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subtext issue 107 13 June 2013 ***************************************************** '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, security and privacy, new pro-chancellor, new phone system, more on phones, China campus, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL While we all know that league table methodologies are suspect, the figures on which they are based massaged, and the results not worth reading, it's still nice to be higher in them rather than lower. We've all met folks from abroad (and even some from down South) who have suspected that Lancaster might be some Johnny-come-lately-ex-poly, and being able to inform them that, no, Lancaster may not be red-brick, but it is old enough to suffer concrete-cancer, and is in fact a TOP TEN university, has been nice – while it lasted. But now we've gone down in the Guardian League Table to number eleven (more below). We can still boast (and the university web-site does) of being in the 'Top 1% in the world' but, let's face it, that doesn't really roll off the tongue in the same way. Staying high in the league tables has been touted as a key objective in recent debates about the future of the university, but our recent slippage brings home the risks of becoming fixated on league table position. All universities are striving to achieve the top scores. We can (and probably will) keep doing well in things which are to some extent under our control, but the sacred top 10 position also depended on others doing relatively badly. It may be that university managers will be able to shrug off the slip from 7th to 11th, which almost certainly reflects no meaningful change in the quality of Lancaster's provision. Luckily, our position in national league tables doesn’t explicitly feature in the Strategic Plan (which talks only of Lancaster's position in International League Tables). But the danger is that in seeking to reclaim a top-ten position managers will be tempted to take ever more risky decisions in order to claw back a top ten position. ***************************************************** NEWS IN BRIEF League table tumbles Lancaster has fallen from 7th to 11th place in the Guardian University league tables. The Guardian also gives league tables for individual subjects. Those doing especially well are physics (2nd), art and design (3rd), sociology (3rd), geography and environmental science (4th), and social work (5th). We've also gone down in the rankings of the Complete University Guide. For 2014 we are 11th (842 points); for 2013 we were 9th (841 points) – see http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings. Notably, in the CUG case our actual points haven't gone down. Indeed our scores on all measures except RAE (obviously) have gone up. The problem is that other universities are improving faster – especially Exeter, who leapfrogged us from 13th (809 points) to 10th (848 points). In the Guardian guide, where there isn't an overall 'points' column, it's still possible to compare 2013 with 2014. Again, we've gone up on most measures – especially entry tariff – we've only dropped in spend per student and value added. Here again the main problem seems to be others improving faster – here it's Surrey and Bath who have pushed into the top 10. In the Guardian League Table the main factor on which Lancaster is weak is the score for 'value-added' where Lancaster scores only 4.7 out of a possible 10. For the value-added score 'qualifications upon entry are compared with the award that a student receives at the end of their studies. Each full time student is given a probability of achieving a 1st or 2:1, based on the qualifications that they enter with. If they manage to earn a good degree then they score points which reflect how difficult it was to do so'. Notably, the value-added score varies considerably between disciplines: modern language and linguistics, and philosophy achieve value-added scores of only 1; English has a value-added score of 8. ******** And we do rubbish in the Green League too We had thought that, given that Lancaster is packed full of green hippy types, and that we now have our own wind turbine, we would at least do well in the Green League (which seeks to rank universities in terms of their green credentials). But no, turns out we're all talk, no action. Lancaster is ranked 85th, with a score of 32 out of 70 (23 for policy, 9 for performance). Notably, and as mentioned previously by subtext, Lancaster fails to have an ethical investment policy. It also looks like our current score may not be taking into account the wind turbine, so maybe we'll go up a bit next year. See http://peopleandplanet.org/green-league-2013/tables. ******** 'Optimism is a duty' Two years after the fall of Hosni Mubarak as President of Egypt, author and Lancaster graduate Ahdaf Souief is continuing to campaign. Readers of subtext may recall that she gave rousing speeches in Tahrir Square at the time of the ousting of Mubarak, at considerable personal risk. She writes regular dispatches about the Egyptian revolution for the Guardian newspaper. For years she had planned to write a book about the city of her birth, but didn't feel able to write it until