Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine staff protest as jobs cuts announced

Staff at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine have protested job cuts after 32 jobs were announced to be under threat.

According to the BBC, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) revealed previously in October that it was considering job cuts in an attempt to reduce costs and support its long-term future sustainably. 

The University and College Union (UCU) also published in October that the post-graduate research school was seeking savings of approximately £8 million this financial year.

Since then, it has been announced that 32 positions were under threat as a result of these cuts, and “significant redundancies” were being considered despite a voluntary redundancy process already taken place. 

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Only down the road from the University of Liverpool campus, LSTM was founded in 1898, and was the first institution globally dedicated to research and teaching in tropical medicine. Over 125 years later, the Univeristy carries out necessary research into public health and wellbeing, and has gained a respectable reputation for research, education and partnership.

Union member Mark Lutton, head of research strategy and development at the institution, told the BBC that he had already asked questions on the “pressures” facing the research institution 18 months ago, and had received an answer that the school “was not” facing the same pressures as elsewhere, resulting in the staff being confused by this response.

According to UCU, the staff have also not received any detailed explanation of the plans, aside from a communication in July announcing the proposed savings. 

A spokesperson for LTSM said it was facing “very difficult decisions which we are not taking lightly” in relation to these job cuts, and that they “know they will impact on our staff and wider community”. 

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