University of Leicester Alumni

Alumnus Hassan Bomai Joda (International Education (Pedagogy) MA, 2022) and founder of the Joda Foundation for Education Supporter (JFES) has recently responded to the UNICEF report that revealed 10.5 million Nigerian children aged 5-11 are out of school.

Identifying poverty as a key contributing factor, he conducted a small-scale research project. Inspired by the findings and recommendations of this research, the JFES Foundation was established.

With the vision to "create a world where every individual, regardless of background or ability, has equal access to quality education and opportunities for personal growth", JFES announced its support by enrolling 16 out-of-school children aged 6-13.

These children were unable to attend school due to abject poverty, as their parents couldn't afford school fees or necessary educational materials. The JFES Foundation has assumed these responsibilities, covering the children's school costs for four consecutive terms and providing essential educational materials such as school uniforms, bags, sandals, and writing materials like books and pencils.

It's so wonderful to learn about the positive impact our alumni have on the community. Hassan is a great example of a

Alumna Ofure Ugiagbe (Law LLB, 2016) has announced her retirement from Rugby after playing for the Leicester Tigers for two seasons.

Starting her rugby journey playing for the University of Leicester Women's Rugby team alongside her studies, Ugiagbe played at the Mattioli Woods Welford Road stadium for Varisty. After joining the Tigers, she then went on to become the first women's player to score a try there.

“I’ve really enjoyed my two seasons with Tigers, and I’m so grateful I get to end my playing career here.

"I’m really looking forward to watching the girls go from strength to strength as a unit, and grow as a playing group! The time is right to hang up the boots and I’m super excited to focus more on family life”

Read the full story: https://www.leicestertigers.com/news/noon-ugiagbe-retirement

Leicester Tigers University of Leicester Sport & Active Life

Noon and Ugiagbe to retire at season's end Leicester Tigers forwards Becky Noon and Ofure Ugiagbe are set to retire from rugby at the conclusion of the 2023/24 season.

We have over 200,000 alumni located in 197 countries across the world, isn't that fantastic? 🌎🤩🎓

Alumni Chapters help us to create a powerful network of changemakers, bringing together alumni in a specific geographical area together to participate in local activities and events in a fun and friendly environment.

Being part of an Alumni Chapter is free and there are a range of volunteering opportunities available to support the creation of and management of our Chapters.

Find out more about how you can get involved: https://le.ac.uk/alumni/get-involved/volunteering

We currently have Chapters located in China, Dalian, Hong Kong, Nigeria, Ghana, Singapore, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

If you would like to join one of our existing chapters, or start a new international Chapter please email [email protected]. If you are unsure and would like more information, please get in touch and we can set up an informal chat.

🌟 University of Leicester Alumni Awards Dinner 2024 🌟

It was a real pleasure to spend the evening with our wonderful alumni and supporters. We celebrated our community’s achievements in style, and recognised so many more.

A huge thank you to everybody who came along and showed their support. We hoped you enjoyed your evening as much as we did.

Find out more about the night: https://le.ac.uk/news/2024/may/alumni-awards

We raised a grand total of £1370 for various funds, including our Student Hardship Fund, through our silent auction and donations on the evening. Thank you so much to everybody who extended their generosity.

To hear about when future event bookings open, ensure you are on our mailing list: https://le.ac.uk/alumni/stay-connected/details-form



Photo credits: Hollis Photography

Learn more about how following one's heart can lead to a career that feels more like a calling than work ✨

Join us for our upcoming Festival of Change event led by Dr Charles Tawk on Thursday 13 June, 6.00pm - 7.00pm, online.

Dr Charles Tawk will be diving into his career journey and how he pursued his passion and found fulfilment.

Reserve you free place now: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event17.html

Since 2022, the average student’s monthly living costs have increased by 17%, up from £924 to £1077. (The National Student Money Survey 2023).

