‘New conflict’ at Cardiff University

Martin Shipton

Senior sources at Cardiff University have claimed fallings-out have occurred involving senior managers in the wake of the traumatic cuts programme announced at the beginning of this year.

Insiders have told Nation.Cymru that there have been two unfortunate developments:

The Academic Registrar Simon Wright has allegedly fallen out with the Chief Operating Officer and University Secretary Dr Paula Sanderson over administrative changes that are underway as part of the cuts programme. Mr Wright is said to be not currently at work and a severance package for him is allegedly under negotiation.

Professor Rudolf Allemann, the Pro Vice Chancellor, International, who has been leading the university’s project to create a campus in the former Soviet central Asian republic Kazakhstan, is said to have fallen out with the Kazakhs, who have said they are no longer prepared to deal with him. The university is said to be looking for other people within Cardiff University to take the project forward.

Upheaval

One of our sources said: “After all the upheaval of the last few months, it might have been expected that things would calm down, particularly during the long summer vacation.

“But that hasn’t happened and it seems there is still conflict within the senior management and involving the Kazakhstan project too.

A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “As we have said to Nation.Cymru on many occasions already, we do not comment on anonymous sources, or anonymous claims made about our staff.

“We will however correct obvious untruths. It is categorically untrue that Dr Paula Sanderson and Simon Wright have ‘fallen out’. They would both like to clarify that they continue to enjoy a positive and supportive working relationship.

“Professor Rudolf Allemann’s role focuses on identifying and nurturing new opportunities for Cardiff University globally. The operationalisation of Cardiff University in Kazakhstan is the responsibility of the Chief Operating Officer. Professor Allemann’s attention is now focused on other emerging international opportunities.

“We will not be offering further comment in relation to this enquiry.”

Cuts

In January the university announced plans that would have seen 400 jobs go and five academic schools shut down, including Nursing and Music.

In June a scaled-down version of the cuts was revealed and the amended business case for its controversial “Academic Futures” proposals was approved by the university’s top decision making body.

Nevertheless the University and College Union expressed grave concern for the university’s future.

The proposals passed by the University Council will mean that university bosses will now be able to carry out their cuts, which include:

Ending teaching and research in the subjects of Religion, Theology, Portuguese, German, and Italian; and ending the teaching of Ancient History.

Reducing student numbers in the teaching of Nursing, some languages, and Music (after initially planning to axe the provision entirely);

Merging Welsh, English, Communication, Philosophy, Music, History, Archaeology and the remaining languages which weren’t cut entirely into a new School of the Global Humanities;

The School of Geography and the School of Social Sciences will be merged into the School of Human and Social Sciences;

The Schools of Physics, Earth Sciences, and Chemistry are to be merged into the School of Physical and Environmental Sciences;

Computer Science and Maths will merge into the School of Computational and Mathematical Sciences.

Since the cuts were announced the institution has lost around 150 Full Time Equivalent staff, with around 80 further reductions planned.

Voluntary redundancy

Losses of staff through voluntary redundancy were suffered by the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, Biosciences, Music, Business, Sociology, Geography, English, Communication and Philosophy, Chemistry, Maths, and Computer Science.

The university is also currently planning further cuts, in addition to its “Academic Futures” plans, to the future of Professional Services support staffing in ways which will have wide-ranging implications for staff and students.

The university has reassured such staff, many of whom are represented by the University and College Union, that the same level of cuts to academic provision will not be made to professional services. But many fear their jobs will be downgraded, they will be made to apply for different jobs, or that there will be compulsory changes to their contracts.