Drawing on their vast reserves of pessimism, journalists are describing the 'Noughties' as one of the worst decades in history. Perhaps they can be forgiven their hyperbole; after all, it did give us 9/11, a catastrophic civil war in Sudan, unnecessary invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the ‘Credit Crunch’, soaring oil prices, and the gradual realization that climate change will pose a major problem for future generations. On the bright side, the University of Bath emerged from the decade relatively unscathed, and in fact seems to have become moderately prosperous under the iron leadership of Glynis Breakwell, who joined the University in 2001.
Since then, the University has grown significantly, with many new classrooms and accommodation blocks built, as well as the £23 million Sports Training Village. A campus in Swindon opened in 2000, and became the university’s own Millennium Dome; a white elephant which, after seven years with an expensive shortage of students, was declared "not financially sustainable", and abandoned; when Swindon Council couldn’t find a use for the empty building, it was demolished.
Alongside this failed expansion there has been far more successful growth, both in the types of courses offered and enrolment levels; there are now over 13,000 students at the University, compared with 9,010 in 2000. Not all Bath residents were comfortable with this development, leading recently to a heated debate in the pages of the Bath Chronicle as to the relative merits of having a large student population. Residents’ letters on the topic mixed apparent seriousness with extreme triviality; one concerned reader complained of "being unable to park" and "having to wait longer to queue in Sainsbury's"; a serious problem for someone who clearly has so many more important things to do.
While increasing in number, the student population has also become more balanced, with the gender ratio edging towards 50:50, and the number of non-UK students, an important indicator of the University’s international repute, rising above one in four. Increasing diversity has been widely welcomed by the largely progressive student body, with a notable exception in Danny Lake, then a PwE student and Young BNP leader, who in 2007 invited Nick Griffin to speak on campus. This sparked heavy criticism from the national media, anti-fascist protestors, and students, in light of which Griffin was refused permission to visit. A referendum the following year on a ‘No-Platform’ policy, which would ban members of the extreme-right from speaking on campus, was convincingly defeated, a result seen as indicating students’ support for free speech rather than any particular sympathy with such views.
Recent economic troubles seem to have taken a toll on employment possibilities, with more students either unemployed or electing to take on further study, in some cases combining study with part time work, perhaps to avoid plunging straight into the currently weak labour market.
Some former students landed excellent jobs, though; Justin King was made CEO of Sainsbury’s, and Edward Lowassa became Prime Minister of Tanzania. Another alumni, 'Dr' Neil Fox, distinguished himself in a different way; attracting much ridicule by arguing, at the request of satirist Chris Morris, that "paedophiles have more genes in common with crabs than they do with you and me... that is scientific fact. There’s no real evidence for it, but it is scientific fact".
This embarrassing episode might suggest slipping standards; this seems to be the opinion of the Times Good University Guide, which gradually downgraded the Uni from a high of 4th best in the UK to 13th this year. While this may be fair overall, the decade has seen some excellent achievements by individual staff, with several professors awarded large teaching/research grants, awards, and in some cases, appointments to professional bodies. Notably, Chris Budd has since 2000 been Chair of Mathematics at the Royal Institution of Great Britain.
On the final day of a fairly successful decade, recently retired Pro-Vice Chancellor Ian Jamieson was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List, though easily the most prestigious award given to a staff member was the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, which economics professor Anil Markandya shared for his work with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Any professors who didn’t win the Nobel this decade, try harder next time.
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