30 April 2010

Dear Professor Driscoll,

It is as founding Director of the Social Theory Centre at the University of Warwick that I wish to express my concern about the closure of the Philosophy programmes at Middlesex. Philosophy at Middlesex has a well deserved international reputation for its research excellence and is one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy in the English-speaking world. Middlesex has played a leading role in the study of social and political thought and its closure would, if it goes ahead, be a nail in the coffin of a vibrant and important research area in British universities. I do not know the economic rationale for the closure decision but in intellectual terms, and in terms of making British universities genuinely ‘world-class’, this seems to me a destructive move. I hope it can be reconsidered and repealed. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Robert Fine
Department of Sociology
University of Warwick
Coventry CV47AL
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/staff/academicstaff/robertfine/home/