Heriot-Watt announces cuts at Galashiels campus

The cuts will remove 10 full-time posts, which represents 25% of the workforce. The union says the losses, at the second oldest textile institution in the world dating back to 1883, will have a severe impact on Galashiels, which has a limited economy reliant on textile production.

Amongst the proposals for the school is "recruiting research leaders to provide strategic leadership and build capacity". The union fears staff will be sacked so that researchers can be recruited from other textile schools, in a short-term bid to boost research ratings.

UCU Scottish official, Mary Senior, said: "Following the Scottish Government's commitment to higher education in the budget, we question the need for such drastic cuts in the proportion of staff. This will have a severe impact on Galashiels in terms of job losses, but also because textiles are so important to the local economy.

"The textile college merged with Heriot-Watt to help it survive, but the university is again attempting to cut jobs rather than develop the staff."

The School of Textiles and Design, the second oldest textile institution in the world, dating back to 1883, shares the Galashiels campus with Scottish Borders College. Formed from a merger of the Scottish College of Textiles and Heriot-Watt University in 1998 to enable the School to grow and to build up Higher Education provision in the Scottish Border, Heriot- Watt University instead pushed through substantial cuts in 2003 and threatened to move the school from Galashiels.