Protests at University of Gloucestershire as staff demand university comes clean on restructure plans

UCU says the University of Gloucestershire has to come clean over plans to axe jobs and departments at the university. Worried staff say they are being kept in the dark after senior management announced plans to restructure.
 
The restructuring plans and tomorrow's protest come on top of university plans to close campuses in Cheltenham and London and to cut up to 16 jobs at its Francis Close Hall site. The Pittville campus in Cheltenham - currently home to the university's Faculty of Media, Art and Communications - will shut by the end of 2011 and the university has said that it will sell its London campus.
 
The university's vice-chancellor, Professor Patricia Broadfoot, said recently that the university could not continue to afford a high ratio of staffing in the current and future climate and as a result some difficult but necessary decisions have to be taken. However, the union argues that her comments come up short when put against the facts. The University of Gloucestershire has 18.7 students to every member of staff and the sector average is 17.49*
 
University of Gloucestershire UCU chair, Gwen Chaney, said: 'The lobby has been organised to ensure that the University of Gloucestershire comes cleans with its restructuring plans. Staff have suffered enough recently with the campus closures and job losses. Both staff and students have a right to know exactly what is going on at their university.
 
'Rumours and inadequate consultation over job losses and faculty restructures do nothing for the university's reputation, the staff or the students. We fully understand that some institutions are facing difficult times and that is why we are always available to work through any problems. The process needs to be an open and transparent one and the University of Gloucestershire needs to start that process immediately.'

Notes

*Professor Broadfoot on future plans for the university

Student:staff ratios from the Independent

Directions to the lobby