13th August 2008, 03:42 PM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by Oxbeast
There seemed to be lots of new equipment, and plenty of opportunities for training when I was at Oxford, though that was several years ago. More so than a number of ex-city and county units which I've worked for. Its not that surplus money has to be reinvested in its charitable aims, it can also be reinvested in the business. It can also do things like support specialists.
For all that people talk about Oxford 'steamrollering' local units, didn't they buy up Lancaster when it went bust, and it sounds like Cambridge just wanted to unload their unit. See Shadowjacks postings on the other thread. Better than than see tham go to the wall...
I've no objection to big units and don't really think of them as 'steamrolling' anyone - they took Lancaster on under similar circumstances to CAM Arc, the university was keen to get rid, but I don't think it had gone bust.
The problem is perhaps that with organisations operating in different ways (charities, councils, ltd companies) it makes it difficult to tell if things are on a level playing field, which in turn surely has knock-on effects for the development of the profession. I think it is at the root of a number of problems, particularly pay, contracts, conditions, training, investment in new equipment, where it becomes difficult to compare.