UEA in 2022
OUR YEAR IN STORIES
2022 – what a crazy year. Across the last 12 months, the UK has had three Prime Ministers and two monarchs, but only one university that’s supported the discovery of a 340-year-old shipwreck.
As the year draws to a close, after a year of new discoveries, special celebrations and stories of hope, we’re finally taking time to look back on this whirlwind of a year at UEA by sharing some of the University’s very best and most heartening stories.
Let us take you through 2022...
Just two of the 11,000 students who graduated at UEA this summer
Just two of the 11,000 students who graduated at UEA this summer
L-R: Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, discoverers of the Gloucester shipwreck © Norfolk Historic Shipwrecks
L-R: Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, discoverers of the Gloucester shipwreck © Norfolk Historic Shipwrecks
Puppy love - the wellbeing dog walk events proved a winner with students during Welcome Week
Puppy love - the wellbeing dog walk events proved a winner with students during Welcome Week
1. We finally said con-grad-ulations to three cohorts of UEA graduates
This summer marked a celebration like no other, with nearly 11,000 students finally crossing the stage in a two-week run of graduations – that’s UEA history in the making!
With the classes of 2020, 2021 and 2022 all adorned in gowns and mortarboards, after waiting up to three years for this special moment, these ceremonies were truly a great commemoration of their hard work and resilience.
And even previous graduates were able to get involved this year by entering the UEA Alumni graduation competition, which saw 20 prize packs given out to winners. With well over 1000 entries into the competition, this was perhaps our biggest prize draw ever, featuring products from alumni businesses including Bare Kind socks, Gnaw Chocolate and Biochemist Brewery beer. Well done to all the winners!
So con-grad-ulations to all who battled through the unique challenges and concerns raised by the pandemic towards their studies and life at the University, and graduated through record high temperatures of the summer heatwave. We hope you all celebrated in UEA style amongst friends, family and classmates, before embarking on new adventures.
2. Unveiling the Gloucester
You’ve likely heard all about this remarkable maritime find by now, but buoy, what an amazing discovery! And we’re not done talking about it just yet.
Back in June, it was revealed publicly that two deep-sea diving brothers, Julian and Lincoln Barnwell, had uncovered the shipwreck of the Gloucester warship in 2007, which sank off the coast of Norfolk in 1682 and almost killed a future king.
After more than three centuries of lying on the seabed before its discovery, the shipwreck has now been hailed as the most important maritime find since the Mary Rose was raised in 1982. Let’s take a moment to let that sink in...
But the uncovering isn’t over yet – in fact, there’s a grand unveiling next year to look forward to if you’re interested in marvelling at the ship’s mysteries for yourself. ‘The Last Voyage of The Gloucester: Norfolk’s Royal Shipwreck, 1682’ officially opens on Saturday 25 February 2023 at the Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, featuring research from UEA and the latest technological innovations.
3. Bike rides, board games and Bake Off in week of welcome
It gets bigger every year, it gets better every year and it’s our favourite week of the year. Welcome Week returned with a bang in 2022, and it had something for just about everyone.
It all started in unusual circumstances, with the funeral for Queen Elizabeth II being broadcast live on campus following her death the previous week, and events kept to a minimum on Monday as a mark of respect.
But thereafter it was pretty much non-stop welcome events, with a return for the Welcome Tent and a heady combination of – deep breath – a games and VR night, cooking and budgeting tutorials led by students, workshops on embroidery and building terrariums, a Beryl Bike sunset ride around Norwich, speed friending sessions, massages, yoga and even watchalongs for Ru Paul’s Drag Race and the Great British Bake Off all put on to help welcome students to UEA.
It was all over in what felt like a flash, and it all seems so long ago now, but it was another varied and colourful introduction to university life for UEA’s new students!
4. Climbing club students braved the shave
After being diagnosed with acute Alopecia Areta, Nina Hatton-Perkins, UEA’s Climbing President and third-year Biology student, was determined to overcome her feelings of shock and sadness by organising a head shaving fundraiser with her club members.
What started as just two people shaving their heads in support of Alopecia UK quickly grew to become an inspiring show of solidarity, when a supportive sports club rallied behind their president for a great cause.
The fundraiser ended up raising an incredible £1,050 in donations for the charity, to help support finding a cause and treatment for alopecia. Well done to Nina and everyone else who got involved!
5. Being mindful of mindfulness to tackle eco-anxiety
After a year of ever-changing weather, from the extremes of the summer heatwave to the cold winter chill, the presence of climate change has remained at the heart of some students’ worries now more than ever.
We hoped to help alleviate some of these concerns with the launch of our innovative, one-of-a-kind ‘Mindfulness and Active Hope’ course in November, which aims to help students manage their eco-anxiety. Designed by Norfolk and Waveney Mind, and co-produced by UEA students, the course combines mindfulness and the model of ‘Active Hope’ to offer support to those feeling climate-related grief and anxieties.
