Huddersfield takes awards at UALL national conference

The Global Disaster Resilience Centre won the International award for the Collaborative Action towards Disaster Resilience Education project

A PROJECT at the University of Huddersfield, that has successfully identified methods to integrate mainstream disaster resilience into the worldwide construction process, has received a national award in recognition of its achievements.

Named CADRE (Collaborative Action towards Disaster Resilience Education), the project has won the International category in the Universities Association of Lifelong Learning (UALL) awards and was conducted by the multi award-winning Global Disaster Resilience Centre (GDRC), in the University’s School of Art, Design and Architecture.

UALL supports policy and practice across the UK higher education sector and their annual conference culminates in a prestigious awards ceremony that recognises the industry’s greatest achievements.

CADRE has been headed by Principal Investigator and GDRC’s Co-Director Professor Dilanthi Amaratunga.  The EU-funded project supports the growing recognition that those responsible for the built environment have a vital role to play in developing societal resilience to disasters, that is working towards the construction sector achieving resilience from increasing threats from natural and man-made hazards, and has been completed in partnership with institutions from around the world.

Professor Amaratunga, alongside the GDRC’s Co-Director Professor Richard Haigh and colleagues Dr Kaushal Kermainiyag and Dr Chamindi Malalgoda, submitted their extensive report outlining the entire CADRE project which impressed the UALL awards panel.

The submission, described as ‘an innovative partnership that created change in an international context’, provided evidence of international partnerships ranging from Lithuania, Estonia and Sri Lanka with the aim for resilience against global disasters; whilst also working with the UNISDR |(United Nations’ International Strategy for Disaster Reduction).

Dr Malalgoda received the accolade on the Centre’s behalf at the UALL conference held in Cambridge.

The University achieved further success in the UALL awards when the Huddersfield Business School was ‘Highly Commended’ in the Sustainability category for their learning programme entitled Co-Creating Masters Education with Government.

The awards panel spoke highly of the initiative which “demonstrated a creative teaching initiative with proven impact and sustainability” and is now established as a recommended programme amongst civil servants.

The three-day conference had a strong presence from the University of Huddersfield with research being presented by academics from the School of Education and Professional Development.

The University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor of Teaching and Learning Professor Christine Jarvis presented her recent research undertaken with Professor Patricia Gouthro from Canada’s Mount St Vincent University which centres around fiction writing and lifelong learning.  Professor Jarvis also spoke about the edited collection they are preparing for Palgrave Macmillan: Professional Education with Fiction Media - Imagination, Engagement and Empathy in Learning.

Conference delegates heard from Senior Lecturer Jane Wormald as she spoke about the Flying Start project that focuses on bespoke curriculum development and promotes early engagement and belonging for ‘at risk’ students in order to support inclusion and social mobility.

Flying Start has proved to be extremely successful and has been shortlisted in the 2018 Guardian University Awards, of which the winners will be announced on 24 April.