Redundancies at your university?

[Oh2beatsea]

Are any of you working at one of the many universities that are struggling financially?
Our university announced the financial pressure it's under recently and they are now talking about redundancies. I know a few in the sector are in a similar position and wondered what stage you might be at and how has the process been managed? Have they offered voluntary redundancy first or have they gone straight to compulsory redundancies?
Unsettling times.

In short, those unis contracting will save whatever wage bill they can, as the posts won't be replaced. Just heard Huddersfield is going straight for CR and no VS scheme to thin out first….gulp.

It's not that readers/profs are paid more, it's that research costs universities money (even funded research), whereas teaching brings in income - in some institutions profs and readers do little to no teaching (in my institution they do a normal teaching load, but this is different elsewhere).

I think that's because they had a round of VS last year plus a school merger which made quite a few people redundant.

in some institutions profs and readers do little to no teaching (in my institution they do a normal teaching load, but this is different elsewhere).

This is field specific rather than institution specific. In the physical sciences, whatever institution you're at, you'll have a significant teaching load unless your grant income is at the 'research superstar' multi-million pounds per year level. And professors tend to have major admin roles on top of (or with very little reduction in) a standard teaching load.

By the way - does anyone know when jobs starting in September/ October are generally advertised? Is it normally around now or later on in the year?

I’d expect now if not earlier. The recruitment process takes time and then the successful applicant may need to give 3-4 months notice

@AcademicBurnOut

Thanks - my contract will be up so starting to look now, but there really doesn't seem to be much out there!

Sadly even the places not doing redundancies may have a recruitment freeze

I've enquired about a couple of posts that I need the university to fill in my department ( connected to my programme) and because and we are now in a redundancy period they are all frozen. So don't hold your breath!

Huddersfield has had a VSS scheme for three years in a row so it’s not surprising they have gone straight to CR. Staff I know there (I’m local but work at a different uni), say they’re making about 200 staff redundant this time and they lost 100 last year.

There may still be advertisements in the next two months, my faculty has still not finalised planning for next year so job adverts won't come out for another few weeks at least.

Yep.
A round of VSS which was followed very quickly by merging two schools which resulted in CR for some - who could have taken VS had they been given the heads up.

It's a shit show

My place not currently talking about redundancies but no staff are being replaced. The knock on effect is that the extra workload is leading to the remaining staff going off with stress. Those of us still standing are having to hold everything together - and the only way to do that is to give a poorer service to our students. Its soul destroying

It’s awful. Our department has been halved. I’m doing three peoples jobs. Certainly double.

It does make you wonder if this is going to become the norm. In 8 years, this is the 3rd lot of redundancies that I've know, but this is the most far reaching. It certainly makes you stand back and take stock. Lots of the nice/interesting/positive aspects of the job have gone now and it feels like the spirit will be " be thankful that you've still got a job, here's a bit more work to add to the pile!"

Something will happen to address the underlying failure of the sector as a whole. Once universities start to declare insolvency public pressure will force changes.

I'm guessing September 2024 for some smaller mergers to stave off the inevitable and September 2025 for a big one to go.

Chatting to a friend and they told me the University of Birmingham will be doing a round of redundancies or possibly what they call voluntary service leavers. Which is what they did before and they took. The post is not redundant but is frozen for three years. They are still in touch with colleagues who told her.Apparently the package will not be as good this time.

We've had a local ballot and over 90% have voted to strike. Solidarity comrades as they say!

Strike against what? There's no money, universities will close/collapse entirely if there aren't redundancies. Universities are not private companies with greedy shareholders taking profits while workers struggle, FGS. It's a simple balancing of books. Outgoings are more than income. Striking would be a ridiculous response. I despair!

@DoorPath yes talk about cutting their noses off to spite their faces! Ridiculous!

I'm PSS and due back at work soon after mat leave. The whole situation is very depressing. I'm almost certain we will face redundancy soon.

I totally agree btw that I’m very worried striking won’t help. However nottingham ucu are adamant that striking drastically reduced the amount of redundancies 🤷🏻‍♀️. Can anyone here confirm? But yes at what longer term cost

Striking will not offer any kind of solution in this particular case. It may shave off X percentage of redundancies in one or two places - but this is is much wider, huger problem. Striking is not a one solution fits all situations type hammer to launch - and in this instance it achieves nothing.

Striking may help in the places that are solvent but be counterproductive in the far more numerous places that are all but bankrupt. For it to work you have to have a plan to save jobs and push the finances into the black. A really big ask

The Nottingham situation was discussed at my uni yesterday - apparently the amount of redundancies were slashed after the strike, but the need to reduce costs still remain and they’re expected to be going back into a redundancy situation soon, so the strike just delayed in inevitable