WHAT IS EDUCATION

5. What governs the university?

sussexwhatiseducation — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:49:23 +0000

Six months of ‘consultation’ and other torments have put the question of sovereignty within the university in a new light. With more such torments on the horizon the question’s starker than ever: how is change imposed or stifled in HE today? By what processes do some succeed and others fail in deciding how to proceed – with cuts, without cuts, with or without a business school or Early Modern history, with a bold and visionary future or with friends?

w-i-e propose a public meeting aiming to address the question of sovereignty in the university. Who gets to decide, and why, what these insitutions do? Was it always like it is today? Will it always be?

Speakers and further details after the break or on facebook.

i. Janet Collett (Life Sciences) on the early history of Sussex governance. How students organised to determine the life of their university.

ii. Gerhard Wolf (History) on governance in the German university; the role of student and staff struggle in forcing institutional democratisation.

iii. Tom Wills (USSU President) on his experience as a student representative in the University of Sussex Council; how the statutory bodies acted in response to the struggles of the Spring term.
(poster);(flyer).

4. Science week.

sussexwhatiseducation — Sat, 15 May 2010 12:46:35 +0000

The what-is-education working group – having run two moderately successful public discussions on the current situation on higher education – will this week be running a whole series of events on the (rough) theme of science in the modern university. Programme below, or in more detail on facebook.

Mixed-subjects seminars bringing research out of the more or less isolated departments, into the common discourse of Sussex. They are utterly inclusive; naïve questions, non-scientists and outsiders are warmly welcomed. 5.00-7.00pm.

MONDAY
Russell Building, room24
5-7p.m.
Human mutations – The good the bad and the ugly
- Prof. Eyre Walker
Developmental Gene
Regulation
- Dr. Claudio Alonso
Cold Particle Physics at Sussex
Research into Symmetry
- Marcus Vogt
Artificial Visual Systems
- Tom Wright

WEDNESDAY
Arts, room A071. 5-7p.m.

How many Dimensions do we live in?
- Mike Atkins
The Large Hadron Collider
- Paul Archer
Consciousness and Education
- Dr. Tom Froese

THURSDAY
Arts, room A071 5-7p.m.

Government imperatives in science research
- Dr. Paul Craze
Public conceptions of science
- Dr. Sebastian Jaeger
Biotech and Academy
- Prof. Peter Saunders
A teacher’s view
- Dr. Daniel Osorio

Meeting 3: Recording.

sussexwhatiseducation — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:48:37 +0000

A recording of the presentations is on soundcloud. The discussion was, as ever, excluded – for several good reasons of which privacy is the first.

Three speakers talked in different ways about changes in the role and function of the student within the university. The first speaker discussed this mainly in terms of conditions of academic labour and staff-student relations; the second speaker spoke anecdotally about his experience as an activist at Sussex in the 80s; and the third speaker presented a first attempt at a ‘comparative phenomenology of student experience’, reflecting on his own time as a student at Sussex in the 70s and how both the institution and the instituted had changed.

Meeting 3: What role for the student in higher education?

sussexwhatiseducation — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:35:53 +0000

We’ve not done everything we wanted to this term but from now on it’s clear water and easy breathing. Public meeting on the changing economic and cultural role of the student within the university. Wednesday, May 12th. Russell Building RB30. Programme after the break.

i.A lecturer at Portsmouth on the changing economic role and influence of the student within British universities.

ii.A lecturer at London Met and Sussex alumnus, on the history of student radicalism (and its malcontents) at Sussex.

iii. A lecturer at and alumnus of Sussex, on student life and culture in the 80’s – what has changed and what hasn’t.

iv. A Discussion on the significance of the presentations for us and our context, followed promptly by the pub.

Meeting 2: International Systems of Education; International Crisis in Education.

sussexwhatiseducation — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:29:03 +0000

We’ve cancelled the week 2 event to give us time to think about next week – strike week – which it’s important we get right. We’ll cover this material in a later week, perhaps.

A public meeting aiming to situate our experience with higher education and its crisis in a broader perspective. With presentations from colleagues who have worked studied in other countries, an overview of the EU-led Bologna process, whose implementation is provoking massive and sustained disorder on the continent. A convivial discussion will be followed in an orderly fashion by the pub.

First meeting: recordings, mainly.

sussexwhatiseducation — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 17:00:21 +0000

There is a video and a sound recording of the presentations to the meeting. Both of those are only accessible on campus; a soundcloud version of the audio file is also available. A brief report follows after the break.

Mark covered material from his excellent book Capitalist Realism. Gordon delivered part of a draft paper on auditing and its happy and unhappy consequences.

The discussion afterwards was wide-ranging, inconclusive and lasted a long time (at least 90 minutes.) We’re going to try and finish more promptly at the end of the next meeting – to leave more time for the pub afterwards.

First meeting: what is the current situation in higher education?

sussexwhatiseducation — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 11:31:49 +0000

A public meeting to discuss the current and future pressures on education – financial, cultural and political – and how we can or should respond.

Friday April 23rd, 5:30pm-7pm. A2. Update: A/V recordings of the meeting are here.

Speaking:

Mark Fisher, author of the blog k-punk and the recently-published book Capitalist Realism, both of which deal with social and cultural changes following from the contemporary ideology that capitalism is the ‘only game in town’. A particular focus on education stems from his experience as an FE teacher – where he saw first hand the invasion of what he calls ‘business ontology’, or elsewhere ‘Nu-bureacracy’: ‘increasing amounts of bureaucracy, in the form of performance reviews, spurious planning documents, log books: a proliferating thicket of self-surveillance and auditing.’

Gordon Finlayson, lecturer in the philosophy department, who’ll provide a characteristically rigorous account of the fine detail of the funding of higher education, the parameters by which it is awarded, and the situation that leaves us in.