Row as university plans to cut jobs in expanding department

Martin Shipton

Academics are opposing proposed job cuts in a highly regarded criminology department at a time when the courses on offer are planned to expand.

Despite the University of South Wales wanting to launch a new course in criminal investigation, it plans to cut back on the number of professors in the subject area.

The university’s management team has responded to consultation responses stating: “For Policing and Criminology, 21% of the subject area’s net contribution is currently being used to support research-related staffing costs, particularly Professorial and Associate Professorial roles, whilst student numbers in the area are in decline. This figure represents the proportion of surplus being reinvested into research activity and is high when compared against other subject areas in the faculty.”

‘Greater focus’

According to the university, there is a need to “reduce the breadth of the research to allow a greater focus on growth areas with reduced resource”.

It adds: “The criminology-based professors account for the largest proportion of the professoriate within the faculty, which is disproportionate, and therefore there is a requirement to reduce the resource at this level.

“The faculty recognises the importance of developing and maintaining the inter-connectivity between research and teaching. Professors have been, and will continue to be, involved in recruitment events and delivering ‘specific’ sessions within the undergraduate programme without the module leadership, administration and marking requirements. This involvement allows students to benefit from the latest developments in the field, which is one of the key advantages of having Professors directly engaged in teaching.

“While we recognise the value of Professors’ involvement in these activities, it would not be cost-effective to have Professors involved heavily in teaching or recruitment activities, and it would detract from their primary research objectives and responsibilities.”

Criminology Professors

In their response to the proposal, the academics stated that it was clear that four Criminology Professors (2.2 full-time equivalent staff members), the Professor in Policing (0.4 FTE), and two Research Fellows (2.0 FTE) – are expected to depart.

They argued: “These decisions are justified in various ways throughout the proposal, but the core of the rationale provided is that they reflect a strategy of ‘disinvesting from areas of the portfolio with limited financial sustainability’ and focusing on ‘a more strategically aligned portfolio’.

“This suggests that a fundamental assumption underlying the proposals is that Criminology and Policing are neither financially sustainable nor sufficiently strategically aligned – an assumption we strongly challenge.”

The plan is described as “an over-hasty and high-risk strategy – or arguably gamble – which will inevitably cause serious and largely irreversible damage to a highly regarded Centre which has long been one of USW’s ‘flagship’ research areas … This will include reputational damage (which also has lasting financial costs) as well as the loss of numerous valuable links with external partners at local, national and international level

“Equally important, the proposals take little account of the interdependence between research and teaching, including the positive influence that a visible, active and accessible Professoriate can have on student recruitment and retention.

“Such a sudden and almost total loss of Professorial leadership is likely to quite quickly trigger further reductions in undergraduate and postgraduate taught student numbers, making the financial situation even worse: cut off the head and the body will follow.

“ …There is a strong implication throughout (without any supporting evidence) that both Criminology and Policing have less ‘strategic relevance’ than other areas named, and are somehow less in tune with University, Faculty and research informed aims and priorities. However, it is relatively easy to demonstrate that this is not the case.

“Criminology staff have contributed significantly to some of USW’s best REF (Research Excellence Framework) results, with high percentages of ‘world leading’ rankings for outputs and research impact in 2014 and 2021.

“What will be the impact on the Faculty’s income from postgraduate research – both in the short and the longer term – of the sudden loss of four or five Professors with long and successful experience of PhD supervision and a record of attracting PhD students to the university explicitly to be supervised by them. Is it not likely both that current research students will struggle to adapt to transfers to less experienced supervisors (probably creating delayed thesis submissions and greater risks of fails), and that the supply of new postgraduate research students will significantly shrink?”

Supervisory teams

In some instances, existing PhD students will lose whole supervisory teams.

“Perhaps most importantly, what exactly is meant by ‘growth’ in this context? The text suggests that the strategy is primarily aimed at promoting growth in research and in income from research.

“However, if the financial crisis is largely caused by falling student numbers, why have [the] proposals for priority growth areas taken so little account of potential growth in income from teaching as well as from growth in research? Would not a research group which has close connections with teaching – particularly a popular undergraduate subject – be likely to generate greater funds than one that concentrates predominantly on research?”

A final decision on the proposals is expected later in June.