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The Student Newspaper of Imperial College Sports Centre plans thrown into doubt mistic". IC's Director of Estates, DAVID ROBERTS Ian Caldwell, was in similar mind, pointing out that "In Central Lon• Proposals for Imperial's new Sports don it's impossible to build any• Centre faced a tough reception thing without receiving a stack of from local residents and council• objections". lors when they were put forward If permission is granted, work for planning approval last month. will start early next summer on the Well in excess of a hundred year long building work which local residents have submitted would see a seven court sports hali written objections, stating (suitable for basketball, bad• increased noise and traffic and the minton, five-a-side football, golf, loss of light as their principle archery etc) an 8m by 1 8m climb• objections. Nonetheless, their ing wall, a dedicated aerobics decision is still far from certain gym, improved changing rooms either way - the planning commit• Photo: Ed and weights training facilities and tee has agreed to come on a site Spot the space where you can fit a county standard sports hall... a series of self-contained residen• visit to get an idea of the project new Centre drift across his desk tial flats erected above the current for themselves, before returning to ly encouraging, it hasn't dented over the last few years, before the Sports Centre site. make a final decision on October the optimism of Frank Murray, IC's current plan was decided upon. With a decision expected with• 14th. Sports and Leisure Manager, who Speaking to Felix, Mr Murray in the next fortnight, we'll keep you Whilst the mixed support which has seen a constant stream of pro• admitted to being "quietly opti• posted with all new developments. the proposals faced was not entire- posals ideas and sketches for the £36 000 loss to spell end for Summer Balls? been set - that there is only one DAVID ROBERTS selling only 1400 of a projected for major capital projects) in 1900 tickets. order to cover the loss. This in ball. In other words, there should be no more separate ICSM Balls. Massive losses on last June's As both balls -had full ICU turn will create further problems Rumour has it that as a result of Summer Balls could result in the backing, having been organised for those seeking to guarantee the this caveat the ICU President, axe falling on these traditional by Union groups, ICU will now be necessary funding for next sum• Natasha Newton, has rejected end of year parties. faced with covering these losses mer's expansion into the base• the offer out of hand. Ms Newton A total of £36 000 was lost from it's own balance sheet. ments of Beit Quad which the is a medical student. on the two balls, with the "offi• Whilst the Med School losses can money had been earmarked for. For now, however, the future cial" ICU Ball notching up a £14 be recovered from the remains of One alternative source of of both Summer Balls would seem 000 debt, and the Med School the old Medical School Union income has come to light, howev• to be in some doubt, with the Union Ball collapsing £22 000 Reserves, finding sufficient cash to er, as it is believed that certain most likely outcome a smaller into the red. Losses on both pay off the debt on the other ball senior members of College staff scale event organised by ICU's events were due to ticket sales may be more problematic. Indeed have offered to use IC to write-off Events & Marketing Manager. failing to reach expectations, with the Union may be forced to dip the losses, in order to ensure that We'll update you as soon as there the ICU Ball, held at Alexandra into it's strategic reserves (built up the Summer Ball continues. How• are any developments. Palace on the last day of term, by bar profits and designed to pay ever, one proviso has allegedly 2 News Felix . 1 October 1999 University quality contol "farce" Big Issue DAVID ROBERTS between different institutions. They so-called "light touch" approach, whereby colleges and universities ., , ,v ( HI >' ' hi are believed t be backed by senior Battle lines are being drawn figures in the government who are with a good track record in QAA asi pu x» is, planning between the two biggest players in keen to see standardised, media audits would undergo simplistic ancf' information; the Higher Eduction world over the friendly, University League Tables "screening" to see if any further format for the new Quality Assur• constructed by the QAA. action were necessary. The CVCP Mx Anatomy ance system, due to be introduced Forced into a compromise, the fear that big name universities would nationwide later this year. QAA's