The Saint
Concern over Management staff departures
Stephanie Wright
The School of Management has been in a state of disquiet since Easter when three top members of staff left the department.
Professors Chris Carter and Alan McKinlay along with former Head of School, Professor Peter McKieran, all left on short notice just before the Easter holidays and there has been a stream of speculation from students.
Explaining the departure of these members of staff, a University spokesperson said, Professor Peter McKiernan, who was due to step down as Head of School this summer, decided to demit office early in order to focus his energies on his research on the European Car Industry, in Brussels.
Following subsequent discussions with members of the Principals Office and the School, the Principal has agreed to recommend to Court that Professor Nic Beech will serve as Head of School until August 2013.
Principal Louise Richardson sent an email to all management students on March 26 explaining that several organizational changes had been announced that day, but reassured that these were designed to be as unobtrusive as possible, and intended only to improve the way we deliver learning and teaching in Management.
However, many students have expressed anger over the impact the departure of these prominent members of staff has had on teaching.
One Honours student who wished to remain anonymous said, Personally I think the standard of teaching for the modules involved - Management of Change, Complexity and Innovation and the core module Dynamic Strategic Management - has dropped significantly especially for the first two mentioned.
I have stopped going to my lectures as I feel the effort the School of Management has put in to overcome this issue is very poor. It almost seems like they are doing us a favour just by filling lectures up with no relevance to the module.
He added, Some students had their dissertation due in by mid May with no supervisors as they had left without notice.
To address these concerns, the Acting Head of School, Professor Christopher Hawkesworth, held a meeting on Tuesday April 20 with junior and senior honours students.
One student present at the talk said, Several heated arguments started between students and The Acting Head of School. Students were worried about the current and future reputation of the School, Job opportunities after graduation - in case information spread to other universities and employers.
Students also questioned him as to why this decision was being made at such an odd time of the year and not earlier on in the semester, as some students choose modules based on the Professor teaching it.
Towards the end of the talk Professor Hawkesworth mentioned that the three professors were not welcome back at the Management School, but that they would be available to help via email and that they are scheduled to come back next week to give a revision lecture session in the Physics building.
Georgina Rannard, Director of Representation at the Students Association, confirmed that several members of staff had gone on research leave.
She added that the Deputy Principal had also met with several honours students to address their concerns and explained that the University had taken measures to replace teachers and amend exam papers accordingly.
She commented, You do get staff changes in large institutions like this and the reasons cant always be disclosed.
As long as changes are being delivered and students concerns are being dealt with quickly there shouldnt be a problem. But we wont, of course, be able to know the full impact all this has had on learning until after the exams.
