A city welcome for the new Vice Chancellor

Widening participation
Working with Black and Minority
Ethnic (BME) communities
Paramjeet Kaur-Singh is the
BME Project Leader for York St
John, supporting the delivery
of the BME strand of the Access
Agreement.
Working across the Yorkshire region, the
project aims to empower BME communities
and to encourage their participation in
Higher Education. Paramjeet has engaged
BME groups in aspiration-raising activities,
delivered tailor-made short courses to the
predominantly Pakistani community in
Keighley, and established an outreach office
at Sangat Community Centre in the town.
She has set up a Chamekele Sitare group –
meaning Shining Stars in Hindi, Urdu
and Punjabi.
This group enables mature learners to
address their own, and their families,
educational needs. Chamekele Sitare also
works with the wider BME community
to increase networking opportunities for
women.
Paramjeet is currently working on a
good practice guide, building on
her experiences of empowering BME
communities through engaging with
Higher Education Institutions.
If you would like to be involved in the
development of the guide please contact
Paramjeet, E: p.kaur-singh@yorksj.ac.uk
or T: 6924.
Paramjeet Kaur-Singh
Research news: English in China
Graduation 2010
This year’s ceremonies took place on 18 and 19 November, with
over 1,500 graduating students and their friends and families enjoying
the celebrations in York Minster and on campus. The ceremonies
were also notable for being the first attended by Professor David Fleming in
his capacity as Vice Chancellor, and this is the final year of the conferment
of University of Leeds’ degrees.
Dragons’ Den investor amongst
honorary graduates
James Caan, best known as one of the investors in
the successful BBC series Dragons’ Den, was one of
three exceptional individuals to be awarded honorary
degrees by York St John at this year’s graduation
ceremonies. Mr Caan received an Honorary Doctorate
in Business Administration (DBA) in recognition of his
success as an entrepreneur and business leader, and
his generosity in using his experience to advise other
businesses and entrepreneurs, especially those from
ethnic minority backgrounds.
Valerie Taylor OBE received an Honorary Doctorate
in Health Sciences (DHSc) in recognition of her long
and distinguished career and service to the poor and
disabled people of Bangladesh. She set up the Centre
for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed in Dhaka in
1979. Today, the centre is an internationally renowned
training hospital and rehabilitation centre which
regularly welcomes volunteers from overseas, including
occupational therapy students from York St John.
Chris Hall and Rachel
Wicaksono, from the Centre
for Languages and Linguistics
in York St John Business School,
are currently studying the
worldwide use of English as a
lingua franca.
With support from YSJ International,
they recently visited Suzhou University of
Science and Technology (SUST) to start
a new phase of their research.
Working with Liu Shu and Qian Yuan
(English language teachers at SUST and
former students of York St John’s MA
TESOL programme) and Xiaoquing Xu
(Dean of Foreign Languages at SUST),
they employed surveys and interviews
to investigate Chinese English language
teachers’ beliefs about who ‘owns’ the
English language and how it can be
shaped by its users to serve the needs of a
globalised world.
New ways of thinking in applied linguistics
stress how users of second languages are
able to communicate more effectively
than many native speakers in international
scenarios. International collaboration is
needed if the implications of this are to
be worked out both for English language
teachers here in the UK and abroad.
Chris and Rachel also worked with YSJ
International’s Danlu Liu to promote the
University’s programmes in this beautiful
region of China.
They will return to China next August
for the World Congress of the
International Association for Applied
Linguistics in Beijing, where they are
organising a symposium.
Rachel Wicaksono and Chris Hall with
co-researchers and former postgraduate
students Yuan Qian (left)
and Shu Liu (right).
Pictured from the top:
James Caan
Valerie Taylor OBE
Janakiraman Ramachandran
Janakiraman Ramachandran received an Honorary
Doctorate of Education (EdD) in recognition of his
contribution to education and social development
in India. Mr Ramachandran is Chancellor of AMET
University in Chennai. In 1976 he founded the NAESEY
project, which provides free training courses for the
unemployed of South India to help them earn a regular
income and achieve social status. He has been the sole
funder of this organisation which has assisted more
than 0.15 million people.
08 09