School of Health & Wellbeing

The MSc Clinical/Applied Neuropsychology Programme recently celebrated its 20th anniversary by hosting a conference in conjunction with the 20th meeting of the Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Special Interest Group of the World Federation of Neurorehabilitation (NR-SIG WFNR).

The conference, which was held at the Clayton Hotel in Glasgow city centre, was attended by more than 160 people in person and a further 60 online.

Delegates, who between them represented 15 countries, were treated to a trio of keynote addresses and a drinks reception on Wednesday evening.

Emeritus Professor Tom McMillan, who founded the programme, presented "A Perspective on Five Decades of Research into the Outcome of Head Injury in Glasgow". Professor Julie Snowden from the University of Manchester, who has been a guest lecturer on the programme since its inception, addressed the topic Focal dementias – what we have learned over the last 20 years? Finally, Professor Jon Evans, who came to Glasgow in 2003 to serve as Programme Director, spoke on Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: What’s changed in the last 20 years? This session was chaired by our long-time supporter, former guest lecturer, and all-round inspiration, Barbara Wilson.

The remaining two days of the programme featured an opening address from the NR-SIG Chair, Emeritus Professor Robyn Tate, University of Sydney, and then a mix of 20 oral presentations, 26 brief "datablitz" talks, and 80 poster presentations. Professor Tate spoke on Ensuring transparency and rigour in neurorehabilitation research: Making sense of the morass, and rigour was in no short supply in the remainder of the extremely high-quality programme. Other speakers ranged from eminent professors both local and international, to clinicians sharing the latest neuropsychology service developments. All of this was captured on Twitter by our social media guru, SHW PhD student, and Principal Clinical Psychologist at the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, Alexandra Rose (check out #NRSIG2023 for a retrospective!).

Conference attendees also enjoyed a lively social programme, including:

• a civic reception in the portrait gallery of the civic chambers
• a fantastic stand-up comedy routine from Dr Tom Manly of the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, and
• a DJ set from a young person with acquired brain injury who had learned to DJ as part of her neuropsychological rehabilitation programme.

The conference, which was co-chaired by Jessica Fish (UoG; Research Director for the Clinical/Applied Neuropsychology programmes) and Anna Adlam (University of Exeter, and past guest lecturer), was a fitting way to celebrate 20 highly successful years of clinical neuropsychology training at the University of Glasgow. The programme has been continually funded by NHS Education for Scotland and we are very grateful for their ongoing support. Over this time the course has trained around 500 students. In 2019 it expanded to offer training in the practice component of specialist neuropsychology training, in addition to the existing underpinning knowledge component, under the leadership of Jean McFarlane, supported by Clinical Tutor, Helen Swanson.

The programme has been supported by our excellent administrators, including Margaret Naismith; Alison Clark; Linda McSheffery; Anne Smith; Laura Baggley; and Anne Lambie. Special mention also goes to Laura Grant and Linda Atkinson from the Graduate School who have provided invaluable support over the years and to Mhairi London, our fantastic Graduate Teaching Assistant.

More than 200 guest lecturers from across the university, NHS Health Boards and beyond, have contributed to it, and we are grateful to everyone who has helped maintain an exceptionally high standard of training throughout our 20 year history!

Jon Evans, Jess Fish, Jean McFarlane and Helen Swanson

Find out more about the MSc in Clinical/Applied Neuropsychology

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First published: 18 June 2023