Open Letter to University of Nottingham in Response to its Plans for Redundancies in the School of Physics and Astronomy

We, the undersigned, call on the University of Nottingham to reverse its plans to impose compulsory redundancies on its staff in the School of Physics and Astronomy.

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Petition statement

We, the undersigned, call on the University of Nottingham to reverse its plans to impose compulsory redundancies on its staff in the School of Physics and Astronomy.

The University threatens to cut twenty members of staff out of the seventy one currently in the School. On 12 May, fifty six of those members of staff received letters notifying them that they were at risk of redundancy. This affects academic and technical staff at all levels, from Research Fellows to Professors.

These proposals will cause long-lasting damage to the University of Nottingham. In particular:

  • The threat of compulsory redundancies at this globally respected physics department has sent shock waves across the international community, causing lasting damage to the reputation of the University of Nottingham and risking a drop in its global league table positions.
  • The proposed reduction in staff is so significant that it endangers the sustainability of the undergraduate Physics degree programmes, falling short of what is needed to teach the current programme by the equivalent of eleven full-time members of staff.
  • An increase in the student-to-staff ratio of this magnitude will drive a catastrophic fall in University league table rankings, leading to significantly fewer students applying due to the decline in its reputation, resulting in the loss of student income.
  • The University will lose its top researchers and struggle to attract the brightest talent in the future.
  • Physics underpins current and future economic developments; from AI, through quantum technologies to new medical imaging techniques. Asking fundamental questions about the nature of our Universe trains students and researchers in the skills that will be needed to capitalise on the next generation of disruptive technologies. Cutting the University’s strength in these areas is a short-sighted move that will deprive Nottingham students and the East Midlands region of the capability to take advantage of these opportunities for growth.

The University of Nottingham branch of the University and College Union has proposed alternative measures to ensure the financial health of the University while avoiding the need for compulsory redundancies. We urge the University’s senior leadership team to work with them and create a more sustainable vision for Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham.

