Almost 25,000 students study at the university colleges

The University of Durham is closing its Department of East Asian Studies (DEAS).

Campaigners released a letter from the university's late chancellor Sir Peter Ustinov offering his support.

Tony Blair's agent has also written a letter on behalf of a Durham graduate and constituent in which he asked the university to reconsider its decision.

Tony Blair's agent in his Sedgefield constituency, John Burton, confirmed to BBC News Online on Wednesday that a letter had been written to university vice chancellor Sir Kenneth Calman.

'Limited resources'

In it, Sir Kenneth was asked if there was any possibility of the university changing its decision.

The decision to close the department, which has nine academic staff, was made last Autumn and the university said there was no question of reversing the decision. It is one of 20 restructuring projects.

Durham University spokesman Keith Seacroft said: "It was part of a strategic set of proposals under which the university will concentrate on its best strengths.

"We can only sustain that quality by reinvesting the resources. We were spending limited resources too thinly over the many departments."

He said two problems facing the DEAS were low demand, and research quality which had been sinking and had led the university to decide further investment to bring it up to the required standard could not be justified.

He said the university was looking at preserving an element of Chinese and Japanese language teaching at some level.

He said Sir Peter had made his views known at the time the closure was announced.

The students who joined the department in October last year will be the last intake and it will be wound down over the next four years.