Miscellaneous

WHAT should we blog about just now? There are things to be said about our present situation, about Glasgow University, adult education, etc., but this probably isn't the place to say them. Well, not yet anyway.

So instead let's first note a couple of interesting developments in the sort of science that's my own business. First of all, April's Cafe Scientifique will feature my colleague Martin Hendry, a regular contributor to DACE Astronomy courses, and a man putting even more of his effort into science outreach at the moment, as a STFC Science and Society Fellow - turn up, get yourself a drink and enjoy the chat.

Also I just learned of a new, interesting-sounding venture, the Galilean Society. Free, monthly talks will be offered on science subjects and each speaker will be asked to "include a description of the scientific methods as they see it"; process as well as findings, a philosophy we'd certainly agree with. Professor David Saxon, who was Head of the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy in Glasgow, will be the first speaker on 19 March.

Want to delve further into such topics, in a context where you can hear what academics believe and also ask them why? You know where to come!

Like the rest of the world I've been horrified by the consequences of the huge earthquake in Japan. I'm also horrified by this disgraceful article in the Daily Mail. It's discussed in more detail in the Bad Astronomy blog.

Gresham College London

Gresham College has provided free public talks within the City of London for over 400 years.

Founded in 1597, Gresham College is London’s oldest Higher Education Institution. The eight Gresham Professors — of Astronomy, Commerce, Divinity, Mathematics, Law, Music, Medicine, and Rhetoric - and other visiting speakers offer over 100 free public events every year.

What an excellent institution! Anybody know any more about it?

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein had a sign on the wall of his office in Princeton that said "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

campaigns and capitalism

We're in difficult times. Every Glasgow University adult education student knows this. So does anybody who reads the Herald, or who's a Facebook friend of mine or of the fabulous Hetherington Building Occupation ("Glasgow Uni Occupied"). I was really pleased when I discovered somebody had already set up a Save DACE" Facebook group.

I had some chats today with a friend in another institution. Our local troubles in Glasgow are not unusual just now, not at all unique.

The original version of this posting attempted to construct some sort of big picture view of what's happening, to think beyond the local. It made reference to this, to this really interesting discussion of some of the recent trends in higher education and to this great book looking at capitalism and its consequences, in a time when many feel it to be the only viable way of organising our society. It was too long; I'm sure you can piece the arguments together for yourself.

Should Glasgow University continue to offer adult education courses for the public or not? This should be an argument about values, in which views on the nature and function of universities hold centre sway. We do not yet have private universities in this country (and it's interesting that many of the most famous US examples, Harvard, Stanford, etc., have very large extension studies departments, which they apparently do not find inconsistent with their missions). So it's only right and proper that all sorts of people, the ultimate owners of the universities until they withdraw from the state system, are involved in this argument.

all round the Sun

it seems to me that vague feelings about the world and how it works become more firmly held and acted on as one gets older. So I find myself at last turning into a Guardian reader. It has to be admitted there are many sorts of entertainment on the Guardian's website particularly, such as today's article on Isabella Rossellini's series of animal sex short films. Also catching my more professional eye is this item on the first 360° view of the Sun's surface. Will we learn something uniquely new form this? Of course not: no dragons or UFO's or day-glo sunspots have been lurking in the unseen parts of the Sun's surface, always furtively avoiding our cameras and telescopes. It's a symbolic moment, a point where our monitoring of the Sun and its outputs can attain a new level of sophistication; a small step for routine science, the kind that eventually and unspectacularly leads to changes in thinking. It's certainly a media friendly step, however, even if there is no media-friendly huge new discovery,and the Guardian's article is only one of many all over the internet. That incremental process will lead to new things - or not - in its own sweet time, and in the meantime everybody can enjoy the continually improving view of our nearest star.

Aberdeen

"External examiner" is one of those roles, unseen probably in the wider world, that nonetheless keep the academic world rolling on. How can we all be satisfied that the courses at a particular university are any good? One of the methods is to invite somebody from another university to come along and have a wee look once or twice a year: an "external examiner". We all do this for each other. So courses may still be rubbish but they'll be sort of uniformly rubbish across the whole sector, there shouldn't be any particular islands of unique outstanding rubbish.

I've just taken on the role of external examiner for Aberdeen's Science Access course. I have to say I really enjoy this particular sort of service, meeting colleagues in other universities and learning how they go about things and how they think about their work. Earlier this week I went up to Aberdeen for the day and met the staff and tutors. I liked what I saw up there, a course like ours where academic standards are maintained and students introduced to rigorous thought and study; and where we do our best to help them cope with the rest of their lives at the same time as they feel their way into new ways of thinking and amazing new possibilities: all the stuff that doesn't show up in Quality Assurance forms. It was so nice to be reminded that there are others who haven't given up on the potential of people and the worth of ideas, or surrendered to the prevailing, managerial culture that values nothing that can't be summed up in crude, summary statistics. How do you measure "personal growth"? Doesn't matter, we know it when we see it!

Birkbeck College London

What is Birkbeck College London? Here's the answer in their own words:

Birkbeck is a world-class research and teaching institution, a vibrant centre of academic excellence and London's only specialist provider of evening higher education.

Their About Us page goes on to say

We encourage applications from students without traditional qualifications and we have a wide range of programmes to suit every entry level. Our academic reputation also attracts many traditional full-time postgraduate students.

I thought about Birkbeck today because I received a circular email announcing a seminar there. The exact title was new but the words stirred an echo of current preoccupations from somewhere just below the conscious surface: "Lifelong Learning in a time of austerity". Sounds like a topic that will inevitably turn up in future blogs.

It's only some months since I had a look at Birkbeck's website, when events were forcing me to think about DACE and its relationship to the rest of the University. I loved those words when I read them. As I'd suspected, this seemed to be an entire institution founded on the DACE principles. Here is the reconciliation of "research-led" and "inclusive"; the philosophy of university adult education within which I made sense. The alternative is unspeakable, immoral: you declare that people from particular postcode areas are suited only to certain sorts of education. No Philosophy or Astronomy for them.

London's population is equal to that of Scotland and can support an entire institution operating on this philosophy. We were the Birkbeck wing of Glasgow University; outward-looking, accessible teaching conceived and delivered by active researchers, leading for those who want it into the mainstream. Every such University should have a Birkbeck wing.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe this view ignores sociological or political realities, subscribes to an incomplete notion of what's valuable, misunderstands the nature of a university, overrates what we achieved towards these ends.... I'd love to see the arguments. The DACE project is still alive, not yet unhealthy but not strengthened by the events of the last year. And we were not granted the respect implicit in debate.