Organiser: (0118) 947 2460
Reading Action on Continuing Education
News of informal adult education in the Reading area
Contents of this page:
1. Latest email to people on the Reading-ACE list
2. Article from Maiden Erlegh Residents’ Association Newsletter
Latest news email to people on the Reading-ACE list
Date: 17th July 2009
Dear Reading University Short Course co-students and tutors (cc some interested others)
It’s a month since I last sent out the last general email to students and tutors associated with short courses at the University of Reading (this is the ninth), and a great deal has happened. The prospects for people who will be looking for academically challenging short courses in Reading in 2009/10 look very different (much better). And we have some view now of what will be happening in 2010/11 and beyond. This note builds on the letter many of you may (as students) have had this week from Reading University. (For those of you who haven’t had this letter, it covers similar ground to the press release at www.reading.ac.uk/about/newsandevents/releases/PR22049.asp
2009/10
Some Reading University short courses will run (but not many places for casual students)
We already knew that the university would offer people who are a good way towards a Certificate of Higher Education the opportunity to complete. Now we have a programme of year-long “core modules” for them, and of “option modules” (which most of us know as normal 10- and 7- week courses) which will be open first to CertHE students, but on which ordinary casual students can enrol later (from 1st or 14th September, it’s not clear which).
This short-course programme uses many of the most popular tutors and covers all the normal subject areas and will be on the London Road site, but it is only about 1/5th the size of the programme we have come to expect (about 8 courses a term, plus three courses in the year organised as multi-day-schools).
See the short-course programme at:
www.reading.ac.uk/conted/09-10-courses/conted-0910programme.aspx
The price for these courses is higher than last year, but not anywhere near as high as we have been warned. And concessions are still offered for retired people. I imagine that there will be a queue at the London Road office on 1st Sept (or the 14th).
The WEA will offer short courses: about 20 in the coming autumn term, and hopefully more in spring and summer
The WEA have returned to Reading, and have been talking to many of the tutors who taught at the university, and a few who didn’t. They will offer about 20 short courses in the autumn term, plus some day schools. A list will be available shortly on the WEA Southern website- go to http://southern.wea.org.uk/index.asp and select “WEA Reading Branch”. There are already WEA branches in many local towns (Wokingham, Henley, Sonning Common, Wallingford, Maidenhead). The website invites you to search for courses within a selected distance of your postcode; there are for example already 15 autumn-term courses offered within 10 miles of my home in Caversham (that’s before the Reading-branch courses appear). WEA Reading courses are expected to be cheaper than those from the university for people in work, but more expensive for retired people (they are not able to offer a concessionary price for retired people).
Other short courses offered in the Reading area
There are of course other providers in the Reading area, from New Directions - a large range of mainly skilled-based courses- see http://www.newdirectionsreading.co.uk to specialist groups like Thames Valley Ancient Egypt Society (offering courses at RISC in Reading and also at Newbury College- see www.tvaes.org.uk). Reading-ACE is keen that it should be easy for potential students to find details of all these courses, and intends to provide links on www.reading-ace.org.uk to all the providers we hear of.
2010/11
Oxford University Department of Continuing Education is expected to offer short courses in Reading, based at the Reading University Whiteknights site
All we know about this at present is that it is very likely to happen. For clues as to content and price, we can only look at the very large range of short courses Oxford currently offer in Oxford itself (at a current price for a one-term course of £125 with no concession for retired people- see www.conted.ox.ac.uk), and at the courses Oxford currently run with the WEA in Maidenhead (where the Oxford courses currently cost just under double the price for normal WEA courses).
Reading University will offer a few short courses in 2010/11
Reading University has also announced that they will offer some short courses in 2010/11- presumably an even smaller number than in 2009/10.
WEA and other providers
If there is good take-up of WEA courses in Reading in 2009/10, the WEA Reading Branch hopes to offer a large range of academic courses in Reading in 2010/11, perhaps extending to centres in West Berkshire. We hope that the various providers of adult short courses in the Reading area will (with the encouragement of Reading Borough and other local authorities) co-operate to offer a larger range than ever, to offer sets of courses that complement each other, and to bring informal adult education to new groups and to more people than ever.
