THE dean of the new School of Management is unrepentant over controversial changes that have angered both staff and students.

Prof Nigel Piercy (pictured) says the reforms brought in by himself and his deputy (and son), Prof Niall Piercy, will improve results and help grow the reputation of the school.

But teaching staff say the changes have been made without any consultation and that the atmosphere in the school is now “toxic”. Seven staff have handed in their notice since the changes were introduced.

In an interview with The Waterfront, Prof Nigel Piercy said there had been “a few tantrums along the way” but that the reforms were necessary because the school had “a lot of catching up to do”.

“We are not doing what we should do to be part of the global scholarly community, either in terms of teaching and global research,” he said.

“We need a situation where a graduate sits in front of a potential employer and the employer has heard of the school and knows what it stands for. We want our graduates to stand out from the crowd.
“So what we’ve done is we’ve put in seminars and tutorials on all programmes without option, as they have largely disappeared. There is a much bigger emphasis this year on small group teaching and more contact hours.
“There is a guarantee that these seminars will be taught by Swansea staff, not by PHD students, that’s a promise to the students.”

But some students are unhappy, complaining that they weren’t consulted on the changes made over the summer.

Economics students claim that the changes have devalued their degree with the shortening of the dissertation to a few thousand word essay.

One economics student, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “On this dissertation module, they’ve kind of told us funding had been cut for it, so we don’t have a dissertation tutor anymore. There’s just someone who we see as a group of 20 every five weeks at most? Doesn’t really give us much of a chance to get anything from it.
“Also, I went to the open day economics talk with my cousin, and they’ve cut down the economics courses offered. There used to be financial economics, economics BSc, economics BA etc and now they’ve just got economics BSc and PPE.
“People are quite concerned whether they are trying to push economics out of the department; which would be odd considering economics is one of the things the university isn’t actually too bad at.”

Mr Piercy said: “There was a fair amount of discussion mainly at an informal level with student groups. When you read the things people have said, it is chilling. And many of the things we have done hone in very specifically on those comments.”

“About waiting three months for the return of a piece of coursework. The guarantee now is the maximum of three weeks,” said Prof Piercy.

Staff have also been up in arms, especially over the dean’s proposals to move some staff to teaching-only roles.

A University and Colleges Union spokesman said: “At UCU meetings, staff described management style as ‘autocratic’. Many colleagues were visibly distressed and upset during these meetings. Among the many adjectives used to describe the atmosphere in the school was ‘toxic’.
“Members have complained of having to teach modules beyond their area of expertise and significantly increased teaching for some staff.
“UCU has expressed its concern to university management about the lack of consultation, about quality assurance with respect to programme changes, and about the system being used to determine staff workloads.
“UCU intervention has resulted in the removal of an explicit workload policy which favoured REF-submitted staff.
“We are disturbed to have learned that, over the last month, seven members of staff from the School of Management have handed in their resignations.
“We also understand that a number of other staff are considering leaving. Whilst anyone’s reason for leaving employment is confidential, we believe that it is no coincidence that these resignations come at this time.”

In fact the department is currently recruiting for almost a dozen senior lecturing positions.

When asked about staff who were disgruntled about the changes, Prof Piercy said: “If you see you don’t like what’s happening the honest thing to do is to say move on. No problem whatever with that.
“At a human level I’m very sympathetic… you get organisations where people get settled in their ways, then someone comes along and changes the rules.
“I know exactly what it feels like, but when we start to achieve the things we want, the improved status, better reputation. The experience is things settle down, especially when people start seeing the benefits.”

A Swansea University spokesman said: “The new dean, Professor Nigel Piercy, is implementing a programme of change at Swansea University School of Management, as part of the university’s strategic aim to be a top 30 UK university by 2017.
“We are also determined to drive forward our ambition to grow the School of Management, ready for its move to the new Bay Campus.”

Meanwhile, UCU is continuing to discuss the situation with university management: “We have received assurances that in the future there will be consultation with both staff and UCU on changes affecting teaching, and on other significant changes having an impact on members in the school.”

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