An academic in London familiar with developments at King's College, London writes with some important information, confirming worries voiced in earlier items about what is really going on at KCL:
The KCL administration is in the process of acquiring the Centre of Contemporary British History, which is currently based at Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study in the University of London. This involves hiring the 6 academics in the centre: two professors and four junior positions. Where SAS is directly funded by HEFCE (Higher Education Funding Council in the UK), in moving to KCL, these academics will have to be funded through KCL's own funds.
Although historians, they are to be hired 'cross school' with Public Policy. Allegedly there is a business plan fully to fund these positions. No explanation has been given how a centre which the IHR is divesting itself of can be self-funding, while the rest of Humanities (which of course contains the History dept proper) at KCL needs to be cut by 10%. Note also that positions are planned in German, and that two positions have been advertised in Theology.
To this date, KCL administration have issued no official statement rebutting the charges against them about the manner in which the redundancy plans are being carried through.
This makes clear that while the UK government cuts form a background to the current crisis at KCL, what is going on here is very much a matter of the administration attempting to redirect academic activity in the university from the top down and through bullying and intimidating tactics.
There is a crisis in UK Higher Education given the stringent level of cuts to be imposed by the current Government. But the KCL case is different. It presents us with an even greater threat to academic norms and academic freedom. It is important to recognize that KCL administration is being creative in the way in which universities are to be managed. If it succeeds in this, such practice may spread elsewhere in the UK. But this is not yet the norm.
So far KCL administration has sought to avoid responding to any of the public complaints about the lack of due process involved in implementing this plan. The principal and other senior administrators seem unconcerned that philosophers and linguists, and indeed medieval historians and classicists, are shocked at these actions. I encourage people now to contact senior figures in other areas of the humanities at institutions other than KCL, inform them of the details of what has gone on and urge them to add their voices to the protest.
