AN EMPLOYEE at the University of Reading has claimed staff are being asked to "do more for less" despite calls for its leader to resign.

Staff against Professional and Administrative Services launched a vote of no confidence campaign against Vice Chancellor Sir David Bell which saw 88.3 per cent of those who took part agree with the vote.

Despite the result of the vote the Chronicle understands that Sir David has no intention to step down from his post at the top of the university's management team.

Sally Pellow, who has worked at the university for more than 10 years, said: "We are very pleased with the result."

"We never expected Sir David to resign. Even if he were made to resign it would only have been because another job was found for him to go in to."

But Mrs Pellow, who works in the student database department, said the university's response to the vote was "meaningless".

The vote was launched in the wake of the University's proposals to cut back on its admin staff and centralise administrative services.

But Mrs Pellow voiced concerns over the welfare for students when the changes come into force.

She added: "There will be a support centre counter that is manned by three people who will be expected to deal with 80 per cent of the queries from students.

"I am very concerned that my job will involve lots of back office programming to allow the new system to work.

"That sort of project would normally take 18 months to do and they want it to be done by August 1.

"We are being asked to do more for less".

A spokesman for the University and College Union added: "Staff are worried about the review and its impact on students, jobs and working conditions. They are also concerned that key functions of the university are being centralised without adequate safeguards being put in place to ensure continuity of student support.

"Delivering an excellent student experience depends upon a team working together, and academic-related and support staff are a vital part of the university workforce.

"It’s time for the management of the University of Reading to start listening to concerns raised by staff. UCU is willing to talk and negotiate to find alternatives to downgrading and redundancies wherever possible."

A spokesman for the University said the proposals have come too far to take a step back.

They said: "We’ve seen the criticism of our plans but ultimately, there have been no credible alternate put forward on how we put our house in order, without major cuts to our core academic activities or an ever-rising bill for our services.

“We are not the first and will not be the last university to do this because ultimately we are accountable to taxpayer and students to deliver real value-for-money. We can't stand still if we want to remain one of the UK's leading research-intensive universities and continue to offer top-class taught degrees.

“Our plans have been unequivocally and endorsed by the backed by the University Council and all the other major decision making bodies in the University. We’ve not going to take a backward step now”.