Education

19th February 2015

Fair environmental boundaries for leather

POSTED ON FEBRUARY 19, 2015 Getting to the meat of it Leather never lives in isolation.  Most often we think forward to the shoemakers and craftsmen making articles of leather or even more likely to the famous brands that market those products at price levels that make us cringe when we think of the margins […]

6th December 2014

Learning never ends

This has been a week of travel and of learning. Time and again I discover that when I teach or present I live just as much or even more than my audience. This week more than most. One of my undergraduate groups at Bath University gave brief presentations of their project work. There are a […]

28th November 2014

Continuous learning

POSTED ON NOVEMBER 28, 2014 The Importance of Education In the rush of the modern world we all argue about the importance of education but often do not actually value it enough. It is not the qualification which matters so much as the understanding that goes with it. Time and again we hear that companies […]

13th March 2014

Relocation of the University of Northampton

POSTED ON MARCH 13, 2014 A University City The move to the new campus by the University appears to be moving steadily on and is now looking like it really is a reality. The Leather Industry Advisory Committee, which is a curiously useful body linking industry with the University went for a look at the […]

28th October 2013

Do not let bad science damage the leather industry

POSTED ON OCTOBER 28, 2013 Swallows hibernate in lakes and mud Given that for much of Europe Africa is a fairly recent discovery it is not surprising that the concept of birds migrating thousands of miles in the winter is the result of fairly recent discoveries. In the last few years finding birds in various […]

16th August 2013

Degree Ceremony and the new MSc

POSTED ON AUGUST 16, 2013 Degrees Apart In our business the essential skill for a tanner lies in managing what happens inside the factory. It is not just making great leather but being able to make the great same leather day in and day out.  The cost of errors – unhappy customers with empty factories, […]

6th June 2013

Innovation as it used to be

I am sitting at my desk holding a thick book.  It is the outcome of a quite a few years of part time work getting a PhD in management at the University of Bath. It is not a leather industry PhD but it is about the leather industry in that it looks at the evolution […]

8th May 2013

Professor Nishimura on Japan, Student Prizegiving

POSTED ON MAY 8, 2013 Particularly Engaging Students For those readers who are keen listeners to BBC Radio then Robin Day’s World of Business is a must listen.  I download them as podcasts and listen in the car while I drive up to the University from home. The programme this week was “Job Search: Millions of […]

26th April 2013

The hide will not adapt itself to the leather market

Leather is a synonym for paradox I seem to remember the start of the year beig very much defined by three months of travel to sports and outdoor trade fairs in the US and Europe, coming up for air with APLF in Hong  Kong.  The sports shows have reduced in number and the way tanners […]

30th March 2013

The University of Northampton press release about APLF

Asia Pacific Leather Fair – Hong Kong The University of Northampton and The Institute for Creative Leather Technologies once again had a strong presence at the annual Asia Pacific Leather Fair in Hong Kong. The fair offers the opportunity for the University to showcase the exciting work that is being done in Leather Technology. The […]