Signatories

signatories shown
Name Institution Comment
Prof. Catherine Heymans (Astronomer Royal for Scotland) University of Edinburgh Nottingham’s Physics and Astronomy department is first-rate; cutting its size by almost third is unthinkable and will be disastrous for undergraduates. Such a move signals a lack of confidence in a critical research area, deterring future applicants and weakening the UK pipeline of physicists, teachers, and innovators in data science and AI. In a time of rising living costs, we need strong, geographically distributed physics departments so students can study close to home and our economy can thrive. The university should exhaust every option to make the department sustainable before resorting to compulsory redundancies; shrinking it now is shortsighted.
Prof John Ellis FRS King's College London Unprintable
Prof. John Peacock FRS University of Edinburgh These proposed cuts are all too reminiscent of similar situations elsewhere. They are the result of poor management decisions on capital spending. What is needed is for expenditure on vanity projects to be controlled, and then Universities like Nottingham could concentrate on funding their actual purpose: employing world-class staff for teaching and research.
Prof. Cathie Clarke FRS Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge Tragic to see the axe falling on a highly performing department doing fundamental science: hard to fathom how the decision can be justified in terms of the University's long term commitment to educational excellence.
Prof Sean Carroll Johns Hopkins University
Prof Juan García-Bellido Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Prof John Donoghue University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Prof. Liam McAllister Cornell University
Prof Justin Khoury University of Pennsylvania
Prof Glenn Starkman Case Western Reserve University The Department of Physics at Nottingham has a longstanding reputation of excellence that is a point of international distinction that it will be abandoning . The university should of course consider the unjust impact on people who have made the customary bargain with the university of trading long term job security for lower compensation than they would likely have secured in the non-academic sector. Many of them will be of an age where identifying new job opportunities will be challenging. But the university should also consider the impact on its own reputation for breaking its commitment — which promising scholar will choose to place their trust in the institution in the future?
Prof Arttu Rajantie Imperial College London Nottingham is a leading UK centre for Physics and Astronomy. These proposed redundancies are deeply short‑sighted and would have lasting negative consequences not only for the University of Nottingham, but for the UK’s scientific strength as a whole.
Prof Malcolm Fairbairn Head of Theoretical Particle Physics and Cosmology, King's College London I find it completely astonishing that Nottingham is considering this. This group contains many world leading cosmologists and particle astrophysicists. Academia does not offer salaries that compete with the private sector, the trade off is supposed to be job security. Moves like this damage the ecosystem of academia across the entire country.
Prof. Anthony Challinor University of Cambridge
Prof. Cliff Burgess McMaster University & Perimeter Institute
Prof. Stephen Serjeant The Open University Academics working in data-intensive areas such as astrophysics are the future of the university sector and feed the UK's data intensive / machine learning skills pipelines. Cutting academic staff posts damages the long term health of the university, and it is unconscionable that this is driven in turn by past spending on vanity capital projects.
Prof. Richard Ball FRSE FInstP University of Edinburgh This makes no sense.
Prof. Pauline Barmby University of Western Ontario Training in physics and astronomy is the first step in a broad range of technical and non-technical careers. These subjects fire the imagination, draw youth to science, and enable world-changing research.
Prof. Marco Raveri University of Genova Academics working in data-intensive areas such as astrophysics are the future of the university sector and feed the UK's data intensive / machine learning skills pipelines. Cutting academic staff posts damages the long term health of the university, and it is unconscionable that this is driven in turn by past spending on vanity capital projects.
Prof. Jessica Muir University of Cincinnati
Prof. Christopher Reynolds University of Maryland College Park Nottingham has built a superb Physics and Astronomy Department with world-class faculty. This is precious and took time to build - but it is all too easily lost. I urge University leaders to not enter into a round of self-destructive cuts. Keep the seeds of future growth intact!
Dr. Peter Millington University of Manchester In addition to training high-calibre physicists who have and continue to contribute to a huge range of sectors, the University of Nottingham’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and its researchers remain at the very forefront of modern science. This is the department that gave us the MRI scanner. And the department that gave us the internationally well-known Sixty Symbols videos, which continue to attract young people into STEMM subjects. The university leadership's decision to turn its back on this legacy, on its staff and students, and to demolish world-leading departments and research groups is utterly wanton.
Prof Jean Alexandre King's College London
Dr Hannah Wakeling University of Oxford
Dr. Elena Gramellini University of Manchester
Prof Richard Easther U of Auckland
Dr Jim Dobson King’s College London
Dr Seshadri Nadathur University of Portsmouth
Prof Jonathan Pritchard Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
Prof. Philippe Brax Ipht paris saclay Speechless. Thinking of you all
