To the Senior Leadership Team,
We, the third-year BA Journalism students, are writing to express our collective outrage, sadness, and deep concern regarding the recently announced redundancies that are set to affect members of the academic staff within our department.
These redundancies are not just numbers on a spreadsheet, they are the dedicated lecturers who have taught us, supported us, and gone above and beyond to help us reach our final year. These are individuals who have given us more than just knowledge; they have offered their time, energy, empathy, and professional expertise, all while navigating growing pressures within the sector. To see them treated with such disregard is nothing short of appalling.
We are shocked that, as tuition-paying students, paying £9,250 per year, we are now facing the very real risk of having the quality of our education compromised. This is not the experience we were promised. This is not the level of investment and support we were told to expect from a university that claims to put students first.
We are particularly dismayed that these cuts come at such a critical time in our education. This is our final year. Several of the lecturers facing redundancy are currently teaching the modules that are vital to the completion of our degrees. There has been no clarity on how their absence will be managed or what provisions are being made to ensure our education does not suffer, but from our perspective, it already is.
Moreover, the looming threat of strike action only compounds our anxiety. We fully support our lecturers in their right to protest these decisions, but we are also left to ask, what happens to us? How will our final projects, assessments, and overall university experience be affected? Who will teach us, mentor us, and provide the continuity we need at this critical stage?
We feel let down. We feel angry. And we feel unheard.
The University of Derby cannot continue to market itself as a student-focused institution while making decisions that so clearly disregard both its staff and students. These redundancies are not only an attack on the livelihoods of people who have shaped our academic journeys, they are an attack on the integrity of our degrees.
We urge the university leadership to rethink this course of action, engage transparently with students and staff, and begin treating its academic community with the respect and value it deserves.
Sincerely,
The 3rd Year BA (Hons) Journalism Cohort
University of Derby