Alternative education

In August last year, I suggested an alternative to building a new university in Swindon.

What I could see happening, and would favour, is one of the colleges in Swindon expanding the undergraduate courses which it offers until, after many years, it is in a position to claim university status and offer its own degrees rather than those of other universities. I think that would also have the benefit of producing something more vocational appropriate for the sort of town Swindon is… focused on the town’s industrial base, rather than a more traditional, academic university that we might end up with as a branch of some other town’s university. That model is the one by which most current universities were created (from college, to university college or polytechnic, then to independent university), but is one that takes many decades.

Mr Buckland said he was ‘taken with’ the suggestion. Mr Tomlinson seemed supportive too. Now that the money has vanished for the University of the West England’s Swindon plans — if it was ever really there — it seems that Swindon Borough Council might be coming round to my and others’ way of thinking, albeit reluctantly. Whilst Mr Young still expresses aspirations for a new university, that he is prepared to explore more homegrown alternatives is a welcome departure from the legacy-project fixation of the current council administration.

Forward Swindon — repackaging failure?

On the same day that the University of the West of England announced it had ditched plans to build a university in Swindon, thereby knocking yet another hole in the masterplan for Swindon town centre regeneration, the council’s fantasist leader Mr Bluh was busy burying his head in the sand.

2010 will see us kicking off out of the recession because of the resilience we have here in Swindon.

The only resilience I see is in Mr Bluh’s habit of throwing our money at vanity projects.

[I]n 2009 we had one of the best years in getting the name of the Swindon known better around the country — getting rid of the speed cameras, the Radio One weekend; the wi-fi launch which attracted interest from around the world and, of course, our twinning with Disneyworld.

Let’s not forget that the council has admitted that the claimed £2M benefits from almost £½M splurged on the Radio 1 Big Weekend are partly speculation rather than fact. Let’s not forget that the almost £½M spent on wifi is on companies with minimal track record and whose project is already behind schedule. Let’s also not forget that Mr Bluh and Swindon Borough Council had no part in the Disney twinning — the once source of sustained good publicity.

So why — apart from naïvety and arrogance — is Mr Bluh so optimistic? Apparently because he’s throwing yet another £1M of our money at a replacement for the New Swindon Company. As was announced back in January, the old company and parts of the council are to be replaced by a new company, now to be named Forward Swindon*.

If Forward Swindon is to bring about the long promised regeneration, it’ll need to be considerably more successful than its predecessor — and significantly more careful with our money than its council masters. With little money available in current economic conditions, small steps rather than grand plans would be in order. Swindon needs a town centre that serves the needs of its population, rather than one that serves the ego of legacy-seeking political masters.

* Just a holding site for the moment, but registered in the name of the New Swindon Company’s Ms Ashdown.

Goodbye to Oakfield?

It seems that the University of Bath now wish to seal their departure from Swindon in rubble. The university has submitted a planning application ‘for the demolition of main campus building and all associated outbuildings/ sheds.’ Now, I wouldn’t go as far as the government’s representative in South Swindon, Ms Snelgrove, and describe it as ‘a wonderful campus building’, but as school buildings of the 1950s and 60s go it’s not that bad.

Note also how effective Ms Snelgrove’s attempt to protect Oakfield Campus has been. In the face of her own government’s legislation — which obliges owners to pay full business rates on empty commercial properties — it’s so far been a total failure.

The feel of a university

Mr Rushforth of the University of the West of England believes that the Oakfield site in Swindon does not feel like a university.

I am not sure that people thinking of sending their sons or daughters to university would think it was appropriate. It does not have the feel of a university campus.

I’m not sure what Mr Rushforth thinks a university campus should feel like: his own Frenchay campus in Bristol is not exactly stunning. Oakfield is mainly flat open fields, much like the site near Coate Water that he would prefer to locate a UWE Swindon branch on. Frenchay is also quite flat, but looks like a factory estate and office park. Neither feel like a university campus to me, but Oakfield does have the benefit that with some good architecture and landscaping — plus a smattering of students, of course — it could be made to look and feel like one. For the Frenchay campus it is already too late.

The fields around Coate don’t feel to me like a housing estate. I doubt that would convince Mr Rushforth’s developer partners. Logically, the planning inspector should find Mr Rushforth’s argument equally unconvincing.

