Back to May 2002 CRN Table of Contents

[Published originally in the May 2002 edition of Computing Research News, p. 6, 12.]

By Aline Cumming

Origins

The Conference of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC) was constituted in 1993. It was an amalgamation of two established bodies, the Conference of Professors of Computer Science (CPCS) and the Committee of Heads of Computing in the Polytechnics (CHCP). The erstwhile Polytechnics have become known as the post-1992 universities.

Objectives and Membership

The objectives of CPHC are laid down in its constitution, namely: "to advance public education in the core subject of Computer Science and in the wider context of Computing and its applications."

To further these objectives, CPHC:

1. considers matters affecting research, scholarship, and learning in computing within universities, and their interaction with professional practice;

2. promotes quality and professionalism in computing;

3. formulates and expresses the views of senior academics in computing on such matters and makes recommendations to appropriate bodies; and

4. does all such other lawful things necessary for the furtherance of the objectives.

Those eligible for membership are professors and heads of computing departments in UK universities, and such other persons as the committee shall admit. Academics who are interested in and active in particular areas, but who are not professors or department heads, frequently contribute to CPHC activities.

There are 106 departments in the UK that are eligible to join CPHC, and 103 of them belong.

Structure and Funding

An Executive Committee, including the Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer, is elected at the annual conference. Officers normally serve for a maximum of two years and members can be re-elected for up to a total of seven years.

In 1995 it was decided to employ an Administration Assistant, whose role developed into that of Executive Officer and who also provides support for the Treasurer.

The CPHC is financed by subscriptions from computing departments, based on the number of academic staff. There are also small profits accruing from conferences and workshops. The organization is a Registered Charity because its objectives and activities match the requirements of the Charities Commission, which provides certain immunities from taxes.

Activities

The committee has set up a number of groups, and liaises with others. These groups are chaired in some cases by committee members, or the chair or another representative is co-opted onto the CPHC committee. The major areas where work has been done or is in hand are funding and lobbying, research, quality, learning and teaching, and the issue of the low numbers of women staff and students.

Funding: The CPHC was quite quickly recognized by the Higher Education Funding Councils (HEFCE) as the 'Subject Body for Computing.' CPHC members have met with HEFCE representatives to seek for computing a rate per student comparable to that for science or engineering, one that would take account of the practical work and project laboratories that are so essential to the subject. In this context, CPHC is expected to widen the discussion to include the views of the higher education colleges. These institutions run computing degree courses, but they are not universities, do not carry out research, and are not eligible to join CPHC.

Lobbying: There is an increasing amount of lobbying to get the Government to recognize the difficulties of retaining postgraduate students and recruiting academics, in the face of competition from commerce and industry for skilled staff. At the same time, it is clear that in another generation there will be a serious lack of people to carry out the research that contributes to the prosperity and expansion of the industry. Industry as well as academia is concerned. Members belong to the Parliamentary IT Committee, as well as organizations such as the e-skills National Training Organisation, the Alliance for IS Skills, and EURIM, where industry is also represented.

Research: The UK Computing Research Committee, comprising members of CPHC and with links to the CPHC Committee, is the main contact with EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council). CPHC members conducted the recent Research Assessment Exercise on behalf of EPSRC and contributed to the International Review of Research in the UK. Future research grants are dependent on the results.

Quality: CPHC members contributed to the effort, under the aegis of the Quality Assurance Agency, to establish benchmarks against which the teaching of computing courses will be assessed. Members were recruited to carry out the assessment. A current issue is benchmarking Conversion Masters degrees so that they can be funded.

Learning and Teaching: This group provides guidance and runs workshops on a diverse range of subjects. It includes pedagogic issues, professional development, and use of IT in teaching, in conjunction with the Learning and Teaching Support Network (Government funded). The group has responded to Government proposal papers on learning issues.

Women's Issues: The Women Into Computing organization works with CPHC to identify and quantify the problems and to seek ways to alleviate them. A group has identified, and is steadily working on improving, the poor image that academic computing has among sections of government, industry, students, and their parents. There is a need to recruit more high-quality students, both men and women, to deal with the skills shortage.

There is close liaison with the professional bodies whose interests overlap with ours, primarily the British Computer Society, and, to a lesser extent, the Engineering Council and the Institution of Electrical Engineers. We exchange views with and offer support to our fellows in the Committee of Engineering Professors and the Deans of Science. There are links with CRA itself, and with ACM and IEEE.

All of these activities clearly fall under the first three of the organization's objectives outlined earlier. Other activities come under the fourth. We maintain a directory of our members, which we are transferring onto our Web site and which will be updated electronically by the departments themselves. We maintain an email list; members can discuss matters of concern with their peers and obtain data and statistics. We have a list that can be used to match external examiners to vacancies, and another of forthcoming conferences. The minutes of the executive committee are circulated to members electronically, and we are trying out an electronic newsletter each term to inform members of the major issues and how they are addressed. Members are at liberty to distribute the news to staff in their departments and in the associated higher-education colleges. The annual conference and the Web site have already been mentioned.

In Conclusion

There are clear parallels between the activities of CRA and CPHC, and ways in which they differ. Both organizations face the problem of a shortage of students to fill the needs of industry and academia.

Many of the CRA activities described by its former Executive Director, Fred Weingarten, at the 1995 CPHC Conference have since become necessary for CPHC, notably with respect to lobbying efforts.

In the short term, CPHC has been successful in achieving recognition, first as the subject body and more recently as both the Government and the Opposition consult us. We see evidence of our input into parliamentary debates and questions.

In the longer term, we hope to see our efforts rewarded as computing is given the support it needs, the image of computing changes, and a higher proportion of women join us.

Aline Cumming is CPHC's Executive Officer (aline@cumming.dircon.co.uk). This is one of an occasional series of articles describing computing research in other countries.