Four out of five making staff cuts as physicists say findings are ‘great concern’ for UK’s leadership in important areas
The heads of UK physics departments say their subject is facing a national crisis as one in four warns that their university departments are in danger of closing because of funding pressures.
In an anonymous survey of department heads by the Institute of Physics (IoP), 26% said they faced potential closure of their department within the next two years, while 60% said they expected courses to be reduced.
Four out of five departments said they were making staff cuts, and many were considering mergers or consolidation in what senior physicists described as a severe threat to the UK’s future success.
A head of physics at one university said: “Our university has a £30m deficit. Staff recruitment is frozen, morale is low. Yet colleagues in our school continue to deliver with less and less and under increasing pressure. I’m very concerned that we are close to breaking point.”
