UCML Plenary Meeting and Workshop June 2010
Date: Friday, 04 Jun 2010
Location: Room 403, Birkbeck, Malet Street, University of London
View travel directions
Summary
This will be a formal plenary meeting in the morning followed by a workshop in the afternoon. Full details are below, followed by downloadable documentation to bring to the meeting. This event is open to representatives of UCML member HEIs and associate member subject associations etc. Please advise UCML of your attendance: ucml@soton.ac.ukThemes
The theme of the afternoon session will be: The Political Voice of UCML. Successful Lobbying and RepresentationProgramme
10:30-11:00 Coffee and Tea
11:00-12:45 Plenary meeting with reports from the UCML officers, from the represntatives of the devolved countries, on developments post Worton and with the Diploma and from the LLAS. The minutes of the last meeting and a full agenda can be downloaded below.
12:45-13:30 Lunch Break. N.B. Lunch will not be provided and participants are encouraged to bring their own or be prepared to go out to a nearby outlet to purchase their lunch. Tea and coffee will be served from 13:00
13:30-16:00 Workshop. The Political Voice of UCML. Successful Lobbying and Representation. After an introduction from the Chair of UCML on the current challenges for the organisation and current activities on behalf of the membership, participants will be asked to work in groups to discuss important topics which will inform how UCML works on members' behalf in the future and how effective a voice it can have on behalf of the sector. Your input to this process as members is vital. Full details and documentation to support this workshop is downloadable with the agenda below.
Delegates are encouraged to download the agenda and papers for the plenary and workshop and to bring them on the day.
Abstracts
Preamble to the afternoon workshop
This workshop aims to engage all members, academic colleagues, affiliated professional associations and relevant interest groups in consultation and a review of the effectiveness of the University Council of Modern Languages at a crucial time for the health of our disciplines.
Despite energetic efforts, for political and economic reasons, scholars in the humanities do not have the same clout, for example, as those lobbying for STEM subjects. UCML represents a wide interdisciplinary field, embracing many languages, cultures and perspectives, and there is a growing risk of fragmentation, dispersion of effort, and counterproductive, competing messages if we do not organise and communicate effectively.
This is important both within and across the academic community to ensure that the Council is able to represent the full range of views and subject interests, but more crucial still in the wider public arena where our broad social and educational contributions are not always fully understood. As a result of increasing financial pressures on Higher Education, and evidence of declining national interest and capacity in some aspects of our academic activity, we need to develop a united political voice in order to inform and influence public opinion and public policy. Following the formation of a new UK coalition government, and likely changes in the devolved governments over the next few years, with new or increasingly complex relationships and channels of communication to be established, the challenges and opportunities are considerable. This is your chance to raise key issues and to influence the way that UCML works in future.
Professor Pam Moores, Chair of UCML, will come to the end of her term of office early next year, and new leadership is soon to be elected. Pam will open the workshop with a very brief overview of the activities she has been engaged in over recent years, and some views on the challenges at the present time. We will then break down into discussion groups to examine a series of key questions intended to address issues of structure, representation, networking and communication as outlined above. We will group these key questions into 2 main headings and will ask participants at the plenary to work in groups, each of which will address one of the topics and feed back to the UCML plenary on the day and to the Executive Committee which will then take forward changes on behalf of the membership..
