Last week I stayed in Bristol on my way back from Plymouth. As I was going to be there I contacted both Bristol Universities and am pleased to report that at embarrasingly short notice they were both able to arrange for me to give my careers talk. First I travelled to University of West of England (UWE) and gave a talk to a small group there. This was a nice, relaxed environment and my talk was well received – I have been asked to come back and give it (with more notice!) to a skills/careers module. The picture below is of the building where I gave my talk.

Next came the University of Bristol Department of Mathematics. I visited Bristol before earlier in 2008 and so was familiar with it. This helped, since the chap who had arranged the talk was unable to meet me. I was at the front of the lecture theatre with 40 or so students looking at me and no idea what to do! Thankfully, Dan Lindsay of Matrix was in the audience and shouted out advice on how to get the projection system working. The talk went well and seemed to be well received. The picture below is of the maths building.

Wandering the corridors I took the picture below. Bristol is a university with degrees approved under the IMA Programme Approval Scheme and the picture below shows that they are proudly displaying their certificates. I have also noticed that they are boasting their approval on their website. This is really good to see, since it helps increase the IMA’