Members of the House of Lords have criticized a university’s plans to cut jobs in the arts and humanities department.
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is set to lose more than 30 academic posts, most of them in the humanities and arts, while trying to plug a £30million deficit.
A colleague described the move as “sad and very tragic,” while others said it was a sign the government was not funding the arts and humanities.
UEA said the subject areas would be retained.
The historian Baron Kenneth Morgan, who taught at the UEA, said it was “bad news for a respected department in a good university”.
The Earl of Clancarty said the cuts, which would also include staff at the world-renowned creative writing course, were “shocking”.
“They are the latest in a series of such cuts at universities across the country, which are the result of a long-term downgrading of arts education by this government,” he said.
Other colleagues also expressed concern that they feared the arts would become less important.
Labour’s Baroness Andrews spoke of a colleague she used to work with when a teacher with “extraordinary teaching skills” was honing his arts degree at UEA.
“What is the government doing to ensure that such motivating art teachers continue to graduate from our universities and instill a love of art in our children,” she asked.
Education Secretary Baroness Barran dismissed claims that the government was not supporting the arts, noting that the percentage of students taking arts and humanities had changed little in recent years.
Regarding the UEA’s problems, she said: “I appreciate that there are individual universities that are under financial pressure, but they are autonomous institutions and have to manage their own finances.”
The UEA said all departments of the Arts and Humanities Faculty would be retained, including the creative writing course.
The company partly blames a 16% drop in student applications this year for the problems and hopes to achieve the workforce reductions through voluntary layoffs.
Follow the news from East England Facebook, Instagram And Twitter. do you have a story E-mail eastofenglandnews@bbc.co.uk or write us a WhatsApp on 0800 169 1830
Add Comment