Two Nobel prizewinners are among a list of 3,000 signatories who have signed an open letter opposing cuts to the School of Mathematics at Cardiff University.
Giorgio Parisi, professor of quantum theories at the Sapienza University of Rome, who won the prize in physics in 2021, and John Hopfield, an emeritus professor at Princeton University, who received the honour last year, have both backed a call to rethink the plans that would see the school merged with computer science.
Cardiff, which currently has 49 full time equivalent maths academics, is aiming to reduce this by between 10 and 15 as part of its proposals, which cut 400 academic jobs across the university as a whole. Total student numbers would decrease from 769 to 686.
The open letter, coordinated by the Campaign for Mathematical Sciences, warns the move “looks like the beginning of the end of pure and applied mathematics research and teaching at Cardiff”.
It has also been signed by 17 Fields medallists, the mathematical equivalent of the Nobel prize, including University of Oxford professor James Maynard and Sir Timothy Gowers, professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
Cardiff’s vice-chancellor, Wendy Larner, has defended the wider cuts, insisting the university cannot carry on as it is in the face of sectorwide financial problems caused by declining fee income and rising costs.
But she has faced widespread criticism and coordinated campaigns to resist the changes, with much of the focus until now on the nursing, modern languages and music departments.
If approved, the university plans to merge the School of Mathematics and the School of Computer Science to create a new School of Data Science, Mathematics and Computing which would have three departments: data science and AI, computer science, and mathematics.
The open letter warns this will “cause long-lasting damage” to Cardiff University and its maths research output and the scale of the proposed staff reductions is “so significant that it endangers the sustainability of its undergraduate programmes in the subject”.
It highlights that degree courses in mathematics at Cardiff have met their intake targets and the school “returns a significant budget surplus” to the university.
The number of maths programmes offered by Welsh universities has “dropped significantly” in recent years, the letter adds, and it warns the move could harm the pipeline into STEM subjects and exacerbate a shortage of maths teachers in Welsh schools.
Cardiff further risks damaging its global standing and reputation which will impact its ability to attract top researchers, the letter warns.
Jens Marklof, president of the London Mathematical Society and chair of the Campaign for Mathematical Sciences, said the School of Mathematics was one of the “crown jewels” of the university and threatening it was “bizarre”, adding that it would do nothing to improve Cardiff’s finances or global reputation.
A Cardiff spokesperson stressed a 90-day consultation was still under way and the final plans will be shaped by the responses received.
“In the short term, there will be no immediate impact on current maths students nor their ability to complete their studies. We will also accept students onto the maths programmes in 2025,” they said.
