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subtext issue 113 12 December 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, strike, higher education policy: student numbers, buildings i-iii, Lancaster tops vanity league, funny old world, the work foundation, ELF and sauve qui peut, Ghana campus, concert review, letters ***************************************************** EDITORIAL As we speed towards the end of term it's time to wish readers Happy Christmas. Much has happened. The REF submission is now completed. The pay dispute rumbles on, with strike action on 3 December, and, one guesses, more to come in the New Year (more on the Lancaster strike below). The development of overseas campuses continues, and Lancaster Ghana has started teaching students. But perhaps the most important change this term will turn out to be the announcement that caps on student numbers will be removed from 2015. What the long term result of this will be is unclear. Certainly, there will be more students in the sector as a whole, but will they come to Lancaster, or, if competitors expand faster, might they go elsewhere instead? How, exactly, is a sell-off of student loans supposed to fund new places? And, what will happen if it turns out that this model of funding becomes unsustainable? In short, the only certainty is continuing uncertainty. However, recent developments have made one thing clear – they have exposed the futility (or worse) of basing decisions about entry grades, etc., on the basis of guesswork about medium-term government intentions. The surest starting point for developing overall university policy is, and always has been, to consider the real, existing interests of individual departments before resorting to a crystal ball. ***************************************************** NEWS IN BRIEF Need a pay increase? The university is advertising for a new Director of Human Resources. While the university website is coy about the salary, the website of the recruitment company Saxton-Bampfylde reveals that loads of money is on offer (£80k - £100k, plus performance related pay up to 10% assessed annually). But be warned – it isn't money for nothing. The successful candidate will need experience of working 'with a group of intellectually strong and challenging colleagues' (http://www.saxbam.com/appointment-details/100-director-of-human-resources). ******* International office rebranding subtext notes that 'The International Office' is about to be re-named 'The International Office for Recruitment'. Seems like a pretty clear steer to us. Is there anyone who doesn't feel that the implication of this is that any sense that the University might want them to engage with broader or gradual academic/cultural relations has been abandoned? ******* Academic freedom in China Two stories suggest that academic freedom is increasingly under threat in China. First, the Guardian reports that university students in Xinjiang will not be permitted to graduate unless their political views are approved (http://tinyurl.com/py92zl8). Second, an economics lecturer and critic of the Chinese government, Xia Yeliang, has been sacked from his job at Peking University in Beijing (http://tinyurl.com/nzmfez6). The treatment of Yeliang has led to protests by academics at Wellesley College, a US institution, that has partnership agreements with Peking University. Supporting the protests, Susan M. Reverby, a professor of women's and gender studies at Wellesley, said 'This is a pure and absolute example of the failure of academic freedom. Then the question becomes what's our position as the partner here? What's our moral position?' (http://tinyurl.com/p2f9gyg). Let's hope that Lancaster's own links with China don’t lead us into similar problems. ******* Student protest Student protests nationwide are increasingly being met with police intimidation. A petition has been launched asking the VC to issue a statement defending the right of students to peaceful protest: http://tinyurl.com/n37q6yz ***************************************************** STRIKE Our industrial correspondents report from the picket line. For the second time this year all the campus unions (UCU, UNITE and Unison) took industrial action. It was a cold, fine day – a 'brave' day. The tea, coffee and cake offered was very welcome. The day differed from the first day of strike action. Opinion was divided about the numbers of pickets on 'duty' – probably a handful less although interestingly pictorial evidence (as snapped by our roving reporter) from the Car Parks on campus indicate that a lot more staff were absent that day than on the previous strike day. More flags and banners this time – a beautiful NUT (showing support or secondary picketing) banner was resplendent at the top of the rise. The 'hand-made' student placards arrived late in the day (pick of the slogans: 'I am not pleased' and 'I was told this would be over by Xmas'). Whilst it was again best described as a protest rather than a picket, vehicles were turned round – a first for Lancaster University, apparently. No paper sellers and no police presence. Oddly, this time a stagecoach employee was 'employed' to stand by the bus stop to 'monitor' the distribution of leaflets to passengers. Given the seriousness of the issue and indeed the occasion the event could be described as jolly, with old and new friends meeting and sharing thoughts. Quite a number of the picketers took photographs of each other and the banners. Strangely this resulted in HR contacting the unions to complain about the intimidation of people crossing the picket line by virtue of being photographed. This was not something the picketing members had thought of doing but were grateful for the suggestion which could be employed next time. Next time... Talk inevitably turned to where we go from here. ***************************************************** HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY – STUDENT