UWE: Disappearing by Degrees
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Saturday June 13, 2009 10:24
by Bristol Observer
UWE in chaos as language degrees secretly removed.
The lucky ones get a welcome
UWE: Disappearing by Degrees?
As if to celebrate the victories of the BNP and UKIP the University of the West of England has decided to withdraw all its language degrees, leaving applicants, existing students and lecturers in a state of disarray.
Sources at the University have suggested that the decision to remove degree-level language provision was taken without consultation. Lecturers and unions say that the decision was taken on the basis of a secret report and that the data on which the decision was based is misleading.
The University sent letters to applicants, students and lecturers to inform them of the decision only after course had been withdrawn from the university admissions system, leaving applicants who had accepted places on its languages courses stranded.
Students and language staff report that many applicants attended a recent open day only to find that the courses they were preparing to begin have disappeared. A note sent out by a the student campaign group Save UWE Languages says “Students wishing to study languages at UWE have been attending recent open days only to find out that they can no longer chose this route of study and that they must reconsider their options”
Existing language students are concerned that their degrees will wither away while they are still studying. One student said, “I came here from London because it was the only university that offered the course I wanted. I am gutted by this decision. I pay my fees and don’t expect the University to scale down the course I have paid for while I am still studying it”.
Sources from the lecturers’ union say the move contradicts higher education policy as expressed in a recent report of the British Academy, Language Matters. The report explains that diminishing language provision damages the UK’s international competitiveness.
This problem has been recognised by lecturers from the Department of Languages at UWE too. Sources from the department said they have received letters of support from around the world, including France, Germany and Spain.
Though no redundancies have been announced, unions fear it is only a matter of time before they are.
The Universities and Colleges Union has announced that it has in dispute over this issue, calling on the Vice Chancellor to reverse the decision and enter into proper consultation. However, some sources suggest industrial action is inevitable and that there is a strong possibility of legal action.
Language students have already begun a series of online protests, including a petition, letters to the head of the Faculty of Languages, to the Vice Chancellor, and are writing to MPs and MEPs for support. A representative of Save UWE Languages said “it is absolutely disgraceful that this is happening and we will continue to fight it for as long as it takes.
The Vice Chancellor of the University has suggested the decision has been made on the basis of student figures and because of financial constraints.
Save UWE Languages has responded by suggesting that the student figures used for the decision were intentionally misleading and any suggestion of financial constraint is falsified by the fact that the University has earmarked £40 million for the development of a nearby property. A representative from Save UWE Languages says, “it is shameful that the University is spending all this money on property at the cost of our education”.
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4"as if to celebrate the BNP victory the sun has risen in the morning..."
"as if to celebrate the BNP victory the birds are singing in the trees..."
"as if to celebrate the BNP victory people have been seen laughing & enjoying themselves..."
An important story spoiled by a silly analogy.....
Recruitment to the languages half awards has been in decline for years. The former Head of School let things drift and did nothing to market the department. His parting gift was to introduce two new half awards (Chinese Studies and Intercultural Communication) which have recruited a maximu of eight students per year. He himself is retiring having just been made a professor, so he gets a top whack pension.
I think the staff should realise that it is as much the fault of their own academic mis-management as anyone else.
Incider, what sort of insider are you? If you knew anything, you'd know that ordinary staff and ordinary students can't "mismanage", only management can do that. Intercultural Communication was the pet project of the corrupt former Vice Chancellor's wife, Sheila Newby. She bypassed all procedures as the current Vice Chancellor (who worked under the former VC) is currently doing, to impose the course. The former VC, Howard Newby, treated the University as his own pet project, as reported by Indymedia. He employed his own companies, like Carter and Carter and made lots of money from student fees (as reported in Private Eye).
Howard Newby also appointed 3 linguistics professors at great expense when they only needed one. So I'm sorry but the mismanagement was at the most senior levels, yet as usual students and staff have to pay.
Furthermore, if you say that recruitment to "half awards" has been declining, well perhaps to a degree, but fluctuations always take place and 1. the only reason there are half awards is because languages were forced to transform provision to half awards. Now, as senior managers play, they have decided to get rid of half awards!! 2. they don't actually know what recruitment is like for next year as languages depends on clearing 3. lots of other language departments are closing down so someone with even half a brain would be brave enough to keep a department open to attract those still looking 5. language recruitment's problems is an issue only because of the government's absurd decision to remove languages from the compulsory school curriculum, a decision what is being reversed 6. which is highlighted in the British Academy's recent report http://www.britac.ac.uk/reports/language-matters/index.cfm
If you were any sort of insider, you'd know that the current Vice Chancellor is obsessed with following the former VC's objective of commercialising the university and making it serve business needs rather than human needs. This is the first step towards turning from "departments" to "profit centre". The sad thing is that the VC wants to be a businessman, but wouldn't last a second in the private sector. That's what the motivation is - he sees the university as a business, not a site for the scholarly pursuit of truth. Pathetic.
There has been a year on year decline in recruitment to Languages for the last ten years. Check out the HEFCE figures. In 08/09 Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies had 675 students, taught by 48 staff; Sociology/Criminology had 825 studentstaught by 29 staff.; Politics/IR had 643 students taught by 17 staff; English had 561 students taught by 22 staff; History had 458 students taught by 27 staff.
Go figure - HEFCE only funds according to student numbers and deducts money for thsoe studenst who withdraw. The Departments, such as LLAS, are managed by academics. So they are the ones responsible. Their staff/student ratio was the lowest yet Their staff taught an average of 4 hrs 15 minutes a week, whiclt in Sociology it was 7 hrs per week.
At open days the LLAS stalls had maybe one or two academics manning them at some time, whereas the other departments had a full complement of academics, selling their courses. It is the only way to survive. Pity for them (LLAS) staff that they didn't get it together, but why should the rest of the University carry them?