Many thanks to everyone who signed this petition in support of Geology at the University of Leicester regarding proposed staff cuts. The formal consultation on redundancies has now concluded and the university has published the outcome here: https://le.ac.uk/news/2026/may/strategic-review-college-science-engineering.

Geology staff would like to express our deep gratitude for your support. This meant a great deal to us during an extraordinarily difficult period. We believe that, without the significant and sustained backing from the wider geoscience community, the outcome would have been even worse.

We would like to share a few points that go beyond the University’s public statement:

• Through this process we will regrettably lose three staff members in Geology, with several more colleagues leaving Human Geography. We are losing highly valued and respected colleagues and friends, and we are deeply saddened to see them go. It is important to recognise that colleagues will be leaving who wished to continue their careers at Leicester. This is heartbreaking for the individuals concerned and a significant loss to the University and the wider sector.
• More positively, and with your support, we were able to successfully argue that the Climate and Environmental Futures theme was broader than originally described. This enabled us to include several staff working on aspects of modern environments in both Geography and Geology, including importantly Palaeontology colleagues.
• As a result of this and other adjustments, we have been able to retain sufficient palaeontology staff to continue to offer our Geology with Palaeontology degree. This will help to preserve a long tradition of this discipline at Leicester. All our existing Geology degrees will therefore continue, alongside our Physical Geography and Environmental Science degrees.

The remaining geology, geography and environment staff will join chemistry colleagues in the new School of Chemical, Earth and Environmental Sciences. We remain determined to preserve and ultimately strengthen our geology, geography and environmental teaching and research at Leicester for the benefit of our students and society.

Thank you again for your vital support.