A trade union has welcomed a critical Government report on a university's plans to scrap chemistry degrees.

The Association of University Teachers said MPs were right to criticise the University of Sussex's plans to close its chemistry department and refocus on chemical biology.

Last week, the House of Commons science and technology committee released a damning report criticising senior management for handling a "seriously flawed" process "particularly ineptly".

It said financial management played a role in the declining fortunes of the top-rated chemistry department where key members of staff were not replaced and criticised plans to replace chemistry with chemical biology, which it said was "highly dubious and certainly unsupported by any evidence".

Sussex AUT president Jim Guild said: "The process failed internally in that the management proposals failed to gain support from the school most closely affected, the university senate, or even of the dean who is so closely associated with authoring the plan.

"What's more, there is no evidence the university sought alternative solutions to what is a real problem, sought external guidance or advice."

The university hit back at the report claiming the committee had "allowed itself to become part of a campaign rather than taking a dispassionate view of the real difficulties".

Mr Guild said: "It is time for senior managers to accept that they got this wrong, both in the way they went about it and in the outcomes they produced."