What sort of town should Swindon be?

Reading through the political ya-boo-ery over the University of the West of England’s plans (such as they are) for a campus in Swindon, the argument — when it isn’t descending into petty jibes — seems to be not just about whether there should be a university in Swindon, but about what sort of town Swindon should be.

Mr Buckland’s concern that the plans are sketchy is reasonable enough. His point that “Great Universities don’t just appear, they evolve.” is also worth remembering amidst the University of the West of England’s hype for its plans. It’s disappointing, though wholly in character, that in response the government’s representative in South Swindon, Ms Snelgrove feels the need to go for a cheap political jibe about Mr Buckland not being a local (though coming from Wokingham, she’s clearly not a local herself).

Where Mr Buckland’s argument goes astray, in my view, is in his attempts to defend, repeatedly, Mr Tomlinson’s view that having a larger student population in Swindon is a bad thing. Yes there will be an impact on the availability of low-cost housing, but his arguments go beyond that.

Having lived in a small city (Swansea) with a large student population, I well know the often baleful effects that too much student housing can have on a neighbourhood. Noise, rubbish and a deserted feeling during holidays cause real problems for long standing local residents…. I can tell you that local residents had their lives made a misery by noise, rubbish and poorly maintained homes of multiple occupation in their midst. If that’s what you want for Swindon, then be honest about it.

That’s not what anybody would want. It’s not what a university initially targeting the local market and adult learners is likely to produce. And as Mr Buckland admits, his comparisons exaggerate the problems Swindon could face.

Swansea now has two Universities and over 20,000 students, so actually the comparison is misleading.

So don’t make the comparison!

Any large employer that develops — regardless of whether it’s a university, car manufacturer, insurance company, or railway works — changes the nature of the population in the surrounding area. The changes are rarely welcome. Communities are never static, changing with the circumstances that surround them. If the politicians want a university, which it seems that they all, except for Mr Tomlinson, they have to accept the changes — bad as well as good — that may bring.

I’ll end this rather rambling piece with a quote from Mr Leakey

Swindon has always been a town built and expanded simply because of it’s one great asset and draw over the years – work. That’s the main reason most of the people of this town have come here since the railway works started the ball rolling back in the 1840s. It’s not and never has been a centre for high class shopping, culture, history or any of the other things many other towns and cities have to offer…. It’s an honest to goodness practical and working town, Swindon should stick to doing what Swindon always has and still does best – employment.

If there is to be a university in Swindon, let it be one focused clearly on supporting Swindon’s wider employment potential, rather than its own wellbeing and the more esoteric aspects of learning.

Housing a university

Mr Tomlinson seem rather poorly informed about his own council’s plans for the town centre. The University of the West of England has long-term plans for a campus of up to 10,000 students in Swindon. Those plans are very long term according to the university’s Mr Rushforth, quoted in the Adver.

Ideally we would like to see some headway on [a town centre site] within the next year. Obviously within such a short time period that would be in the form of something like a drop-in centre. It would take around three to four years before we could open the site, and we would be looking at around 1,000 students to begin with, rising to five or six thousand. Given our ambitions we would hope over a 20-year or so period to get something like 10,000 students.

Assuming some of those students are local, it would be an equally long time before there would need to be overspill from a North Star campus, which Swindon Borough Council’s Central Area Action Plan estimates could provide a campus for 7,000. At the alternative site near Coate there’s even more space. Even if the estimate for North Star is rather generous, which it seems to be, so are most universities’ estimates of their own growth potential. The University of the West of England’s ambitions correspond to it growing by 33% from its current 30,000 students — not much evidence of modest predictions there.

So why is Mr Tomlinson worrying about the effect a university might have on housing?

I am concerned about affordable accommodation being hoovered up by landlords wanting to attract students. One of the things that makes Swindon attractive… is the cost of housing and I am worried about the effect a university would have on that, and whether we would see businesses leaving Swindon. If they could build a campus for 10,000 students I would have less concern.

That looks like a bad case of compassionate ignorance to me. Being concerned for the socially disadvantaged may be a virtue; ignorance of the plans of an administration that he was, until the end of last week, a member, is not.

