University reception moved amid ‘security concerns’ over course closure protest

‘Security concerns’ apparently posed by a student protest meant a social responsibility reception hosted by the University of Manchester had to move location last week.

The protest was in reaction to a recent decision made by the University to close Learning Disability Studies from 2014 onward.

The pre-planned protest was set to coincide with the Social Responsibility reception, which was originally to be held in the University’s John Rylands Library at Deansgate. But, concerns the protest would cause too much disruption to the event meant it was moved to Whitworth Hall on the main campus.

“Given the prospect of a protest, the main campus was considered to be a more appropriate venue,” a University spokesman said.

Support for the protest against the closure of the Disability Studies course has increased over the past couple of weeks. The online petition to save the course has exceeded one thousand signatories.

But there appears to be no signal from the University of any plans to u-turn on their decision to closing the course.

A spokesman for the University said, “We do not believe that we will be able to recruit sufficient students in the future to make this programme sustainable.”