“We can reframe the way we define it, so that it’s not viewed as simply foregrounding cost savings, but instead a much more complex interplay of influences and drivers that facilitate opportunities for enhancing the ways in which we manage movement.”
This nebulous excerpt from an article in the University of Leeds’ in-house magazine was the not-so-proud winner of the 2012 Times Higher Education “HE Jargon” competition, which celebrates the vacuous, meandering gobbledygook that falls into university employees’ inboxes throughout the year.
A second highlight from last year included one Russell Group institution assuring staff that “instead of adding to the overall footprint, we are looking at the whole envelope of estate in terms of its conditionality”.
We are now looking for entries for the 2013 contest. If you have received any baffling missives, send them in. They may be from the desk of the vice-chancellor, or perhaps elsewhere in the upper echelons of your university’s administration, but we want to hear about them so we can highlight this worrying practice before it gets out of hand.
In one of this year’s early entries, an employee at the University of Northumbria highlights some confusing “guidelines” for completing administrative tasks.
“Promote and embed the University-wide approach to delivery of widening participation activities optimising efficiency, ensuring coordination and a coherent approach with other colleagues within the Faculty, colleagues in other Faculties and colleagues in Professional Support Services,” it says, succinctly.
Email your examples of HE Jargon to chris.parr@tsleducation.com.
