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Bristol Arch department - BAJR - 21st May 2010
Bloody hell... I go away for a couple of weeks and this happens!!
what is the world coming too!
a) a tory (esque) govt and Bristol Arch department is to be hit by massive cuts!
http://www.bajrfed.co.uk/content.php?148-University-of-Bristol-Archaeology-and-Anthropology-Department-faces-being-Cut
bl@@dy outrageous!!
Bristol Arch department - Dinosaur - 22nd May 2010
Surely, allowing for all the committees etc that must have been involved, the blame has to be laid at the feet of the previous administration? (Didn't vote for either so neutral). Agree though, outrageous.....
Bristol Arch department - kevin wooldridge - 23rd May 2010
Dinosaur Wrote:Surely, allowing for all the committees etc that must have been involved, the blame has to be laid at the feet of the previous administration? (Didn't vote for either so neutral). Agree though, outrageous.....
Couldn't possibly comment on the neutrality of abstentionism.....or as to whether A or B is to blame, but surely we cannot afford for any archaeology departments to be cut from UK universities. Isn't this just one of those bottom line issues upon which all UK archaeologists agree.......?
Bristol Arch department - Dinosaur - 23rd May 2010
Yup, although it would help if some departments were slightly more transparent to us taxpayers about what exactly all those post-grads and 'researchers' are actually doing? Quite often go onto uni departmental 'staff' pages looking for contact details for people, and whilst many staff and postgrads have fulsomely justified their presence there always seem to be a proportion of mystery people......can't say I've ever had occasion to look at the Bristol one, so this is just a general observation....
Bristol Arch department - kevin wooldridge - 23rd May 2010
Dinosaur Wrote:Yup, although it would help if some departments were slightly more transparent to us taxpayers about what exactly all those post-grads and 'researchers' are actually doing? Quite often go onto uni departmental 'staff' pages looking for contact details for people, and whilst many staff and postgrads have fulsomely justified their presence there always seem to be a proportion of mystery people......can't say I've ever had occasion to look at the Bristol one, so this is just a general observation....
....I am personally happy for post-graduates and researchers to be supervised by university rules and regulations......although I am an occasional tax payer I wouldn't dare suggest that qualifies me to assess or evaluate university students. I dont think I would like many of my tax paying neighbours to do that either. It sounds a lot like a Daily Mail idea to me....
Bristol Arch department - Dinosaur - 24th May 2010
Wasn't personally objecting to them being there (archaeology is, of course, always an entirely reasonable area for more research, a lot better than all those mysterious 'media-studies' types and the like - cue abuse from that quarter....), just saying that the public perception in some quarters might be along those lines. Is the Mail still as laughable as it used to be? - not seen one lining a finds tray for years so have clearly been missing out! :face-approve:
Bristol Arch department - BAJR - 7th June 2010
For everyone that might not have heard yet; there will be an open meeting with Charles Martindale, Dean of Arts at the Archaeology and Anthropology Department (43 Woodland Rd), TOMORROW at 8:45am.
Yes it's early, and it's a pain if you don't have to be there, but it is REALLY important that we have as many people as possible come tomorrow if were are going to continue to try and fight the current cuts programme.
This is an opportunity to raise your concerns about cuts in the department (and at the University as a whole) with the Dean personally, and to demonstrate that students at Bristol genuinely care about the quality of our educations.
Bristol Arch department - townie - 19th June 2010
Going to put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons here i) i agree cuts are a bad thing but look at the wider picture. If a new hospital planned in my area as in the NE of England Id be more concerned with that being shelved along with the cancellation of the loan the Sheffield company Forgemasters. Bristol Archaeology dept is NOT a 'front line service' and like many others will bear the brunt of such cuts and it may sound harsh but in reality if it came to a choice between Bristol archaeology or cutting the NHS budget, fire service etc then my choice is clear the NHS etc would gain my support. ii) The question of it being an early meeting is PATHETIC in my opinion if they cared people would get out of bed and attend? Or is it too much to ask to do this???? iii) I agree with Dinosaurs point of the transparency issue regading pos-grad and 'researchers' seems to be a lot of money for in some cases a load of tosh
Bristol Arch department - GnomeKing - 19th June 2010
hmmmm.... not sure about how all those figures stack up...lets consider some other factoids...for example as a result of rapacious 'no win-no fee' lawyers, the NHS has paid c.8 billion in 'compensation', of which less than 1/3 has actually gone to Victims - the rest has gone to the profiteering legal 'professionals' !!! ...a total disgrace, and an indication of where the Real Problems lie.
eg: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5950420.ece
Education and Heritage actually bring in large revenue to the country - arguably more than the car industry which has received significant subsidy - this is Lazy Economics, picking 'traditionally' soft targets, rather than planning for the future....
Cameron&Clegg would likle us to believe that we all need to make cuts (and indeed most lead quite wasteful consumerist lives) - they don't want us remember the MASSIVE wealth gaps in this country, or the ENORMOUS profits grabbed and squandered by Private Capital...no, they would rather persuade us to squabble amongst ourselves (pair of tosh-ers)
Bristol Arch department - Austin Ainsworth - 19th June 2010
kevin wooldridge Wrote:Couldn't possibly comment on the neutrality of abstentionism.....or as to whether A or B is to blame, but surely we cannot afford for any archaeology departments to be cut from UK universities. Isn't this just one of those bottom line issues upon which all UK archaeologists agree.......?
Well, here's a cat being thrown firmly into the pigeons;
Archaeology departments turn out fresh graduates by the 100s every year, which leads us to the all too familiar situation of people being willing to work for nothing or low pay just to get a foot on the archaeological ladder. Perhaps if fewer graduates were produced and the pool of available labour was smaller employers may place a higher value on the staff they already have, invest in their training and pay them more in order to keep them?
Just a thought - I'll now stand back and watch as the righteous indignation ensues.