What I Did On My Summer Holidays

Inevitably, each year, I get asked by someone what I did with my huge summer holiday.  Now, I have friends who work in primary and secondary schools and even they don't have the whole 6 weeks sat in their back garden drinking Pimms.  Instead they try and convince you that they work jolly hard for at least some of those days, working out lesson plans for the coming year.

When you ask the holiday question of University Administrators, there is usually a pained smile that comes across their faces.  The degree of pain depends on whether they work centrally, with the day to day of current students or admissions.  The first bunch will tell you that there are no slack periods left anymore; the second will tell you they spent time finishing off records for the outgoing bunch, grabbed a week or two and then returned to prepare for the new lot; the third lot will reach for a nearby sharp instrument, whilst muttering something about A-levels and UCAS.

All of which brings me to the Government's plans to cut the budgets of virtually all departments and its insistance that some of this will be achieved by trimming the fat, greater efficiency, etc.  The public sector may not operate fully under the commercial pressure of the private sector, but the management speak and organisational practices of that sector are already well know to it.  Most Universities will have undergone some restructuring, reorganisation or attempts to get rid of the dead wood over the last few years.  We don't operate in a Never Never Land, where everyone gets 6 weeks to catch up on their novel reading, watercolours or tan.*  We work through such periods to provide value for the tax payers and fee payers' money and, as with other sectors, the cuts can only come at the expense of services.

*Nor do Academics, before you get all cynical on me.  They spend the 6 weeks briefly recuperating, before delving into that world class research.  From home.  There can be no other explanation for the half empty carpark.