of Lincoln, or indeed with any other university, because we see ourselves as offering something different,’ he says. The Social Science Centre, which will take its first students at the start of the next academic year, will not demand fees and does not insist on any formal distinction between students and staff. It is managed by its members – academics, students, administrators, educators, activists – much as the Tent City University was, ‘on the basis of democratic, non-hierarchical principles’. The centre intends to teach around 20 students, offering ‘portable’ qualifications graded to university level by volunteer staff. There is no set fee but if students and teachers are able to contribute and wish to, there is a fee structure whereby people pay one hour of their income a month.


Teaching grant The catalyst for the centre was the decision of the coalition government to withdraw the teaching grant from the arts, humanities and the social sciences, Neary explains. Although what he terms ‘the marketisation and commodification of higher education’ had been a trend under previous governments, the withdrawal of public funding for teaching in these subject areas marked ‘a particular intensification’ of the campaign against the public university. ‘It seems to me that is an act of intellectual vandalism against the university as a progressive political and sociological project – and maybe against civilisation. That might sound a bit extreme but the whole sense of who we are as a society is being attacked, clearly. As academics – the personification of the university, in our roles and in our academic life – a group of us felt that we had to do something, to set up a different form of higher education, while at the same time fighting to maintain the public university and funding.’ What Neary hopes will emerge is a ‘new form of institution’ run along cooperative lines, with teachers and students, as well as administrative and professional support staff, working closely together to run the centre and its teaching programme. Teachers and students have much to learn from one another, he says, and that will be reflected in course content which will be subject to ‘a lot of negotiation and a lot of discussion’. He also envisages students and teachers working together on research and writing. Around 30 academic and support staff have signed up to be involved, most but not all from the University of Lincoln. ‘There are people there from the transition movement, people who are interested in autonomous


Marxism, there are people who have awareness of this kind of working-class, educational project, the Workers’ Educational Association, all connected to that kind of historical leftism, but we have no line that we’re pushing – we’re not educating students to think in a particular way, far from it. We’re producing a model of higher education that will mirror as much as we can the kind of world we’d like to live in while we share and collaborate.’ The aim is to produce something that is both local and sustainable – and that is ‘in a real space at the heart of its local community’ (the centre will focus on face-to-face teaching and learning). Although it is small in scale, and based around the social sciences, Neary thinks


Educators are looking for ways to connect with the movement but we have to be the movement – it’s not a movement to be connected to or to explain things to – we are part of the movement it will produce a model that could be emulated elsewhere, in other subjects. The centre, he hopes, will gain a ‘reputation for excellence’ which will be guarded by ‘associate’ members who, while they will not be involved in teaching or in the day-to-day running of the centre, will take on a sort of external examiner and review role. It will be important to have credible scholars in the role as it is the reputation of the centre that will ‘validate’ the degrees it offers, Neary says, whether at undergraduate, master’s or PhD level. Students will study for up to six years part-time to achieve a certificate equivalent to a degree. A master’s course will take up to four years and a PhD course eight years. Each student will receive a certificate in higher education, with ‘an extensive written


SPRING 2012 ADULTS LEARNING 25

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