Further to the discussions about Birmingham Cult Studies/Sociology that
have already happened on this list, the e-mail below provides
information about the current, disturbing state of play and how to
protest the closure. There is also, apparently, a piece on the closure
that will shortly appear in _The Chronicle of Higher Education_, and so
North American subscribers to the list, look out!
Dr. Felicity Callard
Lecturer in Human Geography
Department of Geography
Royal Holloway, University of London
------ Forwarded Message
From: dawson <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: dawson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2002 16:50:19 +0100
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Closure of B'ham Cult Studies and Sociology
Quite a lot of people seem to be having trouble reading the attachments
with the briefing document that I
sent out a few days ago, so I'm pasting the message into main body of
email. Apologies if you've accessed this already.
Graham Dawson
***
Closure of Birmingham Cultural Studies and Sociology Department
Information Update (10 July 2002)
This is a briefing document on the current situation, cobbled
together from the Birmingham AUT Newsletter and other emails that have
been circulating around Cultural Studies networks in the UK.
What has happened?
1. A week after term ended, the 14 academic staff received a curt email
telling them that the Department of Cultural Studies and Sociology is to
be "closed in its present form". Only 3.5 posts would be retained. All
14 staff were invited to seek one of these posts or discuss 'voluntary'
severance by July 31st. Letters sent to to students assert,
untruthfully,
that the department is being "restructured" and that staff "may elect
to
pursue their careers elsewhere".
2. According to the local AUT [Association of University Teachers, the
lecturersU union in the ToldU universities in the UK], the staff who are
retained "would be dispersed to English, European Studies and Social
Policy, according to where they are perceived to fit". The AUT explains
that the emphasis of the so-called "reorganisation" is to be "on
maintaining and developing the existing, ten-times-oversubscribed,
undergraduate courses in Cultural Studies and Sociology". The senior
manager responsible for this claims that "courses can be maintained with
fewer staff, by changing the courses somewhat to redistribute the
teaching
to TunderemployedU staff elsewhere in the University. He claims that
risk
analysis had shown that the risk of the change is acceptable and that
the
new activities will be an improvement on the present ones."
3. This means that over 200 current undergraduate students on two
programmes - the BA Media, Culture, Society and BA Sociology - will
return
in October to find that their department no longer exists and most of
their tutors have been sacked. Meanwhile, a new intake is being
admitted.
These students came and are coming to Birmingham because of the
deservedly
high reputation of these popular and successful degree programmes. The
Sociology degree has been top of league tables in The Guardian for the
three years since its inception. The 40 places in the Sociology and the
70 or so places in the Cultural Studies undergraduate programmes are at
least 10:1 oversubscribed. Now, under the UniversityUs "restructuring"
plans, instead of the prestigious and high-quality programmes for which
they enrolled, these students will be offered a motley assortment of
courses assembled swiftly over the summer, and taught mostly at short
notice by non-specialist tutors, who will be based in other departments
(and under pressure from the AUT since they will be covering for sacked
colleagues). The student:staff ratio would be 50:1 in Cultural Studies
and 145:1 in Sociology. These degree programmes, vandalised and
fragmented, and in the absence of the tutors qualified to teach them,
will
inevitably suffer a massive deterioration in standards. Yet this
devastation is presented as an improvement.
4. The AUT says that: "Apparently no consideration has been given to
the
vibrant Masters programmes and the large numbers of PhD students", who
have also come to Birmingham because of the high quality and reputation
of
the department. Its existing postgraduate students seem to have been
informed as an afterthought, and their needs and interests entirely
neglected in the "restructuring plan". Feepaying PhD students will
experience the abrupt loss of their supervisors, and thus will be
required
to TfindU other advisers or to transfer to another university,
inevitably
suffering in the process a scandalous and damaging disruption to their
studies. The University made no attempt to offer postgraduates any
discussion of their specific circumstances, nor advice as to how they
were
supposed to continue conducting their research in such an environment.
A
range of external funding issues have been given no consideration: what,
for example, becomes of grants which are department- and
institution-specific, or involve other conditions set by funding bodies?
Why did it happen?
1. "The brutal result of one disappointing result in the research
exercise
plus university managers showing their machismo across this and other
universities" (anonymous Birmingham lecturer).
