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Alarming news from Wales - Sith - 6th October 2005
Hello all
I don't know how many others here subscribe to Britarch, but if you don't then you might be interested to read the two emails circulated there regarding the ongoing turmoil at the university of Wales, Newport (apologies in advance fo length):
03/10/2005
Archaeology at the University of Wales, Newport
The management of the University of Wales, Newport have decided to close down the Department of Archaeology at Caerleon, which will cease to exist in two years time. This will be a great loss for archaeology in South Wales - staff at the department have an enviable publication record for such a small department, and have been very active in research projects at Ogmore-on-Sea (mesolithic and neolithic occupation), Lodge Hill (Iron Age and post-Roman hillfort) and Gray Hill (multi-period upland landscape). They have also been involved with local archaeological groups. Many UWN graduates have gone on to work in museums, and have taken up curatorial and contracting positions in many archaeological trusts and commercial field units, including the National Museum of Wales, the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust, Wessex Archaeology and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit. Archaeology at UWN has also been very active in lending their support to groups such as the Friends of the Newport Ship, following the find of the well-preserved medieval ship in Newport.
Despite being told earlier this year to go ahead and recruit a new 1st year undergraduate cohort, this decision was suddenly reversed in August (when most staff were away on research projects), and those students which had been accepted have now been told to reapply elsewhere. Many are now considering legal action against the UWN management. Existing 2nd and 3rd year students will therefore be the last at Newport. Archaeology staff were also told to cut the number of hours in existing taught modules, and it will not now be possible to have the same breadth of options and staff members for teaching (several part-time posts have already been cut). Although this is being strongly resisted, this has very worrying implications for academic standards. Archaeology has also been moved into a new School of Health and Social Science, whereas History, with whom Archaeology had previously very close contacts, has been moved into the separate School of Education. Many 2nd and 3rd year students are now also considering legal action too, and they will be publicly protesting these decisions on Tuesday 4th October.
Archaeology at Newport's Caerleon campus had already lost their Archaeology Centre. Although Archaeology had been encouraged to submit a bid for the redevelopment of the existing building, in secret and without the knowledge of any Archaeology staff, UWN management were also considering a planning application for the same site, to develop it as further space for Art, Media and Design (despite a new campus for these subjects being planned for the centre of Newport). The head of Archaeology at Newport, Professor Stephen Aldhouse-Green, only found out this out by accident when he overheard a conversation between two members of Estates staff in a corridor! On several occasions in the past few years, UWN management and the Vice-Chancellor Professor James Lusty in particular, have been disingenuous with Archaeology staff and have not informed them of key decisions relating to their subject area.
Archaeology have since had to move into two very cramped rooms, with very inadequate facilities for the storage of site archives and the numerous artefacts in the department's teaching collection. Having been reassured that enough room would be made available on the Caerleon campus, this is not the case, and it now seems likely that staff and students will have to travel to the Alt-yr-Yn campus in Newport for some lectures. (There is an obvious irony in that, despite being closed for an ostensible lack of students, the department now has too many for the allocated rooms). At the beginning of this semester vital equipment such as data projectors and
computers were still not in place at Caerleon. Postgraduate archaeology students are being moved into one room shared with other humanities postgraduates, and this small room has very inadequate facilities, and is directly beneath a noisy undergraduate hall of residence. Given the insecurity of existing staff posts, there are also doubts about the continued provision of supervision for these postgraduates.
As I have mentioned, our undergraduate students are considering legal
action and are mounting a series of public protests, beginning tomorrow on Tuesday 4th October. I would urge anyone who cares about the provision of academic archaeology in Britain, and about archaeology in South Wales, to write to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales, Newport, and to the new Dean of Health and Social Science. It would be particularly good to have the support of leading academics from other archaeology departments in Britain, and from the Council for British Archaeology, RESCUE and the Institute of Field Archaeologists.
Adrian Chadwick
Department of Archaeology
University of Wales, Newport
Caerleon Campus
PO Box 179
05/10/2005
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The University of Wales, Newport, will be closing down its archaeology department in 2007.
This means that they have taken away our archaeology building, which means that we now have to fit into whatever free space there is on campus, often too small for all of us to fit in to, we have lost a lecturer and our lecture time has been cut by almost 50%, often meaning that we have subject lectures every other week.
We need you to spread the word to anyone that you feel can help us to save our course!
I have always had only a slim grasp of university departmental politics but even I think that this sounds like a bit of a rum do. What does everyone else think?
S
Alarming news from Wales - Curator Kid - 6th October 2005
This reads rather like a nasty fait accompli to me. However, publicising these kinds of methods always makes the perpetrators squirm, and they sometimes backtrack. Is there anything to sign to express support? I'd be happy to do that - I'd even use my real name!
Alarming news from Wales - eggbasket - 6th October 2005
All seems a bit odd to me and definitely rather off. I smell a bad egg on the staff.
Eggbasket
Preternatural eventuation is an amaranthine potentiality
Alarming news from Wales - Sparafucile - 8th October 2005
As a graduate of the said institution (albeit in history rather than archaeology - I only turned to the dark side of the force in later life) I was also saddened by the news but I fear that Curator Kid is right in that it's a done deal. The college started off as a teacher training institute and, in common with many other colleges underwent a huge expansion programme in the late 80s early 90s. It appears that the college management have now decided to go back to their roots and concentrate on teacher training as their main 'product'. I'm not sure there's a whole lot that can be done and I have to say, that if there isn't the will to have archaeology at Newport I'd rather the course come to an end rather than limp along without any support from the top.
Alarming news from Wales - deepdigger - 3rd June 2006
Aye, well, there it was gone!
deep
Alarming news from Wales - historic building - 4th June 2006
I am sure that this letter actually came round Britarch last year. That is the date on the protest letter I wrote anyway so it is all a bit late.
Newport is probably one of a number of the smaller colleges which have begun to offer archaeology courses which are bound to suffer with the growth of top up fees. I predict that we will see a number of the more recently established courses and departments closing or being 'merged' into other degrees and departments. I know from a number of friends who are lecturers that even many of the more established departments are already suffering reduced student applications and numbers.
Newport will not be the last so we really should start to campaign earlier.
Alarming news from Wales - 1man1desk - 5th June 2006
It is sad to see a course closed, and it is very tough on those currently studying there, or offered 1st-year places for 2005-6. From the descriptions given above, it does sound as if the college is behaving irresponsibly.
However, before we all go off campaigning, have a think about the implications. We all express a lot of concern about the low pay, poor conditions etc. suffered by many archaeologists in Britain. These conditions are sustainable for the employers because it there are too many archaeologists looking for too few jobs. The closure of one or more archaeology departments should therefore reduce the over-supply of graduates, in the long term putting those still in the profession in a better bargaining position.
1man1desk
to let, fully furnished
Alarming news from Wales - mercenary - 5th June 2006
!man pretty much sums up my feelings about this. I have a much harder time getting worked up about closure of a uni department than closure of a curatorial department. Call me selfish.
Alarming news from Wales - the invisible man - 5th June 2006
On the other hand, it seems that the supply and demand balance can be kept weighted against the employee by importing European staff, probably with very different salary expectations. Presumably therefore there has to be a Europe-wide labour shortage.
We owe the dead nothing but the truth.
Alarming news from Wales - deepdigger - 6th June 2006
The truth is that this was a political thing!
The course was generally well taken up!
deep