Furious battle of words: Academics and students at Sussex University are opposing cuts to linguistics courses

Sussex University is in the news again. A row has broken out over the university's plans to drastically cut back teaching and research in linguistics. Staff are protesting that the reductions are unnecessary, will damage the institution, and are being rammed through without consulation. But beneath the dispute lies a deeper question: how and in what circumstances should universities adjust to rapid changes and increasing competition in higher education?

The question is growing sharper as other universities review and axe courses. The University and College Union (UCU) ticks off a list of programmes in their death throes. Liverpool is closing philosophy, politics and communications, and statistics. Westminster is ending ceramics and Reading said recently that it would wind up its school of health and social care. Gloucestershire and Cumbria are cutting staff, and the prospects for London Metropolitan are hardly rosy.

Superficially, the Sussex row is reminiscent of the very public dispute in 2006 over whether to cut chemistry teaching and research. That ended with the university retreating and chemistry remaining. But the fracas over linguistics is different in two important respects: it affects only a small number of people, and linguistics does not begin to approach the eminence of chemistry in its glory days at Sussex.

Linguistics is part of the Linguistics and English Language programme in the Department of English. The department will be the core of the new School of English, which is due to start formally in August and is itself part of the reorganisation of the university from seven schools to 12. Under the plans, no new undergraduates will be admitted to study linguistics from the beginning of the next academic year.

The university accepted 20 to 30 students annually to study linguistics and will have about 55 students continuing on years two and three when the new academic year starts. There are four members of the teaching faculty and three tutorial fellows in linguistics. By contrast, the present Department of English has 1,000 students and 45 staff. The plan is that one tutorial post in linguistics will not be renewed from the next academic year. The other staff will have a stay of execution until the end of the 2010-11 academic year. The university says the position will be reviewed before then in the light of the need for teaching and research in English Language.

Sussex argues that linguistics at the university is simply not strong enough to justify keeping the subject when finances are tight and could divert investment from other parts of the Department of English. Of the 25 universities in the country offering linguistics, Sussex ranked a lowly 23rd equal in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. Sussex also admits that its results in the most recent National Student Survey for linguistics were "disappointing". According to Paul Cecil, president of the Sussex branch of the UCU, linguistics will linger on as part of the foundation for English language and for post-graduates. But that has not stopped the union and the National Union of Students from making as big a fuss as they can. Indeed, the NUS managed to wheel out Noam Chomsky, regarded by some as the father of modern linguistics and known by many a leading radical public intellectual, to condemn the university's proposals. Harvard's Steven Pinker, the internationally renowned expert in language and cognition, has also weighed in. The UCU fears that more posts will be lost than Sussex University has admitted, and that teaching loads in English Language could increase by as much as 30 per cent. It questions whether Sussex is clear about what it is doing and argues that linguistics has been more successful than Professor Michael Farthing, the vice-chancellor, and his senior management team suggest. The union is also concerned that the university will try to restrict research in linguistics.

As important for the union, however, is the process. "Our view is that the university did not follow the prescribed process for changing the curriculum," says Cecil. "This is important for how Sussex moves forward. It places colleagues at risk and jeopardises the university's reputation." Sussex denies any breach of process, pointing out that linguistics is a programme and not a department, and therefore the approval of the full governing body is not needed for change.

Given Sussex's unhappy recent history, it is easy to see how a perception of strong-arm tactics may have arisen. Nevertheless, the story may yet end on a more conciliatory note. Cecil says that where jobs and research are concerned "we are engaged in what I hope will be very constructive discussions". As the pressures intensify in the academic marketplace, perhaps the most important lesson is that persuasion and consultation, tedious though they may seem, pay handsome dividends among academics, who notoriously make herding cats a pleasurable diversion.

Sussex University – a story of protest

History

The first in a wave of new universities created in the 1960s, Sussex gained a reputation as a fashionable, arty place. With its interdisciplinary approach and a staunchly international outlook, it attracted trendy students, including the mini-skirted Jay twins, daughters of Douglas Jay, then a minister in the Labour government. The university lost its sheen in the 1970s and 80s, and was rebranded in 2004 to emphasise its strength in the sciences.

Vital statistics

The university was ranked 29th in The Independent's 2009 Complete University Guide, a position that Professor Michael Farthing, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sussex, is hoping to improve. It has become increasingly difficult to get into in recent years, and experienced a 50 per cent increase in the numbers of applicants for each place between 2003 and 2007.

Glittering alumni

Thabo Mbeki, above, the former South African president; Ian McEwan, writer; Alexandra Shulman, editor of Vogue; Gail Rebuck, chief executive, Random House; the journalist Peter Wilby; Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary; Peter Hain, the Labour MP for Neath.

Ambience

Located in 200 acres of rolling green land at Falmer, four miles outside Brighton, it has an attractive, laid-back campus and has retained its 1960s reputation for protest – both by students and academics. In 2006, plans to shut down the chemistry department caused uproar and had to be abandoned after intervention by a House of Commons select committee. The same year, three Sussex students produced a film condemning financial mismanagement and poor governance at the university, prompting the biggest student protest of its kind on any British campus. In 2008, students and staff unfurled their banners once more to oppose plans to set up a business school on campus. Despite this, building of the business school is going ahead. Beth Mellor