Cuts “will cripple the arts and humanities at Roehampton” say staff and students

The University of Roehampton has announced plans to cut £3.2m from the budgets of the schools of Arts and Humanities. Significant redundancies are expected in Drama, Theatre and Performance, and Dance.

An international coalition of dance, performance and theatre associations has condemned what the University is calling a ‘rebalancing’ exercise, describing the plans as “ideological in nature, pandering to the current government’s short-sighted bias against the arts and humanities and instrumentalisation of higher education”.

Roehampton attracts around 60% of its performing arts students from Black or other minority ethnic background and the group, is calling on the University to preserve and support its work in these areas amid concerns that the proposed cuts will “further exacerbate the exclusion of traditionally under-represented individuals in the arts and creative industries.”

A Change.org petition has been set up on behalf of students, staff, alumni and members of the wider community, asking Vice-Chancellor Jean-Noël Ezingeard to “work with us to find another way forward.”