Please get in touch
If you want (or someone you know wants) to get news of new developments in informal adult education in Reading including the WEA Reading autumn programme when available (whether you are a potential student or tutor or just an interested citizen) please sign up (if you
haven’t already done so) at the Reading-ACE website at http://reading-ace.org.uk/reading/contact/contact.aspx. If you want to join the many who have offered to help to make all this happen, let us know (and my thanks to all who have contributed so far).And if you’d like your name removed from the list on which this note has been circulated, please reply to this email saying so.
Paul Kingston
PS If you want not to get future emails to this list, please reply saying so. If you know someone who would like to be on the list, please reply giving me their details, or ask them to register via the website. Apologies to people who aren’t on email- if you know someone who isn’t and would like this update, please print them a copy. For the moment we can’t afford the price of postage.
2. Article from Maiden Erlegh Residents’ Association Newsletter
With permission of Peter Soul (a past student of Reading School of Continuing Education day schools).
Sources for courses
I want to acquaint you with an ongoing Reading story, of some drama. First though, you may know that as well as taking full-time students, local colleges offer many courses to the public. The subjects range from astronomy to yoga, from cookery to singing, from confidence-building to business management, from Arabic to Swedish, from basic English to philosophy, from redundancy retraining to retirement hobbies ... usually in weekly classes for a term, but sometimes in a class lasting a day.
Here following are most of the colleges – look out for their brochures, check their websites, or phone them (details at the end): New Directions, formerly Reading Adult College; Thames Valley University; Bracknell & Wokingham College; Newbury College; Oxford University. All of them offer courses in or near Reading, and you might even be tempted to travel further afield!
And by the way, the CResCent Centre off Rushey Way, Lower Earley is another place I know locally that hosts a wide variety of short courses. Drop in to enquire, or phone 921 0555.
That leaves just two institutions to discuss...
WEA was here long ago
The Workers’ Educational Association opened its first branch actually here in Reading, in 1903. Today, the 10,000 courses run by the WEA (across the UK) are aimed at all adults, and are as varied as our local ones.
But for a while now the nearest branch to us now has been in Wokingham, because less than a decade ago the Reading one closed. The main reason was a growing overlap of courses with local colleges – including Reading University. Now to my mind, the university’s list of courses (200 of them this past year) has been rather special: the day-schools on music I’ve attended, for example, have been unrivalled, this side of Oxford.
This is where the drama starts! Funding from the government to universities for providing public courses has dried up, hence Reading University will run them no longer. In May the university senate met to confirm this ... in the face of a picket of dozens of protesting mature students (including Mrs S and me), organized by Reading Action on Continuing Education, R-ACE.
Alas, the decision was just as expected, though the senate did agree there must be cooperation with groups attempting to keep the courses alive somehow. On R-ACE’s website is a long list of tutors and the courses they are offering. Some of these might be run privately, but really an administrative body is needed (plus accommodation).
WEA is coming back again
Guess which body has come to the rescue: the WEA! A proposal for a new Reading branch to be formed is being acted upon, and as a result, a good number of courses are likely to be offered in the 2009/10 academic year. So keep an eye on the WEA and R-ACE websites for news.
Meanwhile, Oxford University is planning to take over and run some of the Reading University courses, in Reading, from the autumn of 2010 – again, check their websites.
To sum up, a wealth of courses are on offer locally. They could assist you with work or a career change, or satisfy some other need, or help you with a hobby, or strengthen a vague interest you may have in a topic, or take you into quite new territory, or just keep your mind active. If you can find the time and the money (checking for discounts), go for it!
Meanwhile let’s hope that the crisis with the university courses can be resolved, to give everyone the greatest possible variety to choose from.
Peter Soul
New Directions:www.newdirectionsreading.co.uk
0845 842 0012Thames Valley University:
0800 036 8888
Bracknell & Wokingham College:
0845 330 3343.
Newbury College:
01635 845000.
Oxford University:
01865 270360.
Workers Educational Association:
01256 363163
Reading-Action for Continuous Education:
0118 947 2460.
Reading University:
0118 378 2347.
Lets pass on the News to all we know
