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Birmingham University's official reply to our subject association's protest letter at the closure of the cultural studies and sociology department tells us the university proposes to "re-position the subject for the future", and alludes to "re-structuring" rather than closure. We find this wholly unsatisfactory. A new cohort of undergraduate students is about to be admitted, and postgraduate students - some from abroad - are arriving. Proposals for teaching and supervision appear to be ad hoc and therefore unstable and unlikely to have rigour and coherence. We are determined to monitor the situation.

Meryl Aldridge
Chair, British Sociological Association

Christine Geraghty and Peter Golding
Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association