More than 50 Coventry University staff are at risk of redundancy

Two university research centres which were commissioned in 2017 will be closed down. The University and College Union (UCU) has denounced this action as “disgraceful”.

UCU has stated that 53 staff could lose their jobs as a result of the actions taken by the University. This was revealed in a post on their Facebook page in which they announced: “We have just found out that Coventry University are planning to close two research centres at the university placing 53 staff at risk of redundancy because they are not meeting REF targets.”

A UCU representative told CoventryLive that the union is seeking an urgent meeting with the University.

A spokesperson for Coventry University stated: “Our Faculty of Health and Life Sciences is reviewing its research activities to focus on the demands and opportunities associated with a changing healthcare and funding landscape, as such it is reshaping its resources to ensure that its research is delivering the highest quality outputs.”

According to the CompleteUniversityGuide, Coventry sits at 47th place in the UK in terms of Research Intensity (a measure of the proportion of staff involved in high-quality research in the university) with a rating of 0.13 out of 1.00. Whereas Coventry University’s neighbour, the University of Warwick sits at 9th place, with a rating of 0.83 out of 1.00.