Kingston University - More Bad Press

Students at Kingston University are complaining that they are not getting their monies worth from their fees, because they say that their lecturers are not able to speak intelligible english.

“In this economy, what graduate employer is going to want someone with a 2:2 from Kingston?” he said. “I have run up £22,000 of debts and I have no hope of getting a graduate level job.” Another said: “One of the lecturers had real problems saying basic words – like ‘zero’, which he pronounced ‘chino’. That is confusing when someone is talking about economics".

There has been a marked increase in recent times of students complaining about the service that they are getting from various teaching establishments. Recently we heard about those students in the University of Bolton decided to give anonymous feedback on the poor feedback that they have been getting from their lecturers. Apparantly this caused such distress that the lecturers needed to contact their union. Personally I can't believe UCU actually kids themselves into belieivng that this is bullying behaviour on the part of the students. They ought to concern themselves more with the real problem which is that lecturers, trainers, and assessors are being so overloaded by the demands of the employer that giving feedback actually becomes a big problem.

Kingston defends itself by saying that in todays global workplace it is common place for large numbers of foreign speaking lectures to be employed by a teaching establishment. I think they said that 47% of their teaching staff was from a foreign country. Personally I think they have done the usual political side stepping that is common place in the halls of academia these days. It's not about where they come from, it's about their ability to speak English in the way their audience can understand, this is one of the first rules of communication. The transmitter has to transmit in a frequency the reciever can receive in or it all goes to rats. In which case the students are entitled to their money back and should get it forthwith.

Meetings of Death

Of course it is not clear what kind of meeting Carl Baybut attended. Whether it was a one to one meeting with his upline or a general meeting held by the Uni to advise lecturers on proposed changes, the fact that Carl took his life within days of the meeting does indeed speak volumes. Something scared him to death (no apologies for the pun)

If you don't beleive that it is going on in educational establishments read this article in the Daily Echo.

It's high time something was done about this. One life lost is one too many, not to mention all of the lives ruined by haphazard and disorganised management of our educational establishments. Believe me I have a lot of experience and I see it everywhere I go. The world of education is falling apart. There are two threats that the teacher has to defend themselves against. One is the threat of government. You can bet your bottom dollar that when governments start to tell educational establishments what they can and can't teach in terms of political content that scape goats will be made. It is happening now in as we speak. Lecturers are being villified and bullied out of posts because they try to appraise their students of the state of political machinations world wide. some have been labelled as terrorsits or insurgents. The other is when the group mentality within the particular organisation they work is so far up itself it will broker no deviation from the norm. So everyone sits around nodding their heads like those little dogs that appear on the luggage shelf in the backwindow of a car and anyone who dares step out of the norm and state obvious flaws in the systems gets squeezed out.

Milking the Cash Cow

I first become aware of this phrase when working in Further Education and I confess to being completely disgusted by it. The cash cow in this particular case being the coffers of the LSC which of course have been filled via the treasury via your hard earned cash paid in taxes.

In this particular case it is being discussed in different terms. Milking the cash cow is now moving towards cutting out the middle man. Not taking your taxes to pay for educational establishments to deliver NVQ's but paid direct from you to Colleges and Universities as the Americans begin to move in and buy up some of our educational establishments and turn them into for profit organisations.

Naturally this will open the debate of the quality of provision. Although in my experience there is no reason to suppose that for profit organisations will compromise on the quality any more than is happening now. In my personal experience some of the best courses I have ever done have been provided both by independant educational establishments and in some cases as distance learning programmes. By contrast some of the worst managed courses I have ever attended have been those delivered by traditional colleges as vocational course or franchised courses awarded by a University.

Perhaps this is just the refresher that British Education needs. Who knows, employers might actually be able to tap into training that is meaningful and moves the workforce forward. Lord knows we need it. Perhaps we should start with training the managers in education.

Times Higher Educational

Honey I'm home!!!

Well, I'm back. After spending nearly one month in the wilderness (and close to a thousand pounds)I've paid my dues and I'm back in the blogging room and raring to go. You may have already gathered that my first attempt at satire didn't go too well. Or did it? My contacts at Private Eye tell me that they get sued for libel every other day. Thing is they just pay up because they have a 'fund'. I wish I had known that before I spent my £750 quids worth. I might have taken some legal advice about what I can and can't say before I posted. Still at least PE are now very interested in the case You see I got it all wrong. Apparantly you can write that someone is a complete and utter tosser and nothing can be done. But if you say someone is a complete and utter tosser breeding a new generation of toadies that is not allowed. Or at least that's what Adam Porter says. Oh dear silly me. I guess I shouldn't tell what I think of that programme the apprentice. That for me it epitomises all that is wrong with management in the so call civilised world. Grubby little narcissists creating nasty little products that no one needs and selling them for ridiculous prices. They'd kill each other stone dead just for their 15 minutes of fame or a few bob in the bank. How cynical is that?

Still lessons have been duly learned and it is onwards and upwards.Keep your eye's peeled. I plan to bring you some exciting news about what is going on in the world of academia. The war on malignance continues and is stronger than ever!

Living the high life

I'm sure you will be interested to know that these are the calibre of people who are now running our educational establishments. Lord knows its hard to get by these days without running into another overblown bully or their toadies but I have to ask where will it end. Have we become so cynical and jaded that even those charged with educating our next generations can't be trusted to keep their fingers out of the till.