the Mubarak regime had been replaced. This book, entitled Cairo - My City, Our Revolution, was published in January 2012. It has been well reviewed. In a recent issue of Amnesty Magazine, she has a short article with the above title. She writes 'If you do not believe in the possibility of what you are doing, then you may as well not do it.....If you look at Egypt now, there is revolutionary activity everywhere....People are no longer disposed to sit down and let whatever happens happen to them.' Ahdaf continues to inspire. ******** Trees on the A6 Anyone travelling out of Lancaster along South Road a few weeks ago must have noticed the young trees that had been placed there in wooden planters. When they appeared unannounced, it was a pleasant surprise to see them. They were there for an experiment to test if trees help to absorb fumes from vehicles, and especially if they reduce the levels of particulates. According to Barbara Maher of Geography, who carried out this experiment, trees can be quite effective at reducing pollution levels from vehicles. Spring came so late this year that the trees had had to be nurtured in the LEC atrium to bring them into leaf. The trees have been removed from South Road now that the tests are complete. There were fears that they might have been vandalised during the experiments, but in fact they were completely intact at the end of the two-week test, and it seems many locals now miss them. If the test in South Road shows that the trees had a beneficial effect, perhaps we can look forward to more roadside trees in Lancaster. ******** UAAA exhibition The Part I course offered by Physics entitled The Universe as an Art (acronym UAAA) attracts 60-80 students each year. Science A-levels are not prerequisite for entry to the course. Last week the project work of students on the course was exhibited in the Physics Department, so subtext's critics paid a visit. We were surprised by the frequent incidence of what appeared to be cardboard, papier maché and fishing line, which seemed more reminiscent of primary school than the top Physics Department in the country; and some of the demonstrations didn't seem to work quite as they were supposed to. But we enjoyed a spoof video presentation entitled 'Wonders of the University', in which student James Nolan played the role of Professor Brian Cox, 'here to stare gormlessly at a lot of random objects and explain why they can be used as a metaphor for the inner workings of quantum physics'. Standing in front of one of the map boards near the perimeter road, he indicated Alexandra Square and invited the viewer to 'imagine that this is the centre of the known universe. Then the edge is 30 billion light years away here, in Cartmel.' We always thought it was quite a long walk. ******** Advertising and other dubious content on the Uni web site One of the functions carried out by the University Press Office is to place news stories on the web site. Recent news items about activities in Science and Technology have carried a footer headed Around the Web, in which the lead item was titled 'Chevrolet Camaro Returns to the U.K.', a story apparently from the CarBuyer site. Although the stories change from time to time, the Camaro item was remarkably long-lived. Other items noted included 'Dress Sexy', from YouBeauty.com, and 'The average salary of Wal-Mart managers', from ehow.com. What on earth are these items doing on the University's web site? It appears they are supplied by something called Disqus, which 'helps you find new and interesting content, discussions and products. Some sponsors and commerce sites may pay us for these recommendations and links.' Perhaps the University should review this arrangement? ******** Lancaster pubs Following our description in the last edition of subtext of the subtext collective's heady, intoxicating social life we have been reliably informed that in fact there is in fact a book chronicling the history of Lancaster pubs. Entitled Lancaster's Historic Inns, it was written by Lancaster graduate Andrew White and published in 2009 by Palatine Books. We shall check this out. *********************************************** SECURITY AND PRIVACY The documents that Edward Snowden says he took from his employer, the US National Security Agency, and leaked to the Washington Post and the Guardian confirm recent reports of the extent of electronic snooping carried out by the US government on its own and UK citizens. They also demonstrate that the UK government has access to this information where it relates to citizens of the UK. This makes the reports on the University's web site about cyber scaremongering and privacy problems at social networking sites particularly topical. Both reports come from Security Lancaster, the University's Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research, which is accredited by EPSRC and GCHQ. (The merest mention of GCHQ makes some of us sit up, recalling the dispute that arose in 1984 when the Thatcher government banned GCHQ employees from belonging to a trade union - a ban which lasted, incidentally, until it was lifted by the incoming Labour government in 1997. There have been other scandals, such as the sacking of GCHQ employee Katharine Gun