UCU protesters at Birkbeck

A UNIVERSITY in Bloomsbury has ann­ounced plans to axe 140 staff positions by July, in a move that professors and union members say would “decimate” departments.

Employees at London’s leading evening university, Birkbeck, were sent an email in October from management saying there was a multi-million-pound deficit caused by falling student numbers.

It comes as 70,000 university staff across the UK, including UCL, SOAS and Birkbeck are set to strike for three days at the end of November over poor pay, working conditions and pensions.

At Birkbeck, in Malet Street, the jobs of up to a quarter of teaching staff and up to half of administrative staff would be cut by the end of the academic year. The university has since said the cuts relate to the number of posts in departments rather than current staff.

But professors said the plans would undermine humanities departments including English, theatre and creative writing.

Mike Berlin, the University College Union (UCU) Birkbeck president and a history lecturer who has taught for more than 20 years at the institution, told the New Journal: “Staff are completely reeling with this news because we’ve got some of the best regarded departments, such as English and creative writing, in the country. They came second in the Research Assessment Framework, which is the big measure of quality in academia.”

He added that the departments worst hit were “nationally famous” and “the people who work for them are already at breaking point” from challenges brought on by online teaching during Covid.

“The departments themselves will disappear into much bigger structures. If you’re using half the staff, that’s going to mean specialisms lost, opportunities for creative teaching lost, they’re going to have to revert to very, very basic offerings. The workload will inevitably go up for those who remain and will be unsustainable,” Mr Berlin said.

Birkbeck’s “strong working-class education tradition” is also under threat, Mr Berlin warned. “People are just really, really shattered. But determined to fight back,” he said.

Nathan Gayle, a press officer at the UCU, said: “Birkbeck won’t be the institution it is now if the cuts go through. It’s the only university that’s designed to improve social mobility to allow people to work and study at the same time.”

While Mr Berlin acknowledged there were industry challenges, he said “management have made some critical mistakes” including investment in “white elephant buildings” such as a teaching centre in Stratford, which was “never put to use”.

The university said it ran courses from that building for over 10 years before selling it in 2021.

On October 28, Birkbeck’s UCU branch overwhelmingly voted for a motion of no confidence in the senior leadership team and to move towards an industrial dispute.

A spokesperson from the university said: “Birkbeck is consulting on proposals to restructure and reshape its schools, departments and processes to reflect changing demand for subjects from students.

“Birkbeck has committed to avoiding compulsory redundancies wherever possible, including through redeploying staff into alternative roles.

“The proposals aim to ensure that staffing levels in different departments are appropriate for the number of students studying those subjects. In recent years, national trends have seen demand for some subjects decline and for others, increase.”