NUMBERS BY NEIL MANSON Those of you who keep one eye on higher education news — somewhat in the manner of a faithful dog worried that master is going to do something Very Bad — will have noted some odd goings on in the past few weeks. A couple of weeks ago, way back at the end of November, we had the news that BIS had gone over budget. The problem? That pesky old free market. Too many private providers had been, well, providing, and BIS has to underwrite the loans paid to all those students to whom this private provision is sold. Clearly cuts are needed, especially given Cameron's pronouncement that austerity is for life, a good thing, and not just a temporary measure to get us back on our good old Keynesian feet. A few weeks later we have Cameron's number two — or just plain Number Two, if you prefer — adding a surprise to his Advent fiscal message to the nation. Not cuts but expansion. 30,000 more places this year. Who knows how many in future, but definitely lots o'them. But wait, I hear you ask, won't this cost a lot of money? Yes it will. But where will that money come from? From selling off the existing student loan book to for-profit investors. But wait, you are still puzzled? How are top city folks, from here or from their glass towers across the globe, meant to make any money out of this? The answer is a familiar one. The state will make sure that there are profits to be had: it will either sell off the loan book off at cut price (Post Office anyone?), thus effectively using Treasury funds to subsidise private investors, or it will pursue the alternative to be found in a report leaked earlier in the year. The government paid Rothschild, back in 2010, to investigate the sale of the student loan book. Without a hint of irony, the project is called Project Hero. Rothschild recommend that in order to make the sale work, the state will have to underwrite any risk, acting as a 'synthetic hedge'. Rothschild also offer helpful 'spin' advice that those on the 1998-2012 loan book can be told: 'Of course your rate of repayment should go up, after all, others are paying much more'. A weary, cynical soul at this point might conclude that what is going on here is nothing directly to do with 'greater opportunities' for education but, rather, a greater opportunity for passing on very large sums of taxpayers' money to private financial institutions for all eternity. The past twenty years have taught us, after all: this is how a free market works, isn't it? ***************************************************** BUILDINGS I: BOWLAND TOWER The scaffolding on Bowland Tower is coming down; the rooms are due to be occupied in January. Your correspondent climbed it last week: the lift was not yet working, but we made it up the stairs to the top without the aid of oxygen. The views from the windows are superb; it has to be from the windows, because the former balconies have been incorporated into the layout and enclosed in glass. Each floor has five single rooms, each with its own tiny en-suite bathroom, together with a common area and kitchen. The fittings are to a high standard, and despite the limited area available there is a spacious feel. The rents are apparently to be the same for every floor, so those on the top floors, who will have the best views, will get a relative bargain, although also the longest climb if the lift should break down. ***************************************************** BUILDINGS II: ARCHITECTS Throughout the memories of just about everyone who works or studies here, there has been a building site with construction in progress somewhere on the campus. The place has been transformed. All in all, it has been an improvement. The external design of the buildings put up 10-15 years ago may be disappointing (we won't mention Alexandra Park), but in recent years there has been a policy of using well-known architects, and the external design quality of the buildings has been pretty good - a number have won awards. But sometimes the internal design has been less satisfactory. A case in point is the Management School's Charles Carter Building. Within the building there is a central atrium from the ground to the top floor. At each level there is a work area for postgraduate students, originally to be open to the atrium. The noise of students moving into and out of the ground-floor lecture rooms was so disturbing, and the spaces were so uncomfortable to work in - too hot on the top floor, too cold on the lower ones - that they lay almost completely unused. We understand that academic staff in the Management School drew the architects' attention to these looming problems at the design stage, but their advice was ignored. Putting it right has entailed glazing in the workspaces on every level, and installing air conditioning so that these newly-enclosed spaces are adequately ventilated. This has cost the University some quarter of a million pounds, and has increased the energy consumption of the building substantially. The much-trumpeted BREEAM Outstanding rating for low energy use is thus no longer applicable to this building. Wondering why architects have the reputation of behaving like prima donnas, subtext consulted the web site of RIBA, the Royal Institute of British Architects. We find that the Strategic Purpose of the Institute, as set out on the web, is to put RIBA members 'at the peak' of their profession, but it doesn't mention the clients' wishes at all. Below this, the Core Aims of the Institute speak of the value of architecture, and the benefits it brings to society, but these are treated as given, without any evidence in support. Considering what it costs to employ a firm of architects on a project, one would expect the client, who is paying, to get at least a mention. (Once architects have identified evidence of the value of architecture, they are expected to share it with clients, but that is the only mention the client gets.) Clients would do better to refer to