Why some of City’s Schools are changing names

When City’s President, Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein, joined the University back in June 2021, it was identified that as a large, complex and ambitious organisation, City’s structure has direct links to its success.

As such, it should be periodically reviewed and refreshed so with that in mind the President began discussions with management teams across the University’s Schools, Senior Leadership Team, Senate and Council on how to ensure that City’s Schools are aligned, distinctive and supported. This resulted in a programme of changes grouped under the School Names and Structures Programme.

This programme will provide the sound foundation to operationalise City’s new strategy and ensure strategically-led growth.

In summary, the top-line changes that were made are:

• The School of Arts & Social Sciences (SASS) was split into two individual Schools; the School of Policy and Global Affairs (SPGA) and the School of Communication & Creativity (SCC).
• The Department of Psychology was moved from SASS to the School of Health Sciences (SHS) which was adapted to be named the School of Health and Psychological Sciences (SHPS) consisting of departments rather than divisions.
• City’s various Engineering departments were grouped to form a single Department of Engineering within the School of Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering (SCMSE) which was renamed the School of Science & Technology (SST) along with the Department of Library and Information Sciences having been transferred to the SCC.
• The Centre for Language Studies and English for Academic Purposes from SASS was moved to a central professional service.

A significant addition throughout this process was the addition of the prestigious performing arts school, Urdang, to the City family making up part of the new Department of Performing Arts alongside City’s renowned strength in Music.

The benefits of these changes moving forwards will allow City to face outwards as coherent professional Schools speaking to the areas of ‘practice’ the University supports and engages with. Common benefits across City will include:

• Alignment of academic discipline – brining together teams and programmes with shared professional, methodological and pedagogic components.
• Alignment of organisational units – consolidating larger departments and clustering smaller sub-departments providing the organisational cohesion necessary for effective leadership and management as well as enabling efficient operations and support structures.
• Alignment of student support and opportunities – more coherent and cohesive Schools to provide a platform to share good practice, and better target support, in meeting the needs of their students.
• Growth, identifying and realising opportunities, addressing legacy challenges to School success – cohesive, student-centred Schools, aligned with business, practice and the professions, to deliver City’s vision, strategy and commitment to growth.

Commenting on the future of this work Professor Debra Salmon, Deputy President (Interim) and Chair of the Board for the School Names and Structures Programme wrote to staff:

“Change is seldom easy, particularly when combined with the pace and level of ambition of a project like this, so I am very proud of how colleagues have worked together to deliver it”.

You can find more information on City’s Schools and Departments on the City website.