Bristol University announced plans to close the BSc course in May 2010 after a failed campaign by the centre's supporters and staff.
[6][7] By 2013 the centre was being gradually shut down by the university, by means of a programme of redundancies and staff attrition.
[11] In 1984, the Centre coined the term "deaf studies",[9] and in 2001, it established the first professorship in the discipline.
In 1992, the centre established the earliest full-time, university-level training programme for Deaf people to be taught in sign language.
[19] Bristol was one of a handful of universities in the UK to offer an undergraduate degree in deaf studies.
[20] In May 2010, the university announced plans to close the undergraduate course as part of a drive to save £15 million.
[21] The campaign against this focussed on the lack of justice in targeting staff and students with particular needs, and the aggressiveness of the university's approach to the CDS, led by the Dean, Dr Judith Squires.
The very next day, Bristol Deaf Club (an organisation not connected to the CDS, but attended by many CDS staff and the hub for the Bristol Deaf community) announced that it was selling its building to the Elim church [27]