Around 300 jobs set to go in ‘very difficult’ Sussex redundancies

The University of Sussex has opened a voluntary redundancy scheme and told staff it is looking to cut its headcount by about 300 staff members.

The university informed staff in a meeting on 25 November that it was opening the voluntary redundancy scheme for academics and professional services staff. 

Sasha Roseneil, Sussex’s vice-chancellor, said it was having to make “very difficult decisions” following “the long-term underfunding” of higher education, ongoing inflationary pressures, and falling international student recruitment.

“We have done everything we can to make savings over the past year. We have significantly reduced non-pay expenditure, and made cuts to our planned programme of investment in our estate and infrastructure,” Professor Roseneil said.

“Unfortunately, it is now necessary to reduce our costs further in the interests of the long-term financial sustainability of the university. We are, therefore, opening a voluntary leavers scheme, to give people the opportunity to leave the university voluntarily with a good leavers’ package.”

In total roughly 300 jobs are expected to go at Sussex.

The announcement makes it the 80th known university to announce cuts in recent years, according to an influential list compiled by the University and College Union branch at Queen Mary University of London. 

The milestone comes as Times Higher Education recently reported that university leaders anticipate job losses to hit 10,000 by the end of the year, as major cuts become commonplace in the sector.

Tom Cowin, vice-president of Sussex’s UCU branch, lamented the milestone, and said the priority for the union now was “to ensure that Sussex does not move to a situation where it is making compulsory redundancies”.

“We are scrutinising the university’s financial claims, working to safeguard workloads for staff who remain, and have increased our casework support to members at this incredibly difficult and disappointing time,” he told Times Higher Education. 

“We urgently need to undo the disastrous marketisation of the sector under the coalition and Conservative governments, and call on the Labour government to conduct root and branch reform of the sector's funding, before this crisis damages UK higher education beyond repair.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com