Wednesday 14 March 2018

Staff Newsletter Issue 64

Phishing and spam emails

You should have received a message from IT (sent to you by a key contact in your School / Professional Service) about the high number of spam and phishing emails in circulation. In case you missed it, guidance is as follows:

• These emails should be reported directly to Microsoft.
• If you've interacted with a phishing/spam email you should change your password immediately.
• If you've interacted with a phishing/spam email on a University Staff Desktop, contact the Service Desk for advice.
• If you've interacted with a phishing/spam email on a personal device, run an anti-malware software (Malwarebytes for example) from a reputable source. Perform a scan on your device and remove any threats.
• If you haven't interacted with one, you should delete it immediately after reporting it, then empty your 'Deleted' folder.

There are some helpful tutorial videos on Lynda.com and an Information Security Awareness module has been added to My Dundee under the My Organisations tab. Take the time to go through these and educate yourself.

Business Transformation banner selfie competition winners

After a two-month tour around campus, the Business Transformation banner selfie competition has come to an end with six lucky winners drawn from the proverbial hat.

The idea was to get people asking what is Business Transformation promoting? And the answer was 'People'.

The lucky prize winners are:

• 1st prize - Richard Bint, Governance wins a £30 Amazon voucher.
• 2nd prize - Karen Brough, Estates and Campus Services wins a hamper full of treats.
• 3rd prize - Justine Torano, Catering wins a month-long full ISE gym and pool membership.
• 4th prize - Frances Stevenson, DJCAD, Ryan Anderson, Student Registry and Stewart Kerr, Finance, all win vouchers to spend in the Tower Café.

Congratulations to all the winners, and thanks to everyone who took part.

Micro Computing demolition works

Works to demolish the Micro Computing Building started on Wednesday 7 March until Wednesday 23 May. The site compound is set up in the Park Wynd car park.

There will be no vehicular disruptions however the walkway from Smalls Wynd to Park Wynd alongside the Micro Computing Building will be closed off for the duration of the works. 

See the diagram of works.

Parkinson’s patient raises £70,000 for research

Marc Van Grieken, from Perthshire, has lived with Parkinson’s for more than a decade. To celebrate turning 60 last year, he set himself a challenge of raising £60,000 for Parkinson's UK with his family and friends by undertaking a year of cycling challenges, fundraisers and marathons.

He quickly smashed his target, and £70,000 of the money he raised has now been awarded by Parkinson’s UK to the University’s research team. Marc visited the Medical Research Centre Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (MRC-PPU) to present the £70,000 to our researchers, and find out more about how the money will be spent.

Read the full story.

Lord Provost becomes 200,000th SHARE signatory at celebration of global diabetes partnership

On Monday the Lord Provost of Dundee, Ian Borthwick became the 200,000th signatory to a unique database helping researchers to carry out ground-breaking medical research.

He signed up for the Scottish Health Research Register (SHARE), a University of Dundee-led initiative that provides researchers with a database of suitable and willing recruits. SHARE also uses blood left over from routine testing to help improve treatments for diseases such as cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and asthma.

Read the full story.

Building the Boat: Designing our communities with young people (24 Mar)

Louise Macdonald is Chief Executive of Young Scot, the award-winning youth information and citizenship charity which works to support young people aged 11-26 in making informed decisions and choices.

Here she’ll talk about the importance of involving young people in policy making and encouraging companies to work with youths from a broad range of backgrounds in order to ensure positive change for the future.

Book tickets.

Mastering Academic Style (Mon 19 Mar)

Intensify the impact of your academic writing and enhance your development and performance - come along to OPD's Mastering Academic Style.

Sign up.

How to understand your personality type (Tue 20 Mar)

Using a personality assessment tool provides a positive framework to explain how you interact with the world and can contribute to career planning and workplace success. 

Sign up.

Professional recognition for your teaching – HEA Fellowship and Teaching Awards

Have you made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and the teaching profession in higher education, or would you like to nominate a colleague who has? The National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) Scheme is well recognised and has been running in England for almost 20 years - for the first time, nominations are being taken from Scottish institutions. More information.

The Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) ‘recognises and rewards collaborative work that has had a demonstrable impact on teaching and learning and highlights the key role of teamwork in higher education’. More information.

Get in touch with the institutional lead Lorraine Anderson  (l.l.anderson@dundee.ac.uk) if you would like to discuss nominations for either of these awards.

The Academic Skills Centre also provides support and advice for anyone putting together an application for HEA Fellowship, including workshops and one-to-one sessions. More information.

Staff Learning and Teaching noticeboard

Did you know that ASC has an online noticeboard where they highlight events such as conferences, talks and symposia, which may be of interest to academic staff? The noticeboard also points to blogs worth following, latest research, and so on. Have a look at the noticeboard.

Converge Challenge applications open

Converge Challenge is open to staff of all Scottish universities and research institutes, and it has a prize fund of over £150,000.

The 2018 competition closes for entries Thursday 29 March - apply now!

Host families wanted for French students

The School of Education and Social Work is welcoming four students from Orleans (twinned with Dundee) from 23 April – 18 May 2018.

The students are coming to teach French in Dundee schools and we are looking for anyone who would consider hosting one or more students. If you think you can help or would like more information please contact Susan on s.m.buckman@dundee.ac.uk.

American accents needed for a video

Lizzie Day is a level 4 Fine Art student who is looking for participants for her Degree Show project - she needs people with American accents for a video. If you or a friend are American please respond via Lizzie's survey and she will be in touch.

Diary of a postgrad – when the meltdown is not about snow

A heartfelt blog post from one of our Masters in Psychological Research Methods students, Dawn.

Read the blog.

Design sprint #2 review subject pages

Danny Cassidy, Web Content Manager, tells us about the latest web design sprint with a focus on our subject pages.

Read the blog.

Are you following us on Instagram?

We regularly post original and user-generated content on Instagram, so feel free to tag and share your Dundee photos with us. @dundeeuni #dundeeuni 

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 28 March - the deadline for information to be included is 4pm on Friday 23 March.