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78 23
June 2011 ***************************************************** 'Truth:
lies open to all' ***************************************************** Every
fortnight during term-time. All
editorial correspondence to: subtext-editors [at] 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, writers needed, news in brief, Senate report, 'No confidence'
pressure increases, letters ***************************************************** EDITORIAL As
we enter the final week of term, let's look back and review the happenings of
2010-11. First, a tally of departments and services gained and lost. On the
gains side, the university plans a massive expansion of Engineering (see
below), acquired the Work Foundation, and expanded abroad (with plans for a
new campus in China with Guangdong Foreign Studies University and expansion
into engineering degrees at Goenka World Institute
in India). On the loss side, in 2010 the now traditional summer cull claimed
the Student Learning Development Centre and the nurse unit. More
redundancies, this time in LICA, the Department of European Languages and
Cultures, and the Facilities Division are threatened this year. Key
personnel have also been coming and going. Most notably, the V.C. is off to
Wollongong. Most entertainingly,
Anthony Marsella left his post as Head of Marketing
and External Linkages, and now writes lurid historical novels (more below).
His replacement, Katrina Payne, has so far been less controversial. Chris
Thrush also left his post as Director of Human Resources and has yet to be
replaced. Most
of the action, however, has occurred on the national scene. Though the pace
of change has been so rapid that the battles of Michaelmas
term now seem like ancient history, the big story this year must be student
protests at fees increases and changes to Higher Education. Students at
Lancaster played an active role, and locally protests were peaceful and the
level of debate high (including, for example, the student-organised University
in Crisis lecture series). Despite the protests, in February, Lancaster, and
just about every other university, announced its intention to charge fees of
£9000. The long term implications of such charges are hard to predict. Quite
probably, the widening access agenda will suffer. Maybe, subjects that are
perceived to be less 'vocational' will fall in popularity. Certainly, student
expectations will rise. Pensions
have been the other big concern. Industrial action earlier this year saw a
hardening of university-union relations, with strikers being docked a larger
proportion of wages than in previous strikes (those now being asked to staff
Saturday open days may wish to remember that they apparently only get paid
for weekdays). Industrial unrest looks set to continue into 2011-12. While
the future for Higher Education in the UK is uncertain and worrying,
Lancaster is better placed than many other institutions. Current high
rankings in league tables mean that if student numbers reduce in response to
fees Lancaster will be one of the last rather than one of the first to
suffer. For many this will be insufficient comfort, but the miserable can at
least note that the Graduate Bar Real Ale and Cider Festival is coming up soon. ***************************************************** WRITERS
NEEDED A
reminder that if you'd like to write occasional pieces for subtext,
contributed articles are gratefully received.
Alternatively, if you'd like to write a lot, the editorial collective would
also welcome expressions of interest from potential new members. ***************************************************** NEWS
IN BRIEF Engineering
expansion Twelve
new engineering posts are currently being advertised. The posts include
professorships in chemical and mechanical engineering and lectureships/
senior lectureships across a range of areas (chemical, control,
manufacturing, materials, mechanical, mechatronic,
electrical and electronic engineering). This is by far the biggest
recruitment of academic staff Engineering has enjoyed since it was first set
up in 1968-1972. ***** Summer
Reading Those
subtext subscribers who have followed the career of Anthony Marsella, late of this parish, will be informed and
probably amused if they follow the link at the end of this piece. The synopsis of the story found there
probably says everything that needs to be said. If you then scroll down to
near the end of the page and click on 'More about the author', there is a
nice little biography and photograph. What is notable, though probably not
surprising, is that there is no mention of specific recent employment, nor
the circumstances of leaving it. The temptation to hack into the page and add
more details should, of course, be strenuously resisted. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052YQOTU And
if you liked that you'll probably like this too: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=104808662947196 ***** Graduate
Bar Real Ale and Cider Festival Graduate
College will be holding its tenth annual Real Ale and Cider festival over
four days from Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th June. This will be held in the college bar and
courtyard in Alexandra Park. The event
has become something of a social highlight for many in the university. The event is appreciated not only for the
wide range of ales and ciders on offer, but also because it is such a
convivial social occasion, attended by undergraduates, graduates and staff
from across the university community.
Friday evening is usually particularly well attended. Live music and food will also be on offer. *****
The
staff party This
was held in the early evening of 14th June, in and outside the LICA building.
After a short address from the VC, staff prizes were presented by PVC Amanda Chetwynd. An accompanying booklet explained who was
getting prizes and why. The general air was that of a school prize-giving,
and none the worse for that. There was discreet musical entertainment and by
way of refreshments there were soft drinks, mainly fruit-based, and a hog
roast (with some gesture towards a vegetarian alternative). There were
rumours, which turned out to be unfounded, of alcoholic refreshments. This
deficit (as it seemed to some) was overcome by party-goers who became
impatient with the slow movement of the queue for food and adjourned to
County Bar. On their return the queue had shrunk gratifyingly and extra
helpings of hog were available. ***** Not
so Green The
Guardian of 7 June reported that Lancaster is 78th out of 138 in their
University People and Planet Green League, based on 13 different criteria.
