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PALATINATE
The official student newspaper of Durham Students’ Union since 1948
Durham rolls out the red carpet for Crowe, Indigo page 4-5 QUIN MURRAY
Students slate Grayling’s New College of Humanities
Tuesday 21st June 2011 | Edition 730 | www.palatinate.org.uk | FREE
Emma Charles
Students and lecturers have rushed to criticise A. C. Grayling’s plans to open a London-based higher education institute. The Philosopher’s New College of the Humanities (NCH) will open in 2012 and has a founding ‘Professoriate’ of 14 academics, including Richard Dawkins and Niall Ferguson. Its courses will include Law and Economics single honours degrees, and Joint Honours programmes in which students will study two subjects from History, Philosophy and English Literature. Students will also take science literacy and critical thinking modules and learn “professional skills”, including the principles of accountancy. The College was immediately deemed an “atheists’ college” by the media due to its lack of a Theology department and the fact that two of the Professors are evolutionary biologists. Despite initially publicising itself as a University College, NCH will not have degree-awarding powers or research students, and will instead prepare students to take the University of London’s International Programme (ULIP) exams, which are distancelearning degrees studied by more than 50,000 students. The majority of ULIP students pay less than £1,500 per year for their course materials and examination fees. NCH students, however, will be Charlie Taverner and Rowena Caine not to feel pleased and honoured, but charged fees of £18,000 a year for the if these awards mean anything it is bethree year courses – double the maxiDurham University Archaeol- cause they reflect a wide range of conmum £9,000 which can be charged by ogy Professor was made a dame tacts and support, and here I include public universities. They will leave the in the Queen’s Birthday Hon- the support which the University has College with an ULIP degree and a ours List. given to my work over a very long time”. separate New College Diploma which Professor Rosemary Cramp, EmeriJoining a department that did not the College claims will “reflect the tus Professor in the Department of Ar- officially exist until 1956, the year after greater richness of [students’] studies”. chaelogy, was one of just eight women The students will not be eligible to join awarded a DBE (Dame Commander University of London sports teams, of the Order of the British Empire), and will have to pay additional fees to when the list was announced on 11th use the University library and student June. Professor Cramp was awarded union facilities. The College therefore the honour in recognition of her servstands in stark contrast to Durham ices to scholarship. Her research has University, which is using its research- focused particularly on Anglo-Saxon led culture and wide range of extra- stone sculpture and the archaeology of she joined, must have been a strange curricular activities to attract students. medieval northern England. position to be in. Previously, the ArThe Professor reflected on her chaeology Department was based in a Continued on page 7 achievement: “It would be difficult small hut which stood where Hatfield
Archaeology Professor made a Dame A “The University has supported my work over a very long time”
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College’s tennis courts are today. Professor Cramp helped to expand the Department from its Roman and AngloSaxon base to cover all periods. She was integral to building up the department’s current esteemed reputation. She trained five Emeritus Professors during her time at Durham as well as many senior academics and individuals who are now important figures in the commercial and public sectors of archaeology. In 1971, Professor Cramp became the first female Professor at the University. She remains committed to expanding the number of women within the academic field of archaeology. She retired in 1990 after 35 years of dedicated teaching.
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Despite having been a Trustee of the British Museum, and a Commissioner for English Heritage, she has maintained her involvement with Durham University alongside her work. She established The Rosemary Cramp Fund to give grants to groups or individuals proposing innovative research into the archaeology of the British Isles AD 400-1100. This funding is vital for Durham postgraduates. Although largely focusing on the archaeology of Anglo-Saxon Northumbria, Professor Cramp also began a groundbreaking project: the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture. This work has since been followed up by scholars in France and Italy.
Continued on page 7
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