Latest news with #ManchesterMetropolitanUniversity
India.com
13 hours ago
- Health
- India.com
Anaya Bangar to seek ICC, BCCI backing for Transgender participation in cricket, says 'I am eligible for women's cricket'
Anaya Bangar. New Delhi: The daughter of a former India cricketer, Sanjay Bangar, Anaya Bangar has urged the ICC and the BCCI to show support to the transgender athletes. Once Aryan, now Anaya, posted an eight-page report of athlete testing on Instagram detailing her transition experience after a year of the Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT). On one of the videos posted on the platform, she shared that she was eligible to play women cricket and she talked of how she partnered with Manchester Metropolitan University in the process. The 23-year-old also revealed that Manchester Metropolitan University checked her muscle power, endurance, glucose as well as oxygen levels and compared their values to those of cisgender female athletes. All her parameters were within a normal range as per the reports compared to those of cisgender female athletes. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Anaya Bangar (@anayabangar) 'For the first time, I'm sharing the scientific report that documents my journey as a trans woman athlete. Over the past year, I've undergone structured physiological assessments after starting hormone therapy. This report captures the real, measurable impact of my transition not opinions, not assumptions, but data,' Anaya can be heard as saying in the video. 'I'm submitting this to the BCCI and ICC, with full transparency and hope. My only intention is to start a conversation based on facts not fear. To build space, not divide it. Whether you agree or not, thank you for witnessing,' she added. 'Science kehta hai main women's cricket ke liye eligible hoon. Ab sawaal yeh hai kya duniya tayyar hai sach sunne ke liye? (Science says I am eligible for women's cricket. Now, the question is whether the world ready to accept the truth?' Anaya captioned the video. Currently transgender cricketers have been denied the right to take part in women cricket. The ICC made this limitation at a board meeting, which was held after the end of the 2023 Cricket World Cup. Anaya had a hormonal replacement therapy and gender reaffirming surgery last year and he now resides in the United Kingdom.
Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
3 teachers tell us the changes they're making in the classroom to address students' rampant use of AI
AI has made its way into the classroom. Along with it, concerns from teachers about student apathy. "Some of the ones that I see using it all the time — I think if it wasn't there, they would just sit there looking blindly into space," Gary Ward, a physics, economics, and business teacher at Brookes Westshore High School in Victoria, British Columbia, told Business Insider. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022 and the mass adoption of it and other generative AI tools, concerns surrounding academic plagiarism have multiplied. Educators found themselves needing to react quickly, adapting their curriculums to embrace or counter a technology that had tremendous potential to both be a teaching aid and a " homework cheating machine." Ward, who's been a teacher for about thirty years, said that he's noticed student usage of AI increase in increments — until this year, when it just "exploded." "Literally, all students are using it this year," he said. In order to try and prevent students from gaming all of his assignments with artificial intelligence, Ward said he's begun to use it defensively. He's asked ChatGPT to help him develop work that would be harder for anyone completing it to feed back into an LLM. "I just started it with a conversation in ChatGPT, and sort of iteratively went through — explained in my prompt what was happening, and said, 'This is what I want,'" Ward said. "It told me, 'These are things you can do to make it harder for students to be able to just answer with some large language model.' And typically, it's making it more personalized." At Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England, Richard Griffin — a lecturer in the business faculty specializing in project management and portfolio development — says a similar strategy is underway. The university has developed an in-house system that educators can feed their assignments into, which will then provide an assessment of how difficult it might be to cheat it with AI and recommendations to make it more difficult to do so. "The IT department have done their own tool which assesses how AI safe it is, or AI savvy it is, and will give you a bit of a grade to say, 'Well, really, you will need to adjust some of this,'" Griffin said. "It doesn't give us specific information, but it does give you a bit of a scroll to say, No, this isn't very safe. You need to add some deeper challenges here, or you need to make this more personal, etcetera." A shift back toward analog assignments The best defense against AI so far, according to Ward, is to spin back the clock a couple of decades. "I've tried to sort of shift back toward some handwritten assignments, instead of having them do it on the computer," Ward said. "That