STUDENTS protesting against the closure of the Middlesex University philosophy department have vowed to continue their lock-in until their demands are met.

Around 150 philosophy students have taken over the whole of Mansion House at the Trent Park campus in Bramley Road in an attempt to overturn the university's decision to end the programme.

The protest began last Tuesday morning after the Dean of Arts and Education cancelled a meeting to discuss the cuts, which were decided on Monday, April 26.

In the past week support has flooded in from leading academics across the country and more than 14,000 people have signed an online petition to save the department.

Nearly 11,500 people have also joined a Facebook group calling for the department's reinstatement.

In a letter to Times Higher Education magazine, a group of top academics claimed the decision would threaten subjects such as critical theory, aesthetics, Marxism and psychoanalysis.

Among the signatories were Slavoj Zižek, international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, and Alain Badiou, emeritus professor of philosophy at Paris's Ecole Normale Superieure.

The letter said: “Middlesex is widely recognised as one of the most important centres for the study of modern European philosophy anywhere in the English-speaking world.”

An earlier letter, from the linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky, expressed the hope that the "unfortunate decision will be reversed, for the sake of the university, the intellectual life of the UK, and not least the future of this ancient and indispensable discipline worldwide".

The Centre for Modern European Philosophy was the university's highest-rated submission in its last research assessment exercise and it is in the top third of philosophy departments in the UK.

The department is due to be phased out over the next two years, with no further recruitment of undergraduates or part-time masters students.

Philosophy lecturer Christian Kerslake said: "They say the reason is funding, but we believe they haven't made the case either economically or academically.

"The programme is extremely successful. There were 42 new students for the MA course last year, but they want to close everything just because of a slight shortfall in BA numbers."

Philosophy student Ali Alizadeh, 33, added: "We have received letters from across the country from people saying they are inspired by the stance we have taken.

"The protest will only stop when they reverse the decision."

Middlesex University is one of dozens of higher education bodies across the country to slash courses after the Government announced budget cuts of almost £500 million next year.

A Middlesex University spokesoman said the contribution and dedication of philosophy staff was "notable", and blamed the decision on insufficient demand for places.

The university has taken on 12 new BA students each year for the past three years. It has received six firm acceptances for next year's course.

A university spokesman said: "Although the philosophy area has been recognised for its high quality research, the centre is not currently in receipt of any funding from external research bodies.

"Philosophy has a disproportionately high level of staffing compared to student numbers and the highest ratio of professors to other academic staff than any other subject.

"Philosophy is only able to operate with subsidies from other subject areas in the university.

"The university has no choice but to address this issue, particularly in the context of announced and further anticipated public funding cuts."

The spokesman claimed the dean had been in "lengthy and detailed" consultation with philosophy staff for six months to try to arrive at a positive outcome, but "no workable solution" had been proposed.

A new meeting between the dean and students has been arranged for this Friday.