Save Middlesex Philosophy

30 April 2010

Dear Vice-Chancellor,

I have been astonished and appalled to hear of the abrupt closure of the Philosophy programmes at Middlesex University. It is very difficult to comprehend the thinking behind a decision to axe the most prestigious and highest research-rated subject at the University, or to see what possible academic or economic rationale there can be for it.

The Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy is one of the most distinguished centres of philosophical scholarship in the UK, and regularly attracts large numbers of talented students with the range and excellence of its MA and PhD offering. It also enjoys a shining international reputation, with many of those attached to it highly respected for their research and in continual demand as speakers around the world.  It has deservedly been rated extremely highly in recent Research Assessment Exercises, and it generates a substantial amount of revenue for the University, currently contributing nearly half of its total income to the University’s central administration.

In the absence of any other clear justification for this move, one has to assume that the target is the subject area itself.  In other words, one has to assume that this belongs with a number of other recent ill-judged and culturally reductive moves designed to cut back on the teaching of critically engaged disciplines such as philosophy, and indeed of the humanities generally in our universities.

If this is so, I call on you, and on your Deputy Vice-Chancellors, and the Dean of the School of Arts and Education, to think again about lending yourselves to such an intellectually alarming and economically counter-productive agenda. I also call on you to do it in the name of the mission of Middlesex University itself to promote autonomous scholarship and research excellence.

Yours,

Kate Soper
Professor Emeritus in Philosophy, London Metropolitan University, and
Visiting Professor in Philosophy at the University of Brighton.

Closure of Philosophy at Middlesex

SEP, May 2nd, 2010

http://seponline.net/2010/05/02/closure-of-philosophy-at-middlesex/

An open letter to Michael Driscoll (Vice-chancellor), Waqar Ahmad, (Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Enterprise), and Margaret House (Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic), University of Middlesex.

We believe you are responsible for taking the decision to close down all the Philosophy Programmes at Middlesex and the renowned Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy. We are dismayed to hear about this decision, which is not only regrettable, but unwarranted and misconceived.

We understand that the Dean, Professor Esche, told staff that the Department’s high research reputation makes no ‘measurable’ contribution to the University. This is untrue. In financial terms, the Department’s QR funding amounted (according to HEFCE’s own figures) to £173,260 in 09-10. 42 new MA students were recruited in 2009, a figure that is the envy of most philosophy departments in the UK. This itself represents an appreciable stream of income and it makes the decision to close down philosophy at Middlesex all the more perverse.

The reason why Middlesex did so well in the RAE, and that it recruits so well, is the outstanding reputation of CRMEP both within the UK and internationally. It is one of the leading centres for continental philosophy in the UK, achieving a 5 in the 2001 RAE and a GPA of 2.8 in the 2008 RAE – the same as Leeds, Nottingham and Edinburgh and above Warwick, Durham and Glasgow. Professors Eric Alliez, Peter Hallward and Peter Osborne, along with Dr Stella Stanford, and Dr Christian Kerslake are all outstanding researchers who are respected in the profession and beyond. Moreover, they have produced academic progeny who have established excellent reputations of their own and are helping other Universities to thrive. This is a sure indication of the good health of Philosophy at Middlesex and of the high quality of its teaching.

Of course not all contributions to a University are “measurable” in financial terms. This does not make them less important or mean that they do not bring substantial benefits (including economic ones) to the University. Philosophy’s contribution to the national and international esteem, reputation and good standing of the University should be valued very highly. Such things are hard won, and once the department is closed down, not recuperable.

We ask you to consider the immense damage that will be done to Middlesex by closing a department with such an impressive research reputation. Already there has been a national and international outcry, both within the discipline and beyond. Prospective students – both undergraduate and postgraduate – will be put off, and prospective and current staff will not regard Middlesex as a safe place of employment. It will certainly weaken the loyalty of the best academics at Middlesex working in other areas.

Good management practice in circumstances where the closure of a department is being considered is to have a full-scale external review of the department, with both internal and external expert panel members. Middlesex does not appear to have conducted such a review. Maybe this is because they can anticipate that it would quickly find that the department has all the hallmarks of long-term viability: an excellent research reputation, astonishingly good PG recruitment, and increasing undergraduate applications. Not holding a review reflects extremely poorly on the management team and again damages its institutional reputation.

In closing down its highest-ranking department for reasons of short-term financial expediency, in the face of such powerful countervailing considerations, Middlesex is betraying its own academic values. We urge you rethink this decision.

