UNIVERSITY OF KENT

							                               Faculty of Humanities Faculty Plan 2010

Introductory Overview
The Faculty of Humanities and its constituent Schools and Centres are currently in very good shape, and
this is particularly true in comparison with the picture nationally, where significant cuts are widespread
(King’s, Sussex etc.). That we have been able, following our strong results in RAE2008 (the Faculty’s
overall weighted GPA average at 2.65 was the highest in the University and our return rate at 71% was
also the highest) to continue to make replacements, invest selectively in new appointments (notably in
History, French, Architecture, and shortly in the School of Arts at Medway), expand our support for
postgraduates, including introducing a GTA scheme from September 2010, and launch University of Kent
in Paris, has been noticed nationally. It has also meant that we have been able to continue the tradition in
recent years of recruiting outstanding new staff from ever expanding pools of applicants as others have
frozen posts or made cuts.
It had been expected only a few months ago that the move to the new RAM, which has rebalanced student
charges away from a 100% charge on the UG student fee income, would allow the Faculty to invest
significantly more in staffing to reduce our historically high student staff ratios. While the coming cuts
mean that great caution must now be exercised in staffing decisions, the fact that we have continued to
expand where others are contracting means that we are in a stronger position now relative to our
competitors than even a year ago. Our overall strategy now is to preserve that strength, ensure the success
of our Medway and Paris expansions, complete the transition of the School of Architecture to a research
intensive School, and at the same time keep something in reserve to invest in new appointments prior to
the REF whenever it comes. We urge the University to support us in this strategy, doing everything in its
power to ensure that it has some scope for staffing investment prior to the REF, as we are confident that
the Faculty’s REF entry will be very strong indeed and that everyone we now appoint even at Lecturer
level has a full REF entry in hand at minimum 2* quality, and nearly always a monograph (or sometimes
two) with potential to be rated 3* or above.

Resource Allocation / Financial Position
The Faculty is in a relatively strong financial position, with all Schools having met or having agreed plans
to meet their old RAM savings targets in full. The new RAM projections for Arts and SECL are not yet
accurate but it is expected that with the exception of Architecture, all Schools will be at RAM breakeven
or above under the new RAM prior to achieving the standard savings targets being applied. The Faculty
does not underestimate the challenge of making real savings of the magnitude required in 2011.
The Faculty supports the general conclusion of Hythe that the priority in the coming years should be
investment in maintaining and selectively expanding the staff base in preparation for the REF whenever it
comes, ahead of capital spend.
The forecast financial positions of Schools in the Faculty for 2010/11 are as follows:
Architecture 201K deficit (-7.5%) before standard savings target of 64K.
Arts Currently unclear (due mainly to changes re space charges in Canterbury following move to new
building and planned transfer of Fine Art to Medway). Likely small surplus in Canterbury, before savings
target of 171K, Medway position currently unclear and subject of a separate business plan being updated.
English Breakeven before savings target of 99K
History 6.1% surplus (263K) before savings target of 92K.
SECL excluding ex-ELU Small surplus (estimated ca. 1% or 100K) before savings target of 216K.

It is hoped that the savings targets can be met from a combination of overseas recruitment above
conservative targets, further growth in FEC research grant income, and PGT and PGR growth. Some
Schools in the Faculty would also like to recruit additional home undergraduates in September 2010,
indeed one or two Schools may automatically overshoot their admissions targets (English and History).
Nevertheless in some cases salary savings, while the last resort, may have to be contemplated sooner
rather than later, especially if the REF is delayed.


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Research and Enterprise
The Schools in the Faculty have implemented the mechanisms for research management set out in the
University’s Research Strategy (IRPs, inclusion of research explicitly in WAMs, extra discretionary
teaching relief for the completion of key monographs etc.). The introduction of the quality profiles in RAE
2008 has generally led to a shift in emphasis in publications towards quality over volume. In line with
University expectations, all research active staff have clear targets for the production of four high quality
outputs by 2012, and any obstacles to this are being addressed. School plans confirmed that all School
were taking all necessary measures to make strong submissions to the REF, and each is developing impact
narratives, with some Schools, as well as the Faculty through its Research Fund, earmarking resource to
help maximise the impact of excellent research. Both Faculty Research Centres (American Studies, and
Medieval and Early Modern Studies) have been active in organising conferences and other research events.
Further research centre proposals are coming forward, the latest being the proposed new Centre for
Cognition, Kinaesthetics and Performance from the School of Arts, currently with EG for outline approval.

