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Humanities Paper Falls Foul

Jun 18 2009 21:23

Kirsty Patterson

An Imperial College Union Paper taken to Imperial College Senate yesterday saw little or no movement from the College on Humanities course cuts.

Senate Says No! (Except Japanese. Maybe...)

The Imperial College Union Paper, drafted by Council, was discussed at yesterday's Senate in 170 Queen's Gate. The paper followed on from protests that hoped to achieve a turnaround from College on the proposed cuts to the humanities programme. Attended by DPEW Hannah Theodorou, who wrote the paper, accompanied by President Jenny Morgan and incoming DPE Jon Silver, the proposal fell on practically deaf ears.

Incumbent Education Sabbatical, Jon Silver, told Live! that Senate admitted the initial Humanities Review had been 'rushed' but that the issue now was purely financial and Senate would not backdown on the decision to cut the department's budget by 60%. Silver admitted that all departments would be facing serious financial belt tightening but he was concerned that the agenda was driven so much by the monetary cost of the programmes rather than their long term benefits. He said that some leeway had been made with Japanese Language only, where Senate had agreed to take a new look at the proposals but there were no concrete promises to save the course in its current format.

Guilds President Mark Mearing-Smith, who was party to the conversation, was appalled at the short-sightedness, claiming that the financial benefit of such minor cuts was virtually negligible, especially when compared to the tragic loss of opportunity for all undergraduate students.

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Discussion about “Humanities Paper Falls Foul”

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. Clean Hands

Jun 19 2009 00:44

Oh my God .... What a surprise! I did not see this one coming, next they're going to tell me Copernicus was right

2. *

Jun 19 2009 02:18

"some leeway had been made with Japanese Language only" - perhaps because Japanese is one of the most taken languages there, probably only second to French.

3. Louis

Jun 22 2009 02:01

So there is a glimmer of hope... please save Japanese... please save Japanese...

4. |an

Jun 23 2009 10:22

And Russian? I mean, obviously there isn't any money or future in Russia, who needs gas and oil anyway!

Can't believe the short-sightedness of the decision. Im sure they could have cut half the staff in the Faculty Building. Who goes there anyway!

5. Justin

Jun 23 2009 15:45

Students of Imperial need Humanities and the programs they offer to make their education more rounded and themsleves therefore more attractive to potential employers. This is not my opinion, this comes from criticism of IC graduate skills and the root cause for the development of the Humanities programme in the first place.

By allowing these cuts, Senate are therefore showing disdain for the very students they oversee and are showing that they care little for their undergraduate's educational needs.

6. Clean Hands

Jun 23 2009 18:11

If you want to learn Japanese you can always join Japanese society. They do Japanese lessons that I hear are quite good.

7. Jeremy

Jun 23 2009 22:04

I fully agree with Justin. One of the reasons for coming to Imperial was so that I could ensure I had a course available to me throughout in preparation for my Year in Europe programme. With the cut to only two teaching hours per week, however, the potential of many will be SEVERELY hampered. It's not enough by any means, especially for higher levels.

8. Jonathan Silver

Jul 05 2009 18:42

It must be clarified that the cuts are being made to the subsidy of Humanities and not the teaching provision. As far as I understand, ALL the courses that currently run will continue to run - subject to demand, of course - but those courses that have fallen victim to these cuts will no longer be provided free of charge.

The Rector has said that, where departments believe provision is particularly important for their students, they will have the option to pay to enable their students to still take the courses for free. Of course, this is unlikely to be the case for any humanities not taken for credit.

9. @Jonathan

Jul 07 2009 23:39

"Subject to demand" - how much demand is there likely to be for the less popular languages if the courses are no longer free (other than for a select few whose department pays)?

10. cheep

Jul 08 2009 00:20

Cheap bastards - PAY FOR YOUR OWN EXTRA SUBJECTS YOU POOR PRICKS

11. Jonathan

Jul 13 2009 00:13

Simply, if there aren't enough people to make up a class, they won't run it - like any such course.

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