Thousands back call to save Sheffield East Asian studies degrees

Students are fighting to preserve language degrees in one of the UK’s largest East Asian studies departments, after university cuts put them at risk.

In November, the University of Sheffield announced a formal review of language provision in the School of East Asian Studies, with the intention of moving some activity to its Modern Languages Teaching Centre. The move has prompted a petition urging the university to enter into “meaningful consultation” with staff and students about the future of the department.

The plans include eliminating specialist undergraduate degrees in Japanese, Chinese and Korean, instead folding them into a combined East Asian studies programme, the petition says.

The move would result in “significant” reductions in academic staff, petition organisers write, which they claim the university is “seeking to achieve initially through targeted ‘voluntary’ severance, to be followed by a restructure and compulsory redundancies if sufficient cost savings have not been achieved”.

It adds that there will additionally be a centralisation of professional services staff as part of the plans. 

The petition has since received over 2,000 signatures, with the petition organisers writing that the university has made “a fundamental mistake” in failing to consult with staff and students on the changes, and that it “should go back to the drawing board”. 

A spokesperson for the Sheffield Needs East Asian Studies campaign group said: “The proposed dramatic reductions in research and teaching about East Asia are a shortsighted response that fails to recognise the important strengths and global reputation of Sheffield in this area, particularly in China, Japan and Korea.

“After six decades at the forefront of the study of this vitally important region and at a time of increasing global uncertainty, the university, and the UK more widely, should be expanding our expertise, not retreating from the world.”

The campaign is being backed by the local branch of the University and College Union. A branch spokesperson said: “As the University of Sheffield continues to record annual budget surpluses, university management has failed to make the case that job cuts in any area of the university are necessary, not least in areas of global success such as East Asian studies.

“Staff are the backbone of success at the university, and the future success of the university depends on retaining their expertise. We continue to advocate that university management explore all options for savings in non-staff costs, before proposing drastic cuts to vitally important research and teaching that are already causing significant damage to the university’s reputation.”

In November, in a vote of almost 1,000 Sheffield staff, 93.3 per cent said that they had “no confidence” in its vice-chancellor, Koen Lamberts, and its executive board, after the university reported a £50 million shortfall in funding, which the university attributed to a sharp decline in international student recruitment. 

The courses join a growing number of specialist programmes which have come under threat throughout the sector’s financial crisis. The University of Chichester previously announced that it had scrapped its ground-breaking African history master’s, while Goldsmiths, University of London, announced last summer that it would be ending the UK’s only queer history course. 

The University of Sheffield has been approached for comment. 

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com