2. According to the AUT Newsletter (July 2002), Cultural Studies and
Sociology is one of seven areas of the University "deemed to require
urgent reorganization" - with others to be "sorted out" next year:
"Despite the fact that there has not yet been any ruling on the legality
of the University's earlier attempts to establish a redundancy
committee,
the central management has been moving fast and hard in their attempt to
reduce staff numbers in targeted areas of the University ... there is no
evidence of any real financial crisis in this University ... [T]his is a
resource-rich University, which only recently we were being assured had
sound finances ... The claimed justification for immediate attack on
targeted areas is a demand by University Council that Schools with
deficits must be sorted out, initially, by the end of July 2002. The
situation in several areas is vastly worsened by the new 'transparent'
but
crude Corporate Charging 'Model' which will push a number of previously
financially successful areas into deficit and may make some completely
non-viable."
3. While not opposed to restructuring in principle, the AUT point out
that in this case there has been no "proper academic planning", nor have
plans for staff reductions been "implemented using voluntary severance
and
redeployment on a timescale which takes full account of the commitments
to, and interests of, students, commitments to research, the
consequential
impact on other areas and, of course, the interests of the members of
staff affected. The approach and speed of movement of the central
management suggests ... a determination to restructure and remove staff
on
a
ridiculously short timescale with, in many cases, no or only scant
regard
to the academic and potentially devastating personal consequences."
4. If this kind of brutal university-style managerialism is able to
close down, sack and vandalize a Department with such a history and
reputation, with utter contempt for its students and staff alike, and
without even a gesture towards the humane and academic values that it is
supposed to exist to uphold, then there isnUt a Humanities or Social
Sciences Department in the country with a secure future.
What is being/can be done to protest and reverse the closure?
1. Postgraduate students of the Department are in the process of
developing their protest action against the University's decision to
close
the Department. Supporters will be informed of these actions once they
have finalized their plans, but in the meantime, they say: "We feel it
is
critical that the University begin to get some sense of the value of
this
programme outside of this institution. To that end, we are encouraging
an
email campaign. If you agree that the demise of Cultural Studies at
Birmingham is an outrage, then please take a moment and drop a line to
one
(or all) of the following administrators to let them know precisely
that":
Professor Michael Sterling
Vice Chancellor
[log in to unmask]
Professor Colin Rickwood
Dean of Arts and Social Sciences
[log in to unmask]
Professor Stuart Croft
Head of the School of Social Sciences
[log in to unmask]
NB if the Vice ChancellorUs email appears to be down, use his postal
address :
University of Birmingham,
Birmingham B15 2TT,
UK
Send a copy with a message of support to the students, at these contact
addresses:
Alan Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
Inez H. Templeton <[log in to unmask]>
2. To maximize the bad PR for the University, and bring political
pressure to bear, forward any letters sent - or write directly - to:
(i) Your own local MP;
(ii) Lynne Jones, MP for Birmingham Selly Oak (where most of the
students
live): <[log in to unmask]>
(iii) Gisela Stuart, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston (where the University
is
located), email link available on:
<http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/contactingmp.htm>
(iv) Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for Higher Education:
<[log in to unmask]>, or via email link as above.
Postal address for all MPs: House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA.
3. If you are a former student or member of staff of the Department of
Cultural Studies and Sociology, or its precursor, the Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies, you could add your name to the
signatories
of the following letter to be sent to the Times Higher Education
Supplement next week:
Dear Sir,
As former students and members of staff, we write to deplore the
University of Birmingham's recent decision to close down its Department
of
Cultural Studies and Sociology.
It is widely acknowledged that the department was a leading centre for
the
teaching of sociology and cultural studies, with a vigorous intellectual
culture and an illustrious history.The decision to close it will
inevitably
have a detrimental impact on its current students and staff and raises
important issues of principle about how a major public employer spends
its
money and treats its members. However, the decision must also be seen as
an
attack on the position of sociology and cultural studies in the UK
academy.
As such, we believe this decision puts in question Birmingham's
international repuatation as a first class university.
Yours sincerely, etc
To sign the letter, email your wish to do so, together with your Title,
Surname and Initial, and
Institution and address, to: <[log in to unmask]>. Peter will collate
and send all to the THES. To meet their deadline of the morning of Tues
16 July, he will need replies by noon on Mon 15 July at the latest.
4. Trades Unionists - especially AUT or natfhe in UK:
(i) get your local branch officers to pass an emergency motion
expressing
support for the tutors who have lost their jobs, and send to Birmingham
AUT: <[log in to unmask]>;
(ii) get your local branch officers to send a letter condemning the
closure, the cuts and the sackings to the University of BirminghamUs
senior managers, as above;
(ii) lobby your national leadership to make a public statement
condemning
the closure, the cuts and the sackings, and demanding the immediate
reinstatement of the Department and all its staff.