Dr Christopher Berry University of Glasgow Nottingham is well recognised as a leading institution, with positions at the Centre of Gravity highly sought after. Destroying fundamental research capability today eliminates the progress of the future.
Dr Laura Wolz University of Manchester
Dr. Elizabeth Taylor University of Edinburgh
Winky Lee The University of Edinburgh
Prof Luigi Del Debbio University of Edinburgh
Dr. Mireia Montes Institute of Space Sciences, Spain
Dr Michael Tremmel University College Cork
Prof Djuna Croon Durham University
Dr. Arthur Loureiro Oskar Klein Centre, Stockholm University
Dr Brian Patton University of Strathclyde
Prof Roman Zwicky Edinburgh University Disregarding the injustice, this makes no sense and should be stopped at a higher level. Universities are part of a functioning state and should not be put at risk like this.
Prof. Jon Butterworth University College London
Dr Hossam Aly TU Delft
Dr Philipp Schicho University of Geneva
Dr Sophie Renner University of Glasgow
Prof. Jonathan Nichols University of Leicester
Dr Jack Fannon University of Sheffield
Dr Steffen Gielen University of Sheffield
Dr Matej Bajec University of Ljubljana
Prof Eugene Lim King’s College London
Dr. Alexander Vikman CEICO, Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences I hope the annihilation of one of the UK’s best physics departments is not implemented!
Prof Ross Galloway University of Edinburgh This decision must be reconsidered: the proposed staff-student ratio is wholly unrealistic and would inevitably lead to impaired student experience and damage to Nottingham's national and international reputation.
Prof Kari Rummukainen University of Helsinki
Dr. Markus Pössel Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, and Haus der Astronomie These plans are highly concerning. Astronomy is well-known as a "gateway science" motivating students to dive deeper into STEM subjects. In an age where it is ever more important to interpret real-world data realistically (and also to check up on AI results, which always require checking by competent humans) it seems shortsighted to reduce efforts in this field.
Dr Willem Vanderlinden University of Edinburgh
Dr Bob Mann University of Edinburgh
Júlia Silva University of Edinburgh
Dr Anton Ilderton University of Edinburgh
Dr Mike Newton University of Edinburgh
Prof Beth Biller University of Edinburgh
Prof Steven Tobias University of Edinburgh
Dr Mao Zeng University of Edinburgh
James Fawcett University of Edinburgh
Dr Sean McMahon University of Edinburgh
Prof Ken Rice University of Edinburgh
Dr Einan Gardi University of Edinburgh
Prof Matthew Needham University of Edinburgh
Dr Rakhi Mahbubani Rudjer Boskovic Institute
Dr Eric Tittley Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh I want to bring to the attention of the University of Nottingham executive two points they seem to have misunderstood. 1) in the field of Astrophysics, the University of Nottingham is respected the world over. Their research output exceeds expectations for an institute of its class. Its students are valued in their competence and originality. If you want to focus on Strengths, then turn your attention to boosting the department, not hurting it. 2) Astrophysics as a field of study is a hoover for attracting innovated and brilliant minds and naturally converting them into productive employees with the highly-desired skills in data science, computer science, project management, and AI that many critical sectors are seeking; Astronomy and Physics making data science a way of life, not just a way to a job.
Dr. Latham Boyle University of Edinburgh
Dr Trent Dupuy University of Edinburgh
Dr Benjamin Wynne University of Edinburgh Academics can make a university without buildings. Buildings cannot make a university without academics.
Dr. Justin Feng CEICO, FZU - Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Science
Prof Jennifer Smillie University of Edinburgh
Dr Saminathan Ramakrishnan University of Edinburgh No to redundancy.
Prof Tara Shears University of Liverpool
Prof Jeff Forshaw Head of Particle Theory - University of Manchester
Dr Mark R J Williams University of Edinburgh No to redundancy.
Dr Sam Woodford University of Edinburgh
Dr Benjamin Giblin University of Edinburgh
Dr Jorinde van de Vis CERN
Ottavia Truttero University of Edinburgh
Prof. Alkistis Pourtsidou University of Edinburgh
Dr Rene Meyer Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
Dr Joanna Barstow The Open University
Dr Thomas Zlosnik University of Gdańsk The University of Nottingham is a world leader in research in gravitation and cosmology and should be supported. Furthermore, the wider community of theoretical physics has benefited from the enormous outreach success of the University of Nottingham's researchers participation in the 'Sixty Symbols' series of videos, and I feel this should be recognized as something of great value.
Prof Federico Urban CEICO, Prague, Czech Republic
Eleni Tsiakaliari The Open University
Adam Koval Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Alessandra Candian University of Amsterdam
Ippocratis Saltas IOP, Czech Academy of Sciences
Dr Hugh Dickinson The Open University
Dr Lea Ferellec Northumbria University
Prof Christopher Conselice University of Manchester These plans are shortsighted and not at all thought out by management at Nottingham and should be stopped. The damage done by these redundancies will make the physics department a shadow of the strong and world leading school which it is today, negatively affecting world leading research projects and the training and teaching of generations of students.
Dr Louise Dash University College London
Professor Martin Haehnelt University of Cambridge I echo the comments by Professors Fairbairn and Peacock.
Professor Elias Vagenas Kuwait University
Dr Emma Buchanan University of Edinburgh
Despoina Farakou Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Dr Lori-Ann Foley Open University
Dr. Rodrigo Calderon Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences
