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82 1st
December 2011 ***************************************************** 'Truth:
lies open to all' ***************************************************** Every
fortnight during term-time. All
editorial correspondence to: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk. Please delete
as soon as possible after receipt. Back issues and subscription details can
be found at http://www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext. The
editors welcome letters, comments, suggestions and opinions from readers. subtext reserves the right to edit submissions. subtext does not publish material that is submitted
anonymously, but is willing to consider without obligation requests for
publication with the name withheld. For
tips to prevent subtext from getting swept up into your 'junk email folder',
see http://www.lancs.ac.uk/subtext/dejunk/. If
you're viewing this using Outlook, the formatting might look better if you
click on the message at the top saying 'Extra line breaks in this message
were removed', and select 'Restore line breaks'. CONTENTS:
editorial, news in brief, farewells to the V.C., subject realignment,
postgraduate tuition fees, undergraduate prospectus 2013, memorial for Anna Siewierska, the truth about love: a review, senate
report, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL Once
again we are forced to query whether proper processes for decision making are
being followed in the university. First, it was announced that fees for
standard taught MAs from 2013 would be £9000, and then the draft
undergraduate prospectus, which was written without department input and
emphasises employability over course content, was released (more on both
below). In both cases the decisions came as surprises to those who are
directly responsible for student recruitment; department undergraduate and postgraduate
admissions tutors were presented with a fait accompli. After much protest, it
appears that both the fees and the prospectus may now be reviewed. This is
indeed very welcome, but it does seem bizarre that such discussion,
consultation and re-thinking are done after rather than before such decisions
are made. Surely, these are two examples of potentially disastrous decisions
not being properly researched or thought through in advance. A great deal of time and effort is wasted
by all concerned in campaigns to reverse these apparently misguided
decisions. Do these two examples not
suggest that we need radically to re-think many of the processes by which
decisions are made? ***************************************************** NEWS
IN BRIEF 30th
November Strike Action Alongside
the members of other unions representing public sector workers, UCU members
went on strike in protest at imposed changes to pensions on 30th November.
Altogether 24 unions with a combined membership of over 3 million took part,
and the strike was one of the biggest seen in a generation. As
happened with the strikes in March, Human Resources at Lancaster University
withheld strikers' pay at the rate of 1/260th, that is at a rate that implies
that academic staff are not expected to work at
weekends. This policy is in line with that being taken by many other
universities, and might be considered fair enough, if the university indeed
intended to stop requesting staff to work weekends. As it is, Saturday open
days planned for next term are still being advertised, and staff
are being asked to give up their unpaid weekends to staff them. Membership
of the Universities Superannuation Scheme, including life insurance cover,
was suspended during strike action (unless staff opted to pay extra
contributions). Luckily, however, the day appears to have passed without
fatalities. The
picket line at the University entrance was well populated and the picketing
passed off peacefully and smoothly. The picketers dispersed at around 10.30
so as to allow them to attend the march and rally in the town centre
alongside strikers from many other unions.
It was originally intended that the march begin at Dalton Square and
end up at the Market Square. It is understood that the market stall holders
volunteered to re-locate to allow this to happen, but that ultimately
permission was not given. The march therefore followed a circular route
around the town centre ending up back at Dalton Square for the rally
itself. The atmosphere was good
natured but resolute and one got the impression that further strike action
may well be in prospect. ******* Grand
opening of the sports centre The
official opening of the new Sports Centre took place on 17 November. Guests arrived by car, or perilously over
the pedestrian crossing, and found themselves inside a building with a large
swimming pool immediately to the right, and the fabled climbing wall to the
left. They were given guided tours, including to the multi-purpose sports
hall, changing rooms and exercise rooms on ground and first floors, and then
there were the speeches. The death of Joe Medhurst,
the director of the first Indoor Recreation Centre and a man passionate about
diversifying sports activities and making them accessible to the community,
had occurred less than a month before. It was therefore fitting that the day
was in part in his memory, as well as about congratulations to Kim Montgomery
and her staff for their hard work - for, notwithstanding the critical
comments of a user (see subtext 79), their input cannot be faulted. Jason Queally was the undoubted star of the speakers, drawing
on his personal recollections of the original IRC and the crucial friendships
and support he had found there, and concluding with the reflection that the
new centre 'will bring people together and change their lives in ways we can
only imagine'. As people left, shouts and cheers arose from a great crowd of
small children from local schools, taking part in the first swimming gala of
the centre - perhaps with a Jason Queally
or Chris Bonington in their midst? ****** Trees
fenced in New
fences have appeared around some of the forested areas on campus. The fences
are ugly and their purpose is unclear. Rumour has it that they aim to prevent
students lighting fires in the woods, but the fences appear easy to climb and
only some areas have been fenced off. ***************************************************** FAREWELLS
TO THE V-C As
