In light of the recently released Strategy to Recovery (StR) plan, it has been confirmed that Philosophy and Languages courses may be cut.
Philosophy at Dundee is ranked 2nd in Scotland.
Languages at Dundee no longer operates as a stand-alone course, but is offered as part of a joint programme.
This means that students coming to study one of these courses in September will be the last intake, and the course will be carried out until completion in 2030, then it will be cut.
These plans will go ahead if an alternative cannot be found within a 45-day consultation period that began on Tuesday.
Staff in these departments have essentially been given a 4-year redundancy notice.
In the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, with the proposed closure of Languages and Philosophy, further cuts remain.
21 FTE posts will go, research time will be cut, PhD supervisions are to be reduced, and courses will be redesigned with smaller modules being reduced.
Much of the scale of the cuts are yet to be uncovered.
The closure of the Botanical Gardens and University Nursery has also been proposed.
Unverified reports suggest potential reductions across other key university services; including the careers office, maths, and other major departments.
In the announcement shared today, the Philosophy department stressed that they will “resist these plans with the greatest strength we can muster.”
“It is essential that the case in support of Philosophy, as a valuable part of the curriculum at Dundee, is made as powerfully as possible before the consultation closes” they continued.
School President of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, Aaquil Hussian reacted to the news by saying:
“The proposed cuts at the University of Dundee, particularly the closure of the Philosophy programme, represent one of the most alarming threats to the institution’s academic future in recent memory.
“These cuts are not simply a matter of budgets and balance sheets. They are a question of what kind of university [UoD] wishes to be.”
The School President also notes of the incredible work that the university staff do to go above and beyond for the students at the University of Dundee, even in these pressing times.
He said that to “reward this with cuts is an affront to [the universities] values.”
The worst of the fallout is yet to come. The extent of the cuts are yet to be fully evaluated by individual programmes among their larger faculties.
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