Oxford Brookes killed music department just after creating concert hall

It has emerged that the decision to shut down the music department was taken shortly after Oxford Brookes University opened a £1.6 million new campus with a purpose-built performance space.

Dr Barbara Eichner, reader in music told the Oxford Mail: ‘We are all devastated and in shock. Music as a subject has been under pressure nationwide. It hasn’t been an easy situation in the last few years with the pandemic. We’ve just had the new building go up where we could have had a proper performance space for the first time. It’s sad to think there won’t be any students making music in there.’

Local MP Anneliese Dodds said: ‘I was really concerned to hear about the closure of both mathematics and music at Oxford Brookes University. Please can I take this opportunity to urge the university to consider the impact of this on staff in both subject areas, for whom this must be a very worrying time.’

What’s really worrying is the intellectual calibre of executives who make these decisions and the mediocre design of the buildings they commission.