the Vice-Chancellor and Mrs Wellings prepare to
leave Lancaster and return to Australia, a number of gatherings have taken
place at which various parts of the university have been able to bid
farewell. A lunch was arranged by the
Ladies' Association at which tributes were paid and fond farewells expressed
specifically to Annette Wellings. A staff dinner was also held during that
same week, both events taking place in the new Private Dining Room, the
existence of which was said to be a practical outcome of the V-C's
inauguration of the staff surveys and the views expressed therein. Undoubtedly
the grandest event was the ceremonial black tie dinner held in the Great Hall
on Monday 28 November, principally consisting of people external to the
university. There was considerable slippage of time as the evening went on,
but eventually those assembled reached the speeches and the unveiling of the
Vice-Chancellor's portrait. The Pro-Chancellor reminisced about the simple
joys of his young boyhood in south Yorkshire, the Chancellor revealed for us
the basis of his choices about which graduands to
stop for a special word at degree congregations, and the Vice-Chancellor,
looking across at his portrait, quipped that he hoped it was larger than
life; and indeed, if scaled up from the representation of the head and
shoulders shown, the complete figure would be about twenty feet tall. There
was much emphasis all round on the increased external reputation of Lancaster
over the last decade. The guests included the incoming vice-chancellor and
his view of the occasion would have been truly fascinating. The
final and most inclusive event was the afternoon tea on the following
afternoon, to which all staff were invited. The
V-C's portrait was again on display, providing most attendees with the
opportunity of seeing it for the first time.
A number ruefully observed that the portrait will be the first Vice-Cancellarean portrait not to be displayed in the Senate
Chamber, as one of the more unfortunate developments of the V-C's tenure was
the removal of the Chamber to make way for refurbished office space for the
senior officers. Instead, it will be displayed in the place to which the
other Vice-Cancellarean portraits have been
re-located, namely, the Reading Room of the University Library. The
University Secretary, Fiona Aiken, paid warm tribute to both Paul and Annette
Wellings, and the V-C made a reply which revolved
around the epitaph on Frank Sinatra's grave, and which seemed to apply to the
future prospects of both the Wellings and the
University: 'the best is yet to come.' ***************************************************** SUBJECT
RE-ALIGNMENT? In
the midst of last year's debate over the increase in tuition fees, Lancaster
affirmed that the change in funding arrangements would have no immediate
effects on the mix and balance of subjects that are taught at undergraduate
level. But signs are beginning to appear suggesting that some kind of subject
re-alignment is indeed being envisaged and, more specifically, that this will
entail of tipping of the balance towards the much touted STEM subjects (for
those still uncertain about this now much used acronym, this refers to the
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). For
one thing, there has been a large scale institutional investment in
Engineering, including the inauguration of a large number of lectureships in
the subject, which have recently been advertised. It is thought that current
members of the department, while gratified by the investment, are nonetheless
surprised by it, as there were no previous signs that such large-scale
investment would be forthcoming. Secondly, there is the already reported
announcement that a Department of Chemistry is to be re-founded. Again, considerable investment is being
made in this venture, not all that long after the
previous Chemistry department was closed down. Thirdly, it has recently
emerged that an increase in student undergraduate allocations widely expected
by FASS has not materialised. Instead, it seems, extra capacity is to be
directed towards the Faculty of Science and Technology. Taken
individually, each of these developments might not appear to be all that
significant. But taken together, they do seem to suggest of a change of
direction with regard to Lancaster's traditional subject balance. Could it be
that the STEM subjects are now being perceived to be providing the way
forward for Lancaster, presumably for financial reasons? Of course, such a strategy would appear to
conflict with the university's recent drive to improve its A-level entry
scores. It is well known that entry
grades for Science are much lower than those for Arts and Social Sciences and
Management School subjects, simply because the demand for those courses is
much lower. Presumably, the university is willing to sacrifice its A-level
entry targets for the sake of subjects that they perceive will be much more
profitable. Whether there is indeed such a strategy, and whether the gamble
it involves will pay off alike remain to be seen. subtext
will be on the look-out for further such signs of a change of direction and
will be glad to hear from readers of any other such indicators. ***************************************************** POSTGRADUATE
TUITION FEES With
the implementation of the new fees regime for undergraduates in October 2012,
attention is inevitably turning to postgraduate tuition fees. In principle,
of course, there is no reason why the new regime for undergraduates should
have any implications for postgraduate tuition fees. Durham, for instance, is taking precisely
such a stance and is trying to minimise any anxiety amongst potential
applicants that any such major changes are afoot. On their web site, this is
stated explicitly: 'Some students have been concerned about the possibility
of significant increases in postgraduate fees for 2012/13 in response to the
reduction in the Government subsidy of fees for UK undergraduates. Therefore
we would like to reassure applicants to our courses. The levels of
postgraduate fees are not regulated by the UK Government and as such the
recent decisions on undergraduate fees do not apply to postgraduate fees
either for UK or non-UK students. Our postgraduate fees have always been
independently set by Durham University, and are reviewed on an annual basis.
