Oxford Brookes students organise protest over closures

The student-led picket will take place outside the university’s John Henry Brookes building at 1pm on Wednesday, November 29.

Organiser Wojciech Yuri Lewinski, a fourth-year Japanese studies student, said: “We find the announced staff layoffs absolutely appalling.

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“Not only will it result in the university providing a much worse experience for the students, it also carries risk of destroying individual lives - jobs in academia are scarce at the moment.

“Our professors haven't just been excellent teachers, they have always gone above and beyond and often significantly changed our lives.

“We won't stand for this injustice. We are here for the professors and the academia, not the upper management.”

The university announced the closures of its music and maths courses along with a reduction of academic staff numbers earlier this month.

The two courses will not take any new applicants in the next academic year and will begin a period of ‘teach out’.

Meaning there will be a staggered exit of staff members before final closure in due course when all students have graduated.

The university is also proposing to reduce salaried academic staff numbers across several programmes including anthropology, English and creative writing, history, film and architecture.

A spokesperson said 48 staff are at risk, with a view to around 20 posts being redundant.

An online petition, which now has 4,385 signatures, was also started by music student Haifa Veen, who came from France to study at the university.

You can sign the petition here: https://www.change.org/p/save-music-at-oxford-brookes-university?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_37747620_en-GB%3A4&recruiter=78165968&recruited_by_id=226f0efb-3b70-4fa3-9057-0483a63e82d4&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&share_bandit_exp=initial-37747620-en-GB

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1