Prof Donal O'Connell University of Edinburgh
Dr Thejas A Nair IIT Mandi
Dr. Anthonin Delphan Durham University
Prof. Ifan Hughes Durham University I was an External Examiner at Nottingham Physics&Astronomy a decade ago. I was very impressed with both the quality of the degree programme and the concern the staff showed for the education and wellbeing of the students.
Prof Alexander Murphy University of Edinburgh
Prof. Matt Hilton University of the Witwatersrand
Dr Yuri Shtanov Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, Kiev, Ukraine
Dr Fernando Buitrago University of Valladolid (Spain) / Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (Portugal) Ex-Phd student from the University of Nottingham
Dr Mark Hodgkinson University of Sheffield
Dr Kristin Lohwasser University of Sheffield
Dr. Swagat Saurav Mishra Centre for Theoretical Physics of the Universe (CTPU-CGA), Institute for Basic Sciences, Daejeon
Dr Benoit Laurent Perimeter Institute
Dr. Teppei Katori King's College London
Dr. Katherine Inskip The University of Sheffield
Dr. Leonardo Ferreira University of Victoria This threat is mindblowing to me given that the department is among the best in the world. Not only that, but it is also a pioneer in multidisciplinary research, including artificial intelligence, which is one of the new backbones to our society. The cohort of 2022 PhDs for example (when I got my PhD) , has dozens of AI experts now leading in the industry and at the bleeding edge of technology. Really shows the disconnect between the administration and the staff.
Dr Alex Summerfield University of Manchester
Dr Graham Brown University of Edinburgh
Pranavi Hiremath University of Edinburgh
Dr Massimiliano Rinaldi University of Trento
Prof David R Klassen Rowan University Physics and astronomy are foundational; if you don't have the, you don't have engineering.
Dr Oliver Dudgeon University of Edinburgh As a University of Nottingham School of Physics & Astronomy alumnus, it is terrible to see the university taking these actions. The staff at the university are world-class, and this action will only lead to further problems.
Dr Boris Haeussler ESO
Dr Dibya Chakraborty IISER TVM
Dr Mark Mitchison King’s College London I’m shocked to see this being considered at such a nationally recognised and impactful physics department. It’s an incredibly shortsighted move by the university which will seriously damage its reputation and its ability to attract students in the long term.
Anand Hegde National Tsing Hua University This is ridiculous. I can’t even believe that this is even being imagined.
Isaac Holst University of Edinburgh
George Parish Kings College London It’s completely horrifying that Nottingham, the university where I did my undergraduate study is considering cutting such a huge proportion of the department. The academics in the physics department do world leading research and the effective teaching of undergraduates will be impossible under such a significantly reduced headcount.
Prof Marek Schoenherr Durham University It is striking that the UoN Executive Board and Council continue to act against best practices and advice from both within and without the university. They have maneuvered the university into this position and try to fix it by sacrificing their scientific heart, their excellence in teaching, and, most of all, the livelihood of their many talented researchers and teachers. Because without a doubt, even those staff not being sacked will not be able to teach and research with the peace of mind necessary to pursue this calling at the highest standards, and will, before long, look for better opportunities elsewhere. Heartbreaking.
Prof Cristóbal Sifón Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaiso (Chile)
Dario Lorenzoni University of Manitoba
Dr Miguel Montero IFT UAM-CSIC
Dr Gonzalo Villa University of Cambridge
Dr. Björn Hassfeld University of Wisconsin Madison
Gonzalo Fernández Casas Instituto de Física teórica (IFT, Madrid)
Dr Bruno Valeixo Bento IFT UAM-CSIC
Joy Gong University of Cambridge
Alessandro Borys University of Catania
Dr Anna Negro Case Western Reserve University
Dr George Alestas Institute of Theoretical Physics, IFT
Mikel Martin Barandiaran Instituto de Fisica Teorica IFT UAM-CSIC
Prof Aldo Lorenzo Cotrone Florence University, Italy
Dr Georges Obied University of Chicago
Lucas Vicente Garcia-Consuegra King’s College London
Michelangelo Tartaglia IFT Madrid
Dr Rodrigo Alonso Durham University
Dr Guoen Nian Peking University
Prof. Astrid Eichhorn Heidelberg University
Dr Andrius Tamosiunas University of Oslo
Prof Timm Wrase Lehigh University
Dr Priya Goyal KIAS, Seoul
Panagiotis Giannadakis King's College London
Indira Ocampo IFT UAM-CSIC
Dr Mario Reig Lopez CERN
Prof Marco Scalisi University of Catania
Dr Savvas Nesseris Institute for theoretical physics IFT UAM/CSIC
Prof David Wands University of Portsmouth
Dr Flavio Tonioni University of Padua
Dr Jacques Delabrouille CNRS
Dr David Weir University of Helsinki I was an Ernest Rutherford Fellow at Nottingham, and so I recognise first-hand the impact that this will have on the department; I probably even know some of the people whose jobs are under threat. As the petition states, I personally believe that this will have the perverse effect of making Nottingham’s Physics and Astronomy department less sustainable in the long run. It seems to me that similar processes at other universities in the UK have rarely helped to actually make the threatened department more viable. Nearly fifty years ago, the first viable MRI machine was developed at Nottingham. Let’s not risk getting to the point where we only speak of its achievements in physics and astronomy in the past tense.
Dr Salvatore Raucci IFT Madrid
Dr Veronica Collazuol Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Prof. Gustavo Niz University of Guanajuato
Dr Pedro Fernandes Heidelberg University
Dr John Carlton DESY
Dr. Ignacio Ruiz CERN
Cristóbal Zenteno Gatica IFT Madrid
Dr. Andriana Makridou Instituto de Física Teórica UAM-CSIC
