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Imperial Reshaped

Mar 21 2001 10:46

Kevin

Sykes' Strategy Team announce plans for the future of Imperial.

Chris Towler - The man with the vision

ICU President Hamish Common yesterday met with Dr Christopher Towler, Imperial's Director of Strategy development. The union president was told officially for the first time that the College's upcoming academic plan is to create four faculties/schools :

Medicine
Life Sciences
Physical Sciences
Engineering

There will be very little, if any effect on current students as there will be no changes to current courses though there will obviously be an effect in the long term. One surprise in the announcement is that life sciences and medicine are remaining separate. One of the initial effects on students will be a loss of prestigious departmental identities. The College position on CCUs is unclear, probably because they don't have one yet. The future of CCUs will be one of a host of topics which will be discussed when Hamish meets the Rector on Thursday. As always Hamish welcomes any comments .

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Discussion about “Imperial Reshaped”

The comments below are unmoderated submissions by Live! readers. The Editor accepts no liability for their content, nor for any offence caused by them. Any complaints should be directed to the Editor.

1. Jason McKee

Mar 21 2001 11:11

Hmmm,

I thought that this information was "embargoed", i.e. not for release, until later today. Are you trying to get someone into trouble Richard?

2. Stuart Davis

Mar 21 2001 17:21

Everyone should concentrate on talking about the issue at hand. After all, this is something that will affect all CCUs equally.

3. Mustafa Arif

Mar 21 2001 17:25

One thing that needs to be considered is that each CCU is different. Some have stronger identies. Some are events-centric while others serve their students in different ways. It will be difficult to find a one-side-fits-all solution to the CCUs. Re-modelling CCUs along faculty lines seems an obvious step but there are deep cultural issues that may make it impractical.

4. Editor

Mar 21 2001 17:28

As a point of information, a College Notice has come out today outlining the above vision. In any case Hamish isn't the only student who was told directly by College, and several emails sent by Hamish have been forwarded around. So the info is already in the public domain, and I don't recall seeing any specific embargo on Hamish's email to ICU Council. I am therefore prepared to leave the article on the site.

5. Mustafa Arif

Mar 21 2001 21:01

http://www.ad.ic.ac.uk/strategy/ could make interesting reading.

6. impish ingrid

Mar 27 2001 19:44

3 point plan for IC to become a proper university:

1. Abolish mascotry - its not only stupid, but is now irrelevent

2. Take over somewhere with some ARTS DEPARTMENTS (the Royal College of Music would be a start, only we'd have to reclassify it as "The Imperial College School of the Audible Sciences" for it be legal, apparently)

3. Knock down Sherfield and build something older.

7. Dickie Sykes

Mar 27 2001 19:50

CONFIDENTIAL:

Strategy for getting rid of undergrads:

1. Abolish the only organisations that organise decent social functions (CCUs)

2. Put up the fees (19 grand a year is a nice, round figure)

3. Sack all the UG teaching staff

4. Blame it all on the medics

5. Abolish the department of biology

6. Blame it on the medics

7. Abolish the medical school (tenacious buggers, they won't have left yet)