Risk of compulsory redundancies as 170 staff face axe at UEA

Fresh job cuts at the University of East Anglia are set to result in 170 staff members leaving, with compulsory redundancies a possibility, amid an ongoing financial crisis across the UK higher education sector.

The university said in a statement that it was needing to save an additional £11 million to stay on track with its financial sustainability plan, against an expenditure of about £350 million.

David Maguire, UEA’s vice-chancellor, said he was “deeply sorry” to be making the announcement, adding that “compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort”.

“These decisions have not been taken lightly, and I recognise that this will be difficult news for our UEA community,” said Professor Maguire.

UEA said that it would seek to limit the number of compulsory redundancies as far as possible in consultation with trade unions.

The job losses come on top of significant cuts undertaken at the university last year following Professor Maguire’s appointment, when 400 staff members left the university – equivalent to 10 per cent of its workforce – through voluntary severance, redundancy and the removal of posts after the university revealed a £37 million deficit.

While the Westminster government earlier this month announced a hike in English tuition fees for the first time since 2017, university leaders warned that the rise – which will apply from the autumn – is coming too late to save staff, and is offset by rises to national insurance contributions.

“Although our long-term finances remain sound, this shortfall has arisen because of inflationary cost pressures and a reduction in international postgraduate numbers, reflected across the sector,” Professor Maguire said.

Nick Grant, co-chair of the UEA branch of the University and College Union, said it had “serious doubts” about the future of the university following renewed job cuts.

“We have serious concerns about this becoming a pattern and a cycle, and we feel that the organisational structures of the university, the governance of the university, the financial planning of the university, isn’t fit for purpose,” he said.

“We have serious doubts about whether UEA can weather the storms facing higher education more broadly along the lines of their current strategy that the vice-chancellor’s executive team is pursuing.”

He said the union would consult with union members over the redundancies, and will consider launching an industrial dispute, as well as legal action.

“We will be using the legal process of collective consultation and putting as many things on the table as possible to have real, tangible mitigations to prevent large-scale compulsory job cuts,” Dr Grant said.

“We’re looking at trying to firm up a potential industrial dispute because of the way in which the university is going about this process, and broader concerns on how the university is managed and whether it can weather the storms facing higher education.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com