With a small donation from as little as a £10 single gift or a £5 monthly donation, you will be contributing directly to our student hardship funds, which at present prioritises supporting students who:

Are carers for a family member who is unwell/incapacitated

Cannot return to a family home during vacation periods

Experiencing financial hardship covering immediate and essential costs (food and rent)

Cannot afford to hire a gown for their graduation ceremony (£40 per student)

We appreciate that this is a difficult time for everyone. However, if you are able to make a donation, please visit our website: www.le.ac.uk/giving

We extend our genuine gratitude for the ongoing kindness and generosity of Alumni and Supporter community.

Save the date for our School of Chemistry’s Centenary Celebrations, taking place on Saturday 17 May 2025 🧪👨‍🔬📆

Next year, The University of Leicester will be commemorating and celebrating 100 years of teaching and research excellence in our prestigious School of Chemistry.

The past century has seen remarkable success that we now aim to continue, leading us into an exciting new era within our chemistry department.

Come and raise a toast to our School of Chemistry and its staff and students, both past and present.

Register your interest now: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event10.html

Leicester Chemistry University of Leicester

Calling 2023 Graduates!

The Graduate Internship Programme will be taking place this summer. Internships commencing 19th August – 27th of September 2024.

These paid internships are for 25 hours per week, for a duration of six weeks, hosted with our external employer partners. These are paid at the National Living Wage.

The programme will offer a wide range of opportunities available solely for our 2023 graduates. This is a brilliant opportunity for you to launch your graduate career.

Interested? Complete this short expression of interest form: https://forms.office.com/e/jLvu7A0e72

The average student’s Maintenance Loans falls short of covering their living costs by £582 per month and 42% of surveyed students sometimes skip meals to save money (The National Student Money Survey 2023).

Donor support has played a crucial role in enabling the Student Welfare Services Team to swiftly and efficiently address the urgent financial needs of students amidst the current cost of living crisis.

By making a single and/or regular gift towards our new Annual Student Welfare Appeal: Students in Financial Crisis, you will be contributing directly to our student hardship funds, which exist to support our students during this financial crisis.

How your support could help us:

£10 single gift
- Assist a student in crisis with immediate and essential living costs.

£20 single gift
- Support a student needing to return home due to an unexpected change of circumstances/event impacting them and their family.

£5/month regular gift
- Provide gown hire for a student that is due to graduate.

£10/month regular gift
- Provide support to a student with care responsibilities, covering regular travel costs to/from home.
- Provide short term/emergence accommodation for a student facing homelessness.
- Provide gym membership to a student with long term health issues.

We appreciate that this is a difficult time for everyone. However, if you are able to make a donation, please visit our website: www.le.ac.uk/giving

We extend our genuine gratitude for the ongoing kindness and generosity of Alumni and Supporter community.

We’d love to see you back on campus for our Alumni Awards Dinner on Thursday 30 May 🌟

This is your last chance to book your ticket to join us for a night of celebration. There’s so much to look forward to, from award winning catering to an exclusive silent auction!

Don’t miss the event of the year, book your tickets today: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event19.html

The University of Leicester is delighted to present the Graduate Internship Programme 2024. Open to those who graduated from their undergraduate degree in the summer of 2023!

This programme provides the opportunity for businesses from any sector in the UK, to recruit recent University of Leicester graduates onto internships that are fully salary funded by the University of Leicester.

Each graduate will undertake a 6-week paid internship of 25 hours per week from 19th of August – 27th of September 2024. Internships can be hosted in-house, remotely or via a hybrid model, depending on the needs of your business.

To discuss setting up a Graduate Internship with the University of Leicester, please express your interest via email to [email protected] We will support you throughout the process of creating the internship.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Happy 98th Birthday to University of Leicester and TV legend, Sir David Attenborough 🎂

Many happy returns to one of the nation's most beloved Attenboroughs - our original .

🥳 https://le.ac.uk/about/history/attenboroughs/david

Our award-winning caterers, Leicester Service Partnership, will be cooking up something delicious for our Alumni Awards Dinner on Thursday 30 May.

