For information.

Gurminder


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Dear all

UCU's Education from the Cradle to the Grave Conference took place on Saturday, with speakers including Jeremy Corbyn, Natalie Bennett, Liz Lawrence and Andrew McGettigan. See http://www.ucu.org.uk/defendpubed16 for more information.

Meanwhile, in Higher Education, the debate about the Green Paper continues. Criticism of the Government's narrow ambition for HE has come from quarters we might not expect.

See, for instance, https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/university-cambridge-green-paper-plans-risk-considerable-damage

On behalf of the Convention organising committee, can I warmly encourage colleagues to circulate information about the HE Convention (below) on academic lists?

Even if you have done this already, with three weeks to go now would be a good time to send out a reminder.

For up-to-date info, see the Convention website at http://heconvention2.wordpress.com

Best wishes,


Sean

PS. If you have an hour to spare, can I recommend the PBS Frontline documentary, Colleges Inc (2010) for an insight into what the "for profit" sector have done in the USA.
>> http://www.thirteen.org/programs/frontline/college-inc

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The Second Convention

The HE Green Paper:
The Threat to the Public University
…and what we can do about it

Saturday 27 February, 10am-5pm

Christopher Ingold Chemistry Building, University College London

Supported by the Campaign for the Public University (CPU), the University and Colleges Union (UCU), London Region UCU, and the following UCU branches: Dundee, Imperial, Liverpool, Newcastle and UCL.

Speakers

Confirmed speakers include: Lee Jones (CPU) on the TEF, Liz Morrish on Performance Management, Liz Lawrence (UCU President) on Private Providers and Terry Brotherstone (UCU) on Governance.

Others speaking include Joanna De Groot (UCU), Prof Roger Brown (CDBU), Natalie Fenton (Goldsmiths UCU), Prof Martin McQuillan (CDBU), and John Holmwood (CPU).
Provisional Timetable

10.00-10.30 Welcome
10.30-11.45 Teaching quality, social mobility and the TEF – The rise of metrics and the uncapping of fees
11.45-13.00 Opening the market to private providers – Easy come, easy go?
Measure anything, fail everyone? – The growth of the ‘performance management’ agenda

13.00-14.00 break

14:00-15.15 Deregulation, the attack on governance and statutes – Is academic freedom under threat?
The future of research
15.15-16.30 Strategies to win – How do we defend the Public University?
16.30-17.00 Conclusions and next steps

Organisation

The Convention will be structured around the stated premises of the Green Paper in order to coordinate a collective collegiate response to it. Sessions are intended to be both informative and participatory.

The Convention is open to everyone who cares about the future of the Public University and the threat the Green Paper represents to academic freedom.

More information, posters/leaflets for display and how to book, go to: http://heconvention2.wordpress.com/paper-and-convention

-- 
Sean Wallis
joint vice president, UCL UCU
UCU NEC member
020 7679 3120 (int. 33120)
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For enquiries about joining UCU email [log in to unmask]
Website: www.ucl.ac.uk/unions/UCU
--
Sean Wallis
Senior Research Fellow
Survey of English Usage, University College London
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
Tel: (+44) [0]20 7679 3120 (internal: 33120)
Web: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage
Home: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/staff/sean
Blog: http://corplingstats.wordpress.com