What can you tell me about Middlesex University?

It's a shame I can't go to America in one sense but I guess it's still nice to have an excuse to get out of Dublin for a while, albeit next year.

Yep, right on my ex-manor. Go Ronan! It's a veritable utopia! And on a good day, you can be in central london in about 20-25 minutes!

Getting back from Central London could be a pain at times - victoria line to seven sisters, then overground to White Hart Lane.

completely cutting their philosophy department, the top rated department for research in the university and perhaps the centre of continental philosophy in the Anglo world? not cool, Middlesex.

I'm almost certain that Gravel Puzzleworth and I went to a rave on the Middlesex grounds. This must've been about 2005.

This is seriously appalling news. If anyone's interested, there is an online petition going on here.

i just cannot understand the rationale - and it's so depressing when you look at how well they'd done in the RAE in '01 and '08 and you think of tedious and difficult it is to take part in that kind of assessment exercise and yet it made absolutely no difference to the dean and executive.

shameful to read. I signed the petition, seems like that's doing brisk business.

Wonder if there is any particular political motivation given the timing of this...depends on who teaches there and what particular topics members of the department specialize in.

the Dean is way into links with business - http://www.cinestatic.com/infinitethought/2010/04/email-dean-at-middlesex-to-register.html - and the department features people working on Marxism, globalization and such, so not the prettiest of bedfellows from that perspective.

hopefully the amassed professors in that petition will give the decision-makers a bit of an impression of the 'measurable impact' the department's making.

I'm almost certain that Gravel Puzzleworth and I went to a rave on the Middlesex grounds. This must've been about 2005.

was it this one?

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a82/bobbysixer/charlieandgreg.jpg

the Dean is way into links with business - http://www.cinestatic.com/infinitethought/2010/04/email-dean-at-middlesex-to-register.html - and the department features people working on Marxism, globalization and such, so not the prettiest of bedfellows from that perspective.

hopefully the amassed professors in that petition will give the decision-makers a bit of an impression of the 'measurable impact' the department's making.

― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Thursday, April 29, 2010 8:07 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

lamenting the cuts obviously, but im p sure the universities are used to having marxists* on campus by now

*not sure this is apt for mddlsx ne way

― one of your top-tier posters! (history mayne)

loooool

hey I saw Peter Hallward talk about Marx just a few weeks ago, he's all for destroying capitalism. But ya, to get into that kind of conspiracy talk is obv a big nonsense, but we gotta do something to reconcile ourselves with such completely baffling decisions.

surely "superseding" lol, but i think capitalism will rub along ok with the badiou crew doing their thing

u'll see, capitalist pigdog.

haha xp

Why am I smoking? I'm sure I didn't smoke in 2005?

a significant number of students are currently Paris-68'ing it and have occupied the main building on campus. If this ends with anything other than riots and the execution of the Dean and his cronies, I'm declaring them pussies who don't deserve their department.

a significant number of students are currently Paris-68'ing it and have occupied the main building on campus.

sigh. perhaps they should teach a lil' history.

surely the apt comparison is HORNSEY* 1968 FOR FUCK'S SAKE. good grief.

*now part of the u of m

hornsey 1968: underneath the pavement, more pavement

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/09/middlesex-university-cuts-protest-philosophers

blimey zizek, badiou, and chomsky eh? definitely guys i'd want in my corner.

"The decision to close the university's philosophy teaching programme was taken last month by the dean of the School of Arts and Humanities, Ed Esche, following a six-month consultation with staff. The university says the number of BA philosophy students it attracts is "unsustainably low", at 12 a year for the past three years and with six firm acceptances so far for next year."

I don't know anything about the UK university system, so I can't decide if 12 a year is really low or not for a UK philo dept. From looking at their webpage it seems that they have six full-time faculty in their department. Would 12 students a year for 6 faculty be considered low?

I gather that in the UK faculty only teach students in their programs, too, so that these faculty would *only* teach philo students, rather than offering "general education" basic courses in philo as in the USA. Is this right? sorry for my ignorance...I'm trying to decide what I should think about this closing and the offered justification.

Would 12 students a year for 6 faculty be considered low?

i would have thought so.

I gather that in the UK faculty only teach students in their programs, too, so that these faculty would *only* teach philo students, rather than offering "general education" basic courses in philo as in the USA.

im not sure abt middlesex, but generally yeah. the uk doesn't really do modules/majors/minors etc. otoh i'd be quite surprised if the middlesex philosophy dept didn't teach cultural studies students too, given their, uh, proclivities.

Yeah, that's kinda what I thought.

I was trying to explain the breadth of a typical American university course, even for students in the sciences, to a European colleague last week, and he just didn't get it: "you mean science students take courses in literature? in philosophy? at university?" Well, yes. This is how we support ourselves: 12 "majors" a year wouldn't do it. As a result our teaching is somewhat different, more concerned with issues of "general" interest and/or "skills for future bureaucrats/middle managers". As a result teaching is pretty divorced from research---and this is true even at pretty renowned institutions in the USA.

saved, pretty much