UCML Executive Agenda, 24 February 2012

Minutes of the UCML Executive Committee Meeting 22 February 2013

Meeting chaired by Jocelyn Wyburd. Notes by Ali Dickens (LLAS)

Present: Naomi Segal, Jocelyn Wyburd, Lesley Twomey, Ulrich Tiedau, Mary-Anne Ansell, Elena Polisca, Lucille Cairns, Andrew Ginger, Margaret Littler, Kate Beeching, Claire Gorrara.

1. Apologies for absence: Jim Coleman, Teresa MacKinnon, Tony Shannon-Little, John Morley, Gerda Wielander, Rebecca Tipton, Mary Fischer / Michael Gratzke, Terry Lamb, Ramona Gonczol, Fil Nereo, Daniela la Penna.

Plenary meeting 18th January notes not yet available Ali to action (done)

2. Discussion of any issues arising from Executive and Plenary Minutes and not already on the agenda

2.1 Minutes from 28th September 2012 matters arising  p.2. LinkedIn page for UCML, YouTube feature and closed area of website – all to be actioned by Teresa Action Ali, Teresa  p.2 Send things to be tweeted etc. to Teresa Action All  Future plenary – possibility might be considered of using online Moodle space  More engagement with employers would be useful especially in the light of the British Academy State of the Nation report http://www.britac.ac.uk/policy/State_of_the_Nation_2013.cfm. Might be prudent for members to liaise locally with their careers services. p.6 Error in reference to Shaping the Future, which should refer to Speak to the Future. Need to check on this and progress on STF and whether HELG has met. Action: Ali

2.2 Update on Plenary 18th January 2013 – snow disrupted attendance and a virtual classroom was used extensively for chairing in addition to discussion. It worked reasonably well for presentations but less well for discussions. Only audio was used on this occasion but some online environments allow video. Also the chat facility can be used for questions/comments. It was felt that there are limitations to online meetings, which do not provide an alternative to face-to-face plenaries. However, it was agreed to offer virtual access to plenaries (but not for keynote speakers) and to use online tools for small group meetings to save time and travel costs. It was felt that Executive meetings should remain face-to-face if finances allow and members are encouraged to book off-peak and advance travel to assist in keeping the costs down.

1 3. Chair’s Report and discussion of any issues arising from the Chair’s report

UCML Chair’s Report to Executive, 22 February 2013 (available with all other reports at http://www.ucml.ac.uk/events/22-02-13.html) Jim apologised to the Executive for being unable to attend the meeting in person.

3.1 He reported that he had been called on to advise some departments at risk of seeing specialist degrees withdrawn. The Chair noted that Jim will provide confidential advice so members are requested to encourage colleagues to approach UCML when under threat.

3.2 Issues on which members have asked for information, in order to defend their own positions include staff-student ratios (SSRs), (particularly in relation to other Arts disciplines, since the end of Band C/Band D distinctions). As a result of considerable discussion it was agreed:  it is problematic and difficult to get reliable or comparable data on SSRs.  low SSRs in languages might be offset with high KIS employability data for linguists (though not all university senior management teams would necessarily recognise this)  SSRs are driven partly by contact hours, and are often higher in languages because of language teaching  UCML should try to seek and share comparative data on contact hours for ab initio and post A level language courses,  a short survey monkey questionnaire should be circulated to elicit data including snapshots by language as some languages are a ‘special case’ e.g. Chinese.  there is a blurring in some universities between language and content teaching, which is problematic for comparability  to approach HEA for support (as for the IWLP survey)  to ensure any report did not identify individual university responses explicitly. Action Elena, with support from Jocelyn

3.3 Arising from the UCML-HEA Collaborative Provision in Languages event, hosted by the British Academy on 11 February: several strands of possible action some of which Jim and UCML will work into a possible bid to the HEFCE catalyst fund, which provides an opportunity for HE to receive support for concrete initiatives to ensure a healthy HE sector e.g. diversity across the languages sector for a wide range of students, which is currently threatened. Collaborative initiatives are encouraged by HEFCE. A confidential summary has gone to HEFCE but will need more input from the Exec in due course. Jocelyn and Jim will be meeting with HEFCE in April.

3.4 Jim had approached the BBC unsuccessfully for a TV series with charismatic presenter to promote languages. It was also clarified that HEFCE Catalyst funding could not be used for promoting languages, which fall within the remit Speak to the Future and Routes into Languages.

2 3.5 The Executive group added its congratulations to Teresa Tinsley on the Languages: the State of the Nation report which is very rich in useful data. Members were urged to circulate the link to this (see above item 2).

3.5 Thanks to John Morley for his role in the recently published HEA-UCML-AULC survey of Institution-Wide Language Provision in universities in the UK (2012-2013).

