Refreshers Fair

The students union had organised a Freshers’ Fair in the last week of September 2010 of autumn term. Those who missed this fair and even for others, the Refreshers’ Fair is organised tomorrow, i.e., Tuesday, 18^th January 2011 for spring term.  Nearly eighty stalls will be put up on the library square of the University campus. The fair creates awareness among the students and provides an opportunity to the freshers to get involved in the Sussex life by joining sports, societies, volunteering and the Students’ union. There are 30 sports clubs viz. Archery, Badminton, Basketball, Canoe, Cricket, Fencing, Football, Golf, Hockey, Horse riding, Mountaineering, Netball, Rugby, Squash, Surf & wind surf, Table tennis, Volleyball and so on. Just £ 20 gets one membership to all the clubs. Similarly there are nearly 150 societies under different categories- Academic, Arts & Performance, community Action, Cultural Identity, Social Action, Specialised Interest, Spiritual & Religion. During the Refreshers fair “Housing Talks” are arranged to help the present on campus students for the off campus accommodation next year. In the evening, “Tuesdays’ Best student Night” drinking and DJ have been organised. The Students union has also organised a spectacular evening of Art, Music and Performances called “Sussex Live” on Thursday and Friday in Brighton. Look for pictures in next blog.

 The University of Sussex has “Students’ Union”. It is housed in Falmer House and has a website www.sussexstudent.com. The annual turnover of the students union is £ 3 million and has around 10,000 student memberships.  I have found that this is the most vibrant and important body of the University. The union functions with the help of elected students’ representatives of different Schools and Departments. There are six elected full time union officers (President, Operations Officer, Communications Officer, Activities Officer, Education Officer and Welfare Officer). The election to the full time officers will be held in week 5 of spring term and the elected officer will join the office of the students’ union in the first week of summer vacation. The contestants are either presently studying students who take a year break in their studies or final year students who join the office of the students union following their graduation.  The period of office is one academic year. The elected Students union officers are paid £ 16,199 per year for their services.  In addition to the six elected students union officers, there are 20-30 full time staff appointed by the University to run the students union.

Mathematics Projects at Level One.

The Department of Mathematics of Sussex University offers a course on “Mathematics Year 1 Projects”. This course has six credits at the first year (level 1) and is assessed by an essay for 100 marks. There are six contact hours though the course runs for ten weeks. The topics for essays are announced along with the list of books and on-line material to be referred .The students are given the introduction about this course in the first week. In sixth week the students are asked to submit the project report in typed form. They have to work in groups of 4-5 students. Though the students are working in groups the project report should be written individually by taking care of the University rule on plagiarism. The length of the essay should be 3,000-4,000 words. The students are expected to use “LaTeX” for typing the project report. They are instructed to download MiKTEX and Winshell. What I liked here is that the first year students are using math symbol and generating mathematical formulae by using software which is available free.

HISTORY COURSE

The Department of History at Sussex University offers a course on “Time and Place: 1642: English Civil War (V 1323) for the second year (level 2). The course has 18 credits and is spread over the spring and summer terms. The course is taught by lecture (one hour lecture/week) and seminar (two hours on alternate week) methods. It is assessed by assignments. The assignment is writing essays of 3500 words at the end of summer term. Today was a seminar day and there were three groups of students. Each group seminar was conducted at different time and I attended one such seminar session. Prior to this seminar the students had a lecture (yesterday). The topic for the seminar was “ King Charls His Tryal at the High Court of Justice sitting in Westminster Hall”. The students were asked to play a role as Lord President, the King and Attorney for the Common-Wealth. They were given the printed material to play their respective roles. This is how the students are made to learn and understand the subject. This method makes learning interesting for the students.

Cell and Molecular Biology

The students of first year (level 1) who have offered Cell and Molecular Biology course have a topic on Proteins. Under this topic they study following. The contents of the topic are organized lecture wise and are available to the students through the ‘Study Direct’ on the website of the University of Sussex. The total credit of the course is 24 and waightage to this topic could be six credits though topic wise distribution is not shown.  

Lecture 1: Introduction to proteins: Proteins in cells; R groups; introduction to structure; functions of proteins; transmembrane, globular and fibrous proteins.

Lecture 2: Protein Primary Structure: Chemical composition amino-acids; classification of amino acids according to R group; peptide bond; effect of amino acid changes on protein function.

Lecture 3: Secondary and Tertiary: Secondary and super secondary structure, hydrogen bonding and other interactions; globular protein structure.

Lecture 4: Quaternary Structure: Protein structural classes; non-covalent interactions; hydrophobic effect; protein-protein interactions.

Lecture 5:  Protein Folding and Function: Anfinsen’s experiments; Factors that influence protein folding; chaperones; protein aggregation and disease; infectious proteins; techniques for studying protein structure.

IT TRAINING PROGRAMME FOR TUTORS

The Information Technology Services (ITS) of the University of Sussex had conducted a training course for the Tutors. I also attended this training programme. The course contents were how to:

1. Print Registers and Timetables

2. Email students in a tutorial group

3. Record Student Attendance

4. Record Student Marks and Send Marks to the Convenor

5. Write Student Tutorial Reports

6. Create Non-Contributory Assessments

The one and half hour course was very useful. There were nine participants. The software is developed by the ITS staff of Sussex and it is user friendly.

LIVING IN BRIGHTON

I left Goa on 1^st October 2010. I did not realise how these three months passed . It is all because right from my journey for Brighton till now, I received co-operation and help from everybody whom I came in contact with. The place where I live at Hove, Brighton has all essential facilities like supermarkets, shops, post office, bus stops, bars, clubs and sea beach. I stay in a flat which is well furnished. I prepare breakfast and dinner in the flat. I buy things which are required for breakfast and dinner either from ‘Waitrose’ or ‘Taj’ supermarkets. At Taj grocers we find  the things similar to Indian/ Goan supermarket. In these two supermarkets fresh vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and readymade food items are available. I would say no body returns home without getting any item from here. I take lunch at the ‘Cafe Direct’. This is one of the eating houses on the university campus and very close to the Freeman Centre where I work. There are three women who run this cafeteria and these people are very kind to me and give me very good service. They say same services are extended to all their customers. I do my house keeping as well. I did not face any problem in cooking and housekeeping here as I was already familiar with these  before I came here.  

                                                                       Cafe Direct

SPRING TERM COURSES

Spring term will commence from 11^th January 2011 and I have contacted the course convenors of following courses. These are the courses going to be taught at the first,second and third year (Level 1,2 and 3) in spring term. These convenors should permit me to access the study materials of their respective course.

History:

1.      The Making of the Modern World (V1228); level 1. Credits 36.

2.      Time and Place: 1642; English Civil War (V1323); levle2; Credits 18.

3.      Time and Place: 1930: Indian Civil Disobedience (V 1329); level 2; Credits 18.

Mathematics:

1.       Mathematical Modelling; level 1; Credits 18.

2.      Probability Models; level 3; Credits 15.

3.      Applied Mathematics; level 2; Credits 30.

Philosophy:

1.      Introduction to Philosophy; level1; Credits 12.

2.      Elementary Logic; level 1; Credits 18.

3.      Philosophy of Mind; level 2; Credits 18.

Physics:

1.      Introductory Physics 2; level 1; credits 18.

2.      Electromagnetism 2; level 2; Credits 12.

3.      Thermal and Statistical Physics; level 2; Credits 12.