Wolverhampton’s new business school to be named after university Chancellor 

THE University of Wolverhampton is to name its new business school after its Chancellor and benefactor, Lord Paul.

The university said the £18m, six-storey facility in Molineux Street, would be known as the Lord Swraj Paul Building.

The new school, which will provide teaching and social learning space, is set to open in October.
 
Lord Paul, who has been Chancellor since 1999, is chairman of the Caparo Group, a UK-based industrial conglomerate with operations in Europe, Asia and North America. It employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.

Speaking at the building’s topping out ceremony, Professor Geoff Layer, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton, said: “Lord Paul has been our Chancellor for a number of years now and recently committed to continuing in that position.

“He has done a lot for the university in that time and supported us tremendously, both here in the UK and internationally.”

BCU Business School students better Europe’s best for entrepreneurship 

STUDENTS from Birmingham City University Business School have been flexing their entrepreneurial muscles and demonstrating that they have some of the brightest business brains in Europe.

Four students from the university emerged as the winners of an international business competition in Germany, when they fended off competition from a host of European countries.   
 
The quartet – Sukaina Al-Husseiny, Ally Hirji, Andrei Tiu and Martin Seppam – won the International Entrepreneurial Brains Made on Campus 2015 Competition, which was hosted in Stuttgart .
 
Their business idea beat off rival entries from Austria, Hungary, Germany, Scotland and Switzerland, securing votes from a judging panel made up of figures representing successful start-up companies, large multi-nationals and the Stuttgart Ministry of Finance.
 
The BCU team had previously won a UK heat in order to make it to the European event, which was held at Stuttgart Media University.
 
Their business idea centred on a website that would allow students to sell their text books once they are no longer needed, an idea now being discussed within the university.

University catches cold commission contract 

THE University of Birmingham is to spearhead a new policy commission on the future use of new cold technologies.

The new commission, entitled ‘Doing Cold Smarter’, will explore how the UK can become a leader in the burgeoning, clean cold industry; how the provision of cold can be transformed through new technology; and how cold infrastructure should be delivered at a national and international level.

Cold technologies cover everything from medicine and chilled food distribution right through to air conditioning and the cooling of computer hardware in data centres.

The UK already spends around £5.2bn per year, across the nation’s energy grid and transport network, to keep people and products cold.  

Globally, the university said demand for cold services is expected to boom. The European Commission estimates that the EU’s cooling needs will increase by 72% by 2030. India is forecast to invest $15bn in new cold chain infrastructure in the next five years.

In the UK, the number of refrigerated lorries on the country’s roads is expected to more than double to 9.6m by 2025.