Are redundancies now being sought in most British Universities? When I was in Scotland and England last year, there was a lot of talk about impending debts at Faculty and institutional level, but no concrete plans about how to proceed. Sounds like it has moved on.
Grafton's article (replete with a few clichés) suggests people are now fighting for their jobs, but there is not much discussion. Presumably Unions are fighting it, but how well? Are Geography Departments threatened? If so, we need to know. I thought rising student numbers in the UK would be heading off financial disaster?
Australian universities have seen 'lets cut jobs' as well since the GFC hit, but with the background of a stronger economy and some major government initiatives providing research jobs. Some universities are even beginning to replace the people they cut last year. Which makes you wonder whether those cuts could have been avoided in the first place.
Dr. Simon Batterbury, Director,
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University of Melbourne, 3010 VIC Australia.
+61 (0)3 8344 5073/3314 Fax: +61 (0)3 8344 5650
http://www.environment.unimelb.edu.au
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-----Original Message-----
From: Dr Jon Cloke [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Monday, 29 March 2010 3:50 AM
Subject: Britain: The Disgrace of the Universities
Britain: The Disgrace of the Universities
New York Review blog
Anthony Grafton
http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/437005501/britain-the-disgrace-of-the-universities
British universities face a crisis of the mind and spirit.
For thirty years, Tory and Labour politicians,
bureaucrats, and "managers" have hacked at the traditional
foundations of academic life. Unless policies and
practices change soon, the damage will be impossible to
remedy.
As an "Occasional Student" at University College London in
the early 1970s and a regular visitor to the Warburg
Institute, Oxford,
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