Last Friday Ruskin College students held an occupation following its Governing Executive’s curriculum review in which it decided to discontinue a large proportion of its humanities department without adequately consulting them.
The Curriculum Review concluded earlier this year to reduce BA History and BA English Studies to single-year Certificates of Higher Education, after reducing its staff budget because of the “inadequate” financial situation of its main funding body, the Skills Funding Agency.
Last October, it was decided that a report by a group of students would contribute to the decisions of the curriculum review.
Students of the College were invited to meet three governors prior to the meetings with the Academic Quality and Standards Committee and the Governing Executive on Friday in order to discuss the concerns of the students.
However Matt Bevington, a student at Ruskin, told Cherwell, “We felt that it was just a box-ticking exercise and that we weren’t listened to earnestly. Therefore, we decided to enter the meeting and silently observe. We entered the meeting and were told by three different people that we were not permitted to be there and had to leave. We refused. The meeting was then moved to a different room but we were unable to gain access before security was placed on the door to keep us out. We continued our protest outside – we banged on the door and windows, put up posters, stood in front of the window. The Curriculum Review was passed without contest.”
A spokesperson for Ruskin College said, “The College went through a comprehensive curriculum review process from September. In this process we consulted with stakeholders through our committee structure, working groups and focus groups. This is a review of our curriculum for 2015/2016 to ensure that our programmes meet the on-going needs of prospective students.”