after she leaked information from the NSA about the wire-tapping of UN delegates in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq war). The staffing of Security Lancaster is a cross-campus consortium from FASS and FST. They offer a number of MA and MSc courses, and so far they seem to have managed to tread the fine line between the academic and the applied, which is potentially such a minefield in this area. Electronic eavesdropping is now so common, it appears, that none of us can feel secure from it. Our emails, phone conversations, our web-searching habits, our contacts on social media sites - all of these are liable to be subject to examination by outside agencies, and may help them to build up a picture of subversive activity if that is our bent. Whether we should be worried about this as individuals rather depends on what we get up to and, more importantly, on what we reveal about ourselves through electronic media. The watchword would appear to be never to commit to any electronic medium any information you would rather not have made public or known to government, whether our own or other countries'. But it's difficult to abide by this. Apparently politically-neutral activities like web-searching will undoubtedly be recorded. As John Naughton writes in the current Observer, email and web services that are ostensibly 'free' are ones that users pay for in a different way, by revealing their personal data. The companies can then target marketing material at the users, and charge their commercial partners for doing this. Getting all those advertisements is tiresome, but is otherwise relatively harmless. But If you were to engage in some kind of extremist or deviant activity, however mild, your web searches may reveal this too - so take care! *********************************************** NEW PRO-CHANCELLOR Lord Roger Liddle has been appointed as the new Pro-Chancellor, for a five-year term starting 1st August. The chief job of the Pro-Chancellor is to chair meetings of Council, whose remit includes the finances, premises and business of the University. Relying heavily on Wikipedia, we can report that Liddle has degrees in modern history and management studies from Oxford University. He has worked in research for the Oxford School of Social and Administrative Studies, as an industrial relations Officer for The Electricity Council, and been Managing Director of Prima Europe Ltd – a consultancy company advising on the impact of politics and regulation at European and national level. Perhaps most notably, he was Special Advisor on European Matters to Tony Blair, and is currently chairperson of the think tank, Policy Network. Liddle has written a number of books, with Anthony Giddens and Patrick Diamond, Global Europe, Social Europe (2006)(currently going on Amazon for a penny), with Peter Mandelson, The Blair Revolution (1996) and The Blair Revolution Revisited (2002), with Patrick Diamond, Beyond New Labour: The Future of Social Democracy in Britain, and most recently, and all by himself, The Europe Dilemma: Britain and the Challenges of EU Integration (2013). In 1998, Roger Liddle was implicated in the cash-for-questions scandals that surrounded the Blair government. An undercover reporter for the Observer claimed that Liddle offered to sell companies ministerial access – see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/127607.stm. The reporter had no proof of the conversation, Liddle denied the claims, and the Blair government supported him. Writers for SCAN have had some discussions with the University Press Office about Liddle, and then they had some discussions with us. SCAN were told that when talking about the cash-for-questions scandal they should include the following from the BBC, for balance, which shows that the allegations were 'refuted': Moving on the allegations about Mr Liddle, Mr Blair said: "That was based, as you know, on this talk at a cocktail party at the Guildhall. "A freelance journalist, claiming to be an American businessman, said he wanted to invest in Britain and asked Mr Liddle to help, who agreed, perfectly properly. "It is emphatically denied that he in any way offered, in doing so, to act on behalf of a lobbying company. "The journalist claimed to have words suggesting this on tape. It is now admitted that this claim is false and no such tape exists." We believe that the University Press Office may be confusing 'refuted' with 'denied', but in any case we are very happy to also quote the BBC for balance. Reflecting on the case some years later, the BBC reported that 'The consensus is that it was only the fact that his reported remark was not tape recorded that saved him being sacrificed. