Brig, March 2012
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Brig | March 2012 Elections Special 2012 Elections Special 2012 Elections Special 2012 Elections Special 2012 Elections Special 2012 Budda Bar caught Universities employ more non-academics in religious row than academics by 60 per cent in the last seven years. Zsuzsanna Matyak Compared to other areas of the UK, Caroline Robertson & News Editor Scottish managerial positions are Graham Swann still at the top. There is a significantly steeper growth rate of them in Scot- News Editor recent shift in balance be- land than in England, Wales or North- tween the academic and non- ern Ireland. he manager of a popular stu- academic staff at universities Professor Field said that the most dent bar in the Stirling city cen- can negatively restructure alarming aspect of the ongoing re- tre has defended his premises Athe higher education system, warns a structuring is this phenomenon. He after recent criticism from an Stirling University academic. said, “The HESA figures are not alto- Tangry local. John Field, Professor of Lifelong gether surprising. Seven years ago, the His response comes after recent news Learning at the University’s School of academic share was a shade higher that Stirling local, Rukman K Wewel- Education, raised his concerns issue than today, but non-academics were wala Hewage, complained about Budda that increasing funding for higher edu- in a majority even then. What is new Bar, King Street, who criticised the bar cation is primarily channelled into the is the dramatic rise in the number of as being disrespectful to his beliefs. employment of administrative mana- managers working in our universities, Manager, Simon Arnott, spoke to Brig gerial positions rather than academic especially in non-academic areas. and said that Budda Bar is not disre- staff in Scottish higher education. spectful and revealed that he is upset The figures released by the Higher at the recent complaint made about his Education Statistics Agency (HESA) business. show that three in five Scottish univer- The complaint made was in regards sity staff members are employed for 57% to the statues and imagery of the bar non-academic positions and clearly outnumber academic staff delivering claiming that they appear offensive. of Stirling staff occupied non- “Everyone has a right to their opinion teaching and research. The percent- academic posts in 2010/11 and we respect that. It would be more age of Scottish academics and non- Buddha image in Budda Bar stirred up controversy concerning in my view if we were delib- academics was 43 to 57 per cent in Picture: Rajmund Bakonyi erately misleading people to think that 2010/11. “This trend seems to be very hard to we are a “temple”, “place of worship” or gled out. one. In the case of the University of Stir- defend. It’s not at all clear why it was that Buddha encourages alcohol. “We have brought over 20 jobs to Stir- “We have only three statues in the bar ling, the balance is slightly better than necessary and whether it is necessary “However, with our name being spelt ling and I hope people realise that this that are ‘Buddha-like’ which are sold in the average, with 925 academic and at all. So the question is whether it is a as it is and our signage saying ‘Budda kind of publicity can have a negative ef- Thailand. Apart from that, the decor is 1,130 non-academic staff employed at good investment of public money and Bar & Kitchen’, we feel it is far from mis- fect on business and affect jobs. very simplistic and is not themed on any the University, which making up a 45- whether it is an essential investment leading to anyone. The bar logo itself is He continued, “Whereas I agree with religion. We don’t have statues outside 55 percentage. by universities.” not an actual Buddha image and I have freedom of speech I really wish that we and those inside can be barely seen from The category of non-academic staff According to the professor, the cause been told that Buddha images are actu- were not being singled out on this occa- the public walking by. The name of the includes, for example, posts like de- of the trend lies in the higher external ally a symbol of good luck. sion.” bar includes ‘Bar & Kitchen’ and I don’t partmental secretaries, librarians, and internal demand for the scrutiny “Throughout the UK, and in fact the In a recent letter to the Stirling Ob- believe we are misleading anyone as to information services, gardening staff of the private as well as the public sec- world, there are massive organisations server, Hewage stated that he felt the what we are at all.” and administrative managers. tor. In recent years, both the European in this industry and club promoters bar was exploiting his religion of Bud- Arnott has received only one direct