Concerns remain over life sciences layoffs

Anger continues this year over layoffs that resulted from the creation of a new School of Life Sciences.

Last year, a merger of Biological Sciences with the Horticultural Research Institute (HRI) took place, creating the new School. In the process, nearly half the staff from the two departments were made redundant. This has had an effect on teaching and organisation within the biological sciences department.

A drastic reduction in the number of principal investigators took place, with each member of staff being forced to reapply for their job. Principal investigators at Warwick HRI had been responsible for researching the pharmaceutical benefits of certain plants as well as supervising the research of PhD students. Both staff and students had been concerned about the possible effect on teaching quality of the merger.

John Lapage, the undergraduate representative for Life Sciences, believes that the biggest impact has been on second-years who have seen a reduction in the number of modules they can take. He blames short-sighted directives from the centre for the ensuing confusion. A series of “unfair changes” in too short a space of time have resulted in lab and practical work suffering. Fewer modules available for second years has lead some to believe that they are not getting the degree they signed up for. Degree regulations have been upset and there is thus less flexibility with degrees. Lapage stated: “We owe a lot to the people who worked so hard to prevent impacts on undergraduates but it would be inappropriate for the central university to claim that they held our interests and welfare as a priority.”

A Systems Biology masters student said: “I find the teaching sufficient to the needs of the course. I’m happy to say my degree has been largely unaffected by the cuts as my department is well-staffed and well-funded. It’s true there are rumours that my degree will be dramatically cut in a few years.”

However, those undergraduates who want to continue at Warwick and take PhDs may find that there are fewer first-class supervisors available to oversee their research. It remains to be seen whether further changes will take place within the School of Life Sciences and how this will affect students. Any such changes will take a few months to be completed.

In response to enquiries as to how Warwick has worked to minimise the effect on student welfare, University Press Officer Peter Dunn said: “In any situation where staff leave there could be challenges involving research students that remain after that staff member has left. However the University is committed to enabling all current students to complete their studies and ensuring they are supervised appropriately. We have arrangements in place to deal with a change in supervisor, which can happen during the course of any PhD.” He commented further that the merger has been a “full success”.