Canta on the College of Arts restructuring

An article on students' response to proposed redundancies in the College of Arts was featured in this week's edition of Canta.

Author Leith McLean writes that

The concern among staff and students has boiled over into legal action by the staff union, and the first grassroots student campaign in several years. ...

Student organiser Leon Adams takes issue with the way that budget was decided. “You’ve got a funding and thus a budgeting model based on bums on seats, and somehow this is meant to infer the success of the course.” Leon, and a group of about twenty other students, have started a petition against the staff cuts and gained over 1500 signatures in their first week. The Save Our Staff campaign is calling on the University to use a budget model that takes into account more than just financial gain and student enrolments, and instead focuses on long-term academic excellence.
...
While the budgeting and redundancy process is stalled in consultation, more and more students are finding out about the issue. For the first time in many years, teachers and students are mounting simultaneous campaigns. In large part this is because it was sparked by staff going directly to their students. Students very rarely hear much about how the University is run, and this news moved the campus’ discontent into visible action.

The full article can be downloaded as part of the latest issue from Canta's website.