Research Group news

News from the Research Groups

Forensic
Baroness Bottomley, Pro-Chancellor, quoted Professor Jennifer Brown in a recent House of Lords debate regarding the regulation of psychologists by the Health Professions Council.

She stated that the University of Surrey does a lot of work in training psychologists and counsellors and quoted Jennifer’s statement that: ‘The HPC procedures are designed to encompass a very broad range of health and allied professions and as such are neither rigorous enough nor are their standards sufficient to regulate the professional practice of psychology effectively”.

She also pointed out that ‘60 per cent of psychologists do not work in the NHS, but in other settings. Some work for charities ..... and on helplines. It is not appropriate to regulate these people in that way. What is more, the perverse aspect of this is that in many cases there is a degree of co-payment, so if the Minister effectively nationalises all these therapists, with that he will pick up a considerable hidden cost. Regrettable as it may be, many charities work through contributions made by patients. That is a further argument. Many work in education and the Prison Service, which is much debated in this House. For them, the sensitivities required in their field of engagement are extremely important.’’

Perception and Cognition
Successful research proposal
In response to an EPSRC Cognitive Systems Call. Bart De Bruyn, Francis Rumsey (Institute of Sound Recording) and Adrian Hilton (Centre for Vision Speech and Signal Processing, School of Electronics and Physical Sciences) teamed up and submitted a 5 year research proposal on Audio-Visual Action and Interaction, budgeted at £1.3M.

After evaluation by a Group of Funders of the Research Councils (EPSRC, ESRC, BBSRC, and MRC) and the Wellcome Trust, Bart and co-applicants have been invited to submit for the full amount. The high quality of the research proposal and the suitability for across council funding were highlighted.