There have been significant rises in recent years in research income, with a higher proportion of that
income at FEC, in three Schools: Arts (220K in 2008/9 up from 161K and 90K in previous years); English
(typically 10-20K p.a. pre RAE, 120K in 2008-9); SECL (140K in 2008/9, with recent awards leading to a
projected income of 232K in 2010/11). Research income in History has fallen from a peak of ca 200K p.a.
(2005-2007) to 82K in 2008/9, but the School has recently submitted a number of large grants and is
working hard to reverse this decline. History and SECL also recently submitted a number of applications
for Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships. Early indications are that the employment of the Faculty
Research Funding Officer has led to the submission of more and larger grant applications to the funding
councils (AHRC in particular). The Funding Officer also oversees the peer review of applications prior to
submission. The acid test will be whether the introduction of this role leads to greater number and value of
awards, but as BRE agreed at its March meeting, it is too early to evaluate the impact of this investment.
The Faculty’s Research Fund, now in its second year, as well as incentivising grant applications, has
pump-primed a range of interdisciplinary and/or collaborative research projects. A particular success story
has been the initial award to explore collaboration in the area of film and the moving image, which has
culminated not only in the establishment of a new research centre but was also the catalyst for the
development of contacts between Architecture and Engineering and Digital Arts. This has led to the
development of a new MA in Architectural Visualisation coming on stream in 2010.
From next year each School will take it in turns to organise one joint School/Faculty research event of
broad appeal across the Faculty, with a high profile external speaker (5 per year in total). Those events
will also be included in the research seminar/lecture programmes for every School, with the timeslot
cleared of other events and staff and graduate students across the Faculty strongly encouraged to attend.
Together with the reintroduction of inaugural lectures it is envisaged that these events will provide
enhanced opportunities for staff and research students to meet and discuss research across School lines.
This should in turn lead to further collaborations and strengthen the sense of common identity as a Faculty,
while also addressing the issue of social contact among graduate students, which the Postgraduate
Research Experience Survey indicates is currently a weakness.

There are a number of smaller Enterprise projects in train across the Schools in the Faculty. In addition
there are two major strategic initiatives being developed in collaboration with KIE under their Innovation
Fund. The first of these is a proposed Institute of Creativity and the Creative Industries (ICCI), led by the
School of Arts. The School is exploring the potential value of establishing a research and postgraduate
teaching institute devoted to the study of the creative industries. The context for this initiative is the
recognition by government and HEFCE of the strategic importance of the creative industries to the
economy, and the potential for premium-fee PG programmes related to creative industries management.
There are no competitor centres or programmes of this sort in the UK. The School has been awarded
HEIF4 funding to appoint two fixed-term post-doctoral enterprise fellows to research and develop the idea
of an institute focused upon research and postgraduate education in this area.
The Faculty’s second major enterprise initiative is a planned project on Heritage and Museums, led by the
incoming Chair of Roman History and Archaeology, but which has broad relevance to all Schools in the
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Faculty. It is envisaged that this project will involve significant collaboration with Canterbury City
Council, which is currently reviewing its museum services, but will also cover the Medway and
potentially Maidstone too.

Learning and Teaching
The School plans indicate that Schools are developing a range of strategies and activities to address the
Learning and Teaching Enhancement Strategy and the Developing Effective Learners Enhancement
Theme. These are not summarised here but will be collated from School plans for discussion in relevant
forums (e.g. LTB). The Faculty planning group devoted much of its annual awayday in December to the
learning and teaching agenda and over the past few years the Faculty has developed a strong culture of
debating and sharing ideas and innovations. All Schools in the Faculty adopted a common assignment
feedback template from September 2009. Arising from discussions this year, several important further
innovations are to be adopted consistently by all Schools across the Faculty, and are offered here as
examples of good practice which might be considered for adoption across the University.
The first of these is the consistent designation of what used to be called hourly paid lecturers, or sessional
teachers, by the official title of their role, namely Assistant Lecturer or Associate Lecturer. This is a sign
of our ongoing commitment to raise the status of this key group of staff (which will include all graduate
students who teach), who provide a large proportion of the teaching in the Faculty. Each School will
follow the lead of the School of English in displaying prominently an alphabetical photo board of all staff
in the School, including all Assistant and Associate Lecturers (AALs). The same approach will be taken to
staff lists on School websites. Schools are also providing enhanced induction and training for AALs,
ensuring that they are properly represented at relevant School meetings, and improving their facilities, for
example ensuring that they have a shared office and access to staff common rooms where these exist.
Once fully implemented, we hope that these and other measures will not only enhance the esteem of
AALs, but also counter some of the negative comments in the NSS that students feel that they are being
taught by part-time staff rather than lecturers. If we demonstrably value AALs highly, so will students.
The second initiative which is to be adopted across the Faculty from 2010-11 involves each School aiming
to offer one-to-one feedback on at least one assignment per module, a system which has already been
consistently implemented in the School of History in 2009-10 and is in operation to some extent in other
parts on the Faculty.
In autumn 2009, each School in the Faculty prepared a detailed plan to address the good degrees agenda,
and these plans were shared and discussed at the Faculty Planning Group and Learning and Teaching
Committee. The Faculty benefitted greatly from the comprehensive report prepared by KBS on this issue.
In light of this experience we would like to see the development of more consistently effective
mechanisms for showcasing and dissemination of best practice across Faculties (planned revisions to the
PPR process may be part of the answer here).

Undergraduate Studies
In the planning meetings Schools made the following requests to increase their intake targets at
Canterbury for September 2010: History 30, English 30, SECL 10 (the School of Arts expansion at
Medway includes increased targets, with some flexibility to be exercised in 2010 on the split between
Medway and Canterbury). Following discussions with Architecture staff and students, the Architecture
Review Implementation Group is also reviewing the Architecture programme intake numbers as a whole
(because of the professional structural Part 1/Part 2 format), rather than focusing exclusively on the review
recommendation of limiting the part two MArch to 30, but no change is proposed to the Architecture first
year intake target for September 2010.
The entry tariff of the student intake in September 2009 was pleasingly high across the Faculty, with a
welcome strong improvement in SECL from 287 to 324. The minimum offer level for programmes at
Canterbury is now 320 points, with several at 340, and most Schools in the Faculty are planning further
entry tariff rises next year.
Following the split of the ELU and the transfer of the BA programme to SECL, the School is in the
process of establishing a new English Language and Linguistics section, and the degree programme is
being fully revised.
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Undergraduate part time numbers are still declining at Tonbridge (the full consequences of the withdrawal
of ELQ funding will be seen by 2010/11). Whereas last year the Faculty plan signalled an intention to
withdraw from Tonbridge, the intention currently is to enhance and rationalise the delivery of part time
degrees at Tonbridge by offering collaborative programmes across the Faculty’s constituent Schools (e.g.
History and Archaeology, English and Comparative Literature).
The School of Arts is developing a year in industry option for all its students, which may serve as a model
for other Schools.