way, I can tell this is how they're writing. I know it's theirs." Even if Ward can't go analog for all the coursework he assigns, at the very least, it helps him determine a baseline for each student's writing, making it easier to determine when future work is produced synthetically. "Now, yeah, it's expensive and it takes a lot of time to grade them, but I think that needs to continue," he added. The goal of a classroom is generally to empower students with foundational skills — proficiency in research, deep thought, and comprehension, to name a few. By substituting the typical processes of studying with seeking out AI answers, many students are no longer meeting those benchmarks, said Paul Shockley, an assistant professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. "Many students today are using AI as a way of fulfilling their assignments, and it is creating a loss of critical thinking, a loss of originality, a loss of discernment, a loss of personal reflection, and so on," said Shockley, who primarily teaches courses in philosophy and religious studies. For Shockley's part, he was an early adopter of AI and was experimenting with the capabilities of LLMs soon after the launch of ChatGPT. He expects the technology not only to endure long-term, but to improve exponentially, and he began to believe it was crucial to help students build a healthy relationship with it. "My mindset on the topic, since AI has emerged, has shifted, moved like a pendulum from fascination to fear, given how it may be used," Shockley said. "But my fascination with AI is rooted in what it may be able to ameliorate, ameliorate things in the energy sector, industry, natural environment, medicine, science, person-centered care, but I decided that I would be open to using AI and my pedagogy in a Socratic approach." Originally, he developed an assignment for his undergraduate courses in philosophy and religious studies that encouraged students to dialogue with an LLM and analyze the output. He hoped that students would not only learn how to ask smarter questions but also develop a healthy skepticism of artificial intelligence. He has since discontinued the assignment and no longer allows any use of AI in lower-level classes. Too many students, he found, used it to outright cheat — including one instance in which he said a student submitted a paper that cited a hallucinated quote from a book Shockley co-authored. "The use of AI in the classroom for me as a philosopher is limited to inquiry among senior-level students doing research where they have maturity," Shockley said. "They have the chance to grow and so, and become equipped with critical thinking skills for themselves." Some assignments are naturally more AI-resistant Though Shockley still assigns research papers, he also tries to deploy "experiential" assignments whenever possible. For instance, in undergraduate environmental ethics and religious studies courses, Shockley has sent students out to visit local nature spots or religious sites. He hopes to engage students, he added, by "hooking" them — connecting them more personally to the subject matter that they'll eventually interact with in more traditional ways. That way, they may be less likely to turn to AI to complete their work. Additionally, he's begun to attach reflective components to any assignments that could likely be gamed by AI on their own. "What is it that students want? What is it that people want to experience these days?" he said. "What is it that young people want to experience these days, right? They want to have phenomenal experiences, you know, transformative experiences, cool experiences, and so, how can I harmonize those things together?" Generally, certain disciplines are more insulated against AI cheating, given that they better lend themselves to project-based assignments. In Griffin's case, many of the business courses he teaches require actual interaction with a real-world client. "We're challenging them with quite difficult tasks out in the real world to deliver projects for clients, you know, and there's a huge variety of expectation and understanding, both from the clients' perspective, but also from our sort of undergrads as well," Griffin said. Much like Shockley, Griffin is focusing on incorporating reflection into his curriculum, hoping that the layered steps will prompt deeper thinking. "I'm using projects and portfolios, so people are out in the real world. We're also relying very much on reflective aspects of that," Griffin said. "So they'll deliver a project with a client. If you're going to use AI and tell the client some really tough information, they're not going to be particularly happy. "And then that reflective element means that they really have to delve deeper and give us some honesty, which wouldn't normally be there in normal sort of assignments or assessments," he added. A shift toward oral assessments and discussion-based assignments, Griffin said, is also likely as AI continues to develop. "So assessments, I don't know whether I'd say they're going to become harder," he said. "They'll certainly become more focused. I think we need to accept that. We maybe can't teach as broad a topic as we'd like to, but we can certainly teach criticality."
