Students and staff at the
University of Glasgow's Crichton Campus (UGCC) in
Dumfries, Scotland, need your help.
Because the situation is somewhat comlplicated, I
should fill in some
background information.
The Crichton Campus is based in Dumfries. It opened
less than ten years ago,
to provide Higher Education opportunities for a region
which, until then,
had no Higher Education institution. This caused
demographic, cultural,
economic and social problems for the area as large
numbers of young people
left the area for HE not to return. Also because of
lack of provision,
Dumfries and Galloway had one of the smallest uptakes
of Higher education in
the country.
The Crichton Camus is made up predominantly of three
institutions, each of
which has its main organisational centre outwith the
area. The three
institutions are Bell
College, who provide nurse
training (whose centre is
in Hamilton); Paisley University who provide
predominantly computing and
management courses and Glasgow University who provide
predominantly Arts and
Humanities courses and post-grad provision. There was
a prior agreement by
the institutions to avoid replication, so each
institution concentrates on
particular sections of the curriculum.
The campus lacks most of the basic elements required.
There are few sports
facilities, no students union, no refectory so there
is nowhere for staff
and students to have a hot meal. However it does have
committed staff and
students, who provide in these less than ideal
circumstances, by all current
accepted measures, educational experiences of very
high quality
On Wednesday evening at 6pm the Principal of the
University of Glasgow
(based in Glasgow), announced that he was closing
Glasgow
University's part
of the Crichton Campus. What this means for staff and
students is still
fairly vague, but it is not good: redundancies for
staff, truncated academic
careers for students, and lack of educational
opportunities for future
students in the region, and the ending of a
significant cultural resource
for the region as a whole.
Because of the complicated structure of the Campus,
with many institutional
partners, the land being owned by the council and an
incredibly labyrinthine
funding arrangement from the Scottish Funding Council,
everyone responsible
has the possibility to blame someone else for closing
the campus down. The
Principal, Muir Russell is blaming the Funding
Council, the Funding Council
is blaming the Princial; the Scottish Executive also
bear some
responsibility for underresourcing, as do the local
council for not
providing basic infrastructure on the
site.
Students and staff are not taking the threatened
closure lying down. There
has been a meeting
to plan actions to
pressurise all the relevant authorities to have the
closure decision
overturned. I shall keep the list informed of the
decisions to seek
relevant help.
In the meantime, it would
nonetheless help enormously if fellow academics, professinals and policy makers could write
to the following
authorities to pressurise them to act to reverse the
closure decision. If
members of the list could write to just two or three
of the people below it
could influence decisions that are about to be taken
this Friday.
To the following, we would be grateful if you would
ask that they reverse
the decision with regards to funding for the
University of Glasgow Crichton
Campus:
Sir Muir Russell,
The Principal
University of
Glasgow
Glasgow
G12
[log in to unmask]Roger McClure
Chief Executive
Scottish Funding Council
Donaldson House
97 Haymarket Terrace
Edinburgh
EH12 5HD
[log in to unmask]To the following we would be grateful if you would ask
them to do all in
their power to pressurise the responsible bodies to
reverse the decision,
and ensure that adequate funding is provided for
University of Glasgow at
the Crichton Campus
* Jack McConnell - First Minister
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
[log in to unmask]* Nicol Steven
Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning
The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP
[log in to unmask]* Philip Jones
Chief Executive
Dumfries and Galloway Council
Council Offices,
English Street,
Dumfries,
DG1 2DD
* Thomas Sloan
Leader of
Dumfries and Galloway Council
Dumfries and Galloway Council
Council Offices,
English Street,
Dumfries,
DG1 2DD
It would also be helpful, following the reports in The
Scotsman, The THES and The
Herald, this week, if letters were sent to them,
supporting the staff and
students of GUCC.
I shall write more following Wednesday's meeting,
following other tyes of
action in support.
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to be
in touch. I shall do my
best to answer them.
Sincerely,