5. Anyone with a good press contact who would be interested in the
real,
unreported, story behind the Birmingham closure - i.e. how students in
2002 can (apparently) be treated by a 'major' British university -
please
contact Michael Green on <[log in to unmask]>.
6. Some possible texts for a letter of protest:
(i)
Dear Professors Sterling, Rickwood, and Croft,
I am writing to you on behalf of XXX to protest about the reported
closure
of the
Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham. I am
sure
that I speak for all my colleagues in expressing the outrage over this
summary closure, and this must be true about every department or school
of
cultural studies elsewhere in the world. The Birmingham Cultural Studies
Department was not only at the forefront of research and teaching of
this
new
discipline, but could be said to have been the founder and pioneering
parent
of it! What is today known as British Cultural Studies was indeed born
and
nurtured at your university, and to close down this important centre, in
the
manner now emerging, is to my mind an irresponsible act of
mismanagement.
The
decision taken at this point of the academic year, after the staff have
invested so much work and effort in reshaping and improving the
provision,
and without consultation with the department or the unions involved,
seems
to
me at best miscalculated, an error of judgement which must be put right.
I appeal to you to immediately reconsider this seemingly hasty and
erroneous
decision, and to repeal this measure. There are no doubt things which
could
be improved, as there are in any school, at any university. Those could
be
safely done with the staff properly consulted. This proposed closure is
not
only a shameful burying of tradition and academic excellence, but also a
real
disaster for the hundreds of students who have enrolled onto programmes
which
have enjoyed the Birmingham Cultural Studies imprint, and properly
expected
to get the programmes they enrolled for. The treatment of students and
staff
seems callous and ill-considered, and I hope that you may be able to
reverse
the decision without delay, and before the damage is any deeper.
Yours sincerely,
(ii)
Dear Professors Sterling, Rickwood, and Croft,
>
> I am outraged, as will be every single member of XXX, to hear the news
of the summary
> closure of the Cultural Studies Department by the University of
> Birmingham. Your department has played an unexcelled role in the
> development of Cultural Studies internationally. It has produced
> top-quality, innovative research for over three decades, and provided
the
> intellectual formation and inspiration for a generation of scholars
who
> have gone on to build up departments in other institutions in Britain
and
> overseas, turning Cultural Studies into an area of work at the very
centre
> of the Humanities and Social Sciences. It would be difficult to
> over-estimate the regard in which the former Centre for Contemporary
> Cultural Studies, and latterly the Department of Cultural Studies, is
held
> by those who have benefitted from its creativity over the years.
>
> As a former postgraduate student of CCCS, with a doctorate from
> Birmingham, I can vouch personally for the equally high quality of the
> department's teaching, that rests on traditions of pedagogic
innovation
> and intense commitment to students on the part of its staff , that the
> University ought to take pride in. After the merger of CCCS with
> Sociology and the move into undergraduate teaching, the department
> successfully adapted its principles to meet these demands with
customary
> energy and quality of provision - as recognised in the recent TQA.
>
> The secretive and underhand way in which the closure of the department
was
> 'announced' - and the fact that it was done without consultation with
> lecturers or their trades union - is an insult to the dedication of
staff
> who have lost their jobs overnight, demonstrates a callous
indifference
to
> the education of the students who will be affected by it, and is
> unprecedented in recent labour relations in the universities. This in
> itself will be sufficient to blacken the name of the University of
> Birmingham and the senior managers responsible. It will also ensure
> weighty and widespread support for the campaign to reverse this
appalling
> decision, which undoubtedly will follow.
>
> I call upon you to undo the damage without delay by restoring the
> department and reinstating the lecturers who have been sacked.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
(iii)
It makes no sense to me that this internationally
renowned department in a large, successful university,
with a massive reputation for research leadership and innovation,
teaching
provision of the highest quality, and extremely healthy undergraduate
and
postgraduate recruitment should be shut down. How can that make any
sense?
That it should happen so appallingly badly is just plain bloody minded
...
(iv)
There is a major issue in principle about how a major public employer
spends its money and treats
students and staff.
*
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