Nottingham University under fire over department cuts

The University of Nottingham has recently announced that it intends to suspend 48 of its courses. This would effectively mean the end of the Music, Modern Languages, and American and Canadian Studies departments as a whole. On top of that, it would mean a drastic reduction in the number of Nursing courses. Students and unions have condemned the university and raised their objections — refusing to roll over.

Regarding the eye-watering number of courses Nottingham intends to shutter, University and College Union (UCU) branch leader Nick Clare stated:

The course suspensions at the University of Nottingham have been rushed and carried out without consultation or a transparent methodology. They not only target hugely important and successful parts of the University, but in particular areas that serve the wider student body and also the community the University should be part of. How the University can claim to be global while making such parochial and small-minded decisions is a mystery. Staff have also been sidelined throughout and forced into taking significant industrial action in order to fight these worrying and ideologically-driven changes.

Undergraduates and postgraduates who’ve already started their courses will be able to finish them at Nottingham. However, the university has stated that foundation year students will have to pick different courses. Likewise, Nottingham won’t be accepting any new students for the following programmes:

Modern Languages
Music
American and Canadian Studies
Theology
Health Promotion and Public Health
Plant Biology
Microbiology
Agriculture and Agricultural Business Management
Food Science
Mathematical Physics (MSci only)

Similarly, Nottingham won’t take new undergraduates for Education, or new postgraduates for Electrical Engineering, Architecture, Animal Science, and Social Work. Within Nursing, both the Child and Mental Health courses up for suspension.

Robin Vandome, UCU rep and lecturer in the Department of American and Canadian Studies, said:

We are shocked and deeply concerned about the university’s decision to suspend and propose permanent closure of all degrees in American and Canadian Studies at the University of Nottingham. […] The move to eliminate American Studies teaching completely undermines our own Vice Chancellor’s claim that we are a truly ‘global’ university, and comes at a time when expert knowledge about the United States takes on ever greater urgency in the age of Trumpism. It also undermines students currently taking these programmes, and threatens the livelihoods of all staff in the department.

Fighting back

Back in 2023, the university identified a black-hole budget deficit of over £30m. At the time, spending controls were put in place across the university. However, this didn’t stop management from blowing £80m on the now Castle Meadow campus — which still isn’t open to this day. Given this glaring prioritisation of swanky new developments over job safety, many staff are rightfully furious at the university’s management.

Of course, the staff, the students and their unions aren’t willing to let the university scrap their courses without a fight. A resounding 91% majority of Nottingham branch UCU members voted to reject the VC’s ‘offer’ to staff, which completely failed to rule out voluntary redundancies.

As such, they’ve announced strike action for the following dates:

Monday 10th November – Friday 14th November
Monday 17th November – Friday 21st November
Monday 24th November, Tuesday 25th November
Monday 1st December – Friday 5th December
Monday 8th December – Friday 12th December

The UCU branch website also explains that the uni is moving into ‘Phase Two’ of its Future Nottingham “restructuring” plan. The plan has cast the jobs of both research and teaching staff into jeopardy. It also threatens the jobs of administrative, professional and managerial staff, under the guise of ‘centralising’ their roles.

When the Canary reached out to staff and students for comment, the response was one of overwhelming support and solidarity with the strikes. With waves of industrial action to come, we’ll be keeping up with developments as they happen.

Featured image via Nottsfems