Re: [kent-grads] Any university's collegiate system fading?

[Peter Hastings <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Further to the previous suggestion that the collegiate system at Kent  
was an attempt by the staff to recreate their own university  
upbringings, I would also suggest that the colleges at Kent were a  
solution to the funding available to the university at the time.   
This funding was available in stages, therefore the planners built a  
"modular" university. Each college contained everything required -  
Social, Accommodation, Teaching  and Office space. As more funding  
became available, they built another college. This avoided tough  
decisions as to whether to use the fresh funding to build office  
space, teaching space, or accommodation, as doing any would have put  
the balance of the university's facilities out, for example having  
the capacity to house 5,000 students, but only teach 4,000. In fact,  
the full plan for Kent was to have nine of the "nut" style  
(Rutherford/Eliot) colleges. It is only the fact that the funding  
dried up that this never happened. (Thank goodness - the amount of  
times I fell down the stairs because I forgot which college I was in,  
would have been terrible with nine of them!)


On Dec 16, 2005, at 02:15, Brian Meadows wrote:

> On Thu, 15 Dec 2005 13:32:57 -0000, Tim wrote:
>
> > Oxford is overhauling its admission system which will result in  
> > central
> > applications and "The university admitted that as a result,  
> > colleges will
> > lose autonomy and individuality."
> >
> > http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/15/ 
> > noxf15.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/12/15/ixhome.html
> >
> > I have to admit that in my time at Kent (1998-2002) I did not  
> > especially
> > feel the college system - other than the location of some  
> > accomodation
> > (which was not used by all and in any case I understand this has  
> > since been
> > decoupled) and having to vote in your college for SU elections  
> > (though this
> > was increasingly abandoned by my last year) I could have gone  
> > through my
> > entire university career and never once have it matter just which  
> > college I
> > was in. (Okay there were some other things but not all followed  
> > them.)
> >
> > Was it different in earlier years?
>
> Not as far as I was concerned - but then I didn't know I'd got my
> place at Kent until a week before I arrived there, which meant I
> had to spend my first year living off campus. I'd probably have
> taken a college room for that first year if there had still been
> one available. As a science postgrad, I didn't even need to go
> and check for mail in Eliot, it all came to the department, so I
> doubt I set foot in Eliot ten times a year (Rutherford was a
> different matter, but that was because it was where the bridge
> club met).
>
> Once I'd got used to living off campus (and found somewhere to
> live that *wasn't* in Herne Bay!) I decided I preferred shared
> houses to the college shoeboxes, and stayed that way for all
> three years. It would almost certainly have been a different
> story if I'd spent that first year on campus.
>
> A collegiate system *can* work really well. I did my B.Sc. at
> Lancaster, the other new university in those days, and there was
> no comparison with UKC. Proper self-catering kitchens that
> doubled as social areas in all colleges, no driving off-campus
> students away in the evenings due to catering schemes, and
> centralised facilities open to all, irrespective of which college
> you'd joined. Even during my near-compulsory second year living
> off-campus in "sunny" Morecambe, I still spent most evenings on
> campus - partly because I'd got into the habit during my first
> year, but mostly because I hadn't been driven off campus by the
> need to get something to eat.
>
>
> Brian.
> Eliot (allegedly) 1979-81.
>
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