UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN: URGENT, please read if you or your DC applied/attend

[LincolnConcern]

Over last week, enormous redundancy plans have been announced internally at the University of Lincoln, with an aim to cull 220 staff. This has been disproportionately spread across subjects, so some courses are due to be stripped to the barest of bones and will be massively impacted when it comes to module choices, quality of teaching, and general environment.

I implore you to contact the university and check how your/their course might be affected, because these actions have been timed so that the changes will take place quietly over the summer, away from unsuspecting students who may turn up in September to find that their course has been decimated.

Understandably, this has also resulted in strike action being planned, which will disrupt teaching even further.

“This is all a shame, but,” you might reasonably assume, “perhaps these courses are being selected due to their poor performance”. They are not. On the contrary, staff report that one of the hardest hit departments will be history, which is currently ranked the highest in the entire university for overall GPA and outputs, and achieved a triple gold award for its excellence in teaching in the latest TEF.

Please just check - sorry if this affects you. 😥

Please can you give specific examples of 'worthless' degrees and 'Mickey mouse' courses?

This is like ignorance bingo - you've got all the catchphrases in there!

I agree that solid work habits (aka personal discipline) are necessary for the traditional English university teaching methods to be effective. Education systems are standardised things and probably some English students are left to fend for themselves academically a little too early, before acquiring the necessary maturity. Subjects vary too: STEM disciplines require the acquisition of standardised foundational skills well into university in a way that some humanities disciplines do not. Humanities essay writing is a skill best practised on the basis of personal research in libraries and archives - standardised A-level style essays are not useful beyond 18, indeed are counter productive.

My daughter goes to Lincoln and does a science subject which, so far, has been protected.
She was a bit agreived that the amazing trips abroad that featured heavily on their open days aren't happening and apparently haven't happened for years, African and Rainforest trips have been replaced with European ones, but at least they are still doing something but they were probably a bit missold!

However she is very aware that a lot of her friends who do humanity or art subjects have had modules cut and a large number lecturers made redundant.

Considering the cost of going to university you are right to raise awareness before a student commits to a course.

Are you able to say what course are impacted OP?

Lincoln is a great campus not to large and I think has good SEN support.
Their own uni accommodation is very expensive though with very long contracts, cheaper hall style accommodation is available privately close by.

@Dutchhouse14 the OP started this thread a year ago.

The problems are across the sector. Fees haven't risen in line with costs and the bottom has dropped out of the international student market, which universities relied on for far too long.

Honestly, none of it is surprising, but from what I've seen, there is still a lot of waste (despite many working in the sector insisting that things have been cut to the bone) and efficiencies could be made without a massive amount of impact on students. Whether those efficiencies will be made in the right places is a different question entirely.

It’s still very valid. They announced another 280 redundancies last week. Things are going to get worse. 🙈. Potentially across all courses.

@StripeyKnickersSpottySocks I know, but it might be different courses this time. And it is happening at many universities

Honestly, none of it is surprising, but from what I've seen, there is still a lot of waste (despite many working in the sector insisting that things have been cut to the bone) and efficiencies could be made without a massive amount of impact on students. Whether those efficiencies will be made in the right places is a different question entirely.

Could you give some examples?
Because my current experience is that efficiencies are having a huge impact on the student experience.
Many institutions have 'been cut to the bone' and it is impacting on students as well as staff workload and well being.
For example, every single one of my staff is working beyond capacity (workload models at 130% +) and we've been told to cut more staff. We've already removed pretty much all optional modules and academic skills support, well being and careers has been cut dramatically too. All professional services have been 'streamlined' and centralised. This is undoubtedly resulting in a poorer experience for students.

Most senior staff are doing two jobs, for example my dean is also a PVC. I'm a HoD and Associate Dean.

What else do you think we should be doing?

the Uni sector was very sustainable until govts introduced all sorts of measures to deter foreign students. The Unis made big spending decisions & commitments based on status quo 5-10 years ago. This was entirely rational.

the Univ sector should be a great product for UK. Foreign students pay £20-£30k each+ per year to get a British degree. All that lovely money flowing into Uk economy. the students need housing & services etc. Students who transit to residency have to be high skill and tend to be higher rate tax payers. Win Win Win.

Trust the British public to kill the golden goose by voting for parties that engaged in the most anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The loan system for UK students is definitely not sustainable. The system was designed with all sorts of highly optimistic (pie in the sky) hypotheses and little understanding of the fact that if you extend loans to everyone, some people will contract them with no intention of ever repaying them.

The Nigerian currency has slumped, universities gave themselves a bad rep by not marking exams meaning graduations many overseas students needed for jobs were delayed, other countries are upping their game in terms of attracting overseas students. This is not all down to students on a one year taught masters not being allowed to bring all their dependents with them after a couple of years where they were.

Overseas students didn’t just bring fees, those at one local university brought 700 children the last year it was allowed. Many of whom didn’t speak English.