From all the posts, the single group and the UK government have brought actively using the Buddha imagery and dhism for “commercial purposes”. How- complaint about Budda Bar and said of managers is by far the fastest grow- new legislations into action which correct spelling of it. I feel slightly dis- ever, Arnott stressed that he believed that he was surprised that the bar had ing category, according to HESA. The Continued on page 4 criminated against as we seem to be sin- that Budda Bar was not misleading any- number of managers has increased Continued on page 5 HIGHLIGHTS ZOEY VAN GOEY / SAT 21 APR ADMIRAL FALLOW / TUE 1 MAY FLOOD OF RED / SAT 12 MAY WE WERE PROMISED JETPACKS / THU 31 MAY Email: [email protected] Brig | March 2012 2 News Editors: Graham Swann, Aya Kawanishi & Zsuzsanna Matyak www.brignewspaper.com News Brig News p1-p5 Politics p12-p13 Brig Culture p15-p23 Bc Opinion p24-p25 Features p26-p27 Sport p28-p32 Editorial To get in touch with a sec- tion, email section and @ Tell me who your friends are and brignewspaper.com i.e. [email protected] Editor-in-Chief I will tell you where you are from Iain Blackwood Editor@brignewspaper. com Aya Kawanishi News Editor Deputy Editor Daniel Nunan verseas students are unlikely to be integrated with UK and News Editors other European students un- Graham Swann less they have a regular op- Aya Kawanishi Oportunity to socialise with them, Brig Zsuzsanna Matyak can reveal. Interviews carried out by Brig asked Politics Editors Stirling students from different back- Elsa Andre grounds how diverse their social net- Colm Currie works made on the campus are, in or- der to investigate whether they make friends beyond their own nationality at Features Editors the University. Viktoria Carlson This is following a claim made by one Catriona McGale of the Students’ Union officers that it is “noticeable” that very few overseas stu- Music Editors dents take part in clubs and societies Ross Dunn and there is not much socialising be- Andy McDonald tween international and local students. In the interviews, it was found that many non-EU students do not have Film Editor friends from the UK or other parts of Stefanie Pryke Europe, mainly because they are una- ware of events and activities to meet Arts Editors them in the first place or afraid of speak- Anna Jordan ing in English even if they do. Yewen Liu, 22, a Postgraduate student Catriona Keddie Groups of friends sitting in the Atrium are often split by region Picture: Rajmund Bakonyi from China, came to Scotland three years ago with 40 students from a col- Opinion Editors lege in Shanghai to join the University year Ecology, Law and Marketing stu- ulace more diverse, with more than 100 friends. “Most of my friends are from the David Devereux of Stirling. dent from Kazakhstan. He said he does nationalities represented this year, it UK. I think it’s because we never lived Simon Ewing “I have only three or four friends from not want to take up any activities be- does not necessarily mean that students with non-EU students in first year.” the UK and Europe. They are from cause he wants to focus on his studies, are actively seeking to benefit from this In an attempt to prevent further seg- Game & Tech Editor Germany, Sweden and Scotland. They but made British friends because he was multi-cultural environment. regation, the Students’ Union has al- are my flatmates. I don’t have many Jamie Wright allocated to the same flat with them. ready taken a step forward by launching because we come here and we already “I’m living in Murray Hall, so I made a series of events called Global Café to have some friends [from China]. Food Editor some friends there. There are seven peo- increase the number of international Victoria Pease ple in my flat and all of them are from students within the clubs and societies. “We have no chance the UK. We make some food and play International and Exchange Students’ Fashion Editor games together. They are good guys.” 70% Officer Helen Cooper said, “We are Nicola Smith to communicate with Mixing different cultures will likely to aware that international students, espe- be a key issue for the University’s future. cially non-EU students, tend to be more other European stu- Currently, more than one in five stu- the increase of overseas stu- reluctant to take part in activities out- Sports Editors dents because we are dents is non-EU and half of them come dents since 2007/08 side of their course than UK students. Graeme Young from China. The Chinese students make This is noticeable at club events, and by Stuart Kenny shy” up by far the biggest ethnic group on the The International Society, for exam- looking at people who visit the Union campus, accounting for 1,083 or 9 per ple, has an incredible diversity of nearly and use its facilities.