tomtaylor.co.uk

I cryptically dropped my Private Eye mention on the site and then disappeared for a few days of music and cider. So let’s rewind a week and explain what happened…

I won a prize! Specifically, Most Improved Student. This meant that my exams results in the 1st and 2nd year were sufficiently low enough that by my 4th and 5th year everyone was still surprised I was there. The clincher was my final year project which was well received with 91%.

And with it, a cheque! Happiness! Free money!

Except, a moral quandry. For the cheque did not come from Loughborough University, instead it came from BAE Systems, a company not pointing entirely in the right direction on Tom’s Moral Compass. On one hand, it can only detract from their bottom line (although perhaps disappointingly only by 0.00000009488% on 2006’s profits), and they gained nothing from me as a student. On the other hand, I feel it’s dirty money, and my acceptance of it would compromise my moral standing on these issues.

Let’s rewind some more. My course at Loughborough University was Systems Engineering MEng, a course based in Electrical Engineering but with lots of optional diversions into areas such as Human Factors, Renewable Energy. All of this has an overriding holistic approach - understanding how everything interacts and fits together in complex systems. It turns out students with a ‘Jack of All Trades’ mentality, something which suited me quite well.

Many of the first engineered systems that could truly be described as complex grew out of the arms industry (it’s where the money and political will is), and the discipline of Systems Engineering grew out of companies like BAE Systems. Consequently, my course was rooted in a discipline that was historically defence oriented.

It wasn’t until my arrival at Loughborough University (hello Google search indexing) that I realised what that meant in practice. Loughborough University (edit: specifically Systems) Engineering is completely in the pocket of BAE Systems. BAE Systems dominated the steering committee for my course, had large research and development base on campus (the Systems Engineering Innovation Centre - SEIC), and a permanent liaison to the 90% of my course that were BAE sponsored. Your view of this may vary.

Certain elements of the course were tailored to BAE’s requirements. A compulsory module in Avionics in the fourth year resulted in approximately 50 hours of my teaching time being about military attack systems, namely targeting systems, communications and munitions. Clearly used to complaints from a minority about this, the lecturer (ex-BAE Systems), prefaced this section with a disclaimer that “if you don’t like it, you can go and complain to your students union who will do nothing.”

Why is this a problem? I believe that university should remain distinct from industry. I did not pay £1100 a year for a 5 year graduate recruitment session. Moreover, I believe that university should be using its neutrality to promote ideals about the world we wish to live in. Researching clean energy, improvements in healthcare and communications for all. Not more effective ways of wiping bearded folk off the planet. It is certainly a personal view, and I respect others have a different line, but I resent being subjected to BAE’s influence and coercion on a daily basis with no alternative.

I could keep going about the multitude of ways in which the course was utterly in the bed of BAE, but let’s cut the crap. I almost bought a digital camera for Flora with the cash, until Dave mentioned the ‘third way’, which would be to donate it to someone working for the abolishment of the arms trade, of which the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) fitted the bill perfectly.

So the £100 went to CAAT, Private Eye got hold of it, thought it was amusing and printed it. And I’m just about over them getting my name wrong.