{"id":732,"date":"2018-09-13T20:39:56","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T20:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=732"},"modified":"2018-09-28T07:49:06","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T07:49:06","slug":"university-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/university-court\/","title":{"rendered":"UNIVERSITY COURT"},"content":{"rendered":"

2018 saw the demise of the University Court, one of Lancaster’s oldest and most diverse decision-making bodies.<\/span><\/p>\n

The University Court was an annual gathering bringing together a whole array of stakeholders. It made recommendations to the Senate and the Council of the university, was responsible for appointing the Pro-Chancellor, had delegates to various committees of the University, and had historically been used as an opportunity for locally based institutions and the broader community to raise concerns to the senior management. A ‘Court Review Group’ was set up by the University Council. It is not known how its members were appointed, and nobody from the University Court was invited to participate in the review. It was externally reviewed by a University of Exeter registrar who had been involved in the closure of that institution’s own Court, and the recommendations were approved by the Senate and Council, and presented as a fait accompli to the 2018 gathering of the Court, with no opportunity to vote on the proposals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reasons for abolishing Court are unclear. ‘Lack of diversity’ was presented as a reason, but the Court was more diverse than the Senate, University Council, and senior management team, so ignore that. It was also suggested that the Court consumed a lot of resources, but since the Court is being ‘replaced’ by a less accountable, less diverse ‘annual public meeting’ anyway, that can be ignored too.<\/span><\/p>\n

What we can’t ignore is the fact that the Court of the University of Bath was instrumental in triggering a HEFCE investigation into Vice-Chancellors’ involvement in setting their own salary, and that only a few months prior our own remuneration committee was rejigged to remove the Vice-Chancellor. Just in time for the release of said HEFCE report.<\/span><\/p>\n

What this means is that locally based institutions, alumni, dignitaries, clergymen, etc, now have no official say in the running of the university, and a tiny and unrepresentative body now has sole control over who to invite to its new ‘annual public meeting’.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the biggest, but by no means the only, exclusionary change to Lancaster’s decision-making this year, and you can read our coverage of this issue below:<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/12\/court-in-the-act\/<\/a> <\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/12\/to-court-your-favour\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/26\/letters-2\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/senate-report\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/gravy-train-blues\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/malice-aforecourt\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/letters-5\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/22\/university-court-newsflash\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/02\/01\/court-the-final\/<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/03\/01\/court-fort\/<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2018 saw the demise of the University Court, one of Lancaster’s oldest and most diverse decision-making bodies. The University Court was an annual gathering bringing together a whole array of stakeholders. It made recommendations to the Senate and the Council … 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":[103],"tags":[390,208,177,146,226,62,176],"class_list":["post-732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","tag-annual-review-2017-18","tag-democracy","tag-hefce","tag-senate","tag-university-council","tag-university-court","tag-vc-pay"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-bO","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":246,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/12\/07\/letters-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":0},"title":"LETTERS","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"December 7 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"An Open Letter to readers of subtext The announcement at the annual meeting in January 2017 of a review of the effectiveness of the Court \u2013 a body often likened to the annual shareholder meeting in a private company \u2013 seemed at the time relatively inconsequential. Six months elapsed before\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/10\/12\/court-in-the-act\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":1},"title":"COURT IN THE ACT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"October 12 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"David Allen, the Court Effectiveness Review Group's 'external reviewer', is visiting campus this week to meet with those who asked to be interviewed by him, as part of his review. Mr Allen is a former Registrar at the University of Exeter and we hope he'll enjoy his visit. He'll be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":728,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/09\/13\/power-grabs-by-the-top-table\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"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":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":231,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/subtext-169-their-tongues-are-silver-forks-theres-a-lack-of-wisdom-you-can-hear-it-on-their-breath\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":3},"title":"subtext 169 – \u2018Their tongues are silver forks. There’s a lack of wisdom, you can hear it on their breath\u2019","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Fortnightly during term time. Letters, contributions, & comments: subtext-editors@lancaster.ac.uk In this issue: editorial, disability cuts, subscriptions, hods, senate report, short stuff, rent pasta, stretford surveys, dept merge, UA92 bodies, VC twitter, shart, zionism review, letters ***************************************************** EDITORIAL In today\u2019s issue, we report once again on the proposed gutting of University\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "editorial"","block_context":{"text":"editorial","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/editorial\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2017\/11\/23\/senate-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":4},"title":"SENATE REPORT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 23 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The November session started with a written question to the VC asking if there were any plans to build lecture theatres capable of accommodating larger groups of students. The lack of such space was causing major problems for the larger teaching departments. Replying on behalf of the VC, Deputy VC\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "official meetings"","block_context":{"text":"official meetings","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/official-meetings\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/01\/22\/university-court-newsflash\/","url_meta":{"origin":732,"position":5},"title":"UNIVERSITY COURT NEWSFLASH","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"January 22 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"GOODBYE TRANSPARENCY Regular readers of subtext will know that issues outside the regular fortnightly cycle are released very rarely, and only on issues that the collective deems to be urgent. As predicted by subtext, the University Court is to be abolished (subtexts 166, 169, 170, 171). Its final meeting, where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=732"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":735,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/732\/revisions\/735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}