Dear colleagues,
What form could a humane retrenchment take? We are not at liberty to
reassemble in a small number of very strong German departments that
would have a longterm chance. All we can do is try to defend German in
our own institutions. (Perhaps accepting some teaching on courses that
recruit better is not a bad idea.)
Klaus Fischer
A.R.Deighton wrote:
> Dear colleagues,
>
> My first thought on reading Professor Hahn's message was to hope that
> his ex-colleagues are young enough to find something else to do in
> life, and my second was "Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein
> Schrecken ohne Ende", but, of course, his outrage is absolutely
> justified. His tale of duplicity and betrayal is appalling even by
> the low standards university managers generally live by and just shows
> how far things have come, but in our shock we should not lose sight of
> the underlying issue: the clear warning to the rest of us how much
> worse things will get, even for those colleagues who believe themselves
> to be in what outsiders (and perhaps they themselves) still regard as
> relatively safe departments.
> The decline in numbers taking German at A-level will undoubtedly
> continue (in case you've forgotten: an 8% decline in AS-level in 2004
> to around 8,300, only some 6,300 A-level entrants in 2004 from a
> crop of 9,100 AS-levels in 2003: so, at the same rate of attrition,
> there will be only around 5,800 A-level entrants in 2005). Surely we
> have to face the fact that however desperately this country may need
> greater and better knowledge of the German-speaking world, however
> much the DAAD, the Goethe Institut, we ourselves, even Joschka
> FIscher, may huff and puff, however much good teaching and research is
> presently still continuing, in fact the game is up: within a short space
> of time the study of German at degree level in this country will be as
> rare as the study of Georgian. What we need is a planned, sensible,
> humane retrenchment; we might then be able to end the uncontrolled
> lashing out of (pro-)vice-cancellorial axemen whose vision has been
> obscured by pound signs.
>
> Alan Deighton
> Department of German
> Univerity of Hull
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Dr Klaus Fischer
Reader in German
London Metropolitan University
Department of Humanities, Arts and Languages
City Campus
Calcutta House
Old Castle Street
London E1 7NT
Tel: 020 7320 1230
Fax: 020 7320 1234
PLEASE NOTE: London Metropolitan University was formed on 1st August
2002 by a merger of London Guildhall University and the University of
North London.
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