24th November 2010, 06:25 PM
(This post was last modified: 24th November 2010, 06:28 PM by Madweasels.)
I agree with Vulpes here. The EH Science Officers are the only people I can think of who regularly liaise between sectors. Few units have formal links with universities, other than those (still) based in universities. The links that do exist are likely to be private contacts between individuals - which, of course, is a system with many weaknesses - the most obvious being that if someone moves job then that link is lost and student experience and learning opportunities go with it. Furthermore there is often mutual lack of awareness of the needs and potential of the other parties - the HE people will not know what exists and what can be done with it and the units will not know of the students, their interests and abilities to navigate through archaeological records and archives. The two sectors keep moving forward but are moving away from each other. The same applies to Museums and their archives and collections. The three sectors, then, seem to co-exists but with the weakest of links between them.
The solution? We need more people like the EH Science Officers, acting as the binding material between all our different sectors. We also need people with a different outlook on our discipline as a whole. They are out there - Masters level, Heritage management and museum studies people - who are going to fall between the gaps and leave the profession when we most need them. But there is no money. We are too busy trying to prop up the crumbling building we already inhabit rather than build on a new extension. So forget I even mentioned it.
The solution? We need more people like the EH Science Officers, acting as the binding material between all our different sectors. We also need people with a different outlook on our discipline as a whole. They are out there - Masters level, Heritage management and museum studies people - who are going to fall between the gaps and leave the profession when we most need them. But there is no money. We are too busy trying to prop up the crumbling building we already inhabit rather than build on a new extension. So forget I even mentioned it.