C E L E B R A T I O N   2 0 0 1
FOREWORD INTRODUCTION HIGHLIGHTS DIARY OVERVIEW
The Students
Promoting Opportunity and Diversity

Student Community Action is one of the best examples of how students take time out from the 'goldfish bowl' of university life to put something back into the local community. Each week students help out on more than 20 different projects, many of which include assisting children. Catering for over 200 disabled riders each week, the RDA centre needs lots of help, and Splash offers assistance to swimming classes for children with special needs. Jigsaw volunteers befriend autistic children and try to break the wall of isolation that affects them and their families, while Homework Clubs give disadvantaged children the opportunity to do their work in a supported environment. But the annual highlight is the Kids Christmas Party when children from deprived areas of the city are brought to Churchill Hall for a fantastic party and a visit from Father Christmas.

Every Sunday evening students meet up with patients at Barrow psychiatric hospital in a relaxed social atmosphere, and every Wednesday afternoon during term time the Daycentre provides a chance for the elderly to meet up with each other as well as students. Both groups really appreciate the break of routine and an opportunity to talk to new people. Most evenings students can also be found cooking, serving dinner and chatting to the guests at the Nightshelter which provides homeless people with food and somewhere warm to sleep.

RAG week is probably the student activity most familiar to the residents of Bristol, but throughout the year they can also be found on the streets of Britain, buckets in hand, fancy dress on, come rain or shine, all to raise money for local charities.

 
The University
Promoting Opportunity and Diversity

In the early 1870s Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol College, Oxford, promised £3,000 towards the founding of a University College in Bristol - provided the College would admit women on a basis of equality with men. A few years later, supporters of the new College further recognised that 'university teaching should be made more widely accessible'. From that time on, the University of Bristol has sought to be inclusive, and today those early aspirations are part of everyday life.

The University works hard at encouraging applications from able and committed students from all social and economic backgrounds. As an example, it runs summer schools to give sixth formers from state schools a taste of university life. In addition, the University has actively supported a Race for Opportunity initiative called Active Opportunities. This offers youngsters from inner-city schools, professional sports coaching at the University's Coombe Dingle Sports Complex. Many members of the University's staff devote spare time to serving the city - as magistrates, school governors, members of community groups, and so on. This helps to cement the relationship between town and gown that is so vital to both.

Part of the Celebration 2001 programme includes the launch of a new Department for Disability Studies - an event at which the citizens of Bristol will be welcome to have their say on disability issues. This new department will bring together the internationally recognised Centre for Deaf Studies, the Norah Fry Centre, which pioneers research into learning difficulties, and the Access Unit, which provides a unique range of outreach and professional development opportunities.

The digital age has created a communications revolution which the University utilises to widen its reach to students around the world. For example, an MSc in Reproduction and Development offers on-line tutorials and lectures, plus essays and assessment by email, and a satellite link to the Bristol Medical Simulation Centre allows trainee doctors remote interactive access to human patient simulators.

Celebration 2001 is a chance not only to celebrate achievements of this kind but also to reflect on the University's commitment to promoting opportunity and diversity in the future.