Dear Colleague,
Tackling health inequalities in our region
Yesterday we welcomed Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, Minister for Health and Social Care, Professor Lesley Dwyer, CEO of Norfolk and
Norwich University
Hospital Trust, and Jerome Mayhew, MP for Broadland to an event on campus focussed on tackling health inequalities in the East of England.
As with many regions across the country, East Anglia has areas of acute and chronic socio-economic deprivation – often in our rural and coastal areas. By bringing together key stakeholders and
policymakers, the event provided the perfect opportunity to consider measures to tackle these challenges, as well as highlight our cutting-edge research, excellent teaching, and
civic commitment within this field.
In her keynote speech, Dame Andrea Leadsom MP
spoke about the plans the Government has to tackle the systemic issues impacting healthy life expectancy – including schemes to tackle smoking, obesity and to promote healthy eating. She was also very complimentary about UEA’s
research, paying homage to our own breakthroughs in health and medicine.
During my address to attendees, I was very pleased to announce a newly created course at UEA that will fast-track newly qualified doctors into jobs across our region. The innovative,
four-year Graduate Entry Medical course
is designed to recruit local graduates to help tackle health inequalities in our region and will start in the 2025/26 academic year alongside our current
five-year course.
It was also an opportune moment to draw attention to another area of major healthcare need in our region – dentistry. As I have mentioned in previous messages, all local MPs have pledged their support to our
proposals to establish a
dental
school here in Norwich to address the lack of access to NHS dental services in the region. On this matter, Dame Andrea Leadsom
MP invited UEA to provide further detail and said she would discuss our proposal with her colleagues, while stating there is still a long way to go to address the wider issues of dental care.
You may have also seen that I was interviewed by BBC Look East and ITV Anglia for their evening news programmes and the event was also covered by
BBC News Online.
Advocacy meetings such as these are crucial in helping drive forward our University agenda and plans, particularly around our civic responsibilities. A big thank you to everyone for the huge amount of work that goes on behind the scenes to make very successful
events such as this possible.
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Picture: Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, Health Minister,
meeting with Vice-Chancellor Prof David Maguire at the event yesterday.
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Picture: ITV Anglia interviewing Vice-Chancellor Prof David Maguire for their evening news programme.
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Update on graduation charges for guest tickets
As many of you will be aware, the University has introduced a charge for guest
tickets to our graduation ceremonies this year, while it will remain free for students to attend their own ceremony.
Graduation marks a pivotal milestone in our students’ learning journey, creating a special moment to celebrate their academic success and it is important that we continue to provide an excellent event for our community.
Charging for guests to attend graduation ceremonies is standard practice in many universities and balanced with securing our financial sustainability, the new charge has been introduced as a contribution to our running costs, while still providing value for
money for attendees.
I am very much looking forward to attending my first UEA graduation this summer and I thank the many colleagues for their continued dedication in organising these key and joyous events in UEA’s calendar.
Looking ahead to next week’s all-staff
forum
It is now less than a week until our next all-staff forum (Wednesday 17 April, 11.30am - 1pm), so please take a
couple of minutes to register
– it would be great to see as many of you in person as possible.
Our all-staff events are designed to bring you up to speed with the most recent University news, and next week members of the Executive
Team will be giving a progress update on high-level plans for our three core strategic priorities of Research and Innovation, Student Education and Experience, and Organisation Development.
Many thanks to those of you who have submitted questions already and I look forward to addressing these during the session. Submissions for questions prior to the event is now closed, but you can still ask your questions from within Lecture Theatre 1 during
the live Q&A session.
Olivia Colman sends message of support and gratitude
At the weekend, a screening of the new film Wicked Little Letters took place at Cinema City in Norwich. The film was
directly inspired by Dr Milly Cockayne
from the School of History’s research and chapters from two of her books, including the recent Penning Poison.
Coinciding with the screening, Norfolk icon Olivia Colman recorded a video for Dr Cockayne and UEA, in which she said: “A big thank you to UEA, and a big thank you of course to Dr Milly Cockayne for the research behind this film…As you watch the film, you will
realise that it’s real. Thank you for doing what you did.”
Congratulations, Milly. Another fine example of how excellent research from our faculties is having a wider impact on culture and
society.
Best wishes,
Professor David Maguire
Vice-Chancellor and President
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