Course cuts at Cambridge Regional College risk college's reputation

The college recently announced it will close some of it's A' level programme in modern foreign languages including A2 (second year A' level) courses in French and German due to run in September. College managers say this is because of reduced demand, but UCU, which represents many lecturers at the college, says teaching staff have seen no evidence of efforts to assess the likely impact of course termination, or any attempt to address this by better marketing of courses.

UCU members were informed only recently that courses scheduled for September would not run. CRC students hoping to progress from AS level to A'  level in these subjects have been left baffled about what to do. UCU says staff morale is low as lecturers are increasingly anxious about their students and about possible job losses. It is not, says the union, the first time courses have been dropped at short notice and staff fear that the reputation of the college could be badly damaged by the failure of its management to honour commitments to students.

UCU says CRC management is also failing to fulfil its legal duties to consult staff adequately about job losses. The college has so far refused to discuss any arrangement for voluntary redundancies, although staff believe that as many as five jobs may be lost.

Another staff union, ATL (The Association of Teachers and Lecturers) is also unhappy about the conduct of college managers. UCU and ATL are jointly responding to the situation and have challenged the college's claims to be consulting properly and are demanding to see legally required impact assessments.

UCU regional official for East Anglia, Elizabeth Martins, said: 'Once again, students and staff at Cambridge Regional College have been made vulnerable by a lack of management openness. Staff are fearful that the college is letting down the local community and risking the college's reputation and future by conducting itself in this way. It is also very short sighted: only a week ago a report to the government outlined the need to expand language teaching in schools and colleges, not run them down. Most importantly, students signed up for courses in good faith, expecting to be able to progress to A' levels, only to be left in limbo. This could surely damage future recruitment.

'Staff are also entitled to proper consultation before, not after, decisions are made to cut courses and jobs. This looks like an attempted fait accompli and college governors should be investigating what is happening.'