As hope becomes something we do, rather than what we feel, the University will continue supporting students in the new year.
See Environmental Science courses at UEA:
© Dave Gutridge (The Photographic Unit)
© Dave Gutridge (The Photographic Unit)
6. A REF-reshing success
Not that we like to crow too much about rankings but allow us this one time...
A little bit about the Research Excellence Framework (or ‘REF’ for short) - every seven or eight years national research body Research England carries out a major assessment of the research quality in UK universities, with universities up and down the land collecting and submitting hundreds of research projects to be given a star rating (up to 4*).
REF2021 was pushed back a year, but the results were worth the wait for UEA when they arrived in May. Ninety-one per cent of our submissions were judged to be either 4* (‘world-leading’) or 3* (‘internationally excellent’), above the national average of 84 per cent, and we were in the top 20 of the Times Higher Education’s REF2021 overall rankings. Our world-leading research ranged from documentaries about forced marriage to the decline in orchards.
Special congratulations to those involved in submissions for Agriculture, Food and Veterinary Sciences and Development Studies, for which UEA came top of the pile. But a huge (and we really do mean huge) amount of work goes into the submissions across the board – we included nearly 2,000 outputs all-in-all – so it’s really a massive thank you and well done to everyone involved in the whole process.
L-R: David Whyman, Oliver Powell, Joe Magrath, Martin Salazar, Benehad Ruritan, Nina Hatton-Perkins (centre), Tristan Jouault and Rebecca Harris © UEA Climbing
L-R: David Whyman, Oliver Powell, Joe Magrath, Martin Salazar, Benehad Ruritan, Nina Hatton-Perkins (centre), Tristan Jouault and Rebecca Harris © UEA Climbing
Behind the scenes with students co-designing the eco-anxiety course © Norfolk and Waveney Mind
Behind the scenes with students co-designing the eco-anxiety course © Norfolk and Waveney Mind
UEA made the top 20 of the Times Higher Education's overall rankings for the Research Excellence Framework 2021
UEA made the top 20 of the Times Higher Education's overall rankings for the Research Excellence Framework 2021
A student holding the Flag of Ukraine in The Square at UEA
A student holding the Flag of Ukraine in The Square at UEA
7. Love for Ukraine
It has been a distressing and traumatic year for so many reasons for all of those connected with the conflict in Ukraine.
In times of great difficulty though, there are often stories of hope – and the UEA community has come together in its attempts to support Ukraine, whether through members of staff homing Ukrainian refugees, fostering new relations across Europe by partnering with our new twin university Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, or creating new scholarships through our status as a University of Sanctuary.
Anastasiia Petrenko, a University of Sanctuary scholar, holding the Flag of Ukraine
Anastasiia Petrenko, a University of Sanctuary scholar, holding the Flag of Ukraine
Additionally, we opened up our University of Sanctuary scholarship programme to those fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. Anastasiia Petrenko joined UEA as a University of Sanctuary scholar, having fled her home of Rubizhne in Eastern Ukraine earlier this year. She is studying for an MA in International Development, and has just finished the first semester thanks to the scholarship, helping her achieve her dream of studying for a degree in the UK, and meaning she has been able to end a traumatic year with hope.
Our support will continue long after this year has concluded, and we hope for peace and prosperity for everyone involved in the conflict in 2023.
8. Wonders from down under keep Norfolk moving
When you’ve been travelling for 23 hours, the last thing you want is to be confronted with a massive tailback on the final stretch of your journey...
But that’s exactly what happened to Axel Blitzman, Lachlan Salvador and Ace Lin as they arrived in Norfolk, as part of the Work Integrated Learning Programme exchange programme between UEA’s Norwich Business School and Deakin University in Melbourne, and got stuck behind a broken-down Ford Fiesta on a single carriageway of the A11.
In this case however, if you’re from Melbourne then you muck-in and regardless of the effects of any jetlag the three guys might have been suffering from, they got out and pushed the stricken vehicle a mile down the road to an exit lane, enabling traffic to start moving again.
So thanks Axel, Lachlan and Ace for keeping the county’s road network moving. We can only hope your compatriots show that level of generosity on the cricket field during next year’s Ashes series...
9. A triad of alumni made The Guardian's 'top 10 debut novelists' list
Back in January, three of our Creative Writing MA alumni were chosen for The Guardian’s list of the top 10 debut novelists for 2022 – now that’s a triple success to start the year off right.
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo graduated in 2019, Daniel Wiles graduated in 2020 and Jo Browning graduated in 2004, with all three selected for what is the ninth year of The Guardian’s list of new novelists to watch out for.