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Business
- Indian Express
‘Studying abroad opened doors I never imagined,' says student at UK's Manchester Metropolitan University
— Sonali Prakashbabu My interest in studying at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) Business School in the UK began with a clear goal — to gain global exposure in the field of hospitality and tourism. I wanted to understand hospitality in the Eastern and Western markets. That's why I began in Singapore, where I completed my higher diploma, and chose to finish in the UK. The UK was my top choice because it is one of the few countries offering a one-year top-up degree for students like me. MMU stood out with its practical approach — industry visits, networking events, and real-world case studies, which are crucial in a field like hospitality management. I specifically chose to study a BSc in International Hospitality and Tourism Management at Manchester for its strong career opportunities in this sector, and I plan to continue my Master's at MMU as well. I completed my A-levels (Class 11 and 12) at Hebron School, a beautiful international boarding school nestled in the green hills of Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Hebron, located within the Ooty Botanical Gardens and established in 1899, was more than just academics — it shaped who I am today. With students from across the globe, it offered me the chance to grow up in a multicultural environment that expanded my worldview. Although I studied in Ooty, I was born and raised in Coimbatore, just a scenic three-hour drive away. Coimbatore is home to me — a warm and balanced city known for the Isha Yoga Center and the majestic Adiyogi statue. It offers everything from bustling markets to peaceful nature spots, minus the chaos of bigger metros. It's where I truly belong. My parents, Prakashbabu and Sujatha, have been the biggest reason behind my journey. Coming from a middle-income family, they never had the luxury to explore the world, but they made it possible for me. Their sacrifices, love, and belief in me have brought me where I am today. I carry their values and dreams with me everywhere I go. For MMU, I applied with the help of Edwise, a study abroad consultancy. The UK admission process required academic transcripts, a personal statement, IELTS score (6.5+), passport copy, financial proof, and a TB test certificate. After approval, I received an unconditional offer and a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies), which is needed for the UK student visa. The whole process took about three to four months. In Singapore, the process was similar but required different visa steps, like a medical report and a student pass application. Both experiences taught me the value of planning early and staying organised. I didn't apply for a scholarship for my Top-up degree since most one-year programmes don't offer them. However, for Master's programmes in the UK, many universities, including MMU, offer automatic scholarships for international students. At MMU, eligible students often receive a £5,000 scholarship based on academic performance and meeting admission requirements, without needing a separate application. Studying in the UK has been a transformative experience. Compared to India's more structured system, the UK encourages independent learning, critical thinking, and time management. It was tough at first, but I've grown more confident and responsible. MMU offers more than academics — student clubs, creative activities, and the RISE programme, where you earn points for extra-curricular activities that can even help with failed modules. Though I have felt homesick at times, the supportive student environment and diverse experiences have made it all worthwhile. I landed in Manchester on September 19, 2024, both excited and anxious. Thankfully, I travelled with a friend I met through an Indian student group chat, and my cousin from Sheffield came to receive me. That familiar face made my arrival smoother. I moved into my pre-booked MMU accommodation and quickly picked up essentials from Primark, opened a local bank account, and stocked up on groceries from Tesco. The early days were tough, adjusting to the weather, culture, and loneliness. Although I had experienced a move before, this one hit harder. Socially, I knew very few people. MMU's freshers' events helped me meet others, and it was at one such event that I met someone who became my closest friend. I realised quickly that while meeting people is easy, meaningful friendships take time. Initially, my parents supported all expenses, but I soon felt the urge to contribute. I visited MMU's Careers Hub for help with my CV and began applying to hospitality roles. Rejections came often, but I kept showing up. Finally, eight months in, I got hired as a Front Office Associate at the 5-star Edwardian Hotel on a 20-hour contract — enough to cover most of my living costs. That delayed 'yes' made all the effort worth it. Despite early fears of discrimination, I was warmly welcomed. My British flatmates were kind — one even did my dishes during stressful times, and another redecorated our common space. Classmates like Olivia helped me settle in and explore the city. These small gestures made a big impact. Studying abroad changed me completely. I became independent, resilient, and emotionally self-sufficient. Living alone taught me to enjoy solitude, accept failure, and adapt quickly. My friends and I often reflect on how much we've all grown in just a few months. MMU offered incredible real-world opportunities. I was mentored by the Hotel Manager of Kimpton