latest plan is to split assess• automatically get an easy ride, l! despite the fact that some do not Il I ! i ill ' ( , I ! ' i 1V In the middle sits the Quality ment up into three distinct areas have n outstanding assessment his• j. w1 - I lir " ii idown i >' Assurance Agency (QAA), the body (teaching & learning, student pro• tory - Oxford and Cambridge, for 1 , i i I, . • i irliiiii lhi ynni responsible for assessing and report• gression and learning resources) ing on the quality of teaching in all each of which would be based example, have simply refused to let HE universities and colleges, which around a four point scale where the QAA audit them in the past, feto job is in the process of drawing up plans each level is described in words whilst some universities with very to re-invent itself. To one side sits the rather than numbers. Unsurprisingly, good teaching records have per• the CVCP are less than impressed formed poorly in the assessment due Sound a;dvieeii:ifor%Eresrjers:: from Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principles (CVCP), the owners of the with this compromise, describing it to their admin systems. career service- QAA, who are demanding that all as "numerical marking by the back With the new system supposedly judgements on teaching quality are door". The fact that the QAA plan to set to come on line next year (new made verbally. On the other side, mark other areas, such as curricu• departmental benchmark guidelines lanffestos the Higher Education Funding lum design and content using a sim• are due for release in March) a year Council (HEFCE) insists that numeri• ple pass or fail system has hardly of petty squabbling, power broking cal scores should be handed out to helped to bridge the gap. and painful negotiation seems cer• allow easy compromises to be made The second battleground is the tain. yearns sdbbaticaIsy::oiidz:fin d;;;:out what they've promised to do. In Brief SABBATICAL CURSE LIFTED ter a more entrepreneurial atti• union meeting, the NUS have tude to engineering. denounced this as undemocratic Early in the summer it looked as if and have forced Southampton to have a referendum in November introduction to ir Med School the so-called 'ICU Sabbatical BYELECTION LOOMS . In- updates hom The Curse' (which has seen elected to decide whether or not to to il ib li o I, sabbaticals forced to resign due A selection of Big names are confirm disaffiliation. to failing exams in each of the gathering to fight it out for the last three years) was going to hit conservative nomination for the STUDENTS STAY AT HOME again, as Med School President Kensington and Chelsea byelec- Becky England failed her 2nd MB tion. The byelection comes about The number of new students 1 as a result of the death of Alan choosing to live at home has i ', ii ; MI s first papers. This normally leads to risen dramatically, from 20.8% i 1 )lus 'ho edttandl being deemed to be in insufficient Clark during the summer, and academic standard - which must take place before Christ• last year to 22.6% this year means you cannot pursue the mas. At present former Defence according to UCAS. Bizarrely, the Competitions sabbatical. However, she was for• Secretary Michael Portillo is the figure rises to around 36% in tunately allowed to resit the rele• hot favourite to be offered the Scotland but falls to 17% in Win one of five Young Persons vant exams and, having passed nomination for the second safest Wales Conservative seat in the country. Railcards or ihe new Sex: Pistols this time around, took up her post in mid September. CALL FOR PAY INQUIRY ANOTHER ONE GETS AWAY FOR LECTURERS I* SHOW ME THE MONEY Southampton University has Lecturers attacked the govern• More money seems to be heading become the latest major Higher ment at the TUC Conference two Reviews towards Imperial courtesy of the Education institution to quit the weeks ago for their failure to governments new Science Enter• National Union of Students. They address the problems of low pay i- i Ocean Colem '• -\ prise Challenge. Imperial has join UMIST and Imperial as the and poor conditions on a nation• , 3i versu, GMT and been selected as one of eight only major institutions in Britain al scale (government policy cur• Analyse This. National Centres of Excellence not to be affiliated to the NUS - rently states that pay and condi• and has been awarded £2 million although the vast majority of tions are up to the individual to help "promote the importance Scottish institutions and some institution). The Association of Sports & Sociefies of enterprise in science and tech• Oxbridge Colleges have also University Teachers (AUT) called nology".

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