GOVERNORS of one of the South's top colleges have been forced to axe jobs and offer fewer courses under a sweeping survival plan.

Southampton Institute's shake-up will lead to about 50 posts going among academic and sup-port staff.

Eleven courses, seven of them full-time, will be phased out from September, with the number of faculties slashed from nine to three.

The current roll of more than 12,000 students will shrink by around a tenth by 2002.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Echo, principal Dr Roger Brown stressed that current students would be unaffected, and every effort would be made to avoid compulsory redundancies among the 1,500-strong staff.

But he said radical changes were an essential response to market conditions in higher education, and the best way to offset a predicted £3 million deficit next year.

Dr Brown said: "What has hit us has been the flattening of demand, a shrinkage of student numbers, and introduction of student fees.

"The consequence of not doing this restructuring would be that we would cease to exist as an independent higher education facility."

Dr Brown insisted the issue was not one of "cost-cutting" but rather of making the institute more able to survive in the market place.

Although bigger than many UK universities - it has an annual turnover of £55 million - the institute relies more heavily on enrolments as it has little income from research funding.

The restructuring has therefore focused on boost-ing courses where demand is greatest. Dr Brown said: "In some courses there just isn't enough demand from students.

"We know there is a skills gap in some industries but it's up to employers to send signals down the right channels to careers advisers about the things they want.

"Higher education demand is down by three per cent generally. A lot of institutions are facing bigger falls than we are."

Dr Brown rejected the suggestion that the institute's financial position was connected to losses incurred during the reign of controversial former director Professor David Leyland, whose £160,000 pay-off led to a probe by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Surpluses had been reported since then, Dr Brown stressed.

He said the changes would see a three per cent transfer of resources away from management into teaching and research, and give scope for new, more popular courses to start.

Three "super-faculties" - based broadly on business, engineering, and media - would generate greater clout than the present nine, he believed.

The 21 governors are meeting again in July to focus on further issues surrounding the restructuring, and consultations are already under way with staff representatives.

Association of University Teachers spokesman Alan Brooks felt the changes had become a necessity because of the way the Institute had grown, but said there would be concern among staff. He said: "None of us like to see job losses but we are hoping for natural wastage or voluntary redundancies. There are diverse opinions - some are bound to be upset."

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