The administration of the University of Kent is planning to put off school in its Division of Philosophy and different humanities and humanities fields.
Members of the Department of Philosophy despatched alongside the next message:
We’re writing to alert readers to the truth that the philosophy division is one among a number of Arts and Humanities departments presently focused for obligatory redundancies by the College of Kent.
This isn’t on the grounds of high quality: the philosophy division was ranked 3rd within the UK for total scholar satisfaction in the newest nationwide scholar survey, and 5th within the UK by way of GPA in the newest analysis evaluation (2nd for high quality of analysis outputs). The reasoning relies on funds. We perceive that the native union disputes a number of the figures getting used.
The primary spherical of obligatory redundancies is because of happen in July, with extra monetary cuts deliberate for the following tutorial yr.
The union has a petition here.
In addition to defending jobs, it highlights a selected concern round an settlement they reached with senior administration about redundancies.
We within the philosophy division would very a lot admire your assist.
Final fall, Kent’s vice chancellor, Karen Cox, and the college’s government group, had issued the next assertion:
Karen and the Government Group want to present an additional particular dedication to all Arts and Humanities workers that there might be no obligatory redundancies because of the present evaluate.
The petition offers additional data:
The assure of no obligatory redundancies was made in October final yr in response to UCU [University and College Union] opening a poll for industrial motion. The union didn’t pursue industrial motion due to this dedication. Subsequently this damaged promise has prevented members from having the chance to defend their livelihoods.
The administration in February called for volunteers to retire in alternate for a severance package deal (particulars of that are unknown), and has is closing its Brussels campus. The administration cites the cap on tuition charges as a contributing issue, although these caps haven’t been newly imposed (they’ve been in place for a minimum of 5 budgeting cycles), as effectively a “multi-million-pound affect from the variety of college students not staying with us to complete their research”. It’s unclear what number of, if any, directors in budgeting and advertising and marketing might be laid off.
As of the time of this text, the union’s petition, which remains to be open for signing, has roughly 1500 signatories.
