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?

@spiderlight - I am so so sorry to hear this. If my guess on who your husband is is correct then he was incredibly lovely to my DD when she rang in clearing after a major medical problem derailed her A level exams a couple of years ago.

I see Plaid Cymru have spoken out against the loss of the nursing course stating there’s 2000 nursing vacancies in wales.

but two big issues, like I said earlier nursing applications have fallen off a cliff (standing nationally at around a third from six years ago).

Also the fees being set by the govt at too low a rate. For an expensive to run course such as nursing when the course isn’t financially making sense why would what’s essentially a private business going to continue to run it.

God knows what the govt will do when other universities follow suit and suddenly there’s next to no nurses being trained!

In wales I assume Swansea has a nursing course….not sure on travel times but will Swansea students be sent to Cardiff hospitals for placement? Is the travel time feasible, will they go? Maybe for a Swansea student just about. But if you live in Carmarthen and are commuting to Swansea for lectures then probably not. Swansea hospital won’t be able to take more students on placement l

@Londonmummy66 He does deal with admissions/clearing so it might well have been him (surname starts with an R). I hope your daughter ended up with a place she's been happy with.

The University of South Wales has nursing courses, including some traditional full-time degree courses, based at the campus in Pontypridd, 12 miles from Cardiff, on a train line.

That’s good. It might just be with the fall in applicants there needs to be a reduction in courses. Better to have 2 full courses rather then 3 half empty ones?

Hello
I'm Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, Professor of Ancient History at Cardiff University. Please be assured, we have been told by the University that we will be teaching the FULL degree in Ancient History for the next three years.

University of South Wales (Pontypridd) has nursing courses too, so there is still a local option just north of Cardiff for students that need one.

www.southwales.ac.uk/courses/bsc-hons-nursing-adult/

@Chersfrozenface had faster fingers. 😄

I was so shocked to read about the nursing course being cut at Cardiff. It’s a large cohort and must affect so many staff. I hope the current students can finish without too much disruption.
the news has made me edgy for my own dd who has applied for nursing this year in some of the other big unis. I really don’t know how to advise her if she’s anxious about the safety of the course. Any tips? She’s a bright girl, academically strong and knows this is the path for her but am also worried to hear that things are so tough with recruiting students that motivation and suitability isn’t as strong as it might be. How do you pick the uni where fellow students are likely to be like minded? Really worrying times for HE and nursing…

I would have a look at the entry tariffs for each nursing course at universities. The advertised tariffs are aspirational and don't reflect what a course will accept. Check out the league tables which will have information on what courses actually accepted as entry requirements . Higher the tariff the more academically able the student.

Thank you . We need to go through all the data again. A couple of courses seem to have dropped requirements since we first looked. I guess it also depends on popularity too re who they offer to. The ones my dd has applied to are all BBB or BBC but the one with BBC ( uni of Liverpool) seems to have the highest typical achieved results ( ABB) so it needs looking at carefully. Cohort size also an issue perhaps.

It’s the 400 academic staff that’s in the news. The professional service staff will follow later.

And if it's the COO who is doing the restructure it will be a major balls up - just like it was when they attempted it at the university I work at.

@minnow Nursing courses tend to advertise a higher headline tariff largely as a way of implying their course is particularly sought after - it's a marketing ploy. It's where their eventual threshold for admission really is that will be the most useful

I teach at a university that advertises our nursing entry requirements at BBB - to be quite honest if that was our actual threshold we'd have a cohort of 3 students! We actually confirm at bare passes.

Yes. I mean, we are basically being asked to provide a 2025 service at 2012 prices, with the government actively undermining efforts to compete in the international market. And the student body has a range of needs that we are legally mandated to meet, on a scale unimaginable in 2012. Meanwhile, the government has created conditions for competition which is simultaneously artificial (metrics defined their side) and uncontrolled (no student cap, massive incentive for dog eat dog policies and marketing bloat).

You can always cull a few managers, a few administrators, a few academics, but that's mostly a decline in service to match the decline in resources.

Doing quite a bit less with quite a lot less isn't the trendy motto, but it's where HE is right now, and there's no mystery about how we have got here.

@minnow @damekindness - cardiff was the highest offer that DD1 received (joint with swansea)- sheffield, manchester and notts were all lower for adult nursing, though I think they all gave her a contextual where the welsh ones didn't. Sounds like she shouldn't worry too much about missing them though.

So because one COO ballsed it up, another one somewhere else would too?

Does that logic also apply to commercial companies?

You've misunderstood my message - the COO at Cardiff is the same person who attempted a restructure at my place of work.

Thank you for the clarification @AHayCardiff I’m so sorry to hear about the situation at Cardiff. We are big Ancient History fans in our family. It’s a fantastic degree and at a time when people seem to be more fascinated by the ancient world than ever it makes little sense that this degree is not as popular as it deserves to be.
I wish you and @spiderlight DH the very best in the future.

Great news. My DD has applied for ancient history/classics (not at Cardiff as too far for her comfort zone) and would hate to see the number of places nationally depleted. STEM courses are great, but we also need people trained in the skills and the type of thinking that study in the arts and humanities offer - three is no ingenuity without creativity, which people often seem to forget!

@AHayCardiff thanks for that - I don't think she's heard yet but that's sounds like at least her offer should stand. Other posters have made some good points about other factors that are now in mix. We visited last week last week just to make sure that that it was really her first choice. I have several friends with kids who are loving Cardiff uni. Everything about this is such a shame, for staff and students, and for a beautiful part of the world 😥

@spiderlight

If it’s the somewhat hirsute fellow with a penchant for ‘Greek Values’ then please tell him he was my all-time favourite lecturer when I was there in the early 00s and is still talked about at our Cardiff alum get-togethers 💛 best of luck to you guys, and personally I think he would be excellent doing podcasts or similar… I’d listen anyway ☺️

I don't know this university well but heard the headline. Really sad to see this

@Hotmess101 - that's him!! I shall pass that on - it will mean the world to him. He's done several podcasts and documentaries, mostly for 'History Hit', and he really enjoys that side of things.

I'm a lecturer in a Russell group uni for nursing. Most unis went through VS last year as did we. I haven't heard about any other unis closing nursing courses. That's strikes me as severe.