International collaboration award for Trustee

Academics at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) are celebrating after winning a prestigious collaboration educational award.

Dr Nicola Lowe, Abaseen Foundation Trustee, and her research team at UCLan have scooped The Times Higher Education’s International Collaboration of the Year Award for their work with the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Pakistan and the South Asian population in Blackburn.

The Principal Lecturer in the Centre for Applied Sport and Exercise Science said: “I was absolutely thrilled and excited to win. The competition was so strong so to be shortlisted was great. When I heard our name called out it was pure delight. The win will give the whole team a real boost. They have had a tough time out in Pakistan since the flooding, offering nutritional help and support to the affected people so this award is for the amazing people on the ground out there.”

Dr Lowe led a research team from UCLan in collaboration with the Khyber Teaching Hospital in Pakistan to improve the nutrition and health status of communities in Pakistan and around the area of Blackburn.  The project also gained an insight into the cultural issues relating to health inequalities amongst South Asian immigrant populations in the UK.

The community was educated in nutrition and breast feeding practices and a demonstration kitchen was established to teach mothers how to make a balanced meal out of locally available foods.  This project, although started with very modest and limited resources, has quite successfully changed the beliefs and behaviours of the locals regarding maternal and infant nutrition and has resulted in decreased child malnutrition. 

The judges particularly praised the fact the project work is helping improve health and well-being abroad in North West Pakistan as well as working with the South Asian communities in Blackburn.

Dr Lowe also paid tribute to fellow UCLan academic Professor Fiona Dykes and Pakistani based Professor Mukhtiar Zaman. Profesor Dykes, from the Maternal and Infant Nutrition and Nurture Unit in the School of Public Health and Clinical Sciences, is a key member of the research team and attended the award ceremony. Professor Zaman, who will receive an Honorary Fellowship from the University this week, heads up the team in Pakistan and the Abaseen Foundation, the local charity that makes the work possible.

UCLan was also nominated for Research Project and Entrepreneurial University of the Year. It is the sixth year of the awards which celebrate the achievements of Higher Education institutions throughout the UK.

Graham Baldwin, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), said: “We were delighted that one of our three nominations won the award. The international collaboration was particularly pleasing as it was up against really strong opposition and because the work of Nicky and her team has made such a positive difference to the lives of Pakistani women. This is really well deserved and further highlights the quality of both research and international activity at UCLan.”

The winners were announced at the awards dinner at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, on Thursday, 25 November 2010.