As of last Thursday I have been aware of something terrible happening in the Cardiff academic community, namely that Cardiff University has decreed an utter closure of the Humanities division of the Centre for Lifelong Learning. Disgusting. Earlier this year the same university openly celebrated 125 years of Lifelong Learning provided by itself. So why shut this down?
I have emailed Jane Hutt, the Welsh Assembly Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning and Dr David Grant, the University Vice-Chancellor showing my disgust for this proposal and hoping that the decision will be swiftly overturned.
Please sign the online petition against this, it’s so important.
If just for me – please get behind stopping this, I’m trying so hard to get my credits towards a Medieval History qualification, hoping to go onto the degree at Cardiff University. If I can’t complete the right amount of credits then I am doomed to have to either take A-Levels in the evenings (in subjects that I am not hugely interested in) or give up for some years until something like the Centre opens up again (this could be indefinitely).
BBC news has covered this, as have icWales.
There’s also an official blog covering the latest news and events.
Below is the email that came around to me, giving more information about the impending closure:
Massive Cuts threatened at the Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning
Embargo: 21st April 2009
Cardiff University has announced a proposal to close most of the subject areas in one of its oldest and most respected departments only months after publishing a book detailing its history and extolling its virtues. Marian Williams’s A History of Lifelong Learning at Cardiff University, details the 125 year history of the University’s provision of part-time classes throughout south-east Wales as part of a commitment that dates back to the original Royal Charter that established the University.
Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning provides the opportunity for students of all ages and backgrounds to access Higher Education irrespective of background and previous qualifications. The Centre currently runs hundreds of evening and weekend classes in a wide variety of subjects in Cardiff and across the whole SE Wales Region; from Brecon in the North to Porthcawl in the West as far as Caldicot and Monmouth in the East. Many of its students have gone on the take higher degrees and to develop successful careers as scientists, historians, writers, etc.
If the proposal is implemented then this will radically reduce the Centre, scrapping its entire Humanities provision, including literature, history and archaeology, music, creative writing, philosophy, art history, religion, photography and Welsh. The closure of the Centre will leave a huge hole in educational provision for the region with hundreds of adult learners unable to complete their studies and to fulfil their full potential. Neither senior academic staff at the Centre nor representatives of the part-time tutor and student groups were consulted before the announcement of the proposal on Monday 20th April.
The proposal places a question over the commitment of Cardiff University towards community engagement and indeed the value of the humanities more broadly. Essentially the provision is being devastated on the basis of economic projections and not on the viability of the current provision. This decision comes at a time when Lifelong Learning provision across the HE sector is being decimated across the UK by Universities looking to cut costs, flying in the face of Government commitments to provide opportunities for retraining during the deepest recession in decades.
Surprisingly, this proposal comes shortly after the University received a sum believed to be in excess of £2M from the Welsh Assembly Government to support part-time higher education as a result of the Graham Report. It also seems to fly in the face of the University’s declared commitment to community engagement evidenced, for example, by its support for the Beacon for Wales, the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement.
The proposal will undergo a three month consultation period. If it is accepted it will result in redundancies, fewer opportunities for specialist tutors and a substantial reduction of opportunities for adult learners including the retired, the unemployed and members of disadvantaged groups who have benefitted from the Centre’s classes for many years.
Full-time and part-time staff and students at the Centre were said to be shocked and extremely angry at the proposal and the lack of consultation so far in the process.
Figures
Conservative estimate of Courses to be Cut across SE Wales in 2009-10 = 253
Estimated Academic Staff/tutors affected: 83
Estimated students affected: 2000