I would get rid of the turgid decision making processes for a start. The endless and insanely bureaucratic committee meetings to consider what are often quite trivial decisions which are typically irrelevant to many of the people around the table. Don't get me wrong, I understand that consultation is important to get to the best decisions, but there have to be better ways of doing it. I used to sit there in meetings literally totting up the cost of having everyone sitting around the table for a couple of hours. I do understand the appeal of this model as it obviously reduces risk and relieves senior managers from the level of individual accountability for decision-making that would be common in other sectors, but it is incredibly inefficient. Senior managers in HE are paid decent salaries - they should be more than capable of identifying who might need to be consulted about any decisions and of taking responsibility for ensuring that this happens appropriately.

There are plenty of other efficiencies that could be made too, if universities started to actually performance manage their staff effectively. There are still loads of people coasting in comfortable roles that add very little value to research output or the student experience.

Unfortunately, I think the culture of HE is such that people within the sector tend to think that the level of waste is normal, and indeed, they often feel that stringent cuts have already been made because budgets have been shrinking for years. I just don't think there is the appetite to fundamentally change how things operate, and so the cuts will probably end up being made in the wrong places. And that will be damaging to students, sadly.

Deleted an accidental double post.

The loan system was designed with a RAB charge of 40% - there was never any expectation that the whole lot would be repaid. The cost was roughly the same as HE expenditure from Gov coffers.

That's all very vague @MrsBennetsPoorNerves can you be more specific?

What processes, meetings and committees do you think are unnecessary?

I'd say that most of the meetings and committees that I attended were terribly inefficient. And there were a lot of them!

It is built into the culture and I get that people probably don't see it if that's all that they know. I also get that many people working in universities won't want to hear this view. Fair enough - it is natural for people to be defensive and changing corporate cultures is notoriously difficult.

You'd have to pay me as a consultant if you wanted a more detailed analysis of exaxtly what I would cut. But I'm sure that there will be plenty of clever people within your institution who would be more than capable of doing that analysis for themselves. Indeed, it is highly likely that quite a few will have already reached the same conclusions.

How long ago did you work in HE @MrsBennetsPoorNerves ?

I asked the question because we have drastically cut back on committees and meetings over the last few years. Processes have been streamlined and significant efficiencies have been made.
I'm not saying we're 100% perfect but I find it incredibly frustrating that the assumption is that all universities have been (and continue to be) poorly managed. While that might be true for some, it's certainly not a universal truth.

I work at a university that has no debt, that is cash and asset rich. But we're still making a deficit every year. The main reasons are due to static home UG fees, unfavourable government policies towards international students, the collapse of currency in some of major international markets and demographics (there just aren't a huge number of 18 year old around at the moment).

At what cost to UK graduates ' job prospects?

Coventry University have announced they are changing how courses are being taught, six week blocks with exams at the end of each block. Can have 6 start dates in a year. Assume this will give option of not having a long summer holiday

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves exam boards are a prime example. I’ve checked the papers before the meeting I know they’re correct. I have to sit through the entire 3 hr meeting for my 30 second slot just to nod and say “correct”. There might be 40-50 senior academics in the meeting all in the same boat. Get rid of such inefficient ways of working.

That doesn’t seem very pedagogically sound 🤷🏻‍♀️. So I assume content is being delivered for the entire six weeks. So there could be something in the exam which was taught a few days prior? Where is the time to revise, go over stuff, consolidate knowledge and understanding?

It's around 5 years since I left the sector. I know that there have been changes, and cost cutting initiatives etc, but from the many friends that I still have working in the sector, I am aware that many of the old problems persist. At least in some institutions, but perhaps not all.

I'm not saying that universities are badly managed as such, but that the culture which has arisen over many years has tended so heavily towards collective responsibility - perhaps for good reasons in the first instance - that it is difficult for even quite senior managers to take decisions and be held wholly accountable for those decisions. It isn't the fault of any one individual, but more just a function of how things have evolved.

It's good that you have been able to reduce committees and meetings substantially. Sadly, I am not sure that the institutions in which I worked previously have been effective in doing the same... from what I hear, it would seem not.

And yes, I agree that the fundamental problem is static tuition fees and rising costs, compounded by the shortsighted policies implemented by successive governments in relation to international students. The huge hike in employer NICs won't have helped. Ultimately, home student tuition fees will have to be further increased to cover the gap, but as the parent of a current university student who will have to pay those fees, I would inevitably like to see the waste eliminated first. And from my perspective, which is heavily informed by the perspectives of those still working in the sector, there is still a fair bit of waste that is going untackled.

I definitely have to go to many lengthy meetings where I think an email would have sufficed. 😁

I definitely have to go to many lengthy meetings where I think an email would have sufficed. 😁
I don't think that's unique to HE though?
And I do think it's improved, or certainly has at my institution. Mainly because there's nobody left to administer them 🤷🏼‍♀️