Slow cuts or risk lasting harm, staff warn stricken universities

Universities have been urged to reconsider “unprecedented” cuts planned across the UK sector, or risk facing complaints about declining standards and damaging their reputations both locally and abroad.

Announcing wholesale restructuring programmes in recent days, leaders of major institutions have stressed that they cannot carry on because they are in a financial climate that has plunged even some of the most successful universities into deficit.

But staff at affected institutions have urged caution, saying management teams can go slower in their pursuit of returning to surplus, and lessen the impact on staff and students.

“You simply cannot slash thousands of jobs and expect to offer anything close to the expected standards of research and teaching”, warned Jo Grady, general secretary of the University and College Union (UCU).

The latest institutions to announce job cuts include Durham University, where 200 professional services jobs are initially expected to go go, initially in a voluntary severance scheme, and Newcastle University, which is cutting 300 roles across the institution.

The University of Kent has said it needs to save another £19.5 million in its latest round of cost-cutting while Cardiff University has unveiled a transformation plan that involves losing 400 academic roles.

Grady said the cuts “threaten not only the reputation of individual institutions, but UK higher education’s standing on the world stage”.

Similar concerns have been echoed in the research sphere. Beth Thompson, executive director of policy and partnerships at the Wellcome Trust, an important funder, warned that the instability “not only threatens the UK’s world-renowned role as a leader in science but also the country’s ambitions for long-term economic growth”.

But it is local communities where the impact will be felt the hardest. A proposal to close Cardiff’s nursing school has drawn particular criticism, coming at a time when the NHS is looking to address staff shortages and universities are being asked to pivot into more professional training to meet the needs of their local areas.

Helen Whyley, executive director of the Royal College of Nursing Wales, said the “closure of such a prestigious institution will have a significant impact on the future of nursing in Wales” and “undermines efforts to address the critical staffing crisis in the NHS and social care”.

A Welsh government statement also singled out the nursing cuts, saying it was “disappointed” in the move and was taking “urgent” steps to ensure the overall number of nurses trained in Wales is not affected.

A Cardiff spokesperson stressed that there would be no immediate impact on current nursing students, or those due to start courses in 2025.

“We are acutely aware of our role in delivering the next generation of healthcare professionals for Wales and beyond and are actively consulting with all stakeholders on our proposals,” they added.

Cefin Campbell, education spokesperson for Plaid Cymru, said the knock-on impact of the cuts would be “devastating” for Cardiff and across Wales and called on the Labour-run Welsh government to “put our universities on a sustainable financial footing”.

On a national level, UCU’s Grady called on the Westminster government to “do all it can to make institutions think again or it will be accused of standing on the sidelines while UK higher education crumbles”.

But ministers have recently ruled out injecting large amounts of public funding into the system, with small incremental fee rises seemingly the best institutions can hope for in the coming spending review.

University leaders have justified their plans by saying that their institutions must adjust to this new reality of lower funding, and it is better to undertake extensive restructuring now rather than repeated disruptive cuts.

But staff say that the schemes could be kinder. Cardiff’s UCU branch has highlighted how at the root of the institution’s cuts is a “self-imposed plan to chase a 12 per cent surplus on the budget”. Given the institution’s large cash reserves, the branch has argued for a “more gradual recovery”.

Many universities “seem to be caught between a rock and a hard place”, noted Gregor Gall, visiting professor in industrial relations at the University of Leeds, with falling international student income and no sizeable increase in government funding.

The “many individual fires” the UCU is fighting – all with their own schedules and dynamics – make it hard to establish a united front against the changes, he said, and pressure needs to extend beyond the individual institutions to a Labour government “unwilling” to act in the current political and economic climate.

But staff discontent is only likely to intensify amid the carnage, and dissenting voices from students will no doubt get louder too, as they are asked to pay more for what ostensibly is a shrinking service.

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com