3.6 Language Rich Europe final meetings: several Executive members had attended. The role of the British Council was noted and that they don’t normally attend UCML plenaries although they are on the listed of invitees. It was suggested that they might attend if they were invited to present. It was agreed that the UCML list should be checked for names of representatives from the British Council and from Language Rich Europe. Action Ali

3.7 It was noted that the HEA is very willing to receive suggestions from UCML for further initiatives in the present and next year (see 3.2 above). The Committee added its thanks to HEA, for funding the IWLP report and for funding the Collaborative Provision event, particularly languages lead: Fil Nereo.

3.8 The Executive added their formal thanks to Liz Hudswell for her support over the years.

4. Report from Vice Chair (Languages and Intercultural Education)

4.1 In noting the written report, the Executive expressed concern about the implications of the current status of languages within Key Stage 4 qualifications (since the Michael Gove U-turn on the EBacc) and the possibility that they would no longer be a key requirement for school performance criteria.

4.2 In discussing the restructure of the Languages Education part of the website, Jocelyn urged dissemination of its contents and requested feedback on it. Action All 4.3 Further issues relating to the navigability and possible restructuring of the website were raised. Comments on this were invited from the committee. It was also identified that some of the material on the LLAS site needs to be cross-referenced with the UCML material. Action Jocelyn, Teresa, Ali

5. Report from Vice Chair (Research) See also the report from the UCML Plenary (18th January)

5.1 Re the REF, the search for new user members is ongoing. A call was issued to subject associations and the nominations will be reviewed. Individual contacts will be made if further nominations are needed. 2-3 more assessors for languages are to be appointed, which seems a lower number than expected. Some ad hoc assessors

3 might also be appointed, however. It is also likely to be acceptable that disciplinary expertise can be applied across languages. Double weighting of an output is possible, but an institution putting forward an item is advised to propose a reserve item in case double-weighting is not accepted.

5.2 Naomi responded (also in plenary report) to the Open Access Research BIS survey. The target date for full implementation is 2020. There is concern over CC-BY licences being used and that there is not enough understanding of the differences between the sciences (where things change rapidly) and the humanities. Articles are on average longer in non-sciences. OAPen-UK website http://oapen- uk.jiscebooks.org/ includes many of the general views on this initiative which started in the Netherlands. Action Teresa to tweet on this. Lucille reported that AUPHF is running an event on Open Access: she will provide details for tweeting etc. Action Lucille

5.3 Discussion of whether there was a need for an equivalent of the Academy of Social Sciences (http://www.acss.org.uk/) for the Humanities outwith the British Academy, but it was agreed that this was probably not the remit of UCML. It was suggested that A-HUG (Arts and Humanities User Group, contact: Professor Robin Osborne, University of Cambridge ([email protected]) is a learned society which seems to be the only group representing the Humanities which could be a group to fill a similar lobbying role for humanities. The Council for the Defence of British Universities was named as another body which might have a role to play in this.

5.4 All members were requested to cascade information to colleagues to raise awareness of what UCML is doing. Action All

6. Report from Vice Chair (External Communication and Engagement) See also the report from the UCML Plenary (18th January) and Stats relating to who is following on twitter etc. Members were requested to give feedback on the website to Teresa, especially the twitter feed on the homepage. Action All There was a repeat request for an update on progress with YouTube and LinkedIn page. Action Teresa 7. Report from Honorary Secretary See also the report from the UCML Plenary (18th January) There are some upcoming vacancies for Treasurer & English Language Teaching for which nominations are sought by the end May. Voting will be held in June. Executive members are urged to encourage possible candidates to put their names forward. All other posts can be extended and individuals will be contacted to ascertain if they wished to continue for another year. Action Lesley/ All

4 8. Report from Treasurer See also the report from the UCML Plenary (18th January)

9. Reports from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

9.1 Scotland See minutes from UCML Scotland Meeting: Fri 1st Feb 2013 (http://www.ucml.ac.uk/events/22-02-13.html)

The main issue for UCMLS is visibility. A request for a UCMLS tab on the website to add Scotland relevant papers and events is being taken forward

Action Jocelyn, Mary/Michael, Ali

It was noted that mother tongue +2 is the Scottish language policy for its citizens (as a lifelong learning goal). Pupils in Primary start with one language. Colleagues in Scotland are also keen to initiate a Routes-style project for Scotland and are planning to lobby for a Routes project.

9.2 Wales

Claire reported that the Routes initiative is being very helpful in bringing colleagues together. A further year of funding for Routes has now been confirmed.

For Wales UCAS applications are down 10-15% and languages are doing particularly poorly in post 1992 institutions and Swansea is surviving but much depleted in its language provision. By contrast Welsh medium teaching is thriving but somewhat at the expense of MFL as there is little support for multilingualism. Colegau Cymru is a good example of how collaboration works for Welsh language provision/Welsh medium teaching which might be helpful for the HEFCE bid (see item).

There are also 11 Confucius classrooms across Wales and good links between languages and the employability agenda.