the guidelines of the International Union of Architects, which state clearly that architects work 'on behalf of their clients and society' - a statement which is at least not completely self-serving. ***************************************************** BUILDINGS III: ENGINEERING BUILDING The new Engineering Building is now rising out of the ground on the site of the old Sports Centre and swimming pool. Designed by McAslan and Partners, the same architects as designed the Charles Carter Building, it has some features in common with that building, notably the central atrium, although mercifully without work areas opening on to it. The aim was once again to achieve the BREEAM Outstanding rating, but subtext has learned that already some of the features that would have contributed towards this, such as solar photovoltaic collectors on the roof and rainwater storage, have been cancelled to reduce costs. As with the Charles Carter Building, the functional requirements are, we understand, taking second place to appearance and the chance to win some awards, as well as being constrained by there being insufficient funds to do the job properly. Problems foreseen with the new building are discussed with the architects at meetings, but they are notably unwilling to take note of them, or to make changes that would alleviate them. Numbers of staff and students in Engineering have grown substantially over the past few years: there are now more staff, more undergraduates and more postgraduates than at any time in the 45-year history of the Department. Yet the new building will be smaller than the present Engineering Building. Some of the people who work in the current Engineering Building are likely to have to stay there, because there won't be enough room in the new one. ***************************************************** LANCASTER TOPS VANITY LEAGUE The Daily Mail reports that students plead poverty but then fritter away their cash on cosmetics (http://tinyurl.com/q43nmas). In their league table Lancaster is the vainest university and our 'female students spend on average £1,109 on make-up, fragrances and skincare a year'. This is odd. Walking around campus there doesn't look to be all that much make-up. We can think of two possible explanations: either it's the subtle and expensive sort of make-up that gets worn round here, or the research conducted by 'online beauty retailer Escentual', isn’t up to much. **************************************************** FUNNY OLD WORLD There is a column in the New Statesman called 'This England', which reprints stories which illustrate the unexpected, the quirky, the counter-intuitive, the ironic, the paradoxical, and even the downright strange about living on this Blessed Plot. Here are a few things along these lines that landed on our door-mat recently that might perhaps make Lancaster University folk think that we live in a really quite strange world. Lancaster's drive to recruit overseas students, particularly those from China, has, we can all agree, been a terrific success. So much so, in fact, that a recent survey of Chinese students at Lancaster, when asked 'what is the thing you like least about Lancaster University?' replied overwhelmingly 'There are too many Chinese students'. For anyone not sure, yes, that's irony. Similarly, the PFI building scheme has given us terrific new facilities at... well, at a cost. One figure that stands out is the price of getting a new key for an office in County Main. It's £20. They have to come from Germany. PFI, saving us money for the next 30 years. An interesting and unexpected effect, which might perhaps be termed the 'Law of Reverse Improvement', (LofRI) was experienced by LICA recently, though they merely identified the effect; doubtless other departments have felt the same thing. LICA improved its facilities last year and then, in the normal way of things, asked existing students what they thought of them. Their third year students actually rated their experience worse. So it seems that the LofRI works like this. In an attempt to improve its NSS ratings, the University produces new facilities, offers new services and generally bends over backwards to make students feel loved. The students who are about to graduate, and who therefore will not get to use those new facilities and services, look at the shiny new facilities and services being set out for those who are staying, compare them with the comparatively un-shiny facilities and services that they had to use, and grumpily declare their experience 'unsatisfactory'. So it seems that any aspect of the University planning on making improvements should brace itself for a dip in its NSS ratings for the next year. Who'da thought it? ***************************************************** THE WORK FOUNDATION When the University took over The Work Foundation in October 2010, subtext expressed surprise and puzzlement. The think-tank was bought out of administration, with a large hole in its pension fund, a £2 million operating loss in the 2008 accounts, and its accounts for 2009 six months overdue. We wondered how much the university had paid and what the deal was. At that time The Work Foundation was a registered charity, and so we waited for the accounts to become publicly available on the Charity Commission website. But our patience was not to be rewarded: The Work Foundation was first late in filing its accounts, and then ceased to be charity altogether in Sept 2011. But on looking at the Charity Commission website once more, we find that the Work Foundation is now a charity again, having re-registered in April 2012. Now officially called 'The Work Foundation Alliance Limited', its aims remain much the same as before. In the past, the charity aimed 'To promote the industry and commerce of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Europe in particular (but not so as to limit the foregoing) by improving management and industrial relations'. Now