Job cuts at university

Adam Hewitt • Published 14 Mar 2010 17:00 0 Comments

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MORE jobs are to go at Reading University as its staff union accuses it of "taking a wrecking ball to the sciences".

The university will cut up to 37 jobs, mostly from its School of Systems Engineering, with posts going in computer science, electronics, cybernetics, biology and chemistry.

University and College Union (UCU) Reading branch president, Tim Astin, said: "These plans make no sense whatsoever and will take away huge bodies of knowledge from the university. Even by management's own standards these decisions are rash and will come back to haunt the university. The vice-chancellor has failed to make a coherent academic case for taking a wrecking ball to the sciences.

"It seems that no subject is safe at Reading from the axe."

But the university said it has to make £10.6m of savings because of Government cuts to higher education and spokesman Alex Brannen said many universities had already proposed far more jobs cuts. Media reports say up to 700 jobs might have to go at Leeds University.

The cuts were confirmed at a Reading University senate meeting on Wednesday but the UCU said there should be a voluntary redundancy scheme instead of compulsory cuts.

Mr Brannen said there already was a voluntary scheme, but that the university wanted to protect its highest-performing departments so would look at compulsory job losses in other areas if necessary.

He said: "Research in science is a real strength of our University and we are determined that the savings needed will not undermine this. We are conducting great research in climate science, food and nutritional science and neurology, for example, and also in some areas of Systems Engineering - we want to protect them.

"The Review of the School of Systems Engineering, which performed disappointingly in the latest Research Assessment Exercise but which also boasts areas of individual and collective excellence, was based on our determination to provide a positive foundation on which to build a strong and reinvigorated School of Systems Engineering.

"We have also identified the need to make savings of between two and five posts in the areas of Environmental Biology, Biomedical Sciences and Chemistry. The University strives to avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible."

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