At Durham University there is no expectation that there will be any
significant increase in postgraduate fees (Masters or PhD) in 2012/13 other
than to reflect any cost inflation.' It
is very interesting (and alarming) therefore, to hear that Lancaster is
planning to take a quite different tack. Indeed, it was recently revealed
that Lancaster was considering charging fees of £9000 per annum for taught
Masters courses. This immediately struck most postgraduate Admissions Tutors
as madness, and this, in turn, led them to undertake their own comparative
exercises in what other universities were planning to charge. What this revealed was that not one peer or
competitor university was planning to charge £9000 per year. It seemed that
Manchester will charge £5000, Durham £5100, Edinburgh £5750, Exeter £4800,
Warwick £6000, Bristol £4,700, and Cambridge £7176. Only the LSE seemed to
come anywhere near Lancaster's proposed £9000. Admissions Tutors began
wondering at the sanity of those responsible for this apparently suicidal
decision. There
were subsequently reports that Deputy V-C Bob McKinlay
had been frantically running around trying to get comparative figures on
postgraduate tuition fees at other universities. Subsequent to that, there
were indications that a re-think is under way. We can only hope so. Otherwise, taught Masters courses at
Lancaster may soon become a thing of the past. ***************************************************** UNDERGRADUATE
PROSPECTUS 2013 While
Postgraduate Admissions Tutors have been up in arms over the proposed fee
levels, Undergraduate Admissions Tutors have been in a similar state over the
planning of the new Undergraduate Prospectus for 2013. It seems that a new
policy had been adopted this year, in that the subject entries written by
departmental Admissions Tutors were to be replaced by entries written by
copy-writers. This seemed to be at
least partly motivated by the desire to see a greater emphasis on
careers/employment information. In the process, however, the copywriters had
produced subject entries that many Admissions Tutors thought vacuous, full of
slogans and spin, and evidently written by people who had only very vague
notions of what the course content entailed.
Many were reminded of the embarrassing and ill-fated 'We're chuffed
you've applied to Lancaster' of a few years back. There was dismay that this wholesale
revision had been done without any consultation with Admissions Tutors. Even
the Associate Deans for Undergraduate Studies were unaware of what was going
on. Furthermore, for a university that is wanting to
consolidate its status as a Top Ten University, there was a feeling that the
revised prospectus was projecting entirely the wrong image. Indeed, one Admissions
Tutor noted that the style and content were very close indeed to those
adopted by London Met - a distinguished institution, no doubt, but hardly
close to the Top Ten. After
vociferous protests were made by Admissions Tutors, Associate Deans and
others, it looks as though a re-think is under way. ***************************************************** MEMORIAL
FOR ANNA SIEWIERSKA On
4th November, a memorial was held for Professor Anna Siewierska,
who died tragically in an accident while on holiday in Vietnam over the
summer. The memorial was held in the Great Hall and was very well attended by
colleagues from across the university as well as by colleagues visiting from
other institutions. Institutional and personal tributes were delivered by the
Vice-Chancellor, Emma Rose, Elena Semino, Linda
Woodhead, Hubert Cuyckens (Leuven), Francis Katumba and Paul Kerswill.
