‘We can either save jobs or award pay rises – but not both’

Universities are having to make “a trade-off” between awarding pay rises and protecting jobs, according to the new chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (Ucea).

Nishan Canagarajah, vice-chancellor at the University of Leicester, told Times Higher Education that the staff may have to cope with lower wage increases in order to ensure colleagues can remain on the payroll.

The recently knighted engineer has taken over from the University of Aberdeen’s former principal George Boyne in overseeing the employer body.

He joins as the organisation prepares to begin annual pay talks in March at a time when institutions continue to shed thousands of jobs to reduce staff costs.

Trade unions rejected last year’s employer offer of a 1.4 per cent rise for most staff but the largest of those involved, the University and College Union (UCU), was prevented from taking industrial action after its ballot received only a 39 per cent turnout. 

Referencing this ballot, Canagarajah said: “On the one hand they were saying, ‘We want the pay to increase,’ on the other, ‘We want all the universities to agree there will be no job losses.’ You can’t have both, given the financial position.

“If we increase the pay uplift, then clearly, there will be job losses to meet that pay rise. If you want to keep more jobs and staff on the payroll, that will mean less uplift. That’s the trade-off that we have to manage, unfortunately.”

UCU has now failed to reach minimum turnout requirements for a national ballot on industrial action twice since 2023, and Canagarajah questioned “whether it was wise” to pursue national action amid widespread local disputes. 

He said: “You need to ask the question by balloting, are they likely to come up with a different outcome? I don’t think so in the current financial climate. So I think there’s more damage to the sector overall by taking another ballot when we know the financial position is getting worse, not better.”

The sector’s unions have rejected every Ucea pay uplift since 2017-18, but Canagarajah said that the delays in implementing the 1.4 per cent rise at several universities showed the extent of some institutions’ troubles.

Instead, he believes universities and the unions need to work “collaboratively” to tackle political and cultural attacks facing universities.

He said there is currently a “negative portrayal” of the sector “that is not helpful for the trade unions or the employers”, and added: “While no, we will not agree on everything with unions, I think trade unions should work collectively with the employers to get the message that the system needs more support.”

“I don’t want to use the word existential threat”, continued Canagarajah. “But I think it is important that the unions understand that there’s lots at stake for both of us if we don’t work together and address the fundamental issues that are affecting the sector and will affect the long-term prospects in the sector if we don’t get it right.”

Elsewhere, he said his priorities as Ucea chair also include improving the employee experience, saying that the sector needed to be “attractive” to staff. Specifically, he wanted to look at the gender pay gap, precarious contracts, workloads and pay spines.

While the unions’ decision to hold a strike ballot meant that negotiations between the unions and Ucea on these non-pay items were suspended, he added that he “absolutely” hopes these conversations can resume.

Canagarajah’s knighthood was controversial in some quarters, given his institution has recently put more than 160 jobs at risk, with areas such as modern languages and film studies set to close. The vast majority (96.2 per cent) of the 1,022 staff members and students who participated in a recent vote said they had no confidence in the vice-chancellor. 

But despite the pressures, Canagarajah remained firm. “The reason for the dispute is the unions want us to rule out compulsory redundancies,” he said, “and I cannot rule that out.”

Ultimately, “there’s no way around” that universities need to be looking at efficiency and productivity.

“Every other sector is looking at the same things and universities are not immune from that. These are difficult conversations, but it’ll be best done collectively with the trade unions…If we don’t, we will be in this position year-on-year where the pay award will not meet the expectations of the unions,” he said.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com