The Academic Standards Committee was established in 1988 with the primary purpose of validating, evaluating and monitoring courses. It also discussed awards and assessment, admissions and recruitment, staff development and research and student support services.
The Research Committee was established in 1994 as a sub-committee of the Academic Board. Its original terms of reference were to:
-Consider and advise the Academic Board on the promotion, conduct and development of research in the University;
-Review research activity and facilities with a view to identifying areas for development;
-Facilitate research initiatives in the University by preparing, in consultation with Faculties and Schools, a rolling strategic plan for research;
-Allocate University funded Research Scholarships to projects;
-Monitor and evaluate research achievements;
-Develop and keep under review the University's relations with external research funding bodies;
-Raise awareness of research activities and opportunities.
The Chair of the Committee has usually been the Vice-Chancellor.
The Quality and Standards Committee was set up to review and advise on the development of University strategies regarding the student experience, learning, teaching and assessment. It also monitors the quality of the students' learning experience through the annual student satisfaction survey and receives reports of quality assessment or review reports from external professional and statutory bodies. The chair of the committee is the Pro Vice Chancellor (Students and Quality).
The Board was established in October 1922 with the remit to report to the Educational Committee. It consisted of teaching staff. The Board, along with the Educational Committee was superseded by the Academic Board.
Herold's Institute was based in Drummond Road, Bermondsey. It had previously been part of the British and Foreign School Society and became a branch of the Borough Polytechnic Institute from 1892. The Borough Polytechnic Institute organised a course of evening lectures from 1894 in tanning which led the Worshipful Company of Leathersellers and London County Council to fund the Institute to run day classes from 1895. The Herold Institute Committee, under the control of the Borough Polytechnic, consisted chiefly of members of the leather trade.
In October 1909 a new building was opened for the Institute at 176 Tower Bridge Road, paid for by the Leathersellers' Company and designated the Leathersellers Technical College. The College merged with the leather department of Nene College in 1976 and a new centre for leather education was created, opening in 1978 as the National Leathersellers' Centre. In 1991 it was renamed the British School of Leather Technology and in 1999 Nene College was designated as University College Northampton, now the University of Northampton.
The Advisory Committees consisted of practical tradesmen and women who provided practical and specialist knowledge to teachers and assisted in finding employment for students at the end of their courses.
Every department of the Polytechnic of the South Bank had its own student society. The Environmental Engineering department formed part of the Faculty of Environmental Science and Technology.
Spotlight is a magazine for University stakeholders aimed at promoting the benefits that higher education can bring to businesses and the advantages of partnerships between the two.
The Confucius Institute at London South Bank University is the world's first Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine, established in a joint initiative between the University, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin Normal University and the Office of Chinese Language Council International, China (commonly known as Hanban). The Institute was set up in order to promote Chinese culture, with a focus on traditional Chinese medicine and Chinese Wellbeing.
The British Youth Opera (BYO) was established in 1987 by Denis Coe, to provide additional training and performance opportunities for outstanding young musicians and experience to young stage, design and costume staff. Company members aged 22-30 years are recruited nationally each year for a Summer Season which features two major operas performed at Sadler's Wells, London and in at least one other major city. The Company also appears in concerts, galas and other musical events throughout the year. Many former members of BYO are now principals with major opera companies in the UK and abroad. The BYO's rehearsal facilities are based at London South Bank University, formerly South Bank University.
In 1965 responsibility for the College was transferred to the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). Under Section 1 of the Education (No.2) Act, 1968, the Governing Body consisted of nineteen people. Thirteen were appointed by ILEA, the principal and deputy principal were ex-officio members and there were four co-opted members from the field of education and teaching. The governors oversaw the conduct of the College and all proposals affecting the general conduct and educational policies were submitted to the Governors.
Manor House Magazine was the College magazine for Battersea Training College of Domestic Science. Its first publication was in 1952.
The GLAWARS was set up in April 1984 during the height of the Cold War by the Greater London Council (GLC) to investigate the impact of a nuclear or conventional war on London. To date the GLAWARS has been the most extensive scientific investigation of possibilities for civil protection and civil defence of a metropolitan area in a modern war.
During 1979 the Government's perceived lack of readiness for such attack pushed the Home Office into publishing in May 1980 a public information series called 'Protect and Survive' on civil defence. It was intended to inform British citizens on how to protect themselves during a nuclear attack, and consisted of a mixture of pamphlets, radio broadcasts, and public information films. However many thought the publication misleading when confronted by the real outcome of nuclear war. In 1983 the GLC was required to draw up civil defence plans for the city under the Civil Defence Regulations and asked the Government for more information about the scale and nature of any likely attack, but met a refusal from the Home Office.
In 1984 Ken Livingstone's GLC commissioned the GLAWARS research project to consider the effect of an attack on London and Londoners. The brief was to establish how London would cope with an all-out attack, nuclear or otherwise, and what would happen to the capital's residents, the food, the water, roads, railways, houses and hospitals. The GLC appointed an international Commission of five experts guiding the direction of the study who were Dr Anne Ehrlich (Stanford University USA), Dr S William Gunn (International Red Cross/Head of Emergency Relief Operations, World Health Organisation), Dr Stuart Horner (DMO, Croydon Health Authority/British Medical Association Council Member), Vice-Admiral John M Lee (Assistant Director, US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, retired) and Dr Peter Sharfman (US Congress Office of Technology Assessment).
