Those of you who are remotely interested in the ins, outs and quite possibly back-in-agains of academia may have witnessed Alex and me swimming against a tide of paperwork, even higher than normal, over the past few weeks. The reason for this was that we were re-writing the Animation and New Media foundation degrees with a view to getting them validated by University of Salford.

Well, last week, wearing my best bib’n’tucker and even clean shaven in deference to the occasion, I attended the validation meeting with some top bods from the University of Salford and I’m pleased to say that [subject to a few minor tweaks to the paperwork] they’ve agreed to validate the new course.

So, whilst it won’t affect any of you lot currently enrolled [you’ll still graduate with your FDs in Animation or New Media Design, validated by MMU] from the next academic year, our shiny new students will be enrolling on the equally shiny and new FD in…​.. [drum roll!] …​. “Animation & Moving Image” and will graduate with their FD validated by University of Salford.

By now, the smart boys and girls amongs you will have noticed that “Animation & Moving Image” abbreviates nicely to “AMI”, which is French for “friend”. That’s pretty nice I think and a vast improvement over the current abbreviation for New Media Design, “NMD” which is apparently the French word used to denote that one has just been kicked in one’s knackers.