Natfhe issues strike warning

INDUSTRIAL action could follow Leeds Metropolitan University's decision to close the faculty of health and social care and move its three schools to the remaining four faculties.

Leslie Wagner, vice chancellor, proposed the restructuring after Valerie Kaye, the faculty dean, announced her decision to retire early. The move is part of a bid to cut spending by at least Pounds 7.5 million over the next three years to avoid compulsory redundancies.

Professor Wagner said: "This proposal is about slimming our organisational structures, not about reducing our academic activity, still less about devaluing that activity."

But Marie Stinson, Natfhe branch secretary, said: "The decision radically alters the academic face of the university and should be subject to review by the governors."

She said the vice chancellor had made it clear that the faculty would be broken up. Unless there was compromise, she said there would be no option but to ballot members on industrial action.