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

[Brian Meadows <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Entirely likely, Peter, because Lancaster was built at the same
time in exactly the same piecemeal fashion - but I will still
maintain that Lancaster managed to create an environment where
the collegiate system seemed to be regarded much more favourably
than was the case at UKC. 

The difference IMO is that Kent seemed to be fashioned much more
on the Oxbridge model, with each college a self-contained unit.
This wasn't the case with Lancaster, at least during my time
there the system positively encouraged you to mix between
colleges, e.g. as regards food. My own college had nothing but
the coffee bar, the next college down the line had the infamous
"grease pit", the long-hours snack bar and the only place for
breakfast, the next college had a standard refectory, the next
the salad bar, then came the one with the fish and chip shop -
well, you get the idea. Which college you ate in depended more or
less on what you wanted to eat. 

Brian. 

On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 18:22:29 +0000, Peter Hastings wrote:

>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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>
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