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1621138.stm Since 2010, Liddle has sat in the House of Lords as a Labour peer. The website 'They Work For You' ranks him as an unusually active Lord, who participates in more debates and votes more than average (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/peer/lord_liddle). Potentially, Liddle's connections and energy could bring a lot to the university; the cash-for-questions allegations were never proven, and we'll have to see what he's like as a Pro-Chancellor. *********************************************** NEW PHONE SYSTEM The University is to have a new phone system; or, to give its posh title, 'a new Unified Communications platform to replace the present analogue phone system'. The new system, or platform, will allow us to 'easily access voice, video, presence, instant messaging, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing capabilities'. That's if you know how to do these things, and indeed if you actually want to do them. The new phones will be based on Cisco Jabber, which is designed to work on just about any device, including Android and iPhone, Blackberry and Windows devices. Cisco, of San José, California, has an interesting background. The company was founded by Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, two members of computer-support staff at Stanford University. According to Wikipedia, 'despite founding Cisco in 1984, Bosack, along with Kirk Lougheed, continued to work at Stanford on Cisco's first product, which consisted of exact replicas of Stanford’s 'Blue Box' router and a stolen copy of the University's multiple-protocol router software, which they adapted into what became the foundation for Cisco IOS.' It's not surprising that in 1986 Bosack and Lougheed were forced to resign from Stanford. The university contemplated 'filing criminal complaints against Cisco and its founders for the theft of its software, hardware designs and other intellectual property', but in the end licensed the router software to them. Recently the company has sought to become a global leader in cloud computing applications and services. Considering its dubious background, it has done very well to survive; by continually adapting to new challenges it has remained remarkably successful. If you want to know more about what the new system will offer, you can watch a 'short video': there’s a link to it in LU Text 612, of 31 May. It's pretty naff, with silly music, and it's unlikely many will survive to the end. But you may be interested to learn that the new phones will show your presence 'as a coloured jellybean'. *********************************************** MORE ON PHONES The University's existing phone system offers a range of useful functions, all set out on pages 15-16 of the University phone book. A quick and statistically valid survey of three colleagues who happened to be in their rooms at the time revealed that only one of them knew that any of these functions were available on the present system, and even then only used a couple of them. The other two never use any of them. When the present system was installed, maybe 20 years ago, most staff received training on it, but that was in prehistory. Without refresher updates for continuing staff, and training for new colleagues, most of the functionality has fallen into disuse. If the University wants to get value out of the new system, it will need to try a lot harder. ***************************************************** CHINA CAMPUS As Lancaster pushes ahead with plans to develop a campus in China, other universities are putting the brakes on their Chinese collaborations. The Economist recently reported that many foreign universities were losing enthusiasm, saying that 'None of them finds it easy to work with an academic system whose standards and values are so different from those in the West. Not least of the hurdles is maintaining scholarly independence in China's restrictive political environment. The Communist Party sees universities partly as training grounds for loyalists who will one day be leaders in government and business'. Yale has recently stopped running its Beijing-based undergraduate programme, jointly run with Peking University. Yale's administrators cited 'high expenses, low enrolment and weaknesses in its Chinese-language programme'. See http://www.economist.com/news/china/21569070-foreign-universities-find-working-china-harder-they-expected-campus-collaboration. The Chinese government is also reviewing its support for Chinese-Western university joint ventures. Current Chinese policy is to massively increase the numbers of people attending university, but the rise in student numbers has overwhelmed the local supply of qualified lecturers (who are in short supply in part because university education was curtailed during the Cultural Revolution). This had led the Chinese government to encourage the development of Chinese-Western joint programmes, and very many universities have sought to enter the Chinese market in recent years. There are now doubts about the quality of some of these schemes and whether they support Chinese interests. Beijing has ordered a review 'aimed at bringing joint programmes more in line with China's own national needs rather than a foreign partner's wish list' - http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120118202525930. ***************************************************** LETTERS We haven't received any letters recently, but there's lots of talk about. Please write! ***************************************************** The editorial collective of subtext currently consists (in alphabetical order) of: Sam Clark, Rachel Cooper (PPR), Mark Garnett, George Green, Ian Paylor, David Smith, and Martin Widden. |