‘High-profile figures criticise university’s plans for large cuts to arts and humanities…’

As one of those referred to in this report by Times Higher Education (20.11.20) on cuts at Roehampton as having already taken voluntary redundancy, this new round of cuts (and more voluntary redundancies – I already know of some) is deeply disturbing. You might say I made a timely decision, but it was a personal one and I didn’t think I was leaving a sinking ship. Any university that shoots itself in the foot in this way will go on hobbling for a very long time. 

It’s not a question of whether the university is making the right call in the circumstances (effects of the pandemic and low student numbers). A university is not like a restaurant forced on hard times which has to reduce its menu, and cannot be left to the laissez-faire of the marketplace without damaging the public good which is its raison d’être. But who can expect anything else from a crass and philistine governing class that has spent the last several decades implementing the hyper-marketisation of higher education and has now abdicated responsibility for what happens as a result?

Here’s the open letter the report refers to.

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