Lancaster to lose jobs

More jobs are to go at Lancaster University. Administrators have asked accountants Coopers & Lybrand to help draw up a three-and-a-half year recovery plan in the face of Pounds 5.8 million liabilities projected for the end of the year.

The plan is likely to include more job losses on top of 250 which have already gone through voluntary redundancy or early retirement. A freeze on replacing staff who leave, cutting down on sabbatical replacements and axing entire departments or sections of departments are also being considered.

The department of continuing education and the archaeological unit will withdraw from the 100-year-old Storey Institute next year to the university campus.

And a Pounds 9 million residential area for graduate students will be sold almost as soon as it is completed and then leased back.

The university is trying to raise money by concentrating on foreign recruitment. Offers to overseas postgraduate students are up 78 per cent this year.