Is a Swindon university a little nearer?

Whilst researching my last posting, I noticed that the forthcoming cabinet meeting of Swindon Borough Council has as the final item on its agenda ‘University at North Star, Swindon’ including site plans. It will be discussed behind closed doors.

No Baths here

It should come as no surprise that, having abandoned plans to open a campus at Coate Water, the University of Bath has now decided to abandon its loss-leading Oakfield site. It does somewhat contrast, though, with statements that the university made at the time the Coate plans were dropped.

Professor Breakwell added: “We will continue to work closely with a wide range of external partners to explore how best to expand the higher education provision in Swindon and Wiltshire.”

As noted by all political sides, regardless of what the university might say about continuing provision in Swindon without a site here, that is very unlikely now.

A mini university of exaggeration

With a big fanfare (okay, just a press release — ‘Plans for a major university in Swindon have moved a step closer’ — a news article and a short leader article), Swindon Borough Council has announced that The University of the West of England has firmed up its interest in opening a branch in Swindon. We are told that it will be ‘a unique learning institution in the town centre.’ We are also told that it will offer about 3000 places, probably in North Star, primarily for vocational training.

It is intended that the new university will focus on the strengths of the Swindon economy, such as advanced engineering, financial services, ICT, health and social care and the heritage industry.

We will deliver teaching to employees while they work. The courses will be bespoke to the individual needs of employers like Honda and Intel. We are also looking at delivering heritage courses, which aren’t available elsewhere.

That’s about a third of the size of the existing University of Bath in Swindon and covering a very similar range of subjects. It is difficult to see what will be unique about the new campus apart from its minute size. It is quite a feat of exaggeration to describe it as ‘a major university in Swindon’.
Presumably this should mean that the Gateway plans are now dead… unless someone can be persuaded to provide a proper university for Swindon.

An empty Gateway?

No, a Gateway that is full of only houses. It seems that now, not only is there no university interested in the plans to concrete over the area around Coate Water, but the GW Hospital is not interested either. Apparently the developers’ plans have not allocated enough space for the hospital, proposing instead that an area reserved for an expanded park-and-ride car park be used for hospital development. Guess that means there’ll be no alternative but to build houses over the entire Gateway site. I’m sure the developers will be distraught at the thought.

Gateway plans

The outline plans for concreting over the area around Coate Water have now been formally submitted to Swindon Borough Council. Anyone wishing to look at and comment on the plans can do so here and here.

How to make a yes out of maybe

I was, perhaps, a little premature in my suggestions of amnesia amongst our local councillors. Yesterday’s Adver carries a story about ongoing discussions between Swindon Borough Council and universities, but about a town centre campus, not a Coate Water campus. ‘Story’ is quite an apt description in this case. The leading paragraph suggests that discussions are well developed.

PLANS for a town centre university are in the pipeline and the University of the West of England is believed to be the top choice to meet Swindon’s higher education needs.

The quote from The University of the West of England* is considerably more guarded.

UWE, along with other universities has been involved in preliminary discussions with Swindon Council to which no outcome has yet been reached.

That reads like nothing more than ‘maybe’ to me. The figurative pipeline in the newspaper story could be very long.

*Mind that initial ‘The’. It’s in their legal title and they can get very picky about it.

A neat disappearing trick

Compare and contrast. The leader of Swindon Borough Council, Roderick Bluh, quoted at the beginning of July.

We have been having discussions with various universities, but this is about what is best for Swindon not what is best for developers.

And quoted today, less then four weeks later.

Before a university can be brought to Swindon there would have to be discussions with the council and MPs and as far as I know there hasn’t. We have certainly not been party to any discussions about a university and the developers should certainly be pushed on who this university is.

That looks like a bad case of amnesia to me.

Stampede!

Apparently, Swindon Borough Council is being overwhelmed by universities interested in opening a campus in the town.

Council leader Rod Bluh, said he could not reveal the identities of the universities as talks were ongoing but that he remained optimistic a deal could be struck. He said: “We have spoken to one or two universities, but investment is far from certain at this stage.”

Wow! So many! I’m impressed!

