20 October 2016

This meeting notes:

• the current review and proposed restructuring of the Academic Secretary’s Office and within this, the Centre for Lifelong Learning;
• that under the proposal a range of activities for academic support and educational development will be line managed under a new Leadership Academy;
• specifically, that this change will mean that accredited academic support programmes (CPS, PG. Cert., Dip, MA, ULTRA) will come under the Human Resources line management structure;
• that the proposed structure means the end of the Centre for Lifelong Learning.

This meeting is concerned that:

• the academic integrity of the accredited programmes will be compromised by this change;
  • that this move of accredited programmes would have ‘implications for academic activity’ and so must be approved through the academic governance structure (faculty committees and Senate);
  • that the loss of the Centre for Lifelong Learning is harmful to the civic identity of the University.

This meeting recognises the need for branch representatives to engage in consultation in order to protect staff jobs and grades.

This meeting instructs its respective union branch officers to campaign over these issues, beginning with an open letter to the Vice-chancellor calling upon the University to:

• keep all accredited programmes and general academic and educational development activity within a centre that has a clear educational identity and out of the Human Resources line management structure;
• maintain an explicit commitment to lifelong learning;
• retain a Centre for Lifelong Learning as a central component of the University’s contribution to the life of the City of Liverpool.