Since its inception, the Department of Politics, People and Place (PPP) at DMU has been a unique hub of scholarly research and teaching dedicated to widening access to higher education, to the public role of the university, and developing critical pedagogies. It has brought critically-minded, highly talented, passionate and engaged researchers and lecturers to Leicester, leading on research and pedagogy on a variety of issues of critical importance, from urban local and regional governance, international relations, political economy, American and comparative politics and critical cultural studies. Its Centre for Urban Research on Austerity (CURA) and Local Governance Research Centre (LGRC) have contributed immensely to DMU’s research excellence, leading international projects and networks at the forefront of urbanism, local and regional studies, decolonising pedagogy and research and shaping public discourse and policies on local government as well as (anti-) austerity in Leicester, across the UK and beyond for many years. Both have become international reference points in their areas, making invaluable contributions to DMU’s status as an ambitiously research active university. Thanks to the expertise and reputation of its members, the department also has a prominent profile in the media, with its expertise being drawn on in local, national and international media to inform the public.

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The integrity of this unique institution is imperiled by a round of redundancies affecting ten senior departmental members and leaders in their fields. This will severely deplete PPP’s capacity to continue delivering excellence. Such measures are being put in place despite an excellent track record in research and grant-capture, continuous dedication to our students during and after the global pandemic and excellence in teaching, recognised, for example by consecutive Bernard Crick awards from the Political Studies Association. Colleagues are faced with unilateral and hierarchical decision making, supported by an opaque rationale, which:

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1. Over-calculates current levels of staffing, underestimates student recruitment and leaves remaining colleagues at under-capacity, probably requiring new hiring in future;

2. Falsely and offensively claims that research does not inform teaching, when all our research informs our teaching, making invaluable contributions to the student experience, and management itself has recklessly blocked further avenues for development.

3. Falsely and offensively claims that additional research income is not being generated, ignoring over £2 million pounds of income generated since 2015

We have already received acknowledgement of, and apologies for, errors from management on rationales 2 and 3. The management still wants to make redundancies based on inaccurate staff-student ratio measurements. However, the apology renders the letters invalid. They must therefore be withdrawn.

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With many staff having already left our department due to low morale and divestment from research, further redundancies will have dire impact on institutional capacity in research, teaching, and public engagement.

We stand against the proposed redundancies in the strongest possible terms and invite you to stand with us:

Call to Action - What you can do?

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As the period of consultation of the proposed redundancies ends on 17 June 2022, please take action before this deadline.

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As alumni, current students, family, friends and the wider public:

Please sign this petition, and share it as widely as possible.

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Share this statement and call to action on social media and help us spread the word. 

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If you, as our alumni and friends, would like to support us even more, please consider writing a letter of support addressed to our senior management:

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Professor Katie Normington, DMU Vice-Chancellor - katie.normington@dmu.ac.uk

Professor Heather McLaughlin, Dean, Faculty of Business and Law - heather.mclaughlin@dmu.ac.uk

Mr. Simon Bradbury, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Design and Humanities - simon.bradbury@dmu.ac.uk

This statement has been written collectively by the Politics and IR team in the Department of Politics, People and Place.