and from @dundee.ac.uk email addresses. IT are sharing the following statistics with you to give a sense of scale (snapshot taken four weeks ago):

• 3.9 million emails sent and received on average by the UoD email system per week
• 2.5 million were outbound emails, higher than normal because spammers sent their spam from compromised UoD accounts
• 1.1 million emails identified as spam and stopped from going into inboxes, 409 of which contained malware
• 367 emails reported to Microsoft by students and staff, 199 of these were marked as phishing and 168 as junk - lower than we’d expected given 94 accounts were compromised during that week

Around 1000 calls have been dealt with by the Service Desk since January, equating to approximately 500 hours of staff time. To clarify, you don’t need to contact IT if you’ve:

• Received a spam/phishing email, have reported it to Microsoft, and have deleted it from your Deleted Folder
• Interacted with a spam/phishing email on your personal device, have followed the What to do if you’ve interacted with a spam or phishing email guide, but haven’t given your @dundee.ac.uk credentials to the spammers
• Received an email tagged with UNVERIFIED SENDER that you’ve checked or are sure is legitimate

Continue to report spam/phishing emails to Microsoft and familiarise yourself with the IT Service guides on the website.

Do you have impressive students/recent graduates whose work you want to showcase?

The Undergraduate Awards is the world’s largest academic awards programme which recognises top undergraduate work, shares this work with a global audience and connects students across cultures and disciplines. We have had successes in recent years for our students and graduates (read more on the One Dundee blog).

We are promoting this to students and recent graduates (Undergraduates 2017, 2018, 2019), but you may wish to encourage individual students to put themselves forward.

How to submit
Submissions criteria

And if they aren’t ready to submit yet, encourage them to register online to reserve their place in the competition.

Celebrating Dundee’s flat screen innovators

The work of Professors Walter Spear and Peter LeComber in the 1970s and 1980s directly led to the world of flat screens and smartphones we live in today.

Now their pioneering work has been recognised by the US-based Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (IEEE), the largest technical professional organisation in the world.

Read the full story.

Graduate ready for ‘toughest footrace on earth’

Architecture graduate Stewart Bell has just embarked on the Marathon Des Sables, where he will experience temperatures of up to 50 degrees centigrade as he attempts to run more than 150 miles across shifting sand dunes and white-hot salt plains.

Read the full story.

Graduates' Association Annual Gathering and launch of Dundee Alumni Chapter Drinks Reception (Sat 12 May)

The Development and Alumni Relations team is getting ready to launch the Dundee Alumni Chapter.

In recent months they have launched alumni chapters across the world -  in New York, Boston, Nigeria, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. As ambassadors, our alumni can help the University with our plans for transformation and growth, nationally, internationally and of course locally. 

If you’re an alumnus or an alumna they would love to see you on Saturday 12 May in the Tower Building at 5pm. Read the blog post to find out more about alumni chapters.

Alumni are also being invited to the Graduates' Association Annual Gathering, which takes place at 3pm the same day. The meeting will include a talk from University of Dundee alumnus and current researcher Eddie Small. Last year Eddie spoke about the development of the University between 1867 and 1967.  In part two, ‘University of Dundee: Going it Alone - Together’, Eddie will discuss the development of the University through politically challenging times, and the progress made on many fronts that have seen Dundee become an ever more important and vaunted institution at the forefront of further education.

Please register for the Annual Gathering and the Dundee Alumni Chapter launch.

A Legacy of Art and Design in Dundee (14 Apr - 23 Jun)

Since 2003, the William S. Phillips’ Fund has supported over 40 postgraduates with bursaries to study at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. 

This major exhibition commemorates 15 years of this funding with a wide-ranging collection of work by the recipients of the awards as well as some examples of work by William Phillips’ father, Charles Gustav Louis Phillips.

The exhibition, organised by Josephine Jules Andrews (course tutor, School of Humanities) in collaboration with Museum Services celebrates the extraordinary vibrancy of the history of art and design in Dundee and its continuing influence through the wide-ranging work of these contemporary artists and designers.

The exhibition is supported by the William S. Phillips’ Fund and the Dundee Heritage Trust who have lent examples of work by Charles Gustav Louis Phillips.

A Legacy of Art and Design in Dundee - The William S. Phillips' Fund Bursaries runs from 14 April - 23 June in the Lamb Gallery, Tower Building. Mon-Fri 9.30am-7pm / Sat 1pm-5pm.

Nursing and Healthcare Recruitment Fair 2018

The Nursing and Healthcare Recruitment Fair is an excellent opportunity for students to speak directly to a range of employers and find out about jobs on offer. All undergraduate and graduate nurses are invited.

Alongside our nursing colleagues, any current students who would like care experience to support a future application to psychology, nursing, allied health professions or medicine are welcome to attend. 

This is a busy, exciting and extremely popular event - you can watch a video of last year’s fair online.

Wednesday 25 April, 11am-2pm, Bonar Hall.

PAMIS picnic recipe book

The PAMIS Picnic Recipe Book is launching in May to mark the end of the charity's 25th anniversary.

If you have any picnic recipes you are willing to share, they would love to hear from you. Recipes can be emailed to Lesley Gray at l.u.gray@dundee.ac.uk or posted to PAMIS, 15/16 Springfield, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4JE.

The deadline is mid-April.

Promoting a More Inclusive Society, PAMIS, is a small charity on the University of Dundee Campus covering most of Scotland. 

My First Year Review

History student Kiah Edwards reviews her first year as a student in Dundee, from settling in to the city to the support of the History Society and Dundee University Women's Football Club.

Read the blog.

What information should a school website communicate?

Rob Ryder-Richardson, User Experience Manager, tell us about the latest web Design Sprint with a focus on School web pages. 

Read the blog.

If you wish to communicate around the University, this fortnightly newsletter is just one way to do that. Please check our Methods of Internal Communication webpage, and feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

The next newsletter will be distributed on Wednesday 18 April - the deadline for information to be included is 4pm on Friday 13 April.