Cardiff University U-turns on plans to axe music and languages courses

Cardiff University has gone back on its plans to stop offering music and modern languages courses, deciding that it will not close the two departments.

The initial move to scrap the music department as a cost-cutting measure faced protests from Cardiff students and was mentioned in a letter about cuts to music education backed by prominent names including Sir Elton John and Ed Sheeran.

This is not the first time the university has made a U-turn on plans to scrap a course.

In January it was announced that nursing courses would be axed, another move which was later abandoned.

Vice-chancellor Professor Wendy Larner said in her update to staff that the departments will remain open but that music will have revised content and entry targets and modern languages will have smaller cohorts.

Many Cardiff students are unhappy with the conduct of the university, with first-year student Kody telling The Boar that it was ‘typical of them to backpedal in the face of massive scrutiny’

Larner said that the Cardiff University executive board had accepted plans to keep the revised versions of the courses and move them to the new School of Global Humanities.

She further stated that this new school will “develop a new suite of degree programs” which will be “committed to advancing the Public Humanities agenda”.

The vice-chancellor did, however, say that if final approval from the university council is received, then Cardiff’s Ancient History and Religion and Theology courses will still be closing as planned.

Many Cardiff students are unhappy with the conduct of the university, with first-year student Kody telling The Boar that it was “typical of them to backpedal in the face of massive scrutiny” when the initial cutting decisions had been made without enough consultation of the student body.

The university is now “paying the price”, Kody said.

The university has made a deal with the University and College Union (UCU) to stop any industrial action this summer in exchange for there being no compulsory redundancies in 2025

Cardiff has also not commented on whether its figures for job cuts would have changed with the new development.

The plans in January were to cut 400 full-time jobs at the university, but this was reduced to 138 in May after the voluntary departures of dozens of staff.

The university has made a deal with the University and College Union (UCU) to stop any industrial action this summer in exchange for there being no compulsory redundancies in 2025.

Cuts have been made largely due to the £30 million deficit in its budget that the university claimed to have in October.

The university council will sign off on final savings plans on 17 June.