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CLCG Evaluation 2004

Center for Language and Cognition, GroningenFaculty of Arts

1998-2003

John Nerbonne

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Institute's Goals in Review

● Present institutional ecology● Understand past successes, failures● Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

threats● Formulate strategy as background to research

program 2004-2008

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Objectives of Evaluation

● Scores on scale 1-5 on quality, quantity, relevance and viability.– for CLCG and for each research group in CLCG

● Peer Review Committee’s reflections on linguistic research in Groningen, ways to improve

● 10-12 pp. report

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CLCG

● Linguistics Research Institute, Faculty of Arts– ~ 55 staff members, 1/3 research appt. on ave.– ~ 9.4 postdocs, 100% research– ~ 25 grad. stud., 80% research

● Seven research groups responsible for meetings, strategy in grants, reporting.

● Advisory Board, chaired by Kees de Bot

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Faculty of Arts● Guarantees 30% research time for ass’t profs,

40% for assoc. and full prof.● ~1,000 Euro/researcher/year travel, conf. costs● Provides 10 Ph.D. positions per year (90%)● Identifies vacancies based (almost) only on

student numbers (exception: “Kleine Letteren”).● 60-70% teaching means 6-7 full semester courses

per year. (Full course = 1/3 of student schedule)

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Dutch Research: Institutes vs. “Schools”● Institutes (CLCG) -- faculty research org.

– Oversee research time allotment, local funds– Hiring, promotion staff members

● Schools are supra-faculty, even national– Provide graduate training courses– Facilitate contacts between faculties, universities– LOT (national Linguistics school)– BCN (Groningen Neuroscience)

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Membership Requirements● CLCG

– Ph.D. Linguistics, position w. research time– min. 1 scientific publication/year/0.3 research time

● reviewed every three years● LOT (National Linguistics School)

– Institute Membership● BCN (Groningen Neuroscience)

– Institute Membership, 2 publications/year with neuroscientific relevance

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CLCG Advisory Board

● Group leaders plus all full professors● Two meetings per year

– Wide-ranging agendas (graduate student selection, reaction to faculty research policy proposals)

● Effective in identifying research preferences for positions (given an instructional need).

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TABU Dag, Colloquia

● TABU -Groningen linguistics on show, some outside speakers to attract participants– Approx. 30-35 half-hour talks– First free Friday in June

● Colloquia– Weekly 30+ times/years– Wide range of speakers

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Institute's Goals in Review

● Present institutional ecology● Understand past successes, failures● Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

threats● Formulate strategy as background to research

program 2004-2008

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CLCG Research Groups: Subdisciplines

• PP Phonetics/Phonology Dicky Gilbers

• SS Syntax/Semantics Jan Koster

• DH Descriptive/Historical Peter Houtzagers

• DC Discourse/Communication Gisela Redeker

• CL Computational Gertjan van Noord

• Ed Educational Kees de Glopper

• NL Neurolinguistics Roelien Bastiaanse

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Groups

● Each group will present– Scientific impact, ongoing work & plans, views on

what’s needed● Four research groups have regular meetings, two

have sporadic meetings – Meetings helpful to graduate students (current

literature, try-outs of presentations)

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Staffing

PP SS DC DH CL Ed. NL Tot.

Staff 1.5 5.3 2.4 4.8 1.3 1.9 2.7 19.8

Proj. 2.4 4.3 1.5 2.4 8.0 1.4 9.8 29.7

Tot. 3.9 9.6 3.9 7.2 9.3 3.3 12.5 49.5

All figures in fte researchers/yr., where staff are parttime research. See A.4

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Ph.D. Projects InitiatedPP SS DC DH CL Ed. NL Tot

Internal 2.5 2 1 2 3 2 4.5 17

Matching - 1 0 - 2 1 2 6

External 1 1 0 1.5 5.5 - 3 12

Staff 1.5 5.3 2.4 4.8 1.3 1.9 2.7 19.8

-See p.8, tbl. 2-Internal tracks sum of (Matching + External) except for CL-Internal projects awarded based on candidate quality

-NL attracts most high-quality applicants (EMCL)-Change under consideration:

-Restrict awards to groups w. regular meetings OR-Awards based on program quality

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Ph.D. Supervision● Supervisor, intended “promotor”, group meetings

– Courses through BCN, LOT, ESSLLI, LSA, ELSNET– Jack Hoeksema (Dir. Studies) on integration w. research MA

● First year report – 25 pp., def. research question, pilot study, replication– No projects stopped, but several conditional passes

● Over 90% completion, but ave. 5.5 yr. + – 2 D&H projects not completed, most too long

● Need improvement everywhere on timely completion

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Ph.D. PlacementPP SS DC DH CL Ed NL Tot

Univ. Faculty 1 3 - 1 - 2 1 8

Other Research - - - - 5 1 7 13

Other Science/Ed. - 2 1 3 - - 1 7

Elsewhere - 1 - 1 1 - - 3

Unemployed 1 1 - 1 - - - 3

Total 2 7 1 6 6 3 9 34

See B.5 in group sections (added by CLCG)

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Scholarly ProductionPP SS DC DH CL Ed. NL Tot

Journal Articles 13 106 13 49 33 39 62 315

Book Chapters 37 104 39 122 96 42 43 483

Monographs & Dissertations

1 8 3 13 7 3 9 44

Staff positions 1.5 5.3 2.4 4.8 1.3 1.9 2.7 19.8

Total FTE 23.3 57.6 23.0 43.3 55.4 19.7 74.6 296.7

Art&Chap/Staff/yr 5.5 6.6 3.6 6.0 16.5 7.1 6.4 6.7

Art&Chap/FTE-yr 2.1 3.6 2.3 3.9 2.3 4.1 1.4 2.7

- See B.9, Tbl. 6 in group sections

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Project Acquisition

PP SS DC DH CL Ed. NL Tot

Grad.Stud. (years) 4 6 - 6 26 2 16 60

Postdoc (years) - 13 1 - 13 2 17 46

Staff 1.5 5.3 2.4 4.8 1.3 1.9 2.7 19.8

See p.8, Tbl.2. Grad. student projects are four years, “matching” counts ½. See p. 13 Table. Added by CLCG.

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Institute's Goals in Review

● Present institutional ecology● Understand past successes, failures● Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

threats● Formulate strategy as background to research

program 2004-2008

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Strengths & Weaknesses

• Many linguists• Guaranteed research• Neurolinguistics,

Comp.Linguistics, Syntax & Semantics, Educ. Linguistics

• 400K contract research (Ed.Ling.)

• Declining stud. interest• Little influence on

identifying vacancies.• Demanding instruction

saps staff energies• Limited graduate

student support.• Some inactive groups

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Opportunities & Threats

● Opportunity: – very popular communications study – the only linguistics area growing in popularity

● Threats: – little expertise in phonetics/instrumental phonology– 11% drop in linguistic positions since 1997

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Institute's Goals in Review

● Present institutional ecology● Understand past successes, failures● Identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

threats● Formulate strategy as background to research

program 2004-2008

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Institutional Strategy

● Given reliance on external funds, stimulate CLCG members to seek outside funding.

● Require regular research meetings of groups seeking graduate students

● Strategic research foci: see group reports, but emphasize common projects.

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Corrections to Report● p.8 “[…] research time was allotted in a way dependent for 80%

on student numbers …” => “[…] staffing levels were determined in a way dependent for 80% on student numbers…”

● p.12 table, only 2 not 3 of these Ph.D. projects were incomplete (both from Descriptive & Historical Linguistics)