Click here to read about the sad demise of Life Long Learning (LL) courses at the University of Bristol. The article is written by Dr. Ted Nield editor of Geoscientist.
Please also read the comments on this post from Dr. Nick Chidlaw and Prof. Mike Benton. If you have something to add, please do so.
2 comments:
To Ted Nield
Many thanks once again for your enquiry several weeks ago re. the closure of LL geological provision at Bristol University, and for your editorial in Geoscientist this month. This is good publicity for the situation we and LL staff at many other universities have found ourselves in, and it's appreciated that you have expressed your support.
Great to learn from your editorial that your initial geological interest was started through similar courses in the past!
To Ted et al,
I'm very pleased this has been highlighted. We had put a great deal of energy into building the LLL earth sciences programme here, and especially with the input of Patrice Hornibrook, over the past 5 or 6 years, and we had got to the point where we were planning to appoint a full-time administrator to handle the bookings and to provide broader cover for a wider range of public engagement activities. The government move, 2 years
ago, to remove funding from ELQ provision, and the opacity about so-called 'protected' physical science subjects, has led to the collapse. It's not just us - the University of Bristol has virtually withdrawn from LLL, with other departments doing what we had to do. I suspect this is true across the country, and one might estimate the overnight loss of 10,000 or more LLL/ CE programmes offered by universities. Talk about widening participation, life long learning, and public engagement!
The trouble is that the people who go to evening classes are humble folk, and so they don't make a fuss.
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