King's College wields anti-deficit axe on 250 staff

King's College London is planning to cut nearly 250 staff posts over the next three years.

The cuts will come mainly from the schools of physical sciences and engineering, biomedical sciences and medicine. They will include some 170 academic and academic-related posts.

A spokesman said the college risked a £4.5 million deficit in the year 2001-02 without the cuts. Ten academic schools were in consultation on the plan. "We confidently expect to be able to achieve the plan with voluntary redundancies," the spokesman added.

Peter Mitchell, assistant general secretary of the Association of University Teachers, said: "This is a significant set of proposals." The union was concerned about consultation, he said.

But the spokesman said: "The plan has gone through the normal process of consultation and has been discussed at length at academic boards."