Imminent threat of compulsory redundancies in Modern Languages Department, Swansea University

I am writing about a matter of urgent concern. All 22 academic staff in the Modern Languages Department of Swansea University received a letter on Friday 6 August informing us that our jobs are now ‘at risk’ and that we must reapply for a reduced number of posts. We believe that these proposals seriously endanger modern language provision at Swansea, and we are asking for your support in opposing them.

Management proposals specify 10 new academic staff FTE posts in the reconstituted Department, broken down as follows:

· 4 in French (reduced from 6)

· 3.5 in German (reduced from 7)

· 2.5 in Spanish (reduced from 5 full-time and 2 part-time staff).

The 10 new FTE posts will include 2 new Welsh-medium posts to be advertised shortly, which means that the current 22 staff are effectively competing for 8 posts. The two posts currently occupied by full-time lecturers in Italian will be ‘deleted’, the assumption being that Joint Honours Italian ‘could be offered in future by language tutors alone’. While we have been assured that redeployment will be used where possible, compulsory redundancies are inevitable, especially as, at a meeting with senior management on 10 August, it was explicitly stated that the main reason for the restructuring exercise is to save money.

Swansea Modern Languages Department is the leading third-level language provider in Wales and has an outstanding reputation for undergraduate teaching, postgraduate teaching, and research. In RAE 2008, Modern Languages at Swansea was ranked first in Wales in terms of research power. In the latest National Student Survey French, German and Hispanic Studies at Swansea each scored over 90% for overall student satisfaction, earning the accolade ‘Top Performing Subjects’ in Swansea University publicity. Modern Languages staff contribute extensively to the highly successful MA in Translation with Language Technology. The Department is particularly proud of its Welsh-medium provision, which is supported by the Welsh Assembly, and its contribution to the University’s internationalisation agenda.

Over the course of the last year we have lost staff who taught Russian, Portuguese and Catalan, for financial reasons; we have also just lost our Austrian language tutor. The current proposals will quite simply devastate the Department, leaving it unable to fulfil its core functions adequately. They will severely damage the provision of language degrees in Wales . We are particularly concerned that Italian degrees may yet be withdrawn as a result of the lack of lecturing staff. Needless to say, we reject the concept of compulsory redundancies absolutely.

We will be mounting a wider campaign in due course. For now, if you share our concern I urge you to write a letter of protest (with a copy to mlswansea@yahoo.co.uk) to:

Professor Richard Davies

Vice-Chancellor

Swansea University

Singleton Park

Swansea

SA2 8PP

E-mail: vc@swansea.ac.uk

Raymond Ciborowski

Registrar and Head of Administration

Swansea University

Singleton Park

Swansea

SA2 8PP

E-mail: raymond.ciborowski@swansea.ac.uk

I hope that we can count on your support.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Brigid Haines

Head of Modern Languages, Swansea University