At the same time, the GLC commissioned the Polytechnic of the South Bank (now London South Bank University) to carry out the GLAWARS study, under the overall direction of the Commission. In all 44 expert authors, including scientists, military experts and disaster-relief specialists, mostly from outside the Polytechnic, produced 33 separate research papers on topics such as Emergency Nursing Services, Nuclear Blast and Building Stress, Communication Destruction and Food Pollution. The researchers took as the basis of their report, five scales of nuclear attack ranging from eight megatons dropped on Britain by bombers carrying nuclear bombs and air-to-surface missiles to 10-35 megatons targeted on London alone by SS20 missiles. The report also addressed the possibility of a conventional, non-nuclear attack on London's services.
The final horrifying results were presented to the GLC in early 1986 and were subsequently published in June 1986 in a 397-page book entitled 'London Under Attack: The Report of the Greater London Area War Risk Study'. The book was highly critical of Government and Home Office policy on civil defence and with its specific and merciless statistics destroyed the fairy tale of survival after a nuclear attack. "The prospect facing those who initially survived would be fear, exhaustion, disease, pain and long, lonely misery. Avoiding a nuclear war is still the only way of avoiding this fate", warns the Report. The depth and breadth of the conclusions of the GLAWARS went far beyond any investigation previously available to any official body, country or organization, and have since been found applicable to most major urban centres.
The Language and Literacy Unit (LLU) was founded in 1974 by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) as an advisory centre to the inspectorate in response to the Right to Read Campaign. The Unit led the development of literacy provision for adults across London throughout the 1970s. During this period an ESL (English as a Second Language) co-ordinator was appointed to develop ESL provision in London.
During the 1980s the LLU expanded its work to include specific learning difficulties, adult numeracy and Afro-Caribbean language and literacy. The specific learning difficulties service later became known as adult dyslexia support. The Unit's co-ordinator post was the first in the country to address these problems in adults. The Unit also worked on specific projects, including the Afro-Caribbean Language & Literacy Project (ACLLP), begun in 1984. Funding for the project was made available through Section 11 of the Local Government Act 1966 and the project was shaped around classroom-based staff development. It developed approaches to Creole and Caribbean Languages, encouraging people to value their linguistic heritage and in many cases see their languages written down for the first time. The Language and Maths Project, also run with Section 11 funding, was set up in 1986 to specialise in numeracy and the project developed the first adult numeracy training course in London.
Due to the abolition of ILEA in 1990 the LLU was statutorily transferred to the London Borough of Southwark on condition that 50% of the income be generated by staff, the remaining 50% being covered by Section 11 funding. The launch of the Unit in its new premises, a portakabin in the grounds of Southwark College, took place in June 1989.
During the 1990s the LLU furthered its work in the local community, working particularly with family learning, originally known as PACT work, subsequently developing training for family learning staff. In 1991 the LLU organised the first national numeracy conference and led the first nationwide project: Developing Learning Support for Students with Learning Difficulties and Disabilities. This pioneered the first accredited teacher training course in diagnosing and teaching dyslexic adults.
The 1990s were a period of change. In 1991, after it was announced that the LLU was to lose its Section 11 funding, the Unit began to compete for and win large contracts through competitive tendering. Funding for research and development was also gained from charitable trusts such as the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. In 1992 the LLU became an income generating unit of Southwark College and the following year moved to new premises on Queen's Road where it stayed until a moved to the Southampton Way branch of Southwark College in 1997. In order emphasis the work done outside Southwark in the rest of London and nationally, the Unit changed its name to the London Language and Literacy Unit (LLLU) in 1996. In September 1998 the Unit transferred to South Bank University into offices in Caxton House. The LLLU sat outside the University's faculty structure and was an income generating unit expected to cover its own costs. It provided roughly sixty days consultancy and training to the University in lieu of overheads.
From 2000 the Unit had an increasingly national role as a result of the Moser Report into basic skills in the implementation of a number of government strategies. These included Skills for Life, the government's adult literacy and adult numeracy strategy and Access for All, guidance for students with learning difficulties and disabilities. The Unit was the lead partner in the National ESOL Training and Development project and initiated government funded projects in using learning styles to improve language and learning in further education, work-based and family learning. The Unit also had a growing international reputation, leading to an increasing number of high-level delegations visiting from abroad.
The Unit launched the National Numeracy Centre in 2003 with funding from the Central London Learning & Skills Council and that same year changed its name to LLU+. The plus sign indicated the Unit's many areas of specialism such as numeracy, family learning, community development and adult dyslexia support. 2003 also saw the creation of the Central London Professional Development Centre in the Keyworth Centre at London South Bank University, which included the numeracy centre and a new multi-sensory learning centre. The Centre was re-launched when LLU+ moved to Pocock House in 2005. A final move, this time to Eileen House at London South Bank University occurred in 2010. In 2011 London South Bank University decided to close LLU+, a decision which was endorsed by the Board of Governors and which took effect on 31 July 2011.
In order to carry on the work of LLU+ some former staff members have since set up Learning Unlimited (LU) at the Institute of Education.