'It's all very worrying' - Lecturer's union outlines concerns about University of Wolverhampton shake-up
One of the University of Wolverhampton's main teaching unions has voiced concerns about plans to close its Telford site, close a sports centre, and demolish its School of Art.
Catherine Lamond, chairman of the University and College Union's University of Wolverhampton branch, said members were concerned about what would happen when the closures took place.
Ms Lamond said staff felt they were in the dark about how they would be affected by the changes, with little information being made available.
While no compulsory redundancies were being made, she said many staff at Telford would be unable to relocate to Wolverhampton or Walsall.
She said the sports centre at the main Wolverhampton campus, which is to be converted into a new medical school, would be sorely missed by both students and staff members.
"The changes were put forward as positive changes, but they don't seem positive from our point of view," she said.
Ms Lamond said there had been little explanation as to how the university would ensure that students with disabilities would be protected during these major changes.
"It's all very worrying, the students are asking us questions, and we don't know the answers," she said.
"We want to support them, but members of staff are also asking questions and we don't know the answers to them."
She also questioned the decision to move some staff into vacant space at Wolverhampton Civic Centre.
"On the one hand they are knocking down buildings and closing campuses, and then they are moving staff into rented space, which looks to be all about spending money," she added.
Vice-chancellor Prof Ebrahim Adia announced the plans last week, saying that the university was looking to reduce the size of its estate, which at the moment was 30 per cent too large.
The university would be opening its medical school next September, he said, and hoped to bring in an extra 5,000 students from overseas.
At the moment, the university runs engineering and nursing courses at the the Telford Innovation Campus, in Priorslee. Prof Adia said the main campus would be better suited to hosting the engineering courses.
He said in the longer term the university planned to create an open space, and possibly new buildings, on the site of the School of Art.
He also hoped that Ring Road St Peters could be sunk beneath a tunnel, allowing the northern and southern sides of the campus together, which at the moment are linked by a subway beneath the ring road.
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