Dr. Gordon Finlayson
Professor Brian O’Connor
Dr. Beth Lord
Dr. John Mullarkey
and the Executive Committee of the Society for European Philosophy

Expéditeur: Société Réaliste <societerealiste@gmail.com>
Date: 3 mai 2010 10:21:22 HAEC
Destinataire: m.driscoll@mdx.ac.uk, w.ahmad@mdx.ac.uk, m.house@mdx.ac.uk, e.esche@mdx.ac.uk
Cc: savemdxphil@gmail.com
Objet: Philosophy at Middlesex University

Dear Michael Driscoll, Waqar Ahmad, Margaret House and Ed Esche,

We have just learned from our dearest friends working inside or around the Philosophy Department of your university that all research activities within this field will be soon ended. As you can imagine, we share the emotion of what Europe counts of believers in intelligence. How can the best Continental Philosophy Department in UK can be closed for vulgar economical reasons? It is a shame and a scandal. We hope that this closure process will be contested and stopped by protests, and we enjoin you to help maintaining operative one of the most crucial activity that your university has ever hosted within its walls.

Kind regards,

/// coopérative société réaliste, Paris, depuis 1871.
http://www.societerealiste.net

3 May 2010

To:
Michael Driscoll, Vice-Chancellor of the University
Waqar Ahmad, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise
Margaret House, Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic
Ed Esche, Dean of the School of Arts & Education

I am writing to join those who have voiced their concern over the decision to eliminate philosophy at Middlesex.

I was a Visiting Leverhulme Fellow at CRMEP in 2007-2008, and I can testify firsthand to the fact that philosophy at Middlesex has a worldwide reputation as one of the leading centers for the study of contemporary philosophy (as indicated by their RAE score, graduate recruitment, the international reputation of their faculty, etc.).

I realize that, in the present climate, universities in both the USA and UK are under various financial and restructuring constraints, which no doubt led to this decision. But as someone who has worked in administration, I would strongly urge you to reconsider this initiative. The academic excellence of the research produced at CRMEP may not be an easily measureable contribution to the university, in financial terms, but it is undoubtedly an essential factor in the international standing that Middlesex University has hitherto enjoyed in the academic community. Reconsidering this decision on the basis of the response of the worldwide philosophical community would demonstrate that the administration is willing to put Middlesex at the forefront of rethinking the role of the university in the midst of the pressures being put upon it.

Sincerely,

Daniel W. Smith
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
Purdue University
100 N. University Ave.
West Lafayette, IN 47907 USA

Date: 29 April 2010 15:32:56 GMT+01:00
To: m.driscoll@mdx.ac.uk, w.ahmad@mdx.ac.uk, m.house@mdx.ac.uk, e.esche@mdx.ac.uk
Cc: p.osbourne@mdx.ac.uk
Subject: closure of philosophy

Dear senior management team,

I’m writing to express horror at the closure of your Philosophy department. As the most important modern European Philosophy department in the country with such a high research rating your decision shows scant regard for the national academic standards of this country. What does it say about the intellectual culture of universities if such a decision can be made? It certainly lowers the standard of your university in the community both nationally and internationally. It is shocking that a university which makes such a research-destructive decision is even classified as a university any more. I urge you to reconsider and help save the academic culture of our country.

Yours, Beverley Skeggs

Beverley Skeggs, Professor Sociology, Goldsmiths
University of London
New Cross
London
SE14 6NW

1 May 2010

Dear Professors Driscoll, Ahmad, House and Esche,

Your disastrous and misguided decision to close the Middlesex Department of Philosophy terrible news.  You have decided to close the primary academic unit at your university with an internationally recognized reputation for excellence, somehow justifying this with reference to your commitment to academic excellence.

I remember my visit to the department for a 2007 symposium as an exciting and productive trip to what was obviously an incredibly vibrant intellectual community operating at a level of intensity rarely encountered in academia.  This semester alone, here at the Duquesne, articles, books, and translations published by Middlesex researchers have played an important role in at least two doctoral courses and have therefore been read by and influenced the development of a large group of our graduate students.  The same will surely be true in future seminars, and I have no doubt that it is a story repeated throughout the academic community interested in modern European thought.

In closing the philosophy program, the Middlesex administration has done a disservice not just to their own faculty, students, and the intellectual reputation of their university as a whole, but to the broader world of rigorous, critical, and creative humanistic inquiry.  Surely no informed person in the academic world will take Middlesex seriously as an institution until this decision is reversed.

Sincerely
Dr. Daniel Selcer

*****************************************
Dr. Daniel Selcer
Associate Professor of Philosophy
Duquesne University
600 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA  15282  USA
412-396-6503, selcerd@duq.edu

29 April 2010

Dear Vice-Chancellor Driscoll, Deputy Vice-Chancellors Ahmad and House, and Dean Esche,

I am writing to express my surprise and dismay at the decision to close all the Philosophy programmes and to shut down the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex University.  These are difficult times for many universities, but this decision seems to me particularly unfortunate given the tremendous success of the Middlesex Philosophy programmes and the Centre, which have come to occupy a significant position in the philosophical field that extends well beyond your campus.  I have long respected the work of several members of the Philosophy faculty, and have recommended the MA programme to several of my undergraduate students who are considering continuing their philosophical education beyond their baccalaureate. I have also followed closely the work of the Centre over the years, and its closure will be a significant loss for many scholars whose research is focussed on Modern European Philosophy.

I am certain that I will not be alone in writing to you to ask that you reconsider this decision.  If you do reconsider, please know that it is not only the faculty and students at Middlesex that will be affected, indeed hurt by this decision.

Sincerely,

Alan D. Schrift
F. Wendell Miller Professor of Philosophy and Department Head
Department of Philosophy
Grinnell College

From: Eric Schliesser

To: m.driscoll@mdx.ac.uk; w.ahmad@mdx.ac.uk; m.house@mdx.ac.uk; e.esche@mdx.ac.uk
Sent: Thu, April 29, 2010 5:02:40 PM
Subject: The Closure of Philosophy at Middlesex:
Dear Vice-Chancellor of the University, Michael Driscoll,

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Enterprise, Waqar Ahmad,
Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic, Margaret House,
Dean of the School of Arts & Education, Ed Esche,

The abrupt closure of the Philosophy program at Middlesex is a matter of  international concern. The department has an international reputation and several of its members are leading figures in European “Continental” Philosophy. As such it has a unique position in British intellectual life. Its presence facilitates ongoing dialogue between Anglophone and European philosophy. It’s closure would impoverish the philosophic scene in Europe.

Of course, I understand that you need to make often painful budgetary choices. I also realize that if you were to reconsider this decision other valued members of your community may come under fire. But from published reports, it appears your decisions are driven entirely by financial considerations. This goes against the very idea of a university; if cost benefit analysis is the only metric that informs funding priorities then academic leadership has become meaningless.  For all these reasons I urge you to reconsider your current approach.

Sincerely,
Prof. Dr. Eric Schliesser

BOF Research Professor, Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University, Blandijnberg 2, Ghent, B-9000, Belgium.

30 April 2010

Dear Dr. Esche,

I understand that the administration of Middlesex University recently reached the  decision to abolish the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy in the School of Arts. The news astonished me because I have known the Center’s impressive accomplishments for the past decade in its exceptional output and its transnational orientation. I know three of the members, Eric Alliez, Stella Sanford and, Peter Osborne, and mainly thanks to their scholarship, I have regarded the center as the most exciting philosophy program in Europe.
Even among graduate students in Latin America and East Asia, the center is well known. Like many graduate students, they are aware that something new and exciting is taking place at the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy at Middlesex. Unlike many philosophy programs in North America and Europe, the faculty at the Center are much more sensitive to what is going on intellectually outside the North Atlantic area and have engaged in global and interdisciplinary projects such as Multitudes, Radical Philosophy, and Traces (a multilingual series in cultural theory and translation). Despite its declared spatiality in ‘Modern European Philosophy,’ their intellectual concern is much wider and their work appeals to a global audience. To abolish the Centre is to lose one of the anchors in the United Kingdom for intellectual networking with the rest of the world beyond the confines of Europe and North America.
As one of the readers who benefited greatly from the scholarship conducted by the faculty members of the Center for Research in Modern European Philosophy, I most earnestly urge you to reconsider your decision to terminate the Center.
Sincerely,

Naoki Sakai
Professor
Comparative Literature and Asian Studies
Cornell University
386 Rockefeller Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853

Tel: +1 607 280 5066
E-mail <ns32@cornell.edu>

From January through July 2010
Taiwan’s National Science Council Research Fellow and Visiting Professor
Graduate Institute for Social Research and Cultural Studies
National Chiao Tung University
1001 University Road
Hsinchu, Taiwan 300

w.ahmad@mdx.ac.uk,
m.house@mdx.ac.uk,
e.esche@mdx.ac.uk

29 April 2010

Dear All,

I am writing to you because of your involvement in the decision to close down Philosophy at Middlesex University. I wish to express my astonishment at this decision and ask you to reconsider it.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to visit this highly-regarded department in early 2007. The department has an extraordinary intellectual atmosphere. Its staff and graduate students model the highest standards of scholarship and collegiality.

One of the proofs of their professional reach are the large numbers of students that this Department attracts, trains and graduates.

As you would well know from the RAE data it is your university’s strongest and most well regarded performer in research.

The Department you plan to close is known internationally as one of the best places in the English speaking world for the study of European philosophy.

I urge you to reverse this inexplicable and unjustifiable decision.

Yours truly,
Alison Ross.

Dr Alison Ross
Director of the Centre for Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies
Monash University, Melbourne, AUSTRALIA.