Our Senior Sous Chef and Sous Chef won gold in the TUCO Competition 2024 Chef’s Challenge, competing against various other UK universities. Our Chef de Partie also took home Bronze in the Vegan Challenge too!

Don’t miss out on this highly anticipated dining experience. Book your tickets now: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event19.html

Leicester Services Partnership

As part of our Alumni Awards Dinner, we’ll be hosting a silent auction for all attendees to raise money for various departments across the University including the Student Hardship Fund and Attenborough Arts Centre.

We have a variety of exclusive items on auction that have kindly been provided by departments across the University including:

🍰 A cake baked by Great British Bake Off 2023 finalist and Chemistry Alumnus, Dr Joshua Smalley

🔭 A night under the stars in our Observatory for a family of six

🎨 A couple of workshops at the Attenborough Arts Centre

And more…

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to bid, we still have tickets left to our Alumni Awards Dinner on Thursday 30 May.

For more information including how to book your tickets, visit our website: https://le.ac.uk/alumni/events

Follow Your Heart: A Journey to Doing What You Love

Join Alumni Association Committee member and fellow alumnus, Dr Charles Tawk, as he sheds light on his career journey including the shifting of careers to pursue his passion and find fulfilment.

From humble beginnings to achieving leadership roles in prestigious organizations, he will illustrate how following one's heart can lead to a career that feels more like a calling than work.

Join our next Festival of Change online event on Thursday 13 June from 6pm -7pm (UK time).

Find out more and reserve your place: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event17.html

How universities can help unlock and nurture diverse talent 🔓

Our President and Vice-Chancellor, Nishan Canagarajah, has written a post for WonkHE about Leicester's aims to provide support and opportunity to the new generation of changemakers.

Read now: https://wonkhe.com/blogs/how-universities-can-help-unlock-and-nurture-diverse-local-talent/

Our Special Collections and Archives team are currently hosting their spring exhibition: Beautiful Botanicals 🌷 You can visit it in the David Wilson Library on campus until July 2024.

For more information, please visit the University website: https://le.ac.uk/library/special-collections/visit-our-exhibitions

40 years ago, alumnus Julian Andrews (Geology MSc, 1985) visited the Isle of Skye on a field trip and discovered the first dinosaur fossil on the island.

He was taking a step away from his research area and rested on a rock. When he looked down, he noticed a strange looking lump which turned out to be a dinosaur footprint. It was mentioned to him at the start of the trip that no dinosaur fossil had ever been found on the island.

Since then, several discoveries of dinosaur fossils have been made on Skye including a a "dinosaur disco" made up of dozens of footprints, a bone from an ancestor of the T-Rex and the fossils of the winged reptiles called pterosaurs.

Find out more about Julian's discovery and what is has led to: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpvrkewdzyno

The University of Leicester Orchestra invites you their Chamber Concert

You'll be blown away at the talent of our wonderful students as they play a range of classics for you. This is not an event to be missed!

📆 Sunday 3 June
⏰ 3.00pm
📍 St James The Greater Church, 216 London Road, Leicester, LE2 1NE
🎫 Tickets start from £3 for Alumni

Book your tickets now: https://fixr.co/event/chamber-concert-tickets-427455322

Celebrate our alumni achievements in style and join us for our Alumni Awards Dinner 🍾🏆🕺

Join us in celebrating our alumni achievements as well as valued contributions to business, research and society on Thursday 30 May from 6pm - midnight.

Tickets are still available to buy, and don't forget our Solo Visitor Scheme if you'd like to see a friendly face when you arrive.

Book your tickets: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event19.html

More information about the Solo Visitor Scheme: https://le.ac.uk/alumni/events

The University of Leicester is proud to be hosting our second British Academy Lecture in May:

The place of theory in Babylonian astral science, hosted by Professor John Steele.