An investigation has been ordered into multi-million pound bill run up by a university's staff on official credit cards, including exotic foreign trips by the controversial vice-chancellor's wife.

Around £5million was spent over a two-and-a-half year period on everything from tickets to the Olympic Games in China to payment for a professor's parking fines, it has been revealed.

The cards were used to fund trips to Bavaria, Ethiopia, Thailand and France by Patricia Lee, wife of the £300,000 a year Leeds Metropolitan

University boss - Simon Lee - who resigned in January amid allegations about his treatment of staff.

Mrs Lee, who has no official post at the university, went on some of the foreign trips without her husband and the full cost of her travel to the taxpayer has not been disclosed.

The university, which has around 30,000 staff, receives half its £160million annual budget from public funds.

Details of the high spending at public expense have emerged from the disclosure of credit card statements to the Yorkshire Post under the Freedom of Information Act. It has prompted the university's management to ask its auditors to carry out an investigation into credit card spending by staff.

But the university claimed spending using official purchasing cards - intending to cut through red tape and reduce administration costs for business purchases - was in line with other universities.

An interim report has indicated no serious problems with expenses and no evidence of fraud or misuse of funds, a university spokesman said.

Last summer Mrs Lee went with a group of staff and students to Bangkok to 'rub shoulders with champions of Indian cinema' as part of the preparations for the Bollywood awards ceremony - the equivalent of the Oscars.

The £1,324 cost of the flight appears on a PA's credit card and the cost of Mrs Lee's accommodation is not known. A week later Mrs Lee was with 24 graduate trainees and staff in Bavaria for a trip costing £8,000.

The university helps fund a centre in the foothills of the Alps which provides leadership and management training.

Leeds Metropolitan University has asked its auditors to carry out an investigation into credit card spending by staff. She wrote on the university's website that the trip to the beauty spot was 'the realisation of a teenage dream.'

The party also visited Schloss Neuschwanstein, one of the world's most famous and spectacular castles.

A month earlier in May Mrs Lee accompanied her husband to Ethiopia at the invitation of athlete Haile Gebrselassie, in connection with the university's African partnership programme.

Six months later she returned with a party of staff and students but without Mr Lee, following another invitation from the world record breaker, this time in connection with the Great Ethiopia Run.

The £1,671 cost of her accommodation at the Addis Ababa Hilton hotel was reportedly on a staff member's credit card who also went on the trip. Her remaining travel costs and who paid for them are not known.

The report also details a trip in February 2007 to Limoges, France, which Mrs Lee went on with two members of staff. The £500 credit card costs did not include accommodation.

The university is still awaiting further information about the £20,000 spent by Mr Lee the outgoing vice-chancellor. It includes £1,000 spent on three meals at a restaurant called Brio.. Other spending by 190 university card holders between May 2006 and December last year included the payment of at least six parking fines.

Leeds Met said it spent £40,000 sending staff to the Olympics to raise the university's profile as a coaching centre of excellence (£8,000 on tickets were put on one card alone).

The university was a sponsor of the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and it spent £2,550 on tickets for the August event - which did not include the 400 tickets it received under the sponsorship deal.

Among the biggest single transactions were £8,500 for the purchase of a VW campervan, used as a mobile exhibition unit at music festivals and events, and £11,800 on publicity material for the crowd at the Leeds

The university was a sponsor of the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final at Wembley and it spent £2,550 on tickets for the August event - which did not include the 400 tickets it received under the sponsorship deal.

Among the biggest single transactions were £8,500 for the purchase of a VW campervan, used as a mobile exhibition unit at music festivals and events, and £11,800 on publicity material for the crowd at the Leeds Rhinos v Melbourne World Club Challenge rugby league match it sponsored.

One faculty PA spent £671 on 42 bottles of Champagne for staff leaving the university. And £179 was spent at Debenhams on a suit for a chef.
David Willetts, the shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, said: 'These are very serious allegations which do cause me concern. It is important the spending on these is clarified as quickly as possible.'

From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk

An Apology

On 26 February 2009 at 00:43, I posted a blog entitled “The King is dead! Long live the King!”

This blog made various references not only to Telford College of Arts and Technology but also to its Principal, Doug Boynton OBE and the Vice Principals, Janet Ellis, Ann Griffiths and Chris Scott.

I accept unreservedly that the comments I made about each of them were untrue and defamatory and I withdraw them. I have removed the blog and I will not post anything further about them on this or any other website in the future.

I wish to apologise for any hurt or offence that I caused and I have agreed to make a payment in relation to damages for the harm I have caused to their reputation and in relation to costs.

The wolf and the lamb

Once upon a time a Wolf was lapping at a spring on a hillside, when, looking up, what should he see but a Lamb just beginning to drink a little lower down. 'There's my supper,' thought he, 'if only I can find some excuse to seize it.' Then he called out to the Lamb, 'How dare you muddle the water from which I am drinking?'

'Nay, master, nay,' said Lambikin; 'if the water be muddy up there, I cannot be the cause of it, for it runs down from you to me.'

'Well, then,' said the Wolf, 'why did you call me bad names this time last year?'

'That cannot be,' said the Lamb; 'I am only six months old.'

'I don't care,' snarled the Wolf; 'if it was not you it was your father;' and with that he rushed upon the poor little Lamb and 'WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA WARRA' ate her all up. But before she died she gasped out

'Any excuse will serve a tyrant.'


Borrowed from Australian story telling. Hope you don't mind guys, it just is very apt at the moment. I will probably take it off later.