{"id":188,"date":"2017-11-09T20:53:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-09T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=188"},"modified":"2018-03-04T17:31:04","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T17:31:04","slug":"subtext-168-giving-our-graduates-the-tools-to-make-subtexting-happen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/subtext-168-giving-our-graduates-the-tools-to-make-subtexting-happen\/","title":{"rendered":"subtext 168 – ‘giving our graduates the tools to make subtexting happen’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fortnightly during term time.<\/span><\/p>\n

Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

In this issue: editorial, part one<\/a>, part one part two,<\/a> social media<\/a>, football, football, more football<\/a>, university of the year<\/a>, shakin’<\/a>, big brother<\/a>, correction<\/a>, memory lane<\/a>, buses<\/a>, lul<\/a>, queen albert<\/a>, concert review<\/a>, letters<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

*****************************************************<\/span><\/p>\n

EDITORIAL<\/span><\/p>\n

In subtext 166, we alluded to plans within FASS to undertake external searches for several Heads of Department. The subtext drones are doing some digging to unearth some of the rationale behind this, but in the meantime, we are moved to comment on the implications of such a radical policy-change. Long-toothed Lancastrians might remember the ‘Deansgate’ scandal. No, not the Mancunian thoroughfare – the move by the University to cease the democratic selection of Faculty Deans, leaving us free to externally appoint our Deans if needs be (subtext 42). We said at the time that this would prevent faculty staff from having a say in who their leader would be. <\/span><\/p>\n

While HoD appointments have never been democratic, they have at least guaranteed that the appointee would be well-known to the staff they were to lead, knowledgeable of a department’s processes, strengths and failures, and (importantly) not permanent. Any potential HoD is required to have reached a certain level of seniority, which guarantees that your Head Honcho is going to have an intricate knowledge of the department, faculty, and university in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the VC and the Dean of FASS are serious about making external HoD appointments, then what does this mean for morale across our departments? It is perfectly possible that a number of our academics are itching to take on the role of HoD. It’s an extra workload, but it can be an excellent bit of career development; leadership, survival, and self and peer group analysis skills if you will. If an external search becomes policy, then that’s a whole lot of academic staff being actively prevented from ‘boosting their CV.’ Furthermore, the potential cost of this has to be considered – if every department (or even a great deal) is now expected to make an external appointment, then that’s an additional professorial salary per department. <\/span><\/p>\n

Astute readers will have realised by now that the subtext collective is extremely concerned about the proposals, and suspects that their sudden emergence isn’t something that ‘just occurred’ to the top table. We advise any readers who share our concerns to lobby their Heads of Department about this should it come to Senate – not that turkeys voting for Christmas is a rarity on that body…<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a kick in the teeth for serving and former Heads of Department, who are essentially being told that their service has been so bad as to necessitate a new way of doing things. But it must surely be ten times worse for anybody currently in the running to take over a department – the message being that the prospect of their leadership is so horrifying that the VC is willing to completely overhaul a policy that has served us well for over half a century just to keep them away.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fortnightly during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk In this issue: editorial, part one, part one part two, social media, football, football, more football, university of the year, shakin’, big brother, correction, memory lane, buses, lul, queen albert, concert … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[47,119],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial","tag-heads-of-department","tag-issue-168"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-32","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":168,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/you-say-erratum-we-say-errata\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":0},"title":"YOU SAY ERRATUM, WE SAY ERRATA","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the previous issue of subtext, we incorrectly noted that Phil Neville had a brief and inglorious stint as Valencia manager. An eagle eyed reader has informed us that it was in fact Gary Neville who had a brief and inglorious stint as Valencia manger, while Phil Neville enjoyed a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":717,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/watch-this-space-part-i-study\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":1},"title":"WATCH THIS SPACE: PART I STUDY","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Part I study was a brief feature at the start and end of subtext's academic year. In issue 168, we reported on a serious proposal to drastically limit the amount of time that students spend on minor subjects, which would impact greatly on departmental budgets and workloads. If implemented, it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "history"","block_context":{"text":"history","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":213,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/the-only-way-is-ua92\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":2},"title":"THE ONLY WAY IS UA92","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"It is with sadness that subtext noted that the authors of the letters in subtext 168 regarding the plans for UA92 all wished to remain anonymous, implying concern about expressing views other than that lending our collective academic credibility to this scheme is a fantastic idea. It is noticeable that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":184,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/end-of-part-one-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":3},"title":"END OF PART ONE PART TWO","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As well as the implications for departmental workloads, these proposals also carry major financial implications that seemingly haven't figured in any of the plans. Departments or degree schemes with small student numbers are very dependent on the revenue that Part I minor students provide. DeLC and Sociology, for example, might\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":182,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/facething\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":4},"title":"FACETHING","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Our Facebook page continues its octopoidal stranglehold on the internet, and we're getting used to updating the thing and maturing into proper Content Providers. If you like us, like us, at www.facebook.com\/LUsubtext","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":309,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/18\/subtext-171-the-stable-genius-of-a-shithole-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":5},"title":"subtext 171 – ‘the stable genius of a shithole subtext’","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"January 18 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortnightly during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details:\u00a0http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, tech, groveling apology, website, UA92 bonanza, court, leadership bonanza, UCLan, BAM, lowercase letters, shart, concert review, letters. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL We had it all sewn up - the editorial was written, the issue\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":429,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}