“This is a great example of cross party politics working at its best. I have already been working closely with Michael Wills on this and Ann Snelgrove is also concerned about exactly the same issues,” said Coun Bluh. Speaking in Parliament on Friday, South Swindon MP Mrs Snelgrove said she was concerned about the delay.

If this is cross party politics at its best, I hope we never see it at its worst.

The art of consultation

This morning I went to the Swindon Gateway Partnership’s display of their new plans for the area to the east of Coate Water. They are a great improvement on the previous plans. That does not make them good. To quote the developers’ consultants.

Sarah Smith, associate director of DPDS, said: “Essentially what’s changed is we have taken on board the local planning inspector’s comments about the views into and out of Coate Water Country Park. Therefore we have looked at moving the university site further south to remove some of the higher buildings out of these views. We have increased the buffer zone to the special site of scientific interest by about 40 per cent.

That’s all very well and is an improvement on their earlier plans. However, in place of the university at the northern end of the site there will now be a residential area… right up close to the northern arm of Coate Water. That’s the part of Coate Water that has the most visitors. There’s no buffer zone there. And at upto 5 storeys tall (according to Ms Smith this morning), even with a wider buffer zone, the university buildings are not going to be hidden out-of-sight. The possibility of imposing lower limits on those university buildings nearest Coate Water was considered but discounted by the developers (or in Ms Smith’s words “It’s in the plans’ environmental statement.”).

The overall impression from the display was of some fairly uncaring developers (they can afford to be — Swindon Borough Council is on their side). Ms Smith’s colleague was like a record stuck in a groove, repeating “it complies with national standards” in response to every concern raised (noise from adjoining main roads; provision of utilities; density of housing; impact on road congestion…). I’m sure that is true, but on its own it does not win many friends.

University campus for sale

Given how unpopular the original plans to concrete over the land surrounding Coate Water were, you’d think that, once the University of Bath decided to abandon their plans for a campus in Swindon, the council would allow the idea to quietly die. Not a at all. Seems they want to go ahead anyway, regardless of whether there’s a university interested. Political genius.

University of Confusion

It’s nice to see that my local MP has such a good grasp of a significant issue in her constituency. According to the local newspaper, she said

Alan [Johnson, Education Secretary] echoed my disappointment and Michael Wills' disappointment, and of course the council's, that the university is not coming here and has decided to pull out.

And I think he explained his scepticism that the university is quoting the Stern report on climate change as the reason why it should not come here.

Err… climate change affecting university development? Not quite. In fact, nowhere near. Neither of the University of Bath’s recent press releases mention climate change nor the Stern Report. They do mention

the Government’s priorities for the future development of higher education are shifting towards increased opportunities for study whilst in the workplace.

as set out in a letter to HEFCE from Alan Johnson and the government commissioned Leitch Review of Skills. But nothing to do with climate change (except for the political hot air quoted here).

Hyperbole

The University of Bath has now confirmed its decision not to build a new campus in Swindon. The response of one of our local MPs, as reported by the Swindon Evening Advertiser, seems a bit OTT:

Mr Wills said he was very disappointed. "It's a great shame that the town has gone so far in trying to accommodate the University of Bath," he said.

"It's a real blow that without any real notice to anyone in the town that they have pulled the plug on the project. This raises significant questions about other projects in the town and the region."

One organisation has cancelled its plans owing, it says, to a change in government policy, and suddenly all other major developments are in doubt… not just in Swindon but across the south west. ’Tis a bit like claiming that, as it rained today, there is a serious risk that we will never see the sun again.

A university for Swindon?

In 2001, a report to Swindon Borough Council concluded that an area near the town centre called North Star should be developed as a university campus as part of Swindon’s regeneration programme. The Swindon Urban Regeneration Company was set-up the following year, with the University of Bath having a seat on it’s board. The plan was for the site to accomodate 1,000 students along with accomodation. Then a change of heart led to the University of Bath wanting a more traditional campus, and a site near one of Swindon’s main leisure areas, Coate Water, was selected. There was much local opposition, as the plans (paid for through major housing development on the site) would encroach on the currently open landscape. As a consequence of a change in government policy (towards more workplace learning) and of the housing developers wanting too much of the site, the university has changed it’s mind, again. Now Swindon College is offering to share their campus at North Star with the University of Bath. So we are back where we were six years ago.