We call on the University of Leicester to urgently reconsider their proposal to dissolve Geology (which includes Palaeontology) into a new School of Chemical, Earth and Environmental Science. If the proposal goes ahead, many staff will lose their jobs, crucial research will be shut down, and the future of undergraduate degrees is in jeopardy.

Under the proposal, all staff employed on combined teaching and research contracts are required to demonstrate their alignment to a narrow range of new research areas or be made redundant. The proposed areas are Sustainable Materials and Resources, Chemical Biology and Diagnostics, and Climate and Environmental Futures. The latter group is particularly restrictive in its description, only including Earth Observation Data Science and Remote Sensing. It excludes most of the vast range of environmentally relevant research undertaken in the existing School of Geography, Geology and the Environment. The University anticipates this process will lead to the loss of 14 staff from our School. The cuts will be devastating to Geography (please also sign the separate petition) as well as to Geology, and particularly the Palaeontology staff. Because of the restrictive nature of the proposed new research group definitions, it cannot be ruled out that more than 14 staff could be lost through this selection process.

Academic staff of Leicester’s Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution have already been told that their research is not expected to align, despite being a major force in producing numerous research outputs of the highest international quality for the School over all past and the current cycles of the UK Research Excellence Framework. This would mean an end to this successful interdisciplinary Research Centre, with its focus on the processes and patterns of the evolution of life, and the interactions between the biosphere and other elements of the Earth and climate systems, from deep time into the Anthropocene future. And without this research, the University’s ability to address the pressing concerns of global climate and biosphere change would be greatly curtailed. Current PhD students and post-docs are in limbo as they wait to hear if and how their projects can continue. Without the academic staff, the specialist palaeontology modules on the Geology with Palaeontology degree would be impossible to teach, and many other modules across the Geology and Environmental Science programmes would be at risk. Indeed, the proposed changes risk making all our programmes in Geography, Geology and Environment unsustainable leading to their ultimate closure.

Geology at Leicester has a long and proud history and a significant international reputation. It was number one in the country for overall student positivity in the most recent National Student Survey. Its research has been influential for decades and has greater societal relevance than ever. To put this all at risk is a short-sighted move that will damage Leicester’s reputation as a research-intensive yet inclusive university. We urge the VC, Executive Board, Provost and Head of College to urgently reconsider this proposal and commit to maintaining geology, including palaeontology, as full and integrated disciplines at the University of Leicester.