THE University of Bradford is set to shut down one of its research centres and remove a "fundamental" and "indispensable" course, despite calls from staff to rethink the proposals.

The plans are to close the People, Organisations and Entrepreneurship (POE) research centre and abolish the BSc Human Management Resource course.

This could lead to compulsory redundancies of "high performing and loyal academic members of staff", according to a letter sent to the Vice Chancellor by POE staff on Monday (July 5).

The letter revealed that one "highly research-active member of staff" has already resigned, as a result of the proposals.

POE staff said they were first told about the potential changes on June 23rd.

The plans have been proposed by Professor Sankar Sivarajah, who is currently the Head of School of Management (which POE comes under) and the Head of Business Analytics, Circular Economy and Supply Chain (BACES) Research Centre.

In the letter sent to the Vice Chancellor, seen by the T&A, POE staff said: "This organisation change proposal came as a complete shock to all of us in POE, particularly as this was the first time Professor Sivarajah met with all of us since he appointed himself as Interim Research Centre Head some two months previously."

They claim they were not consulted in the process.

The letter calls for the Vice Chancellor to halt the proposals and conduct a "truly independent investigation".

It states this is on “grounds of lack of evidence" and a "complete absence of any input by POE into the process”.

Staff said removing the BSc Human Management Resource course would mean losing a subject area that is "universally recognised as an indispensable fundamental discipline within business management education" and described the POE research centre as "the most vibrant and active" in the School of Management.

The letter also claims that POE brings in £3.8 million in student fees per year, at a conservative estimate.

Up until March 2021 POE consisted of 15 job posts, with 11 of those filled.

The letter states: "This is contrary to Professor Sivarajah’s proposal for organisational change that only considers 12 posts.

"In any case, POE has achieved all of its KPIs and performance targets whilst simultaneously being under-staff norms."

Professor Sivarajah is hoping to keep some focus on Entrepreneurship in POE by moving this to the BACES research centre and some posts to the International Business Marketing and Branding (IBMB) and Accounting Finance and Economics (AFE) centres.

But staff said this proposal for new posts across the three centres "does not resemble POE’s current roles or level of expertise".

A spokesperson for the University of Bradford said: “It is usual in higher education to introduce new courses and close others in response to the changing needs of students and employers, as well as regional, national and international priorities.

"At the University of Bradford, we continuously monitor our performance to ensure we are providing high-quality teaching and an excellent experience for our students.

"Over recent years we have seen a steady decline in applications to our BSc Human Resource Management programme, but sustained interest in the same subject at post-graduate level.

"These observations have led us to propose closing the undergraduate programme.

"Staff affected are being consulted on this proposal and will be offered support throughout, which is in line with our organisational change process.”

It comes after similar restructuring four years ago.

The letter sent by POE staff said several members went through that and it had a "tremendous negative impact" and left "bad feeling".

Four internationally recognised professors and academic staff in the fields of Organisational Studies and Human Resource Management resigned, as a result of those changes.