500 jobs at risk as Open University plans to close regional centres

Thousands of current and potential students could be affected by the move, which would see the removal of vital services, such as careers counselling, study advice and support for disabled students.

The seven affected centres, with 494 staff are:

• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Gateshead
• Leeds
• London
• Oxford

The plans would leave only the main Open University site in Milton Keynes along with regional centres in Manchester and Nottingham and national ones in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast. The Open University has said it is considering options such as voluntary redundancy programmes and relocation schemes. However, the union said the current plans will only add to the chaos.

The shortest journey for any of the affected staff to their next nearest centre is from Oxford to Milton Keynes at 40 miles. Staff in Gateshead would have to endure an unfeasible five-hour round trip of 250 miles to their nearest centre in Edinburgh.

UCU said to lose such huge amounts of expertise would be a devastating blow and questioned why so many centres were being hit at the same time. The Open University has no specific entry qualifications for students and the union said it is crucial that students are guided to the right level of study in order to succeed.

Staff in the local offices also evaluate and support students with disabilities, provide course materials, assign tutorial groups, run examination arrangements and manage the hugely popular degree ceremonies.

The union said its members were proud of the Open University's reputation for supporting students with disabilities and from backgrounds with little or no history of university in their family. It added that the regional centres were absolutely vital in providing personal support.

There will be a meeting of UCU members tomorrow to discuss the next steps, but the union warned that industrial action could not be ruled out.

Open University UCU branch president, Pauline Collins, said: 'The Open University is respected the world over for the way it brings quality higher education to a wide range of people. At the core of that mission are its dedicated regional staff who provide essential support to thousands of students and their tutors.

'Axing almost 500 staff across seven centres would be catastrophic and decimate the Open University's ability to provide the kind of local support that students need. We are unconvinced by the university's talk of staff relocating, especially as this will mean hours spent in the car or on the train just trying to get to and from work.