Redundancies at Cardiff

[Rhythmisadancer]

DD is holding an offer from Cardiff for Sept this year, and one of the departments that is closing is Ancient History. Her place is for joint History and Ancient History - but it was the Ancient History that really caught her imagination. Does she need to have a big re-think, as she was just about to accept it as her firm.
I know there are bigger problems around this, people are losing their job, and nursing going sounds massive 😢
What do people think the implications are for students thinking of Cardiff this year - or for those already there?

I don't think it's is viable option. Even if somehow the programme is saved and runs in September, staff morale will be through the floor and they'll be leaving as soon as they can, whether through redundancy, retirement or finding another job.

I'd discourage her from accepting the place!

Course are usually taught out so if there are existing cohorts I imagine they'll finish their degrees OR the university will make alternative provision for them.

Yes, eek! DD1 has an offer for Nursing at Cardiff (which was funded by the Welsh NHS, so I guess it going is a surprise.). She'll be firming Swansea, and avoiding Cardiff altogether now. Sad, really, as we liked the city.

It’s possible they may withdraw the offer now.

I just heard this on the radio - very sad, I went to Cardiff and it's a fabulous university. My course, however, was pulled after my first year (and this was in the 90s!) and they moved us all into another course within the same department so I ended up with a different degree to the one I applied for. I didn't mind as I preferred the new one, but I do recall a lot of people on my course being pretty pissed off (& rightly so) So if she does decide to still go there, I'd imagine they'd possibly do something similar.
Difficult one - I feel sorry for all the students like your daughter and also the staff there. Such a shame.

Modern Languages and Music also going, it would seem. Sounds like they could cut a lot of the 'managers' out and save money there, but I bet they won't.

I really wouldn't risk it I'm afraid unless she is happy to end up reading straight modern history. Such a shame - my DD applied there for Ancient History and really liked it but luckily ended up going to Nottingham instead. SHe's a second year so think she's dodged a bullet.

My DD has an offer for Cardiff too. Is there a list of affected departments?

A department closing doesn't necessarily mean a course stops or the staff leave. It may be for example that they are merging ancient history into the history department as they are only going to offer it as a joint degree from now on

It's never a good idea to be somewhere that is on the down.

Realistically, everywhere is on the down. Durham has also announced redundancies today. It would be quicker to list those universities which haven’t announced staff and programme cuts in the last year. And those that haven’t are likely to have to do so in the next couple of years.

Some good points here - plenty for to mull over. It's such a shame - we've visited a couple of times and she was getting keener each time. She could really see herself here, and the course looked great.
More widely the loss of nursing is the bigger blow I guess, but for our micro world this is an upset
More info here: https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/cardiff-university-job-cuts-400-30882168

While I wouldn't recommend choosing a university for a course which has specifically been listed as closing or "at risk" @GCAcademic is right that almost ALL universities are in the sh*t right now, so don't discount Cardiff for other courses. It's a great uni.
Just in recent days both Kent and Newcastle have reported deficits in the tens of millions and a redundancy programme - and if you've been following the story for longer, many others have too - Edinburgh, Keele, UEA, Northampton, Teeside are all in trouble according to the BBC News website from recent weeks - but there are many, many more, as anyone who works in higher ed will tell you. Just depends if the story breaks on mainstream news, as Cardiff has done.

It's devastating news all round. Not only the impact on students and staff, but because universities are so important for the local economy, especially in the smaller centres we have in Wales. It's infuriating to see the arts and humanities being targeted again, but nursing is a real shocker. Given the well documented need for more medical professionals, what on earth are they thinking?

Lots of universities across the country are in financial difficulty - lots of reasons but the national insurance increase is contributing to this.

There are many roles that could be cut without having much of an impact - thinking of communications, diversity roles, sustainability officers.
No offence to anyone in these roles, but facing facts some roles are just not as important as others.

DS is in his 1st year at Cardif (and absolutely loving it). Like other posters have said, Cardiff is far from the only uni in this situation, loads of them have announced cuts. Also, Cardiff still have well over 5000 staff so it's not like all staff have have gone. They're just consolidating courses that aren't efficient or are less popular.

Perhaps you could call the uni and ask specifically about the Ancient History part?

It isn’t clear exactly what will happen but it’s obviously terrible news, OP. I would encourage DD to think about other options. Even if her degree programme survives in some form this year, it will never be relaxing.

This is a sad day for UK HE.

Nursing is a bit of a shock. Problem is student numbers for nursing and midwifery are dropping as people don’t want to work for the nhs anymore due to pay and conditions. We are walking into a shit storm. 🤷‍♀️

OP, yes potentially a course may be taught out or ancient history merged with history but lecturers with a specialist interest may well leave and modules be dropped. The staff won’t be able to guarantee anything so I’d take any promises with a pinch of salt. In HE even for a course/university not going through this we always have a caveat of “modules may change with no notice “.

Just about every university has gone through staff redundancy this year. We lost 10 teaching staff from my department. No course has been affected we are all just absorbing more work.

If you are going to withdraw from every affected university there would be about 4 left!!

I went to Cardiff Aeons ago and the scale of these cuts are shocking to me. It’s such a great city and I ad a great Uni when I was there.

My daughter will be applying to Uni in a year and I would not encourage her to go now. The scale of this means staff morale will be on the floor

It is happening (or about to happen) everywhere at the moment. Cardiff has hit the headlines but others will follow. They have tried voluntary and more are moving to compulsory. It is dire.

But the statement from Cardiff UCU says “ Ancient history, modern languages and translation, music, nursing, and religion and theology subjects will be dropped and some schools will be merged. “

that’s a bit more than losing teaching staff. Which I agree is happening in every university including mine. And if you’re a student about to start ancient history I’d be concerned. Of course it’s possible the UCU rep is talking total bollocks. But would be very reckless of them if so.

Yes. I have the impression they're culling the courses with lowest entry qualifications (which I would say are quite different on paper from what's on the website, for those listed here).

If nursing is attracting fewer well qualified candidates, which would make sense given the salary and conditions, that would explain why it would be on this list.

I think a lot of universities are scraping the barrel for nursing applicants now. We accepted students last year with 50 ucas points below the advertised tariff. Wish I was joking. Now everyone wants to know why half the cohort have failed the first two modules. Hmmmm, let me think 🤔

It's not just the UCU saying that, if the BBC News site is to be trusted. It says

"The cost-cutting proposals could also involve course closures, as well as department mergers, with nursing, music and modern languages among the subjects facing cuts.
...
The subjects and programmes being cut also include ancient history and religion and theology.

The university said the proposals would also include the following subject mergers:

Chemistry, earth sciences and physics being merged to create the School of Natural Sciences

Computer science and maths merging to become the School of Data Science
Social sciences, geography and planning merged to become the School of Human and Social Sciences

English, communication and philosophy, Welsh and remaining elements of history, archaeology and religion and modern languages merged into the School of Global Humanities"

I get that it’s on the bbc news website but unless I’m missing something the details about which courses are closing, etc are from the UCU. So the bbc are just quoting the UCU rep

The university are simply saying 400 jobs to go, hoping to avoid compulsory redundancy, only if necessary, etc. now it could be the UCU person is correct and they are saying what the university won’t officially announce, however they could also be jumping the gun?