Keele's philosophy department not to be closed

Thanks to campaigning by students, faculty, alumni and others, it appears that Keele's administration has decided to not pursue the possible plans to close its philosophy department and centre for professional ethics. The university will still be attempting to reduce costs in the departments concerned and their respective schools, but closure is apparently off the table and there will be a fresh intake of students this September.

A good day for UK philosophy. Congratulations to all at Keele.

Possible closure of philosophy department at Keele University

Worrying, and not just because it's my alma mater. Keele isn't the first UK university in the past few years to attempt to close its philosophy department - Liverpool tried unsuccessfully, Middlesex successfully - but it's still very disappointing to see another institution attempt to shut down research into one of the oldest academic subjects.

Facebook group for saving philosophy at Keele
Facebook group for saving the Centre for Professional Ethics
Peter Kail comments on Brian Leiter's blog
New APPS has a brief post about the potential closure
Iain Brassington comments at the BMJ Group's blog
Andrew Willetts discusses the background of the proposal on his blog Political Details

There was also a petition calling for an emergency general meeting of Keele's student union, which has apparently been successful.