Major concerns have been expressed about plans to close the Institute of English Studies, which forms part of the University of London’s School of Advanced Study.

In a letter sent to the IES advisory board on 15 May, Roger Kain - dean and chief executive of the SAS – explains that the vice‐chancellor’s executive group was “recommending a concentration of funding into a smaller number of institutes”. This was in response to news that money from the Higher Education Funding Council for England for the SAS “will be cut by 3% with effect from 2014-15”.

Specific proposals included “merging the academic activity of the Institute of English Studies into the Institute of Historical Research (a centre for Palaeography and the History of the Book) and into the Institute of Modern Languages Research (a centre for Comparative Literature)”, along with a similar merger for the “financially fragile” Institute of Musical Research, the letter says.

These recommendations, Professor Kain continues, “will be put to the Board of SAS on 19 June 2014 and subsequently to Collegiate Council and the [SAS] Board of Trustees for approval in July. The changes will take effect from 1 August.”

In response to this letter, the chair of the advisory board, David McKitterick – vice-master of Trinity College, Cambridge – wrote to Professor Kain resigning with immediate effect.

The recommendation to close the IES, he argues in the letter seen by Times Higher Education, “is bound to have repercussions. It will damage the reputation of the University, calling into question its academic commitment both to the subject and to wider responsibilities…

“The proposed fragmentation does not add up to a commitment to the subject, nor does it come half-way to defining it. The falling away of staff…adds further to the impression of abandoning national commitments.”

Anne Varty, head of English at Royal Holloway, University of London, noted that Professor Kain’s letter “mov[ed] from ‘recommendation’ to ‘changes’ with expert grammatical speed. There has been no consultation with stakeholders as far as I and my fellow heads of English in UoL are aware.”

matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com