Dear Dr Reershemius,
I fear that this may be an outcome of comments that I made to a
prospective student last week in Leeds. In actual fact, I was told by
the student that he had applied to Aston but was considering Leeds also.
He asked me to clarify me the difference between the types of courses
offered. He prefaced this by saying that he was particularly interested
in interpreting and translation and applied language. I said that my
UNDERSTANDING was that Aston was probably MORE focussed on translation
and interpreting than we are, that Aston in fact almost certainly does
these particular aspects of German studies BETTER than we do (we don't
specialise at all in these things). I checked this later and found this
to be the case - Aston simply offers far more than we do in these areas.
Asked then (he returned with his parents) about what strengths WE had, I
replied that we have a broad curriculum and see our strengths as being
in literary and cultural fields. In fact, I thought I was doing a rather
good job of advertising Aston by telling the student that if HIS
particular interests were in translation and interpreting, then we might
not be his best first choice! I fear that he may have inferred from my
comments that I was saying ALL Aston did was translation and
interpreting and that ALL we did was literature and culture! In fact my
intention was purely to give a fair picture of what we do here in Leeds
- precisely so as not to make promises that we can't keep and not to
have a disappointed student in a couple of years time whom we have
recruited on falses premises. Nonetheless, I am sorry for any offence
caused.
I hope this clarifies what happened. It is not my experience at all that
colleagues at other institutions would denigrate other departments for
the sake of recruitment and hope that this email will be read in that
spirit,
With best wishes,
Stuart Taberner
-----Original Message-----
From: JISCmail German Studies List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dr Gertrud
Reershemius
Sent: 24 February 2005 15:20
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: New dimension
The struggle to keep up student numbers seems to have entered a new
dimension: I received a phone call from a very nervous applicant who had
put down Aston as his first choice for Single Honours German. He went
to another university - he was hesitant to name the institution
- for an Open Day where applicants were treated to an assessment of
competing German departments. The applicant was told among other things
that in Aston students of German would be taught within a narrow
curriculum with single emphasis on translation studies. I don't need to
underline that this is simply untrue and that I consider this sort of
assessment as slander. Am I being naive in assuming that this is not
common practise but an unprecedented low?
Gertrud
--
Dr Gertrud Reershemius
Senior Lecturer in German Linguistics
Director of German Studies
School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University GB -
Birmingham B4 7ET
Tel: 0044-121-2043787
FAX: 0044-121- 2043766
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