Universities ‘risk grinding to a halt’ as job cuts deepen

Universities losing hundreds of jobs will have to operate with “skeleton crews” and risk damaging their hard-won reputations among students and their wider communities, staff have warned.

With redundancy schemes now commonplace across the UK sector, some institutions have stood out due to the scale of their proposed plans, shedding a large proportion of their entire staff.

The University of Huddersfield, making cuts for the fourth time in as many years, recently announced it would have to slash 12 per cent of its workforce because of the “financial crisis” in higher education caused by the tuition fee freeze, declining international student recruitment and rising costs.

Both the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison said this amounted to nearly 200 compulsory redundancies. The university disputed this figure but did not provide an alternative number.

Courses being suspended included sociology, geography and mathematics, with various other departments also at risk. Administrative support was being pooled centrally, meaning hundreds of professional services staff could be made redundant or moved into different jobs.

Anna Zueva, the branch secretary for Huddersfield UCU, said staff left behind were feeling “bruised” after several rounds of cuts, with many already having to operate with “skeleton crews”.

“Many courses have people overloaded with work – we are very stretched and these problems will be exacerbated even further,” she added.

A university spokesperson said the changes would “ensure financial sustainability and prepare for a challenging future where tuition fees and immigration policy are unlikely to change”.

The “strategic pivot” was “not merely a response to immediate challenges but a proactive effort to secure a dynamic and sustainable future for our university”, they added.

At the University of Lincoln, efforts to save £30 million mean that one in every 10 academic jobs will go, with 220 staff at risk.

Rob Dean, the acting chair of the UCU branch, said this would have a “huge impact”, particularly as the job losses were being accompanied by planned “teaching efficiencies”.

Dr Dean said he feared this would lead to larger class sizes, reduced options for students and fewer assessments, with a more rigid marking scheme for the ones that did take place.

“Staff will be so stretched that parts of university education that students really value will have to be removed,” he said.

“For example, things like one-to-one tutorials – it is hard to see how our teaching team will find the time to fit those in. Detailed individual assessment feedback would be lost as well.”

A significant reduction in professional services staff would transfer more of the administrative burden to academics, Dr Dean added, meaning that “lots of stuff just won’t get done”, risking a bottleneck of tasks “grinding the university to a halt”.

“Universities are not known for being efficient and quick organisations that can push things through,” he said. “Remove that number of professional services staff and things are going to slow down even more.”

Losing so many jobs also posed a risk to the city and surrounding area, Dr Dean continued. “If I ran a small business here, I would be really concerned about the impact this will have on the finances of my organisation. It is terrifying.”

A Lincoln spokesperson said its priority was to “continue providing an outstanding student experience” and that it was doing everything it could to minimise redundancies and ensure that staff staying on are supported.

“As we resize and reshape, we will need to deliver some activities more efficiently. We are consulting with our trades unions and maintaining regular dialogue with staff and students to accomplish this,” the spokesperson said.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com