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IC considering use of degree awarding powers

Nov 06 2003 16:46

Oliver Pell

Imperial College is developing plans to use its recently granted “degree awarding powers”.

Imperial College recently receiving degree awarding powers and now needs to decide whether to use them.

A paper submitted to a meeting of Imperial College’s Senate (the College’s decision making body on academic matters) yesterday suggests that Imperial College is making preparations to award its own degrees. At present, Imperial College graduates receive a University of London degree.

Under new University of London Ordinances it is now possible for Imperial to both choose to award its own degrees and remain within the University of London, though it is unclear how this might work in practice. Imperial already has its own regulations for awarding undergraduate and masters degrees and only chooses to operate within the University regulations for research degrees for administrative reasons.

A Union response to the meeting, debated at meetings of ICU Executive Committee and Academic Affairs & Welfare Committee on Tuesday, highlights a number of areas of concern for students regarding the college’s plans. Most particularly the Union was concerned about student membership of the University of London Union. In the event of Imperial awarding its own degrees but remaining a part of the University of London, any students registered to obtain non-University of London degrees would not be eligible to join ULU. The Union's response also voiced concerns regarding the loss of access to University of London facilities such as inter-collegiate Halls of Residence in the event of College leaving the University. While the Union has not formally set a policy on this issue, the response from the Union President to Senate notes that “Secession from the University of London would have a significant negative impact on Imperial students and the Union is opposed to it.”

Live! understands that the Senate meeting took the Union’s concerns onboard and did not really discuss the proposal, presumably recognizing that the only real benefits of exercising degree awarding powers are financial rather than academic. It is also possible that College is mainly interested in preparing to use degree awarding powers so as to improve its position when it comes to renegotiate its subscriptions to the University of London.

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Discussion about “IC considering use of degree awarding powers”

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. n/a

Nov 06 2003 19:15

Who cares about ULU?

To be honest, when I realized I would get a degree from the University of London, and not Imperial College, I felt rather disappointed. It would be beneficial for students to get degrees from Imperial College, provided the college keeps up its quality standards, because the Imperial reputation has the potential to eventually rival that of MIT or Oxbridge - but only if IC is a separate entity from the University of London.

Well, too late for me anyway, but I still would have preferred an Imperial College degree to a University of London one any day.

2. Sam

Nov 06 2003 19:31

bleh,

you already get an Associateship from a constituent part of Imperial College - AND a UL Degree... What more could you want you ungrateful sod ;o)

Sam Sharpe BEng (Lon) ACGI

3. Rob

Nov 07 2003 12:06

Who cares about ULU? - a good many people at IC. When I was at Imperial, the college with the largest number of ULU card holders was Imperial. The college with the largest number of ULU club members was Imperial. It's just those narrow minded, introverted people who don't realise just how important ULU is to IC students.

4. FYI

Nov 07 2003 12:20

Imperial has a joint ICU/ULU membership card.

Given that 4000 ICU cards are distributed annually (or more, but at least 4000...) I would hazard the guess that ICU is STILL the biggest single block of ULU cards...

Arif for ULU anyone?

5. YES...BUT

Nov 07 2003 14:44

I think the point Rob was making was that up until this year, when we haven't had the joint ICU/ULU card, people from IC still bothered to get their ULU cards because ULU mattered to them.

6. Graduate

Nov 07 2003 15:24

Where did you find out how to show your initials after your name. I have never worked out what to do with mine! Should we be putting (Lon) or (Hons)...? Arghhhhhhhhhhh... That should be the sort of thing they show on your degree certificate!

Bsc ... ARCS MSc DIC

(Not that I have used them since I left anyway)

7. Sam

Nov 07 2003 17:20

There are no formal rules i have ever found for degree suffix styles, however i know of a few general rules:

You list degrees in order of importance/rank
you either do BEng(Hons) or BEng (Lon) although i have seen BEng(Hons) (London)
It's usual to only list the highest award in any discipline, thus you might have Dip. M, BA(Marketing), MA(Marketing) but in normal form you would be Mr John Smith MA

Your name is not supposed to be your CV, and suffixes should only be used when the occasion demands. You might like to highlight your PhD when applying for related jobs for example, or maybe your ACGI when corresponding with other Engineering Graduates... whatever - as long as you don't need a seperate business card for your suffixes and don't look like too much of a poser it's generally considered acceptable. I don't actually have degree info on my business cards cos it's not relevant.

Closedd This discussion is closed.