📅 Thursday 9 May
⏰ 5.30pm - 6.30pm
📍 Lecture Theatre 1, Bennett Building, University of Leicester

Find out more about the lecture and reserve your space: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/uolevents/1095695



Credit: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Vorderasiatisches Museum / Olaf M. Teßmer. CC DY-SA 4.0

Hands up if you enjoyed yesterday's Festival of Change event 🙋‍♀️

We loved chatting with Dr Josh Smalley last night about his journey as a chemist at the University, his baking and how he combines a successful research career with his passion for food!

Don't miss our next Festival of Change event, taking place in June! For more upcoming events, visit our website: https://le.ac.uk/alumni/events

Did you know we have an Alumni Wall in Leicester Law School?

Why not pop in when you are next on campus to the Law School Reception next to the Library to read about graduates such as:

Donald Peter Herbert OBE
LLB 1982. Barrister. Former Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Chair of the Society of Black Lawyers, Crown Court Recorder and part-time Immigration and Employment Judge (retired). International Pan African Activist.

Danielle Brown MBE
LLB 2010. Gold medal (archery) 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. International speaker, inclusion champion and award winning author.

Trisha Ramdoo
LLB 2004. Global Head of Business Affairs for Devices and Services at Google. Trisha trained at Lewis Silkin before moving into Business Affairs for Apple, which saw her move to California.

Stefan Cross KC LL.B (hons) LL.M LL.D (h.c)
Solicitor, Employment Tribunal Judge. Equal Pay Campaigner. Stefan pioneered mass employment tribunal claims on a contingency fee basis, leading to a revolution in litigation funding. He led the negotiating team behind the 2018 Glasgow Women's Equality Strike, recovering more than £3bn for low paid women.

Anna McCormack
LLB 2017. Winner of the 'Law Works and Attorney General Student Awards' for the best contribution by an individual to Pro Bono activities in the UK.

We thoroughly enjoyed reading about the successes of just a handful of our alumni. It's wonderful to hear about our communities personal and professional achievements.

You’re invited back to the University of Leicester for our annual Alumni Awards Dinner 🏆✨

Tickets are available to purchase but are selling fast, so make sure you book your ticket(s) before they sell out!

This is a great opportunity to get together with your friends and celebrate the achievements of our amazing alumni.

Book your tickets now: https://alumni-events.le.ac.uk/event19.html

Festival of Change: The University of Leicester’s Culinary Chemist 👨‍🍳🧪

You're invited to join us for an evening with alumnus Dr Josh Smalley (Pharmaceutical Chemistry MChem 2018, Chemistry PhD 2023), you might have seen his face on TV last year...

Josh has not only a talent for all things Chemistry, but baking too, securing a place in the final of the 2023 Great British Bake Off. We're excited to hear more about life as a chemist and more on his baking journey too, followed by a Q&A session 💬

📆 Thursday 11 April
⏰ 6.00pm - 7.00pm (GMT)
💻 Online, Microsoft Teams

Reserve your free place today: https://ow.ly/15r250QUpzp

Calling all humanities researchers! Apply to hold a public engagement event as part of this year’s Being Human Festival.

The Being Human Festival is a great way to raise visibility of your research, past organisers found involvement acted as a catalyst to get a project up and running which wouldn’t otherwise have happened.

Learn more: https://www.beinghumanfestival.org/news/take-part-being-human-2024

Photo credit: Yanko Georgiev (Being Human Festival Image Gallery, 2023)

The University Archives needs you!

Do you remember the student newspaper, Ripple? Do you have any copies at home (think attic, garage, cupboards!). The University Archives are on a mission to compile a complete set of the newspaper, first printed in the 1950s, to ensure it can be preserved for future generations.

We are particularly interested in the years 1952-1968, so if you studied at the University between these dates and kept your university memorabilia then we would love to hear from you!

Find out how you can help preserve the University’s history: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=as2-rtQxAUuVzoJ0r-hT2UR-z6nSb2RDrGwDx1tind1UREc3REtNSjRDNDQyWUszTFQ4U0g0MlpDSS4u

Photo credits: University of Leicester Archives