Now, we don't know about you, but we'd picked up the impression from LUText that we were doing pretty well in the Green
stakes. Apparently not. ***************************************************** SENATE
REPORT Senate
met on 4 May and learned that the contents of the forthcoming White Paper on
higher education are still the subject of rumour, but that it is likely to be
light on research and postgraduates, and heavy on the regulatory framework
and student number control. The VC's presentation on this was, he confessed,
'all a bit Delphic', but Senators would be briefed on important developments
during the summer. Fiona
Aiken reported on progress in finding a replacement for Professor Wellings. The search committee had used the headhunters' report to inform the person and post
specifications. The aim is to hold interviews in the last week of July. Senate
noted a timely report on the receipt of gifts and donations. The university
has an ethical gifts policy which is implemented mainly by staff in the
Alumni and Development Office. Two potentially dodgy donors have been turned
down. Fiona Aiken noted that it wasn't much of an issue for Lancaster since
we aren't overwhelmed with gift offers anyway. There
was a serious and responsible discussion of a report from a working group
chaired by Peter Rowe making initial proposals for a procedure for the
revocation of university awards. With a few suggested amendments the paper
was approved. It served among other things as a reminder of how important it
is to have a good lawyer on hand to advise on such
matters. There
was also a paper from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor on the establishment of a new
University in Guangdong Province to be known, all being well, as the Guangwai-Lancaster University. This paper went into more
detail and provided more thoughtful arguments than previous statements on
this proposal, and it generated some correspondingly thoughtful discussion
before being approved. Senators were reassured to hear that similar
initiatives by Nottingham and Liverpool were working well. Further,
less contentious matters included an amendment to the Manual of Academic
Regulations and Procedures to require postgraduate research theses to be deposited electronically
as well as on paper, and a proposal that Professor Sue Cox be re-appointed as
Dean of the Management School for a further five years. ***************************************************** 'NO
CONFIDENCE' PRESSURE INCREASES A
group of students and staff at Lancaster University have organised an online
petition that staff and student members of the University can sign in order
to express no confidence in the coalition's higher education policies. The
petition, organised by the Lancaster University Campaign for Higher Education
(LUCHE), is at http://www.petitiononline.com/LUCHE/petition.html. Lancaster's
own petition is part of a wave of 'no confidence' initiatives in HE
institutions across England, which started on 7 June when academics and
students' union representatives debated a motion of no confidence at Oxford
Congregation. At the conclusion of the debate, 283 people voted in favour of
a motion instructing the university's council to 'communicate to government
that the University of Oxford has no confidence in the policies of the
minister for higher education', and only five voted against. The text of
speeches by members of the campaign is available here: http://www.noconfidence.org.uk/the-campaign/the-oxford-campaign,
and a recording of the whole debate here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4200149/Congregation_June_2011.mp3. Since
their victory, the Oxford Campaign for Higher Education (OUCHE) have been encouraging other institutions to put forward
their own motions of no confidence. In
response, petitions have been organised at Warwick, Goldsmiths, Bristol, and
now Lancaster. Bradford University's
UCU passed a unanimous motion of no confidence; and now over 130 Cambridge
academics have submitted a 'Grace' to Cambridge University's sovereign body,
The Regent House, calling for a similar vote of no confidence. LUCHE
is suggesting that university members also sign a national petition that has
been organised by the Campaign for the Public University to complement the
proliferating local votes of no confidence (http://www.noconfidence.org.uk/). ***************************************************** LETTERS Dear
subtext, I was
fascinated to read Sam Clark's article in subtext issue 77 suggesting reasons
why we should be sceptical about the results provided by end-of-module
evaluations. However I feel compelled to offer the other side of the debate
in the interests of balance. There is just as much evidence that end of
module evaluations can lead to improved educational outcomes when used in
certain ways. An
influential study by Marsh (1987) found that course evaluations were
generally reliable and correlate favourably with the quality of teaching and
learning. There is also compelling evidence that when student feedback is
augmented with the advice and guidance of a third party, for example another
academic, it can lead to genuine improvements in the quality of instruction (Cohen,
1980; Marsh and Roche, 1993; Ballantyne et al,
2000). It would be a shame not to capitalise on the potential being
signposted by these studies. The
key is the selection of the specific form of evaluation. It is very easy to
take issue with the tool being used to gather student feedback, preventing
meaningful discussions about how best to use these data (Gregory et al,
1995). In order to prevent this, we all need to better understand the
psychometric properties of the evaluative tools at our disposal. Equally we
have to ensure that the tools we use actually have sound psychometric
properties. Is there actually a relationship between high scores on these
surveys and desirable learning experiences and has this been evidenced? It
would be too simplistic to generalise about course/module evaluations per se.
They are probably here for the long term - the challenge is to ensure that
the time we spend critiquing and analysing them is well spent. References: Ballantyne, R., Borthwick,
J. and Packer, J. (2000) 'Beyond student evaluations of teaching: identifying
and addressing academic staff development needs', Assessment and Evaluation
in Higher Education, 25, 221-236. Cohen,
P. (1980) 'Effectiveness of student-rating feedback for improving college
instruction: A meta-analysis of findings', Research in Higher Education, 13,
321-341. Gregory,
R., Harland, G., and Thorley, L. (1995) 'Using a student experience
questionnaire for improving teaching and learning', in Gibbs, G. (Ed.)
Improving student learning through assessment and evaluation. Oxford: Oxford
Centre for Staff Development. Marsh,
H. W. (1987) 'Students' evaluations of university teaching: Research
findings, methodological issues, and directions for future research',
International Journal of Educational Research, 11, 253-388. Marsh,
H., and Roche, L. (1993) 'The use of students' evaluations and an
individually structured intervention to enhance university teaching
effectiveness', American Educational Research Journal, 30, 217-251. Adam
Child, Assistant Registrar ***** Dear
subtext, Your
correspondent is unduly sniffy about wildlife to be
seen from the Woodland Trail ('some sheep in the distance'). Earlier this
week I saw a vixen and her cub enjoying the early morning sunshine together -
something I've never managed to see anywhere else. You
just have to be up betimes! John
Foster, Research Fellow in Philosophy, Department of Politics, Philosophy and
Religion ***************************************************** 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. |