ACADEMICS have questioned Ulster University's plans for voluntary redundancies when entire departments are facing closure.
UU said massive budget reductions meant it would have to shut down its modern languages school while it is also ending stand-alone maths degrees. As many as 70 different courses are to go across six subject areas.
Higher education cuts are forcing it to shed up to 1,200 student places, while 210 staff will leave. The four-campus university has had its annual budget cut by almost £9 million.
UU has 27,000 students of which 13,000 are full-time undergraduates. The 1,200 cut will be to the latter group. It hopes that it can achieve the 210 job losses, from a workforce of 2,800, through voluntary redundancies.
The biggest casualty is the school of modern languages, which has about 20 staff. Other subject areas affected will be interior design, marine science, computing, maths and business management. Of these, only interior design and languages will close in their entirety.
The University and College Union (UCU) said its priority now was the avoidance of compulsory redundancies and protection of jobs. Anthea Irwin, president of UCU's association at UU, said the Stormont Executive cuts to the higher education budget had been devastating.
"The university's responsibility now is to deal with them in such a way that protects as many jobs as possible and causes the least detrimental effect to our future generations of young people and to the staff involved in their education," she said.
"UCU is saddened that the current proposals do not do this. Management have introduced what they are calling a voluntary severance package, yet entire subject areas are being closed, and significant proportions of staff are being cut in targeted areas, so many of the redundancies will not be voluntary in any real sense, and the breadth of curriculum we offer to our young people is under threat.
"We hope to work constructively with our management in responding to the devastating Stormont cuts, but this can only happen where there is a sincere commitment on all sides to avoid any redundancies that are not truly voluntary."
UU vice-chancellor Professor Paddy Nixon told the Irish News, while some subject areas would close in their entirety, a voluntary scheme for staff was more generous than compulsory redundancies.
"This has not been an easy process, particularly for affected staff, many of whom have given many years of commitment to the university and our students," Prof Nixon said.
"It is however, an opportunity for this institution to reinforce its position as we look to our future vision and growth opportunities."
