Bangor University wants to cut 5 departments.

I've just seen the terrible news, via Dylan Jones-Evans, that Bangor University senior management plan to cut five departments and have submitted the request to the university council. Dylan's blog says that the council has requested a paper to be submitted by the end of this month - which means that the original request must have been made in executive committee minutes and not as a discussion paper in its own right.

I can't remember the figures, but there's something like a £5m shortfall in the budget this year and goodness only knows what that's going to look like next year. There's also been a spot of trouble with the pensions - there isn't as much in the pot as everyone thought there should be and the support staff are going to get their pensions cut by 40%. Of course you can't really blame the university for that last one - everyone's doing it and it's Maggie Thatcher's fault anyway.

The finances at Bangor have been in a state for years - but people thought they had turned a corner when I was president of the Students' Union there, that things were on the up. Clearly the measures that were taken and the people that were employed to turn things round weren't quite as on top of things as they thought they were. The Vice-Chancellor intends to retire this October - but at least his whopping salary will contribute to the savings.

The departments the senior management team want to close are Theology and Religious Studies, Linguistics, Social Studies, Modern Languages and the School of the Environment and Natural Resources. Admittedly I'm sat here watching the telly in my modern languages dept. hoodie, but it would be absolutely tragic were the university to close these departments. I can't understand what the thinking must be, other than panic. The place went through hell a number of years back when a few librarians were sacked - and all these cuts just as millions have been spent on new halls of residence and a huge new £35m building is planned where the students' union currently is.

I'd hate to see those departments closed - Linguistics is where the incredible David Crystal works; Environment and Natural Resources do work that is renowned worldwide and frankly quite fascinating; Modern Languages is a wonderful department and one of the best to study at. It's not just the expertise that marks the university out, but the overall experience and the dedication of staff to their students. It's awful that the university executive wants to decimate all that, especially as they celebrate 125 years of the place. I'd certainly feel no connection with the place anymore.