Academia | DOI: 10.1145/1924421.1924430
Sarah Underwood
British Computer
scientists Reboot
After a year of turmoil, computer scientists at King’s College London
have retained their jobs, but substantial challenges lie ahead.
EARLY LAST YEAR, the future of computer science at King’s College London (KCL) was in jeopardy. More than 20 aca- demics in the computer science department were at risk of losing
their jobs, along with a group of world-renowned researchers who previously
made up the Group of Logic, Language
and Computation (GLLC) that spanned
the computer science and philosophy
departments.
The potential devastation resulted
from government funding cuts of £ 1. 1
billion in higher education by 2013
and, in the case of KCL’s computer
scientists, the poor performance in research rankings of the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering in which
they worked.
A year later, the outlook is more
positive. No compulsory redundancies were made in computer science,
and the jobs of those within the former
GLLC were not made redundant. In addition, as a result of restructuring relating to performance rather than cost
cutting, the university’s computer scientists have moved to the Department
of Informatics in the new School of
Natural & Mathematical Sciences.
Michael Luck, who stepped into the
role of head of informatics in January,
replacing Andrew Jones when his term
ended, is leading the performance challenge with the goal of reaching the top
quartile in the Research Assessment
Exercise, a U.K. government review of
the quality of university research.
PhotoGraPh by katy ereIra
Jones acknowledges the goal will be
difficult. “The hierarchy of the college
hopes we will be in the top quartile in
the next research assessment exercise
[in 2013], but that is challenging as
change in the department is substan-
tial in terms of people, integration, and
culture,” says Jones. “We can make
some improvements in the short term,
significant improvements in three
years, and hopefully be in the top 10%
in five years.”
Some of the department’s difficul-
ties are due to last year’s unrest, which
saw campus trade unions staging in-
dustrial action against compulsory
redundancies, global academic shock
at the prospect of GLLC members los-
ing their jobs, and media stories criti-
cizing KCL management for, among
other things, suggesting brutal job
cuts while paying large salaries to top
executives.
Sarah Underwood is a technology writer based in
teddington, u.k.
© 2011 acM 0001-0782/11/04 $10.00