ambitions are bigger, and 'worldwide' has been added after 'Europe'. ***************************************************** ELF AND SAUVE QUI PEUT Interesting times for anyone becoming ill while on campus. The Nursing Unit - of blessed memory - no longer exists, which means that, while the Health Centre no doubt does an excellent job, emergency facilities on campus are limited. Porters and some other staff are trained in first-aid, but the university no longer employs any medically-qualified staff to deal with sickness and accidents on campus. The University's Emergency Procedures, which tend to mean 'stuff the Porter is supposed to do' and which therefore depend on the Porter not being called away to do any one of a myriad of possible duties, haven't yet caught up with the demise of the Nursing Unit, so there's a built-in delay right there. Anyhow. The real flaw in the system is that the porter is first expected to make a judgement as to the potential seriousness of the complaint. (If this were not true, then Emergency Procedures would run to one sentence, which would read: 'Always Ring An Ambulance Quick'.) The University porters are, without exception, hard-working, talented and public-spirited human beings, but they cannot be expected to handle this sort of possible emergency. On a normal day there are over ten thousand people of all ages on campus. Some might think that this is a tragedy waiting to happen. ***************************************************** GHANA CAMPUS New ventures with international partners are coming so thick and fast that we're failing to keep up. Lancaster Ghana started teaching in October, with 58 foundation programme students. Subjects currently on offer include management, law, international relations, computing and psychology. Kwame Dattey, Executive Secretary of the National Accreditation Board (NAB)of Ghana, would like to see more medicine and science, noting 'Although Lancaster University is commencing operations in Ghana with soft programmes, it is the hope of the government and people of Ghana that sooner rather than later you will branch into critical areas such as the provision of medical and dental education and other science and technology based disciplines' (http://www.spyghana.com/ghana-campus-of-lancaster-university-opened/). Lancaster's partner in developing the Ghana campus is Trans National Education Limited (TNE)founded by Rakesh Wahi. We haven't been able to find out much about Trans National Education Limited, which doesn't seem to have a website, or at least not one that's high-ranked by Google. Rakesh Wahi is less elusive, however, in fact he's everywhere. Wahi has investment interests in IT, telecoms, media, technology and education in the CIS, Middle East & North Africa, South & South East Asia and Sub-Sahara Africa. He is the Founder of CNBC Africa, Forbes Africa, ABN Productions, ABN Training Institute, ABN Newswire Services, ABN Digital, ABN Pictures, ABN Education Trust, Trans National Education, Murdoch University Dubai, Ananya Farms and Tech One Global (http://dubai.murdoch.edu.au/About-us/Global-Institute-Middle-East-FZ-LLC/Board-members/). Let's hope he can find time for Lancaster Ghana. ***************************************************** CONCERT REVIEW: SIMON BOLIVAR STRING QUARTET IN THE GREAT HALL This group is formed of four young string players who are principals of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. As would be expected from this background, they are brilliant performers, well able to meet the individual demands placed on them by the items in the programme of last week's concert in the Great Hall - all of them major components of the string quartet repertoire. The opening item was Mendelssohn’s A minor quartet op 13. Written in 1827 when the composer was only 18 years old, it is a masterpiece of string quartet writing. Beethoven had died earlier in the same year, and Mendelssohn was clearly influenced by the late quartets, but his individual compositional style was already clearly apparent. The quartet were well able to manage the allegro molto sections: indeed they played them faster than most in the audience had heard them played before. The second item, the 8th quartet of Shostakovich, was written in great haste in response to a visit the composer made to Dresden in 1960, and it is full of the anguish excited by the sight of the still-ruined city. The final item in the programme was the second quartet of Brahms, another substantial piece, which nonetheless the Bolivar Quartet showed themselves well able to play. For this concert in the Great Hall, the seats were arranged in the round, with the performers on a low stage in the centre. For chamber music, this enables the members of the audience both to see the performers and also to hear the music clearly - possibly almost too clearly in the case of these strong players. Everything was played, if not fortissimo, then at least with maximum emphasis. Although they played very accurately at high speed where this was called for, one felt that not all the four players were communicating fully with each other, by eye or ear. This was wonderful music brilliantly played, but it became a little bit exhausting to listen to. ***************************************************** LETTERS Nelson Mandela Coffee Bar Who remembers this friendly, rather steamy space which used to exist in the 1980s next to the Library? Following the death of Mandela, the University's website reminds us of the honorary doctorate awarded to him in 1984, but the picture accompanying this story is taken from Johannesburg. How about recreating the Nelson Mandela Coffee Bar somewhere on campus? Maggie Mort ***************************************************** The editorial collective of subtext currently consists (in alphabetical order) of: Sam Clark, Rachel Cooper (PPR), Mark Garnett, George Green, Ian Paylor, and Martin Widden.
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