Bangor and South Wales cuts add to jobs crisis in Welsh sector

About 200 jobs are expected to go at Bangor University after it missed its student recruitment targets – the latest in a series of cost-cutting exercises affecting Welsh institutions.

The University of South Wales has also announced it is cutting 90 jobs and closing courses as well as withdrawing from some research areas to focus its output on a select number of topics.

Wales has been hit particularly hard by the financial crisis embroiling the UK sector owing to demographic declines that have plunged enrolments more steeply than English equivalents.

Bangor’s vice-chancellor Edmund Burke told staff in an email on 19 February that its student intake this year was below its budget target and 7 per cent smaller than the previous year. The intake for 2025 is also expected to be down, he adds.

Its international student numbers in 2024 were half what they were in 2023, Burke says, following the sector-wide recruitment squeeze caused primarily by changing visa rules.

The university needs to cut 200 jobs to save £15 million as a result. Burke says a voluntary redundancy scheme will initially be extended but did not rule out compulsory redundancies. Both academic and professional services roles are affected.

Burke says that the university has also begun to move staff out of some of its buildings with a view to selling these off to further reduce costs.

He notes that although Welsh universities will be able to increase their fees to £9,535 in the autumn, there was “no agreement for future inflation adjustment to the amount of money we receive per student”.

Bangor said in a statement that it was “taking clear and proactive steps” to address financial challenges, align costs with income and secure the university’s stability. 

The Welsh government yesterday announced plans to provide an additional £19 million in funding to universities, primarily to be used on estates and digital development projects, but there are fears this has come too late to prevent the wave of redundancies hitting the sector.

Cardiff University has already said it plans to cut 400 academic jobs and close departments while Swansea University has said it needs to save £30 million. 

The University of South Wales has confirmed it will cut 90 jobs as it was “not exempt from the financial challenges facing the wider higher education sector”.

A “difficult decision” had been made that “a small number of our courses will close after all current students have completed their studies”, a statement said. 

Research in future will focus on “crime, security and justice, health and well-being, sustainable development and creative innovation”, the university said, with work on other areas to be withdrawn.

“We will be looking to reduce the workforce which helps to support teaching, learning and research activity in select areas. The proposals outline a reduction of approximately 90 roles from across the institution, including the simplification and reduction of our faculty management structures,” South Wales said, adding that voluntary redundancies will be offered and it will “look to limit compulsory redundancies”.

“We anticipate that most of these roles will leave at the end of this academic year, but some will exit on a phased basis over the next few years to ensure all our current students can complete their programme of study,” the statement added.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com