Clocktower, shadowed her at work, and got insider knowledge of the industry. I also attended a networking event on a cruise, connecting with professionals in the hospitality and maritime sectors. Events like these set MMU apart—combining academics with career-building experiences. One of my favourite memories is celebrating my 21st birthday with friends in the Lake District. We rented a boat, cruised on the lake, and soaked in the beautiful scenery. Another highlight was shadowing the hotel manager and events manager at the Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester through MMU's mentorship programme. These experiences — both fun and professional — are making my time in the UK unforgettable and deeply enriching. (This letter is part of a series by The Indian Express where we bring to you the experiences of students at different foreign universities. From scholarships and loans to food and cultural experiences — students tell us how life is different in those countries and things they are learning other than academics) Mridusmita Deka covers education and has worked with the Careers360 previously. She is an alumnus of Gauhati University and Dibrugarh University. ... Read More
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Did the liberation of Africa start in Manchester? The biting play about a pivotal, forgotten moment
On the facade of the building that once housed Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall in Manchester sits a plaque commemorating a turning point in the push for African independence. The fifth Pan-African Congress in October 1945 was attended by future global leaders as well as activists and scholars from across Africa and its diaspora. But despite the event's international importance, it has been largely overlooked by mainstream British history. Now a biting new play is set to remedy this. 'I think a lot of Mancunians don't know it happened,' says playwright Ntombizodwa Nyoni, who lectures in the same building, now part of Manchester Metropolitan University. 'But it's like: you're part of such a phenomenal moment in history.' Eighty years later, her dramatisation of the event, Liberation, is about to receive its world premiere at Manchester international festival. 'Quite early on, I was interested in how leaders are made,' Nyoni explains when we meet, post-rehearsal. She started working on Liberation in 2019, spending the first year and a half 'getting to know' the 200 delegates through extensive reading and tracing their individual timelines. Then came the task of bringing the attendees to life, showing the people behind their legacies. 'I think we have this idea around activists … that they are these extraordinary people. But actually they were all normal people who did extraordinary things,' she says. Nyoni set out to write a play that dug underneath the scant history already available, and focused on the social dynamics between the delegates and the sacrifices they'd have to make to bring about global change. The play zooms in on the attendees' specific motivations. The congress organiser, George Padmore, is reckoning with his mortality as he considers whom to pass the baton on to, while Jamaican social worker Alma La Badie sometimes feels 'like she's a footnote in history'. 'I was looking for who the person is. Because just summarising them through their actions doesn't tell the full story,' Nyoni explains. The death of George Floyd in May 2020 was, she says, 'a pivotal moment' for her writing. 'Even in the midst of a pandemic, we were seeing brutality on Black bodies,' she says. 'By struggling with my own sense of hope and hopelessness, it made me look at the play very differently.' Liberation morphed into a piece about 'survival', and the cost of activism on 'your mental health, your spirituality and your physical health'. 'I knew the 80th anniversary was coming,' Nyoni continues, 'and I was thinking, 'OK, actually, how much of what they were talking about at the congress has changed?'' Liberation bridges the gap between past and present by drawing parallels between the anticolonial struggles of the 1940s, the ongoing fight against systemic racism, and the psychological toll of activism today. Staged at the in-the-round Royal Exchange theatre, director Monique Touko's production pulls the audience of 2025 into the drama, making them feel like 'delegates, active in the conversation'. 'We are rebranding Congress. The vision hasn't been actualised, so we have to go again,' Touko says. She hopes audiences will leave feeling 'charged'. 'We want history to feel relatable and not so distant. That it still exists in the everyday,' adds Nyoni. The writer-director duo see Liberation as a form of activism in itself. 'As a writer, this is my activism,' Nyoni says. 'I want people to participate in the conversation, and figure out: 'What is yours?'' The play paints the fight for change as 'a marathon' that continues from one generation to the next. 'So much of what they were asking for hasn't come into fruition,' Nyoni continues. 'The characters end up doing more than speaking to where they were in 1945 … they are speaking to where we're at today: it is an ongoing conversation.' Sonically, the play draws on then and now, too. Ife Ogunjobi, from the Brit award-winning Ezra Collective, composed a score directly from Nyoni's own writing playlist, which had music 'from across Africa, the Caribbean and across Europe' up until the end of 1945. 'Ife took all of that, and he did a beautiful thing with the new and old and fused the worlds together,' says Nyoni. He joins a creative team including choreographer Kloe Dean, who has worked with Little Simz, and costume designer Sunny Dolat. 'A lot of people have come from outside theatre … it brings a new energy,' Touko says. The significance of Liberation being staged in Manchester on this anniversary feels deeply meaningful – although Touko is careful to credit the grassroots organisations that have previously worked to commemorate the congress in the city. But it is clear that for Nyoni, the play existed before she even wrote it, in Manchester's very air. When she walks through the old Chorlton Town Hall building she says she feels 'the ghosts of people walking around' her. 'It is engraved in stone,' Nyoni says. Liberation is at the Royal Exchange theatre, Manchester, from 3 to 19 July