Dr. Steven Wrathmall Durham University
Dr Sean McGee University of Birmingham
Dr. Ananda Bauer Yerkes Observatory
Prof. Matthew Jones Durham University This is short-term madness. Nottingham is recognised globally for its excellence in physics. What is lost here will never be recovered, and the risk to Nottingham's reputation as a STEM leader would be catastrophic.
Dr Ramkishor Sharma School of Physics, University of Hyderabad
Professor Marek Szablewski Durham University
Dr Arianna Cortesi UFRJ
Evan Jones University of Edinburgh
Dr Stefano De Angelis Institut de Physique Theorique
Dr Alejo N. Rossia University of Padua
Dr Yara Jaffé Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria Nottingham is a reference in physics and astronomy globally. This is catastrophic
Dr Filippo Revello KU Leuven
Dr Mikel Sanchez Garitaonandia University College Dublin
Prof Peter Coles NUI Maynooth
Prof Ross McLure University of Edinburgh
Dr David J. E. Marsh King's College London
Dr. Øyvind Christiansen Institute of Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences
Prof Judith Croston The Open University
Prof. Mike Hudson University of Waterloo
Dr. Vitor Medeiros Sampaio Universidad técnica Federico Santa María This is outrageous!
Dr Ken Mimasu University of Southampton
Prof Avery Meiksin University of Edinburgh You could hardly dream up a better academic own goal.
Dr. Masahide Yamaguchi Institute for Basic Science
Dr Adam Carnall Edinburgh University
Prof Jon Loveday University of Sussex This is shocking, and no way to treat a highly-respected department.
Professor Kristen Coppin University of Hertfordshire I am privileged to have known and worked with several colleagues in extragalactic astrophysics at Nottingham, including external examination of some excellent PhD candidates there, and it is one of the premier astronomy groups in the UK and this would be an immense loss and incredibly damaging to the UK's world-leading reputation in the field. Has senior management thought about the consequences of these actions to current PhD research students there losing key members of their supervisory teams - meaning they would be unlikely to be able to complete their degrees? PhD projects are highly specialised and supervision is highly unlikely to be something that can simply be handed over to other colleagues.
Dr Aine O'Brien University of Glasgow
Dr Bogdan Ganchev Johns Hopkins University
Prof Stephen Eales Cardiff University
Dr Megan Brown University of Cambridge
Professor Daniel Mortlock Imperial College London
Prof Debora Sijacki Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge
Dr Sally Shaw University of Edinburgh
Dr Sebastian Bahamonde Institute for Basic Science
Dr Timothy Davis Cardiff University
Dr Manuela Magliocchetti INAF
Atabak Fathe Jalali FZU, CEICO
Dr Emilio Pisanty King's College London
Sofia Steinmetz Copenhagen University
Dr Mathew Smith Lancaster University
Jonah Powley University of Cambridge Having recently studied my undergraduate degree in Physics at Nottingham, I can confidently say that the staff who taught me were foundational to my growth and development as a researcher. It was be an immense loss and injustice for the staff who were such excellent teachers to be unfairly punished by being made redundant.
Prof. Michael Merrifield University of Nottingham (retired) Having had the privilege to lead this truly outstanding school, I am appalled by the intellectual vandalism of destroying it based on metrics as absurd and meaningless as staff-student ratios.
Dr Kenneth Duncan University of Edinburgh Nottingham Astronomy PhD
Victor Maura Breick King’s College London
Dr Paola Delgado CEICO - FZU
Dr Konstantinos A. Petridis University of Bristol Proposed redundancies at a leading UK centre for Physics and Astronomy raise serious questions about the University of Nottingham's commitment to research and teaching excellence.
Dr Robert Mason RWTH Aachen University
Prof. Antony Lewis University of Sussex
Dr Chris Frohmaier University of Portsmouth Proposed redundancies at a leading UK centre for Physics and Astronomy raise serious questions about the University of Nottingham's commitment to research and teaching excellence.
Dr Jim Brooke University of Bristol
Dr. Jennifer Rittenhouse West INFN Turin and University of Turin
Alexis Verney-Provatas The University of Edinburgh/Swansea University
Dr Veronika Dornan University of Edinburgh
Dr. Dr Ajay Kaladharan ICTP-AP Beijing
Dr Pratika Dayal Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
Prof. Garret Cotter University of Oxford The University appears to be underestimating the opportunity cost of these proposals. It may hope to absorb the immediate criticism and move on, but the long-term reputational damage will be much harder to contain. A physics department’s reputation is built over decades through staff, students, research leadership, and international trust; it can be damaged very quickly by actions that signal instability and a lack of commitment to excellence. When advising A-level students on where to apply, Nottingham’s strong reputation in physics has been one of the reasons I have recommended it. I would no longer feel able to do so with confidence if these redundancies go ahead. Prospective students and their families do notice these decisions. The same applies to recruitment at the highest research level. Major grant-holders, including ERC-level researchers, will not choose to move to an institution that appears willing to dismantle a successful department and expose a large fraction of its staff to compulsory redundancy. The short-term savings may be visible on a spreadsheet, but the lost students, lost grants, lost staff, and lost trust will be much more costly in the long run.
Prof. Anupam Mazumdar Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics & University of Groningen I strongly urge the University management to help our excellent colleagues, scientists, whose contributions are invaluable, and please do everything to keep the jobs intact.