Mathematics is not redundant

To close pure maths is very short-sighted. This was strongly suggested at Lancaster in the mid 80's crisis but fortunately the university acquired a new far-sighted VC who realised you couldn't have a university without pure maths. It was again put to me as head of the maths department by a Professor of Statistics and the then faculty Dean in the late 90's. We made the case that our students were mainly attracted by Pure Maths and only later in their studies took to more applied topics. By building up our excellence in pure maths with a strong and active research group our university has become recognised for the whole range of its mathematical activities.

What a bizarre management decision! Once the VC has ruined the University of Leicester's academic reputation by erasing the excellent pure mathematics group he will soon realize that none of the highly sought-after top researchers in AI, digitalisation and data science will ever consider to go to such a place.

Universities are not meant to be for profit. Their value comes not from money they can earn but from the discoveries made which enrich society.

Stop pitching applied mathematics against pure mathematics. It is one subject and the developments which have been made possible by pure mathematics research are numerous and have changed society. VCs pursuing such shortsighted policies demonstrate their utter ignorance of how science works and should consider their position.

Nothing as practical as a good theory

To Leicester's Senior Management Team: where would the subjects you wish to develop be without the mathematical tools that were developed for their own instrinsic interest and beauty? Consider the development of Wavelet Analysis by pure mathematicians, such as Meyer, and their applications in signal processing and image fusion by, e.g., your President and Vice-Chancellor. From the biography of Yves Meyer (awarded the 2017 Abel Prize for "for his pivotal role in the development of the mathematical theory of wavelets."): "In such ways, Meyer’s work has a relevance extending from theoretical areas of mathematics such as harmonic analysis to the development of practical tools in computer and information science. As such, it is a perfect example of the claim that work in pure mathematics often turns out to have important and useful real-world applications." https://www.abelprize.no/c69461/seksjon/vis.html?tid=69535&strukt_tid=69461 Furthermore, surely a mathematics department with active researchers across pure and applied mathematics is in a much better position to attract and train students, many of whom's interests change from pure to applied, or vice versa, during their studies. Weakening your mathematics department threatens the future of the very subjects you claim to support. Please reconsider your decision.

It is insane that in the modern world we live, where we need pure mathematics more than any other discipline, we are so myopic as to take such a decision. The UK is on its way to becoming the laughing stock of the scientific world.

Cutting down fundamental research is a shortsighted decision that eventually undermine applied endeavours too. Getting rid of one of the most cost-effective departments is not the way to go.

There won't be any research identity whatsoever if no one wants to work there because of this stunt.

Short-term policy

DO NOT force on the young the same mistake you made of underestimating the power of pure mathematics.

stop the penny pinching. education is a god and lack of it is a sin! at a time when we are falling behind on the sciences, pure maths being the root, we it needs investing for the future if not now.

I am not in the field, even though the reason for which I love my work as a finance lawyer is the, albeit little, mathematics embedded in the transactions. Mathematicians involved in our transactions have consistently been above any other, yet pure mathematics is as oxygen is to food. We think of food as required to survival, and it is true, and more tangible, but the less tangible oxygen is what we need even more. All the best

Hardy: pure mathematics is on the whole distinctly more useful than applied. For what is useful above all is technique, and mathematical technique is taught mainly through pure mathematics.

Pure mathematics is not expendable.

Firing mathematicians to hire more AI & data scientists is like replacing physicists for nuclear engineers, chemists for pharmacologists, or computer scientists for Excel spreadsheet users.

there will be no future in AI, computations and data science without the theoretical foundations laid by pure mathematics

Applied math. cannot exist without pure math. This has nothing to do with so called excellence. Stop using the word excellence to fill whatever.

This plan shall damage the quality of physics and computer science in Leicester too, and subsequently all sciences.

This is a fundamentally misguided decision: it is laudable to increase research effort in data science and AI, but to see the way to achieve this as being to end research in fundamental mathematics (I reject use of the misleading word "pure") is to fail completely to grasp the connectedness research, especially so in the country where Alan Turing made such a key contribution in these fields. This move, if carried through, will cause irreparable damage to the reputation and status of the University of Leicester.