Manx Nationalism Is Worrying

[Declan]

I hate it when people call it UCLAN. Nobody ever referred to it as UCLAN when the name first changed. It's an ugly affectation.

[Frances]

Courses at post graduate level had to be viable - there was often some support money from the Science + Engineering research council (such money generally went to the 5* depts in their research area - we were so got this + a number of busaries we could give out for student support) + often some very limited seed money from the University - the research councils set an upper limit to the fees they would pay (the goverment also had an upper limit if any general support money was used - completely private organisations could of course charge what they liked) - now you can argue that the UK gov should have provided much more support - it did provide more support but at the BSc/BEng level, however here I'm afraid we often struggled to attract qualified students - maths + especially physics teaching in state schools had dropped to very low levels, so much so that remedial maths + some science education had to be offered to 1st year students. At that time (I retired some years ago) all graduates gained employment usually in industry - for many there was a sandwich year spent in industry organised by the Uni - but all too often there were too few acceptable applicants for such courses. Blame Thatcher, political interference with science teaching or whatever but compared with other European countries we were running a poor third class educational system.

[jimbms]

I am afraid you are misquoting I said the course to get the specific degree he wished but no matter that one finally got the one he wanted, yes to me UCL means uni central lancs but no matter uclan if you wish, at the time he was there as I stated no other bar ucl or uclan to you offered specific 3d design not 3d not just cad it is an entirely different animal. but I suppose you are the expert on all courses and know the specifics on what they both wanted. No more comment needed as my main argument was about the fact of unemployment this thread is not about specific courses, there is enough hyjacking of threads going on without another

[VinnieK]

I hate it when people call it UCLAN. Nobody ever referred to it as UCLAN when the name first changed. It's an ugly affectation.

 

Or you're just behind the times . What was it called previously?

[Declan]

Lancs Poly

 

(Or do you mean immediately after the name change? Generally, it was referred to as UCL at least locally. Not like anyone would confuse it with the University College London is it?)

[VinnieK]

yes to me UCL means uni central lancs but no matter uclan if you wish,

 

Come off it. UCL = University College London. You know it, I know it, isolated tribesmen located in the depths of the Amazon probably know it.

 

but I suppose you are the expert on all courses and know the specifics on what they both wanted.

 

Nope, but I do know a walter mitty story when I hear it, and let's remember that you started this off stating that an engineering degree had been closed due to a lack of people, which is pretty noteworthy. Only when pressed for details does this become a highly specialized masters degree (the closure of which being slightly less noteworthy).

 

Fair enough, you want to make a point, but as with the fiasco that was the discussion about chemistry, don't just make up stuff and massage the details and hope it'll fly.

[Frances]

UCL = University College London - generally a high status research oriented university - don't forget Thatcher damaged the University system by upgrading the old tech colleges without actually giving any attention to their ability to teach some subjects - I recall that at one period lecturers at such newly created institutions were being paid more than lecturers at high status research universities 'because they now had to teach at degree level!"

[VinnieK]

Lancs Poly

 

(Or do you mean immediately after the name change? Generally, it was referred to as UCL at least locally. Not like anyone would confuse it with the University College London is it?)

 

No, though it's not unreasonable to think that they would on an online forum.

 

I can understand why they changed the name though. There was and there still is horrendous snobbery when it comes to the term 'Polytechnic', despite a lot of the former polytechnics doing very well for themselves.

[Declan]

With respect Frances, the UCL in Preston had been teaching to degree standard and doing research for years before the name change.

[VinnieK]

I recall that at one period lecturers at such newly created institutions were being paid more than lecturers at high status research universities 'because they now had to teach at degree level!"

 

That's actually often still the case. Usually there's only a couple of grand in it, but certainly there's still something of a disparity. To be fair though, the teaching workload and pastoral duties at new universities was and is in many cases heavier than for research intensive institutions.

 

Plus, it has to be said that a number are catching up or have caught up with the older universities. Portsmouth, for instance has a cracking little applied maths department, easily the equal of or better than some of its longer established competitors, and from what I hear Oxford Brookes have very good History and Architecture courses.

[jimbms]

Lancs Poly

 

(Or do you mean immediately after the name change? Generally, it was referred to as UCL at least locally. Not like anyone would confuse it with the University College London is it?)

Have to admit I am with you on this I still refer to it as Preston poly winds my 2 up no end, and yes when it first got uni status most in Lancashire refered to it as UCL due to the fact in that time not many up north gave a shit about London.

[Declan]

Lancs Poly

 

(Or do you mean immediately after the name change? Generally, it was referred to as UCL at least locally. Not like anyone would confuse it with the University College London is it?)

 

No, though it's not unreasonable to think that they would on an online forum.

 

You didn't!

 

I can understand why they changed the name though. There was and there still is horrendous snobbery when it comes to the term 'Polytechnic', despite a lot of the former polytechnics doing very well for themselves.

 

There was an awful lot of snobbery around the name change actually, which lead to the name we have now. For some reason Preston University was deemed to lack gravitas, Lancashire University upset the suicide factory up the A6, then the initials annoyed some upstarts in London.

[VinnieK]

No, though it's not unreasonable to think that they would on an online forum.

 

You didn't!

 

Yeah, but I'm awesome. Everyone knows that.

 

There was an awful lot of snobbery around the name change actually, which lead to the name we have now. For some reason Preston University was deemed to lack gravitas, Lancashire University upset the suicide factory up the A6, then the initials annoyed some upstarts in London.

 

Well technically, on this matter you'd be the upstarts

 

I agree that UCLAN is a rubbish name though. They should have just called it 'The University' - it has a nice authorative yet mysterious quality about it. Just out of interest, in what sense is Lancaster a suicide factory? As in it's horribly dull and depressing, or there are actually a lot of suicides there (possibly due to it being dull and depressing)?

[Frances]

before I retired I did an input/output study on our MSc courses - the thatcher institutions were giving degrees 1.5 classifications higher than the older univs - there were some exceptions Portsmouth being one that ranked equally with older universities - when the info was given to our industrial panel they said that they were already well aware of this disparity and wouldn't recruit from certain institutions because of such grade inflation.

[Declan]

Just out of interest, in what sense is Lancaster a suicide factory? As in it's horribly dull and depressing, or there are actually a lot of suicides there (possibly due to it being dull and depressing)?

 

There was a big tower in their horrible campus that had several suicides a year.*

 

Lancaster was quite a nice town actually, but the campus was a good few miles outside and very 60's architecture. St Martins College in the town itself had a beautiful little campus however.

 

 

I agree that UCLAN is a rubbish name though. They should have just called it 'The University'

 

Or "Distinguished Educators of Central Lancashire".

 

 

 

 

 

*Wiki says one in 1990.