Author: adickens
Last saved by: rej
Company: SML

SUBJECT CENTRE FOR LANGUAGES, LINGUISTICS AND AREA STUDIES

MEETING OF THE SUBJECT CENTRE ADVISORY BOARD

28 JANUARY 2004 

LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

Present

Professor Roger Woods (Acting Chair) (RW) | Professor Dick Ellis
Liz Ashurst (Minutes) (EJA) | Derrik Ferney
Dr Cigdem Balim Harding (CBH) | Professor Chris Flood
Dr Neil Bermel | Dr Andrew Hassam
Professor David Bickerton | Dr Louise Haywood
Dr Keith Brown | Professor Michael Kelly
Nick Byrne (NB) | Terry Lamb (TL)
Dr Esther Daborn (ED) | Penny Sewell
Dr Anne Davidson Lund (ADL) | Professor Rhys Williams
Dr Jude Davies | Vicky Wright
Alison Dickens (AD) |

1.	Apologies for Absence

Dr Billy Clark | Professor Barry Jackson
Dawn Ebbrell | Professor Bertie O’Corrain
Cecilia Garrido | Professor Richard Towell
Andy Gillett | Professor Sharon Wood

2.	Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising
The minutes of the previous meeting held on 20 May 2003 were accepted as a true record of proceedings.  

Links with Subject associations
It was suggested that Subject Centre activity should be actively disseminated to CercleS.  CBH agreed to pass on the details of a Subject Association concerned with the teaching of less commonly taught languages in the US.  The Subject Centre team were also encouraged to make contact with the F.I.P.L.V.  TL agreed to supply contact details for key personnel.

Confédération Européenne des Centres de Langues de l'Enseignement Supérieur/European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education

Federation Internationale pour les 
Professeurs des Langues Vivantes

Action TL, CBH, SC team

Interoperability of the HUMBUL database
AD reported that this was now less of an issue as the Resource Discovery Network (RDN) hubs were now communicating more effectively with each other.  

Links with the EFL community
EJA reported that Andy Gillett had provided some useful information after the last meeting.  DF stated that SCHML were running an event at LSE on EFL teaching.  

Standing Conference of Heads of Modern Languages

In this context, board members were encouraged to send details of teaching and learning workshops to the Subject Centre for them to be advertised on the website.
Action all board members

3.	Subject Centre activity 2003-4
EJA had produced an activity report for the meeting and invited questions and comments from board members.

In response to a question on the genesis of the ideas for Subject Centre event, it was reported that the ideas generally originated at events such as these.  Alternatively, the Subject Centre team have an idea and sound out Specialist Groups or other advisory bodies.

NB suggested that an event could be run on the theme of how Language Centres and the area studies communities might work more closely together.  The SC team agreed to consider such an event when planning their programme for next year.  Another important area for consideration might be primary language learning in the light of the National Languages Strategy.  It was also suggested that that the Subject Centre team might engage more closely with education departments as the Subject Centre has a key role in bringing groups together and facilitating networking.  TL advised that CILT has an Advisory Group for Initial Teacher education in which the SC might wish to be involved.  
Action SC team

TL promoted the idea of supporting those people who learn community languages at GCSE level by providing advice on how they might pursue this in HE so that they might return to teaching and thereby promote linguistic diversity.  

RW advised the SC to consider the issues raised by board members and consider which might be the focus of an event, meeting or focus group.
Action SC team

Setting the Agenda publication
RW enquired whether this would be available on line.  ADL agreed to investigate.  
Action ADL

MHK noted that the Subject Centre strategy would be reviewed at the May meeting of the Advisory Board.  AH enquired about the extent to which the Subject Centre had penetrated the Area Studies community.  DE noted that, although there was still plenty of work to be done in this area, the Subject Centre had been very successful to date in raising awareness of Area Studies and had played a key role in facilitating the establishment of an umbrella association for Area Studies.  

Literary and Cultural Studies Special Interest Group
AD reported that the group had met in November and had requested that the Subject Centre carry out a survey into the attitudes of students to reading literature.  This Special Interest group had been established as those teaching literary and cultural studies on Modern Languages Programmes had not felt that they belonged to the Area Studies specialist group.  It was agreed that the SIG should have members who were not part of modern languages departments, and Jude Davies was invited to join the group.  