Graduate Studies
Total Faculty PG load is 274FTE in 2009/10, up from 266FTE in 2008/9, 209 in 2007/8, and 189 in
2006/7. PG applications for September 2010 entry are strong, with increases in both home and overseas
PGT and PGR applications, and acceptances for home and overseas PGT currently at double the position
of the same time last year. 28 applications have been received for Paris programmes, including 10 from
overseas (only one application had been received at this point last year).
PGT: the Faculty is continuing to renew its PGT portfolio, with a number of new MA programmes to start
in 2010: Paris versions of the MAs in Film Studies and Postcolonial Studies; Heritage Management
(Athens); Transnational American Studies; History of Medicine, Science, Environment and Technology;
Eighteenth Century Studies; Modern European Literature; Architectural Visualisation (joint programme
with Engineering and Digital Arts). Following the Architecture review it was decided not to recruit to the
MA in Urban Design. From 2010/11 three of the five Schools in the Faculty will be offering Paris
programmes, with the next priority being to include a programme from the School of History as soon as
possible.
Further new MAs are being planned, with the Faculty for example currently exploring the feasibility of
offering an MA in Medical Humanities. An outcome of the Architecture review is the appointment of a
Professor who will tasked with developing a premium fee MA attractive to the overseas market.
The investment by the School of English in PGT scholarships / fee waivers has evidently produced results
in recent years, and this approach is being adopted by the School of History for 2010/11, while the two
Schools have also jointly established an MA scholarship for the Faculty Centre for Medieval and Early
Modern Studies. Other Schools will follow this lead as resources permit. An appropriate regime of
scholarships and fee waivers should be part of the picture in planning to raise band D PGT fees over the
coming years. Planning meetings focused on the need to reduce the number of modules with low numbers,
with progress being made in this area through the sharing of modules across several programmes in the
Faculty.
PGR: the Faculty has agreed a common approach to the employment of GTAs from September 2010
which has been approved by the Graduate School Board, with each School planning to recruit at least one
GTA next year. The scheme envisages a grant of ca. 8K in year one, and 4K in each of the two subsequent
years, during which the student will be able to earn around 4K each year additionally from teaching
(effectively the scheme is equivalent to roughly half the value of a University Scholarship).
The School of English has introduced an MPhil in Text, Practice and Research, which will now provide
the standard upgrade route to the PhD in the same field, and to their two Creative Writing PhD
programmes in Modern Poetry (also new this year) and in the Innovative Contemporary Novel.
The Faculty has introduced a policy of minimum levels of support for research students and a new
Faculty/School PhD Support Top-Up Fund to cover special training needs or one-off items such as
overseas conferences or visits to archives.
The Faculty is proud of the initiative of its graduate students in organising conferences and training events,
and setting up online journals and other publications. We believe that our research students have a key
role to play in the enhancement of the research culture, and have supported such initiatives through the
Faculty Research Fund, which is open to research students as well as staff.
The Faculty believes that more attention should be paid to the feedback from graduate students (the
English School plan was exemplary in this regard) and to this end would like the planning data to include
summary analysis of graduate feedback along the lines of that provided for the NSS and internal surveys
at undergraduate level (at the same time steps should be taken to increase the participation rates in
graduate surveys).
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Internationalisation
The Faculty appointed a Director of Internationalisation in 2009 to coordinate internationalisation
activities and has used its internationalisation fund to support international recruitment efforts, the
development of strategic partnerships (e.g. Virginia Tech, Ghent, Ottawa), and the development of short
study trips to the continent, a number of which have been initiated this year at both undergraduate and
graduate level. The Schools and the Faculty intend to coordinate future overseas recruitment activities and
are currently in the process of identifying frequent flyers who will be trained and supported to undertake
overseas recruitment on behalf of the Faculty and University.
The Humanities exchange with Hong Kong University has been successful and demand is exceeding the
number of places. The Faculty is planning to offer a similar possibility with Renmin University of China.
The Faculty is also planning a common approach that would allow any of our students to go abroad to
specified institutions for one term during a three year UG degree. The implementation issues are not trivial
but we hope that this can be achieved. Should these plans come to fruition, consideration would need to be
given to the implications for support services (European and International Offices). Meanwhile several
Schools have expanded study abroad opportunities for students (e.g. English, Comparative Literature).
The establishment of a base at Reid Hall in Paris has prompted the development of a range of conferences
and events to be held there from April 2010 (five planned so far).
The School of English is leading an Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctoral application to be submitted in April.
In 2009-10 the School of History ran the Faculty’s first module at Brussels, and is part of a the new
European Cooperation on Contemporary War Studies (ECOWAST) in partnership with universities of
Lille, Ghent and Brussels and The Netherlands Institute for War Documentation. (These just some
highlights.)