Many previous novelists picked out are now best-selling authors, including Douglas Stuart for his debut novel ‘Shuggie Bain’, Gail Honeyman for ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Absolutely Fine’, and Sally Rooney – whose first novel was ‘Conversations with Friends’.
Ayanna’s achievements were also highlighted in ‘20 in 2020’, our list of UEA graduates who made outstanding contributions in the year 2020.
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, celebrated author and UEA graduate from 2020 © Penguin Books
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, celebrated author and UEA graduate from 2020 © Penguin Books
Related courses at UEA:
© Dave Gutridge (The Photographic Unit)
© Dave Gutridge (The Photographic Unit)
L-R: Dr Michael Taylor, Prof Trevor Davies, Gennadiy Ivanov, Cllr Alan Waters and Prof Tim Osborn standing in front of the climate mural in Norwich City Hall
L-R: Dr Michael Taylor, Prof Trevor Davies, Gennadiy Ivanov, Cllr Alan Waters and Prof Tim Osborn standing in front of the climate mural in Norwich City Hall
Junkyard market was a festive treat on campus for students
Junkyard market was a festive treat on campus for students
A self-portrait by Lena Ibrahim
A self-portrait by Lena Ibrahim
10. Happy birthday to CRU
1972: the year of the birth of ABBA, The Godfather and the Volkswagen Beetle.
And it was also back in 1972 that the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) was first established on UEA campus, with an initial remit to ‘establish the past record of climate over as much of the world as possible, as far back in time as was feasible’.
By 1978, the unit had achieved an historic feat for climate science, the production of a global dataset of temperature observations over land. This was followed by adding the marine sector in 1986, thereby producing the first-ever global temperature record. To this day, CRU scientists are continuing to create datasets used worldwide by research and governmental institutions to track climate change.
To mark the unit’s half-century milestone, CRU held a celebratory event at the Plantation Gardens in Norwich in July, and teamed up with local artist Gennadiy Ivanov to unveil a 10m x 1.5m artistic mural based in the Norwich City Council chamber, which documented the change in global temperature over the last 65 million years – and is absolutely as dramatic and visually striking as it sounds.
11. Cornering the markets
What is it they say about markets on UEA campus? Something about waiting all year for one and then two turning up at once?
Ok, probably no-one's ever said that – but November was still a great month for students, staff and visitors alike looking to buy food, gifts, clothing and plenty more. That’s because Junkyard Market, Norwich’s premier outdoor street food venue, and The Market, a new opportunity for local businesses and crafters to bring their products to campus, opened within a few weeks of one another.
Junkyard were here for their festive takeover outside the LCR, providing pizzas, burgers and a selection of sweet treats, while The Market will be back in the New Year for anyone with produce to sell – it's discounted if you’re UEA alumni and free if you’re a student!
12. Capital gains: Our public lecture series returned to London
After more than two years, the Lasdun Lecture series came back to London. And, for the first time, we held a lecture in the historic Royal Institution (famous for being the home of the BBC Christmas lectures) with UEA alumni, supporters, staff, students and the general public well represented.
The event (a joint venture between Public Engagement and Events and CreativeUEA), held on Thursday 26 May, focused on the intersection of medicine and the humanities and was an evening of exploration for this emerging field of research. It also featured a very special expert panel, along with an engaged audience asking some excellent questions.
It was attended by more than 150 people and engagement was possible via livestream. You can still watch the event back on the UEA Public Events YouTube channel and hear from Prof Christie Watson, Dr Harriet Cooper and Prof Sally Hardy. We were also delighted to feature the artwork of Lena Ibrahim, an artist and junior doctor at the Norfolk and Norwich hospital (pictured), in conjunction with the event.
We are pleased to be returning to the Royal Institution for more Lasdun Lectures in 2023. Topics will include the Gloucester shipwreck and climate narrative. Look out for booking in January! We look forward to seeing you there.
UEA's Ziggurats made from Lego © Mark Hodgson
UEA's Ziggurats made from Lego © Mark Hodgson
Another angle of Mark's Lego masterpiece © Mark Hodgson
Another angle of Mark's Lego masterpiece © Mark Hodgson
13. Ziggurats hosted their own block party
But not that kind of party this time...
These blocks were carefully and lovingly put together by talented graduate Mark Hodgson (CSA, 1980-1983). Mark managed to construct a number of UEA’s iconic structures out of Lego, including the Ziggurat student accommodation buildings, and shared the pictures of them with us. Suffice to say, we were most impressed.
We salute you and your passion project Mark. As the Lego Movie would have it, everything is indeed awesome.
Mark's inspiration: The real-life Ziggurats © Red Tail Media
Mark's inspiration: The real-life Ziggurats © Red Tail Media
Quite the cause for commemoration, we hope you’ll agree – and thank you to everyone who’s been involved in any of our projects this year, whether it appeared in this list or not.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year – here’s to another successful 12 months to celebrate in 2023.
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