When do you think universities will open?

[googlepoodle]

I would think they would be definitely be working to a September deadlines for the new academic year.
But do we think any sooner? I am professional services staff and currently working from home.

University of Manchester have said they're considering suspending annual increments and national pay awards, so I guess that answers my question upthread about whether that's possible!

Yep, Manchester is suggesting 'voluntary unpaid leave', pay freezes, pay cuts, redundancies, according to the Guardian.

We've just announced a pay freeze, recruitment freeze, 'non-business-critical' spending freeze...and a nice big cut to the VCs salary...

I expect job losses will follow.

That is bad news from Manchester - ‘voluntary unpaid leave’ doesn’t sound good.

I think the government will have to develop a furlough type scheme for the sector. We can’t loose all these highly trained staff - both academic and PS.

The problem is that they can't be furloughed now - they're needed - and by the time it all really bites it might be bit late for government schemes. I can't imagine the government will want to be allowing employers to add new people to the furlough scheme - if it's even still going at all - by September.

Universities can access the furlough scheme already.

Actually there's a difficulty with public sector employees and furlough - the 20% that the employer has to pay the employee isn't supposed to come from public funds....

Yes furlough doesn’t apply to universities at the moment. It might work to our benefit though with a separate scheme for universities.

It does. My university already has employees on furlough.

It may have called it furlough, but they won't be able to claim the 80% from the Gov. unless there is a clear private income stream from which you can pay the additional 20% (which there maybe if you have a separate conferences account for example), or your institution claims very little government funds (again possible if a large proportion of your students are overseas).

Posted too soon - we've effectively furloughed most of our estates staff - in that they're not required to come into work and we're paying them in full. We can't claim their 80% salary though.

I could do with about 2–3 months more wet lab work for my PhD. I'm writing up as much as I can now, but there are definitely a few gaps...

I'm not sure I can afford to live there waiting to be allowed back into the lab, so even extensions aren't that much help, unless they can fund me, which I would think is unlikely, because I have 3.5 years anyway.

I know I need to speak to my supervisor, but all my meetings keep being cancelled while they sort out re-writing exams/online teaching etc (which is fair enough, but I am starting to get a bit more panicky now!).

Sorry, meant to answer by saying that I haven't heard anything from my university, but I hope some academics/postgrads will be able to get in at some point in the summer!

It may have called it furlough, but they won't be able to claim the 80% from the Gov.

Hmm, my university have furloughed staff (not academics), and have sent emails to all staff saying that 80% of salaries of said staff is paid by govt. 🤔

Hmm, my university have furloughed staff (not academics), and have sent emails to all staff saying that 80% of salaries of said staff is paid by govt

Same here.

The university I work for is also under the impression that they can (and have) furloughed people - they initially said they weren't sure the university was eligible and then confirmed they would be furloughing so I assume they took some sort of advice on this?

I also don't think the scheme works quite the way you describe anyway, twitchy - employers (in any sector) don't have to make up the 20%, they can just pay staff the 80% paid by the government if they want/have to.

I’d be delighted if I got furloughed. I’d happily take a 20% paycut if it meant I didn’t have to try and think about any of this.

@JacobReesMogadishu

Me too

No, on the 80% furlough scheme if employees agree they can just receive the 80% of pay just as many in the private sector have now agreed pay cuts and 4 day working weeks etc. So the universities could for workers eg people in the library and those wo do jobs that cannot currently be done furlough those and take the 80% furlough money and have staff (if staff agree) take the 20% pay reduction as being better than on job and university credit. Obviously this does not apply to lecturers able to work during the pandemic

Not in the public sector, the rules are different .... certainly there is not the option to only pay 80% of salary.

Page 4 here (bullet points):
https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/10842/UCU-guidance-on-the-Coronovirus-job-retention-scheme-rev-8-April/pdf/ucucovid19furloughed-staff-8apr20.pdf

@titchy is that the wrong document? I don't see where it says they have to make up the difference.

I really apologize if this is me not reading properly but I don't see that it says anywhere that public sector employers are legally obliged to top-up, it just says that UCU (unsurprisingly) thinks they should.

It also says that universities should try not to furlough staff who are paid for with public money but if they can't work out whether they are or not, due to cross-subsidy (which in practice surely applies to all staff except those with grants or other specific, ear-marked pots of money that pay for them specifically), that they can only furlough the proportion of their wage bill that comes from other sources - so that certainly makes it possible, and offers quite a lot of scope really.

As I said, though, the real complication for universities is that they're expecting their real financial pain not now but next year, and I think a lot of this will have ceased to be offered by then.

In my department technicians and professional services have been furloughed with the university making up the 20%.
Meanwhile the rest of us are working all the hours God sends to rethink every single thing we do while dealing with endless student queries and emails.
Yesterday on my walk I bumped into a friend who thought I'd have nothing to do as the students are all at home.
As PP said I'd gladly take a pay cut just to be able to stop thinking about all this.

I am really worried about furlough and/or redundancy. Timed with a recruitment freeze means that it'll be nigh on impossible to get another job in the sector. We got an email from our VC today telling us how much money we'd lost so far. Not good times.