PROTESTERS paraded an effigy of a university vice chancellor and protested with banners and whistles during a university open day.

The anger was over proposals to make lecturers redundant at Bournemouth University which many students and lecturers fear will lead to the quality of students' education being reduced.

The protesters who gathered on the semi-circle at Talbot Campus said although the number of lecturers under threat had been reduced from 50 to 30 the redundancies were still unacceptable.

They carried posters with slogans reading Save our lecturers' and stop the job cuts' and a joke effigy of vice-chancellor Paul Curran.

Leigh McLoughlin, PHD student and part-time lecturer, said: "We are celebrating how good our courses are and our dismay at how management have treated everyone.

"I am a PHD student and a lecturer so I see both sides. There's been almost no information coming down to students from any level of management."

Marian Mayer student and lecturer at the media school, said: "As lecturers we have been told we are not allowed to tell students about the effects of the cuts but what we do know is that the university doesn't want students to know what's happening.

"As soon as students put up posters they take them down. The National Centre for Computer Animation was targeted for ten of those redundancies and that's the university's flagship group."

Angela Smith, vice president of communications, said: "The students wanted to support their lecturers and try to save them from losing their jobs so we are here to represent the students.

"Cuts are being made in the media school and there are still 30 jobs going to be lost so we have got to carry on fighting but it seems to be working so far."

A university spokesman said in a statement to the Echo that the changes were necessary because of its five-year Strategic Plan to invest £50 million in new academic staff, new and improved buildings and information and communications technology.

The plan also includes a further £80 million in additional student accommodation in partnership with others, added the spokesman.

"To facilitate the changes especially where we want to strengthen our activities in research, enterprise and professional practice, we have also had to consider areas from which to disinvest.

"This has led recently to an unsettling period of consultation on the possibility of some academic posts being made redundant.

"We understand our students' concern that an increased emphasis on research enterprise and professional practice could lead to reduced time for education. This will not happen. Through improvements in the design of the curriculum and the continuing development of our academic staff our programmes will be delivered increasingly effectively by academics."