Daily Mirror
13-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mirror
'I've researched near-death experiences, and this is what's really going on'
A doctor of psychology explains the truth about 'life after death' and why people experience the same thing People who say they have been reported being medically dead and have spent 10, 20 or even 30 minutes 'on the other side' often report experiencing similar things - from floating away from their bodies to tunnels of light and feelings of 'love'. People often say they have been reunited with lost relatives or beloved pets, or gained a final understanding of life after death But despite the seemingly supernatural nature of these experiences, experts say that science can explain why they happen – and what's really going on. Ken Drinkwater, doctor of psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University, said: "A near-death experience is a profound psychological event with mystical elements. It typically occurs in people close to death, or during situations of intense physical or emotional pain, but may also happen after heart attacks or traumatic brain injuries, or even during meditation and syncope (loss of consciousness due to a fall in blood pressure). They're surprisingly common, with a third of people who have come close to death reporting having experienced one. "Common characteristics people report are feelings of contentment, psychic detachment from the body (such as out-of-body experiences), rapid movement through a long dark tunnel, and entering a bright light. "Culture and age may also influence the kind of near-death experience people have. For example, many Indians report meeting the Hindu king of the dead, Yamraj, while Americans often claim to have met Jesus. Children typically describe encountering friends and teachers 'in the light'. "Most reported near-death experiences are positive, and have even helped in reducing death anxiety, affirming life, and increasing well-being. However, some near-death experiences are negative and include feelings such as lack of control, awareness of nonexistence, hellish imagery, or perceived judgement from a higher being." Ken said neuroscientists Olaf Blanke and Sebastian Dieguez have proposed two types of near-death experiences. Type one, which is associated with the brain's left hemisphere, features an altered sense of time and impressions of flying. Type two, involving the right hemisphere, is characterised by seeing or communicating with spirits, and hearing voices, sounds and music. He said: "While it's unclear why there are different types of near-death experiences, the different interactions between brain regions produce these distinct experiences. The temporal lobes also play an important role in near-death experiences. This area of the brain is involved with processing sensory information and memory, so abnormal activity in these lobes can produce strange sensations and perceptions." He added: "Scientific explanations for near-death experiences include depersonalisation, which is a sense of being detached from your body. Scientific author Carl Sagan even suggested that the stress of death produces a remembrance of birth, suggesting the 'tunnel' people see is a reimagining of the birth canal. "But due to the fanciful nature of these theories, other explanations have emerged. Some researchers claim that endorphins released during stressful events may produce something like near-death experience, particularly by reducing pain and increasing pleasant sensations. Similarly, anaesthetics such as ketamine can simulate near-death experience characteristics, such as out-of-body experiences." Ken told The Conversation: "Researchers have also explained near-death experiences via cerebral anoxia, a lack of oxygen to the brain. One researcher found air pilots who experienced unconsciousness during rapid acceleration described near-death experience-like features, such as tunnel vision. Lack of oxygen may also trigger temporal lobe seizures which causes hallucinations. These may be similar to a near-death experience. "But the most widespread explanation for near-death experiences is the dying brain hypothesis. This theory proposes that near-death experiences are hallucinations caused by activity in the brain as cells begin to die. As these occur during times of crisis, this would explain the stories survivors recount. The problem with this theory, though plausible, is that it fails to explain the full range of features that may occur during near-death experiences, such as why people have out-of-body experiences. "Currently, there is no definitive explanation for why near-death experiences happen. But ongoing research still strives to understand this enigmatic phenomenon. Whether paranormal or not, near-death experiences are extremely important. They provide meaning, hope, and purpose for many people, while offering an appreciation of the human desire to survive beyond death."