Space Issues
The Faculty welcomes the progress that has been made in the past year in addressing its space needs. The
School of Arts now has a flagship building which will bring major benefits to the staff and student
experience and the cohesiveness of the School. The School of English reports that the space changes in the
Rutherford extension last summer (creation of a foyer, common room, remodelled administrative section)
have had a very positive effect on morale among academic and administrative staff in the School. The
innovative refurbishment of the seminar rooms in Cornwallis for SECL use, overseen by the Teaching
Room Improvement Group in consultation with the School to designs by Architecture students, was also
most welcome. This rolling programme of seminar room refurbishment coupled with zoning of seminar
rooms for use by a particular School is an important initiative that the Faculty fully supports.
There are two remaining major space issues. The first is the lack of a dedicated crit space at the heart of
the School of Architecture, which was flagged as a business risk in the Architecture review in relation to
RIBA accreditation. While the review panel was not able at the time to identify any space in the Marlowe
building, the School has since developed imaginative plans for a crit and performance space adjacent to
the School which would be a major enhancement of the learning and teaching environment of the School
and University. These are included as appendix 2. Architecture are also planning some modifications to
Studio 3 to remove some fixed pods to create a more open plan, flexible space (this is with Neil
Higginson).
The second issue is the inability of SECL to accommodate within the Cornwallis building the ex-ELU
staff who will form the new English Language and Linguistics section, thus making it more difficult to
integrate these staff into the research environment of the School.

Major Planned Strategic Initiatives:
(i) ongoing review/restructuring of administration
Under the old RAM, some academic Schools in Humanities were generally unable to dedicate the kind of
resource to their administrative teams that was the norm in other parts of the Faculty and University. The
appointment of the FAM has triggered a systematic and coordinated review of administration across the
Faculty. While this work is ongoing, a number of concrete outcomes are already apparent. The
administration teams of three Schools have been restructured in 2009-10 to ensure that there is the right
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amount and level of administrative support (Architecture, Arts, English) and to shift administrative tasks
to administrators wherever possible in order to free up academic staff time for research and teaching.
History plan to invest additional resource in their administration team in 2010/11, while in SECL a major
review of administration is being started.
The Schools of Arts and Architecture are also planning to review their technical support teams. Work is
also ongoing to see if certain administration roles (e.g. possibly postgraduate administration) can be
shared across the Faculty.
The use of a graduate intern in the School of Architecture to administer the AHRA conference has been a
positive development in providing additional resource but also developing the employability of Kent
graduates, and it is hoped that this model could be developed across the Faculty.
Systems for sharing of good practice and resolving issues have been implemented across the Faculty such
as holding undergraduate and graduate administration forums as well as the regular meetings for all the
administration managers.

(ii) Implementation of the outcomes of the School of Architecture Review
All actions are in hand. It will take some time to see the full benefits of the outcomes in terms of enhanced
research culture and performance, including the securing of QR following the REF, the establishment of
premium fee MA programmes, and efficiency gains from the discontinuation of the Interiors programme
and the review of technical support.

(iii) School of Arts Expansion and Review at Medway
The School is beginning to implement its plans for expansion in Medway following the decision of
Executive Group to enter into a partnership with the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust to develop the
Fitted Rigging House (FRH). The exact phasing is currently under discussion given the recent
confirmation that the building will be available some time in 2012, and not September 2011 as originally
envisaged. A decision has to be made shortly about whether Design can be launched in 2011 or would be
better postponed until 2012 when the FRH will be ready, with Dance not to start before 2012 in any event.
The first steps to be taken to implement this plan are (i) the appointment of Professors of Fine Art, Design,
Dance, and Music (this a SIV post), one of whom will take on the overall leadership of the School of Arts
at Medway. These appointments, and associated sub-Professorial appointments will be made in a phased
way from summer 2010, with the most urgent appointments being in Fine Art and Music which will be
advertised shortly; (ii) the establishment of a project board to oversee the developments; (iii) the
development and approval of programmes (iv) the development of marketing materials and recruitment
activities; (v) the development of a revised governance structure for the School as a whole to ensure there
are effective and integrated management systems suitable for the split-site operations of the School; (vi)
review of the operations and focus of the existing School of Arts’ provision in Medway to optimise their
integration with the new programmes (good progress has already been made on this); (vii) ensuring that
the interim arrangements for the 2010/11 intake to the Fine Art programme in Bridge Warden’s College
are effectively implemented.

(iv) Active REF Planning
In the confidential appendices to their plans, Schools addressed staffing issues in the run up to the REF.
All retirements over the next five years have been carefully considered with a view to making early
replacement in time for the REF and/or retaining key staff beyond normal retirement age where their
planned REF return warrants it. All possible measures are being taken to maximise the volume and the
submission rate as well as quality in the REF. The Faculty is confident that its submission rate will be well
above the 71% of RAE2008, with the target being over 90% across the Faculty.

