LECTURING jobs are to go at the College of Ripon and York St John in a shake-up of subject areas, it was announced today.

The college, which is to close its Ripon campus from September 2001, announced that 29 academic posts would be lost over the next four years and 14 new ones created.

The college said it planned to manage the loss of posts by voluntary means.

It said the new jobs would be created in growth areas of the college, while the cuts would be made in areas not currently popular with students.

From September there will be no Environmental Science course and a new degree in Management Studies will be launched.

Then from the following September, 2001, courses in American studies, applied social science, cultural studies and geographical studies will go. New degrees will be launched in community studies and digital culture.

The changes were agreed at a recent governors meeting and followed a detailed review of the curriculum based on recent student numbers, national trends and competitor activity.

Some courses had seen a gradual decrease in the number of applications, while others had seen a significant upsurge, the college said.

Principal Dianne Willcocks said: "Our college is engaged in a process of strategic transformation. This will ensure that we continue to offer the highest quality education to traditional and new students of the future.

"Inevitably, this process of change creates opportunities which some are better placed to respond to than others.

"Establishing our exciting new curriculum plans means we need to create posts in some areas by losing posts in others. I do regret the need to lose posts.

"However, I have assured staff that we are committed to doing all we can to avoid redundancies by a voluntary scheme or redeployment."

Chris Clay, chairman of the college branch of NATFHE (the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education), said: "The union would be opposed to any compulsory redundancies."