Cut admin costs, not teaching!

John Denham, the Universities Secretary, has sent letters to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) urging universities to make savings in administration and waste costs, rather than cutting teaching and research funding. Denham wrote: “I am confident that we can find efficiency savings whilst protecting the quality of teaching and research.”
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Sussex makes top 20 in Guardian university guide

The University of Sussex was voted among the top 20 universities in the UK by the Guardian’s 2010 University Guide last week. Rising a massive 15 places on last year’s standing, Sussex is now ranked as 18th best in the country and 2nd in the South East of England area. Oxford University pipped Sussex to the post in the regional category and also came out 1st overall.
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Save Linguistics campaign: it’s not over yet

Around 100 students and staff gathered in library square on Friday 1 May to protest against the linguistics cuts proposed by the University of Sussex. It was the third in what campaigners are hoping will be a long line of protests, culminating with a final objection outside the School of Humanities ‘Teaching and Learning Committee’ meeting in week 5. Read more

30,000 missing opportunities

Around 30,000 students will be denied places at university next year, according to the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS). Read more

Linguistics campaign continues

Despite the announcement of the planned closure of linguistics at the end of last term, linguistics students are tirelessly continuing their campaign against the impeding closure of their course. Read more

Uproar as linguistics axed

One of the highest-ranking degree programmes at Sussex will close to new applicants at the end of the current academic year.The University announced last term, without any prior consultation with staff or students, that there will be no new students accepted on to Linguistics courses from October 2009. Read more

New head of English: “Life isn’t concrete”

Last Wednesday a meeting was held between linguistic students and Steve Burman, the Dean of Humanities, Tom Healy, head of the new School of English, and Peter Boxall, Director of Taught Programmes and Lecturer in English. They came to answer student’s concerns about the impending closure of the subject. Read more

Save Linguistics at Sussex

I hope it is not inappropriate to share my concern about the plans for shutting down the Linguistics programme at Sussex. As someone who has written and spoken extensively about language for a wide audience, and who has visited the University of Sussex on several occasions, I hope my observations may give the University reason to reconsider this decision.

Linguistics is a vital subject in the world today. Our information and communication industries-telephones, the internet, computers, blogs, publishing, the press-are basically industries that buy, sell, and transmit language. Technological breakthroughs involving language could have enormous economic consequences. They include automatic speech recognition, computer translation, smart searching and tagging, natural language understanding, more effective reading education, and instruction foreign-languages. Clinical applications include the diagnosis and treatment of language impairment, dyslexia, aphasia, speech impediments, and autism.

Linguistics has also assumed a central place in the sciences. Psychology, artificial intelligence, cognitive neuroscience, philosophy of mind, archeology, anthropology, mathematics, and even evolutionary biology are all avid consumers of basic research in linguistics.

These connections to other fields were the fruits of a revolution in linguistics in the 1960s. It used to be a small, sleepy, and largely historical field in humanities, which fit comfortably in departments of English and other languages. Those days are long gone. As a technical and highly interdisciplinary field, with strong connections to science, math, and engineering, linguistics has to be taught in a coherent program of its own. Every major university in the United States has an autonomous department of linguistics. Aside from being an intellectual resource to so many other fields, linguistics programs are perennially popular with undergraduate and graduate students, and introductory classes often have enrollments in the hundreds.

For these reasons, I believe that folding a healthy linguistics programme is a big step backwards, which will ultimately reduce the productivity and status of the University. I hope the University will reconsider the decision.

Pinker to VC: “I hope you will reconsider this decision”

Steven Pinker, the prominent experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist and best-selling author, yesterday wrote to Michael Farthing, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Sussex, urging him to revisit and reconsider the controversial decision to cut linguistics courses. Read more

Linguistics axed

One of the highest-ranking degree programmes at Sussex will close to new applicants at the end of the current academic year.

The University announced last week, without any prior consultation with staff or students, that there will be no new students accepted onto Linguistics courses from October 2009. Students currently enrolled on Linguistics degree programmes will be able to finish their degrees and teaching will continue for two years. As of the 2011-2012 academic year, English Language, MA courses in English Language and Applied Linguistics and research programmes will continue to operate but from within the English department. Staff were informed of the decision at a meeting with the Dean of Humanities on Wednesday 18 March; however no member of senior management was present at the meeting to discuss the decision. The word spread to the USSU sabbatical officers and students the following day. Read more