The Department of Archaeology at Bristol University, which plays a significant role in fostering public awareness of archaeology with its staff involvement in high profile TV presentations like Time Team, Coast and Bonekickers (see RN 105) are facing losing 4 out of a total of 16 staff posts, essentially a 25% reduction.
The Faculty of Arts has put forward a proposal for reducing staff costs across the Faculty in order to reduce costs mainly because of the recent reduction in University funding. The University required the faculty to make 17 post reductions. Posts were lost using voluntary severance or early retirement packages but there was still a need for the loss of a further 10 posts. Of these 1 each will come from Theology, Hispanic Studies, History of Art, and German, 2 from Drama and 4 from Archaeology and Anthropology. It is clear that this small department has been heavily targeted despite being one of the most profitable in the faculty.
The level of cuts proposed will make the department financially unsustainable, putting it and its student’s future in jeopardy. Bristol University is of course not alone in losing posts, this is happening across the board; Bristol is just being more public about it than others.
A strong campaign, including a staged mini ‘excavation’ has been mounted by students; for more details please see http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=119900524700438&v=wall