I’m fed up with talking about the weather, but I can console myself with the fact we have grabbed every opportunity so far and progress is not too bad.Aberystwyth University to cut jobs at IBERS
THE Farmers Union of Wales is calling on the Westminster and Assembly Governments to provide urgent funding for Aberystwyth University’s Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in a bid to prevent the loss of up to 70 jobs.
The call comes following the announcement today (Friday, February 5) of proposals to restructure IBERS, which is expected to face a £2.4 million funding deficit by the end of the 2011/12 financial year.
The institute said it would need to lose up to 70 existing full time equivalent posts including technical, support, teaching, and research staff.
The proposals will be presented to the university council next Friday (February 12), while a 30-day consultation period with staff and unions gets under way today.
It is hoped the majority of job losses within IBERS will be achieved by redeployment within the university, voluntary redundancy and voluntary early retirement - but compulsory redundancies are not being ruled out.
Following the announcement, FUW president Gareth Vaughn said: “We believe there is a strong argument for both the Assembly and central governments to step in and provide funds to meet the expected deficit that has led to the imminent loss of these well-paid jobs.
“Over the years spending on scientific research has been scaled down and now is the time we should be seeing an increase in funding for the type of work being carried out at IBERS, given the importance of agriculture in terms of climate change and feeding the world.
“The work being undertaken at IBERS is within a fundamentally important research area that will affect all our lives in the near future.”
Despite the expected redundancies, IBERS director, Professor Wayne Powell said it would still be pressing ahead with a multimillion pound capital development programme that will provide state of the art teaching and research facilities at both the Penglais and Gogerddan campuses and creating 13 new strategically important posts.
He said: “With these developments IBERS is positioning itself to be at the forefront of cutting edge scientific research
“This will enable IBERS to take full advantage of exciting developments in science, and align our activities to current global challenges, while continuing to meet the needs of public and private sector partners and research funders.”
Share
Readers' comments (1)
Anonymous | 10 February 2010 1:38 pm
This is pretty disgusting news, the poor IBERS staff were told no redundancies would take place when the merger (or more like takeover) took place. Haven't IBERS received lots of funding to secure them. The University should be made to answer some difficult questions about where these funds went.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment