{"id":684,"date":"2018-06-21T10:18:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T10:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=684"},"modified":"2018-08-09T10:20:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T10:20:59","slug":"a-minor-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/21\/a-minor-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"A MINOR PROBLEM"},"content":{"rendered":"

In subtext 168, we reported on ‘A proposal for radical improvement’<\/a>, drafted by the Dean for Academic Quality. The subtext collective postulated at the time that the implementation of those proposals could have meant the end of Part One at Lancaster. News reaches subtext of another proposal \u2013 well, an instruction \u2013 from the Dean for Academic Quality that could have further implications for Part One. This concerns Welcome Week activities, whereby it is intended that students will spend an increased amount of time during Welcome Week in their major department. The purpose of this is to help the new students to engage with their academic disciplines at an early stage, so that they can feel more embedded in their academic community. This is seen to be of vital importance, contributing significantly towards high student satisfaction, performance and retention.<\/span><\/p>\n

To facilitate this bonding experience all minor taster talks, normally delivered on Tuesday of Welcome Week, are to be scrapped. This, we are told, is an idea which has found widespread support throughout the University among academics, professional service staff and the Students’ Union, although subtext is not aware of any consultation fora where this has been discussed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Minor talks are to go online. Details are sketchy at the moment but subtext understands that the plan is to set up a repository for information about every minor option across the university. This will probably have a standard template as a ‘front page’ for each option, and departments can then add links to anything else they want, which could include readings, handouts, videos etc. It has been made clear to departments that no additional money will be available to facilitate this.<\/span><\/p>\n

Information for students about how to access this repository will be given to them in their welcome packs, and they will be encouraged to access them before they arrive, with further ‘prompts’ by their major departments when they get here. Let’s hope that these prompts aren’t used to apply pressure to students to choose a particular minor, otherwise the days of Marketing students choosing Criminology or Gender and Women’s Studies as their alternative for Part One may be numbered.<\/span><\/p>\n

As we pointed out in our initial coverage, a number of departments or degree schemes with small student numbers are very dependent on the revenue that Part One minor students provide. Quite a number of departments welcome face-to-face interaction with potential Part One students and see it as a good recruitment opportunity. Anything that threatens such arrangements should be considered very carefully.<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that this proposal apparently emanated from the working group charged with looking at radical improvement set alarm bells off in the warehouse regarding ulterior motives i.e. the dismantling of Part One by the back door. Other wiser heads point out that such joined-up thinking is not normally how the University operates and we should take the proposal for what it is \u2013 an attempt to foster greater identification with the students major department and aid retention. Thoughts and letters to the usual address.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In subtext 168, we reported on ‘A proposal for radical improvement’, drafted by the Dean for Academic Quality. The subtext collective postulated at the time that the implementation of those proposals could have meant the end of Part One at … 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_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[374,114,389],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-issue-180","tag-part-i","tag-welcome-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-b2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":717,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/watch-this-space-part-i-study\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":0},"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":937,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2019\/03\/01\/subtext-186-stumbling-towards-a-no-deal-subtext\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":1},"title":"subtext 186 – \u2018stumbling towards a no deal subtext\u2019","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 1 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Every so often during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk Back issues & subscription details: http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/about\/ In this issue: editorial, Leipzig, annual meeting, fascists, LUSU hustings, fpsp, ads, widden, letter. ***************************************************** EDITORIAL The students' union VP Education, Ian Meeks, has scored a major win in his campaign for anonymous\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":[]},{"id":728,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/power-grabs-by-the-top-table\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":2},"title":"POWER GRABS BY THE TOP TABLE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"September 13 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Along with completely obliterating the University Court, the top table has further gutted the responsibilities and the powers of the Senate, and given them to the University Council. The Senate consists of all department heads, all faculty deans, all college principals, four faculty lecturers, four faculty associate deans, two SU\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":552,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/10\/ceremonial-evenhandedness\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":3},"title":"CEREMONIAL EVENHANDEDNESS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"May 10 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Harry S. Truman once famously pleaded for a one-handed economist, tiring of his questions being answered with 'On the one hand ... and on the other'. And so it is with the proposal to have some PhD students share their conferrals with summer graduates, which has split opinion in the\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":186,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/09\/special-report-end-of-part-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":4},"title":"SPECIAL REPORT: END OF PART ONE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 9 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Are the days of Part I at Lancaster as we know it numbered? The paper 'A proposal for radical improvement', drafted in July 2017 by the Dean for Academic Quality and recently seen by subtext, would have required very rapid change to be implemented in time for an October 2019\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":100,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/12\/special-report-neville-have-i-ever\/","url_meta":{"origin":684,"position":5},"title":"SPECIAL REPORT: NEVILLE HAVE I EVER","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 12 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"FLOOD ALERT The announcement that the Football University is to go ahead means that the issue can finally be discussed openly. The new institution will be a separate entity and not a part of Lancaster University in any way. It will be controlled by two companies - UA92 Ltd (the\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":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","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=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":685,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}