Blooming awful!

It has been allowed to tick away right under our noses. The majority of the student body is unaware of it. But it affects us in a fundamental and particularly damaging way.

The subject in question is is the Warwick Life Sciences merger. Why is it such an important issue? Because this year, the university’s administration is cutting over half the staff, mainly principal investigators, at Warwick’s Horticultural Research Institute and its Biological Sciences department.

The principal investigators at Warwick HRI not only research important areas, such as the pharmaceutical benefits of certain plants, but supervise PhD students who are themselves conducting research. The merger will not only cause staff to lose their jobs, but it will mean that years of research are interrupted and in some cases, completely lost as PhD students will either lose their supervisor or have to follow them elsewhere.

The university claims to be creating a world-class Life Sciences Centre. However, it does not take an Einstein to question how it will achieve this if they are letting world-class researchers leave to go elsewhere, as well as losing millions of pounds in research. This view is shared by local officials. Alan Beddow, the Liberal Democrat candidate for Leamington has been quoted as saying “[the merger] can only result in a lower quality institution.”

Not only are people getting stirred up about the cuts, but there is also disquiet over how staff and students found out about the situation. A lack of communication and consultation throughout the transition has sullied the relationship between the administration and the two departments. The administration has been opaque and tight-lipped about the merger, letting information out drip by drip, which as frustrating to the students as to the staff.

But this does not just have implications for Warwick. It has concequences for Britain too. Warwick HRI is one of Britain’s top research centres and this move diminishes the UK’s research capability.

The move also has global consequences, specifically with how it is going to cope with the extremely rapid population increase. The HRI facility researches how to improve food security around the world. A report written by the Royal Society stated: “Food security is one of this century’s key global challenges… Universities should work with funding bodies to reverse the decline in subjects relevant to a sustainable intensification of food crop production.”

So the university is not just cutting the size of the two departments in the face of university staff and students. It is cutting them in the face of advice that says we should be spending more on the vital and very current issue of food security, not less.

Warwick is a first-rate institution for making changes secretly and under the radar. But we must make sure we that we hold the university to account and ensure it is also a first-rate institution for its students, staff and research.