1pm on 11th March, over 500 students protest outside Victoria Bulding where the senate for Liverpool University meets to discuss closure of 3 departments. The school of politics and communication studies, the philosophy department and the division of statistics and probability failed to do well in the research assessment exercise (RAE). Paul Athans (pictured here), spokesman for the S.O.S “Save Our Subjects†group said “Of all the departments to mess with, politics.†The protesters greeted the arriving senators with cheers or booing depending on whether they were going to fight against these closures. Dr Fionnghuala Sweeney, vice-president of the Liverpool UCU branch, handed out information to the senators and asked for their support.