This part of the meeting included a demonstration by Alison Dickens of the Subject Centre website including the Materials Bank and the Good Practice Guide.  RW suggested that it might be helpful to have a feedback form on the website available on the site.  He urged members to commend the website to Subject Association mailing lists to encourage them to browse those areas of the site which would be of interest to their subject area.  
Action SC team, Board members

4.	Higher Education Academy
A briefing paper on the establishment of the Academy had been sent to all members.  MHK reported that the Academy had been formed in response to the TQEF Report that stated that there were a number of overlapping bodies concerned with quality enhancement in Higher Education and that these should all be housed in one body, the Higher Education Academy.  The Academy will be run by a Board but will also have a larger Council as part of its constitution.  

A Chief Executive Officer was appointed in January.  Professor Paul Ramsden is currently Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) at the University of Sydney, Australia. 

Funding for Subject Centres has been extended to December 2005.  Over the next year there would be a review of Subject Centres to consider whether they should take on additional responsibilities and whether the current configuration of Subject Centres is appropriate to support all disciplines.  MHK reported that the LLAS Subject Centre had not been asked to enter into discussions with other Subject Centres with a view to merging.  

The ILT functions would be transferred to the Academy.  ILT members could become members of the register of practitioners.  

Members of the Board expressed concerns that the Subject Centre might be asked to be more closely involved with both the ILT and the QAA.  DE noted that it was useful to preserve the distinction between fostering and monitoring.  MHK reported that there was currently no strong steer to strengthen links between Subject Centres and the ILT but that there may be a policy steer from government for more accreditation of events to support learning and teaching.  

5.	Relationship between the Centres for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CETLs)
MHK reported that there would be briefing seminars for bidders in early March in which Subject Centres would be heavily involved.  Subject Centres have been given terms of engagement with bidders.  Advice given by all parts of the LTSN had to be made publicly available and Subject Centre staff were not permitted to be involved in the writing of bids.  It was reported that the initiative was likely to generate much interest but many bids would be based in one institution covering a number of disciplines.  Bidders were entitled to apply for funding up to £500K per annum plus capital funding.  The rationale for the initiative is to reward excellence.  

Learning and Teaching Support Network which comprises the 24 Subject Centres plus the Generic Centre

It was agreed that although institutions might be fearful of the implications of receiving relatively short-term funding most institutions eligible to bid couldn’t afford not to apply.  

6.	Implementation of the National Languages Strategy
MHK reported that an HE implementation group had been established of which he was a member.  Hilary Footitt and Lid King were also members.  A copy of the draft HE delivery plan had been included in the documentation for the meeting.  The key elements were a research project mapping the field in HE languages including professional and vocational routes.  This would be directed by Hilary Footitt and managed by the Subject Centre.  The languages ladder recognition scheme would be piloted in some HEIs.  Working with employers and encouraging sponsorship was another strand of the delivery plan though this had yet to be firmed up into a concrete plan.  It was hoped that funding would be included in the government spending review so that there was long-term funding for languages.  

There was some discussion on employability.  AD reported that the Subject Centre had this year received funding to carry out an employability project, which included the creation of taxonomy of rationales for studying languages some of which would refer to employability.  It was agreed that the generic skills acquired when studying languages should be emphasised.  In this context, ED noted that the importance of academic literacy both for UK and overseas students should be stressed.  DF also referred to the Translang document on Non-Specialist Language Provision in Further and Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom. It was agreed that copies of this report would be sent to all Board members.
Action SC team

ADL reported that it was difficult to acquire case studies from employer on the value of languages.  It was hoped that the Languages: work project, directed from CILT would reinforce the value of languages especially with organisations dealing with careers advice.  

CF noted that the profile of European Studies was suffering as a result of the decline in the image of the EU.  European Studies is tending to return to home disciplines.

NB reported that AULC had recently started a survey on the numbers of students doing languages for either 15 or 30 credits.  At the time of the meeting, he was able to report 48,000 students doing Languages in some form in HEIs, 25,000 as part of a degree programme and 23,000 as extra modules.  Although it was agreed that this survey did not provide detail on the level at which languages were being studied, it was important to convey the positive messages that these figures suggest.  It was noted that although these figures were encouraging, much territory had been lost in modern languages departments owing to the decline in numbers studying for Modern Languages degrees.

Association of University Language Centres

7.	Any other business and date of the next meeting
Information on this would be circulated.  
Since the meeting 26 May has been identified as the likely date.