(v) Alumni Relations and Fundraising
The School of History is holding an Alumni Day in September 2010 to build relations with alumni and
incorporating a fundraising element, and this will serve as a pilot for other Schools in the Faculty.


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(vi) East Asian Studies
In the belief that Asian students will be more receptive to a University with a manifest interest in Asian
Studies, SECL is exploring the possibility of building on the language offering of CEWL in Mandarin and
Japanese to develop a joint degree in East Asian Studies from existing provision across the University (e.g.
PolIR).

(vii) Medical Humanities
The Faculty is exploring the possibility of offering an MA in this subject. This would be done from
existing resources, but is flagged here as this development is relevant to the developing Health Strategy.


Investment Priorities for 2010/11 (outside budget of Schools)

School of Architecture:
(i) already agreed, new Chair to be funded from the curriculum development earmarked budget. As a
School still in the early phase of its development, and operating within the parameters set out by the
Review, there is little scope for cost savings, so the School should not be set a savings target above the
standard savings target at this stage, despite being projected to be in deficit in 2010/11. That said its
financial performance is likely to improve further next year with probable further growth of overseas fee
income (applications up 46% on top of strong recruitment in September 2009) and PGT premium fee
income from the MA in Architectural Visualisation. Therefore the likely growth in income should mean
that the School’s actual financial performance in 2010/11 will be much better than currently projected.
(ii) capital spend on new crit space (360-400K). Details of the proposals are included as appendix 2.

School of Arts: the Medway business plan envisages significant investment in the School that has already
been agreed by EG. The business plan is currently being updated and all School of Arts activity at
Medway consolidated into a single cost centre incorporating Fine Art, Event and Experience Design, and
Music and Audio.

Paris: The Dean and FAM are working with the FPA office to update the business plan, establish a budget
for 2010/11 and decide how income and expenditure will be handled on an ongoing basis.

MA in Greece: a business plan has been agreed.


Investment Priorities beyond 2010/11
Investment to maximise the number of staff entered into the REF whenever it comes. Significant spend on
overlap appointments and temporary extensions to contracts (e.g. of retiring staff or those on fixed term
contracts).


Appendix 1
Summary of progress compared with 2009 plan.


Appendix 2
School of Architecture crit space plan.




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Appendix 1

Faculty of Humanities: Progress against 2009 Plan


PLAN                                                 OUTCOME
Carry out review of Architecture                     Review held in January 2010
Secure RAM review                                    New RAM implemented for 2010/11
Raise status of hourly paid staff                    Good progress, further initiatives in hand
GTA scheme from September 2010                       Done
Secure abolition of tax on RDP                       Not achieved but subsumed into RAM review
Provide some scholarships for MAs                    Good progress
Staffing plans for Architecture                      Budget secured
Appropriate non-staff budget for School of History   Implemented
New Lecturer in History of Medicine                  Done
Replace Professor of Classics and other selective    Done
replacements in SECL
Appoint Faculty Director of Internationalisation  Done
Establish Internationalisation budget             Done
Expand number of short study trips abroad         Done
Ensure that contributions to Faculty Centres are  Done, being monitored by newly formed Faculty
appropriately recognised in School WAMs           Centres Steering Group.
Develop Centre for Applied Creativity             Some progress, now to be called ICCI, need to
                                                  accelerate progress.
Submit Erasmus Mundus bid in 2010                 On track
Introduce standard assessment feedback template   Done
Plan phased withdrawal from Tonbridge             Plan changed to rationalisation/enhancement of
                                                  provision (joint honours in most cases).
Move Fine Art to Medway in 2010 and consider New entry to be in Medway in 2010, existing
implications for History and Philosophy of Art at Canterbury students to remain at Canterbury to
Canterbury                                        complete their degrees. Recruitment to HPA strong
                                                  in 2009/10. Implications for HPA to be considered
                                                  further as Fine Art programme at Canterbury
                                                  phased out.
Launch Paris programmes September 2009            Done
Develop a more explicit fundraising strategy and Not achieved. History Alumni Day a key action, to
action plan                                       be replicated by other Schools.




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