Hundreds of people marched through the streets of the city to protest redundancies at a university.

Protesters gathered at The Level in Brighton holding banners to oppose 110 members of staff being sacked at the University of Brighton.

Placards held by some activists said “defend education”, “save Brighton University” and “you can’t put students first if you put lecturers last”.

Among those attending the protest was deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council Gill Williams, who is also a senior lecturer at the university.

She said: “We value the staff and students at the university and we all want to do our best to show the people who are making these decisions that it is wrong and that there is another way forward.”

Cllr Williams said that morale is “very poor” at the university and said: “People have been working so hard and we’ve had such poor conditions anyway for the last few years.

“We are determined to fight on - we are not going to let these redundancies happen without a fight.”

The protest came after staff and students voted overwhelmingly that they had no confidence in the university’s vice chancellor Debra Humprhis.

Last month, students also occupied Professor Humphris’s office at the university’s Moulsecoomb campus to protest the redundancies.

Another lecturer at Brighton University, who was attending the protest to show solidarity with his colleagues, called on the vice chancellor to resign - but said that greater reform of how education is funded is also required.

He said: “Professor Humphris should stand down - but, that said, the problem runs deeper than just one careerist.

“It’s a fundamental issue with the way we think about education in this country and the way in which it is funded.

“I find the idea of students becoming hugely burdened frankly disgusting.”


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A university spokesman previously said: “As a provider of high-quality, skills-based education, there are significant opportunities for us to continue to strengthen our position as we look to the future.

“We recognise that this is a very difficult and concerning time for our staff and we will be doing all we can to support those colleagues impacted by these proposals.”