It is useful to note the spread of languages as depicted in the Languages State of the Nation (full report) map of languages in the British Isles.

Interest was shown in having a Wales page on the website.

Action Jocelyn, Clare, Ali

9.2 There was no report from Northern Ireland

5 10. Reports from other Executive members (seehttp://www.ucml.ac.uk/events/22-02-13.html)

10.1 East Asian Studies

Comments: Languages under threat, e.g. Korean might benefit from looking at pan- institutional provision or a hub for specific languages.

Numbers for GCSE and A levels in Chinese are increasing so this will have an impact on HE in the future with fewer ab initio students

10.2 German Studies

Comments: QUB is in its last year of German and German is very much under threat at degree level despite being top of employability list. German, in the IWLP report, is fastest growing in some HEIs, fastest diminishing in others. It is well supported by Goethe Institute and DAAD.

The potential for research student training in German and other similar provision across the university needs exploring.

10.3 French Studies

Lucille reported that the REF assessors issue (see Research report) along with Open Access Research is to be included in the May AUPHF event.

10.4 Area Studies

No report

10.5 Linguistics

Kate reported an 11% increase in UCAS applications for Linguistics in 2013. UCGAL (University Council for General and Applied Linguistics) is happy to share minutes and would like to have a shared member with UCML. Direct UCGAL representation is welcome at all UCML Plenaries, but otherwise Kate’s role on the Executive includes representation of UCGAL. Explicit invitations to plenaries could be extended for specific items. Action: Kate LAGB wanted to know about Open Access Research and were directed to Naomi’s Research pages which were very useful. Routes has some involvement with linguistics but there is possibly scope for more.

10.6 English Language Teaching

Mary-Anne reported that for English the pedagogy is similar to that of ML but the landscape is very different with English under pressure to generate income to make

6 up for the deficit elsewhere. Also creeping privatisation is still on the agenda and there are a variety of strategic models in which English is hived off from ML which leaves ML increasingly under threat, e.g. moving to central services, education services. She emphasised the need for English and ML to stick together to avoid being viewed and treated simply as a service industry. BALEAP was recommended as a very useful source of information on this.

10.7 Spanish and Lusophone studies

Andrew reported good news on the increasing number of new lectureships in Portuguese including institutions where none were previously held. Some of these are only small increases in staff, from 1-2 staff members. Some institutions where this has occurred are Kent, QUB, UCL, King’s, Cambridge. It was noted that the growing success of Brazil is possibly a factor here.

11. Plans for summer plenary (5 July).

One possible topic for the afternoon workshop is the European Language Passport, but a broader discussion on encouraging demand and maintaining supply might be more appropriate, given the falling applications, continuing concentration of provision, and new programme of student demand-raising activity in modern foreign languages.

Other suggested topics:  Presentation of the draft HEFCE Catalyst Fund bid which will have been developed in consultation with members. The Chair confirmed that AULC is happy to be a partner in this bid. Plenary workshops could be organised to look at deliverables for this bid.  Reflection on the progress of demand raising (Routes bid outcome will be known)  Support for lesser-taught languages.  How to survive the impact of the changes in the school sector.

12. Report from HEA See HEA newsletter (circulated to the group) The group was advised to use HEA as much as possible to provide support for languages as there is a range of funding being offered on a regular basis. See http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/funding

13. Report from LLAS, including Routes Into Languages and the bid for a new programme to stimulate demand

See LLAS Report for UCML Executive meeting 22/02/13 (http://www.ucml.ac.uk/events/22-02-13.html)

13.1 Two events in collaboration with UCML were proposed:

7 Events for Heads of Department, September 2013 Topics proposed by LLAS were: • Strategic issues in languages and related studies • Student recruitment and student numbers • Impact and public engagement • Profile raising within institution • Open access It was agreed that UCML supports this type of event but it was suggested that it include some of the issues raised in this meeting relating to contact hours and SSRs for languages, since these events are always run under Chatham House rules.

2014 biennial conference LLAS would very much like to continue to offer this conference together with UCML and AULC. It was agreed that UCML would like to be involved in principle but as it involves contributing funding this would need to be discussed with the Treasurer.

13.2 Routes into Languages LLAS submitted a detailed bid in open competition for continuation of the programme for a further three years and is now in discussions with HEFCE on further changes with the hope that a formal recommendation for funding will be made to the HEFCE Board. We hope to be able to report on the outcome in April.

It was noted that UCML took a neutral stance during the bidding process and did not formally approve any bid in relation to this.

14. Dates of next meetings of Steering Group and of UCML Executive It was noted that the next meeting of the committee is due in Sept/Oct 2013 but that it couldn’t be finalised in Jim’s absence as he would need to be consulted on this. Jocelyn will consult with Jim and circulate a Doodle poll for a date in late September Action Jocelyn/Ali/Jim 15. Any Other Business There was no additional business

The meeting closed at 16.33