ACADEMICS have written to Alex Salmond asking him to intervene in controversial plans for course cuts at a leading Scottish university.
Officials from the Strathclyde University branch of the UCU lecturers’ union contacted the First Minister after he publicly backed the institution.
Mr Salmond recently praised Professor Jim McDonald, principal of Strathclyde, for developing a £90 million technology innovation centre in Glasgow.
He also contrasted staff relationships at Strathclyde with neighbouring Glasgow University, where there has been outspoken protests over threatened course cuts.
Mr Salmond said Professor Anton Muscatelli, principal of Glasgow University, seemed to “spend his entire time fighting with his staff and the wider community”.
“There are two different attitudes. You either have a principal of a university who sees and seizes opportunities and takes his university on a fantastic route, as the principal of Strathclyde has done, or you have one who has these battles with his staff and students for no apparent reason,” he said.
In a letter to Mr Salmond, UCU Strathclyde vice-presidents Bill Johnston and Neil Davidson said staff at Strathclyde were just as concerned over course cuts and the attitude of their principal as academics at Glasgow.
“We know ... you hold certain proposed developments here in high esteem, in particular the proposed technology innovation centre,” the letter states.
“However, we feel your support for this initiative should be balanced by serious concern about proposed closures and ... equally disturbing proposals to reduce the workforce in a number of professional service areas, with consequent detriment to the students whose needs they exist to meet.”
The letter adds: “Our view is that university senior management ... have not taken our constructive views into account, and are simply pressing ahead with what we consider to be a flawed strategic plan, in much the same way as was recently seen at Glasgow and a number of other Scottish universities.
“This is a recipe for instability and dispute, which is not in the best interests of the majority of stakeholders in the university, above all our students. Consequently we request that you raise our concerns directly with ... the principal.”
The Herald revealed last month that Strathclyde is planning to axe courses in music, education, geography and sociology. Up to 25 jobs could be lost from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences under the proposals, that could save the university £750,000.
Strathclyde said the subjects were under-performing in research, were not financially viable and were no longer core to its strategy of becoming a leading European technological university.
However, there has been a backlash from staff and students who argue the cuts are short-sighted.
A university spokesman said: “Strathclyde’s strategy to become a leading international technological university has been developed by our staff, and is fully supported by our governing body. More than £350m is being invested in making that vision real, and the strategy has been endorsed, and supported, by business, industry and the public sector.
“Staff and students are fully involved in the decision-making process, and there is an on-going open dialogue with the unions.”
He added: “A strong Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is critical to the delivery of the university’s academic aim of encouraging multi-disciplinary research and teaching.
“These proposals will allow the university to build its research profile, deliver teaching excellence, and make an even greater impact on society.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article