Academic presentations were delivered by Greville
Corbett (Surrey), Eva van Lier and Willem Hollmann. Geoff Leech, Emeritus Professor in the
Linguistics Department, played three Chopin movements on the piano, while
Paul Farley, Professor of Poetry, recited his poem 'A Minute's Silence'. The proceedings concluded with the Navarra
String Quartert playing Ravel's String Quartet in F
major. Speakers paid tribute not only to Anna's outstanding research record
but also to her warmth, vitality and collegiality - both within her
department and in the wider university. The deep affection felt towards her
and the high regard in which she was held across the university and beyond
were evident throughout. ***************************************************** THE
TRUTH ABOUT LOVE: A REVIEW The
programme notes for the song recital by the soprano Amanda Roocroft (Great Hall, 10 November 2011) observed that
singers' programmes often include, or even consist only of, song cycles. In
its golden age, the early part of the nineteenth century, the romantic song
cycle set to music the words of a single poet, generally telling a story of
tragic love. Examples include Beethoven's 'An die ferne Geliebte', 'die schöne Müllerin' by Schubert,
and 'Frauenliebe und Leben'
by Schumann, all of them magnificent works. Born
and bred in Lancashire, and a graduate of the Royal Northern College of
Music, Amanda Roocroft has made her career
principally as an operatic singer. In her Great Hall recital, entitled 'The
End of the Affair', she put her acting experience to good effect; but not in
the conventional song cycle. With her pianist Joseph Middleton, she had put
together a group of songs by no fewer than 26 composers. The words of these
songs are by many different poets, but taken together, they were selected to
tell the story of a love affair, from first passion through to final
betrayal. This was an unusual take on the song cycle, but through her face
and voice Amanda Roocroft conveyed the full range
of emotions of the songs. This was an unconventional but highly effective
recital. ***************************************************** SENATE
REPORT 23/11/2011 The
VC's final Senate opened with a tribute from Deputy VC Bob McKinlay acknowledging Professor Wellings'
contribution to Lancaster's current high standing in the UK and
internationally. This was one of several such addresses Professor McKinlay has delivered over the last few weeks but was no
less sincere for that. In his response the VC thanked all those who had
worked with him and for the greater good of the University, and ended with an
observation that all those present can only heartily endorse - that Lancaster
University was 'a special place'. Stray
tears quickly dried, we were on to the business of the day, with the VC's
items for information. Things were looking very promising regarding future
numbers of AAB-grade students. There are some 60,000 nationally in the system
and Lancaster's intake this academic year showed a leap from 35% to 62%.
However, as Bob McKinlay pointed out, this only
brings us near where we ought to be, given our status and track record. Progress on the planned Guangwai-Lancaster
campus was now picking up speed, with a potential site identified and an
expected fast-track through the Chinese approval process once a suitable
investor had been found. Further
discussions regarding Lancaster-Liverpool collaboration were to be held, this
time involving the VC-in-waiting. Such discussions were expected to result in
two papers on, respectively, possible collaborative structures and the
benefits for Lancaster. Pressed by Keith Davidson (Lonsdale) as to the likely
content of these papers, the VC thought that they would represent 'the
lightest touch' to achieve collaboration and 'additionality'
for Lancaster. Barbara Maher (LEC) wondered why the Liverpool option was
still being pursued in spite of the overwhelmingly negative reception it had
received at last Senate and across the University. Next
was an update on undergraduate applications for 2012/13 which, despite the
national picture for the sector (15% decline), were encouraging for
Lancaster. So far, LUMS applications were up, FST was holding its own, FASS
was showing a drop of just 4%. Finally
in this section came a summary of the current state of industrial relations
in the HE sector (not good), with the University likely to be disrupted by
industrial action on 30 November. There
followed a 'Question to the Vice-Chancellor' from Tim Dant (Sociology) who
wanted to know what strategies and resources the University intended to
deploy to support the language development and cultural experience of the
growing numbers of international undergraduate students. Replying on behalf
of the VC, Bob McKinlay stated that international
students get the same as everyone else and, in addition, the resources of the
former Student Learning Development Centre (SLDC) had been allocated to the
Faculties. (subtext readers will no doubt remember
Professor McKinlay's key role in the dismantling of
the SLDC, the sacking of over half the staff and the dispersal of the rest
among the Faculties, and how all this was presented as an increase in
resourcing). Following
confirmation of this year's honorary degree recipients, Senate next turned to
consider the report on the 2011/12 registrations. These were very good for
undergraduate numbers - a bumper year, in fact, but despite this the target
for postgraduate recruitment was again undershot. Emma Rose (FASS) made her
annual plea that next year part-time registrations are included in the
figures (which for some inexplicable reason, they currently are not). There
followed the report on the National Student Survey which identified areas of
provision that need to be improved, with brief action plans from the
departments concerned. Commenting on the report, Gavin Brown, Dean of
Undergraduate Studies, promised (or threatened) 'additional support' for
those departments not meeting the mark. ***************************************************** LETTERS Dear
subtext, If
these rumors are correct, then this is another
episode of the never ending drama/comedy series: university house against the
reality of academia. Actually, even if it is not correct, then it is already
quite telling that everybody around me seems to accept this as factual
information and thus deems it possible in the first place. My
fellow PhD students went to today's PhD forum in LEC (a termly
event at which PhD students can raise topics which are important to them) and
raised the issue of the nearly complete lack of shelving in the recently
refurbished PhD offices. Apparently they were told that this cannot be
changed, because it is now central facilities' policy not to allow any
shelving in new or refurbished offices. No
shelving at all. In academic offices? As central university policy? In a
piece of satire people would probably tell me that this is not funny anymore,
because it isn't credible. At Lancaster University, it does not even raise
doubt... Best Niklas Hartmann Lancaster
Environment Centre ***************************************************** The
editorial collective of subtext currently consists (in alphabetical order)
of: Rachel Cooper (PPR), George Green, Gavin Hyman, David Smith, Bronislaw
Szerszynski and Martin Widden. |