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.

Heard mutterings today about a merger between my place and the one down the road. We're supposedly okish financially (prophylactic VS offers notwithstanding) but they're basically bankrupt.

They've got better parking, though. Swings and roundabouts, innit?

I think it can be found at the WonkHE link someone posted above. That said, my institution looked relatively healthy there but has been announcing restructures and VS schemes so who knows?

Rumours are that the principle lecturers at SHU will be replaced by Grade 6 lecturers. I’d be worried they won’t be replaced and the workload will just have to be picked up by the academics.

university of Lincoln have announced their VS package today and staff have a week to decide. Savings of £25million needed and compulsory redundancies possible.

i think all academics need to be concerned about increasing workload.

students need to realise the student experience is about to tank. Cuts to teaching hours, cuts to services, less staff on their course, less support.

😯

Yeah I don’t think now is a good time to work in HE whether you get made redundant or whether you keep your job.

You are actually quite wrong about which unis are doing well and which aren't - a common and dare I say arrogant perception. WONKHE did a brilliant analysis of the financial health of all HE institutions a few months ago. A lot of Russell Groups will be the first to go. Most Post 92s are in much better financial health.

Oh shit, sorry for Lincoln and SHU. It's shocking, and yet somehow under the radar of people outside the sector.

Please enlighten me, because ALL of the restructurings, redundancies and vol severance schemes I am hearing if are post 92s.

Or more precise, non RG. Eg Goldsmith's, Birkbeck .... Although true, Liverpool and QMUL have their big problems.

Please enlighten me, because ALL of the restructurings, redundancies and vol severance schemes I am hearing if are post 92s.

This is not a like for like comparison. A university restructuring could be a proactive measure, a measure to avert a crisis or a response to an actual crisis. RGs are more likely to have diversified income and higher liquidity levels but frankly the sector is so fucked who knows what will happen.

Universities to cut courses and staff after collapse in foreign students

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/c16c525d-db0f-46a2-b77c-b03c143dc992?shareToken=94c6aa1cdaf9534f4354b396055f0de8

@tizalinatuna This is freely available and easily searchable data. Here's a snapshot from 2022, though you can find newer data also. Looking at the net liquidity days (a good measure of how far an institution is away from bankruptcy), you'll find yourself enlightened. Select "Russel Group" and "Post 92" and you'll see that the bottom tail end of the graph is an even mix of those institutions.

Post 92s have often diverged much more cleverly than slow-moving Russell Groups (who tend to have put a lot of eggs in the international student market).

wonkhe.com/blogs/a-closer-look-at-university-finances/

@DoorPath looking at that article my uni (which has just announced voluntary severance and will undertake compulsory redundancies if necessary) already has one of the lowest “staff costs as a percentage of total income” figures.

Things are shit already from a staffing pov. I dread to think how much worse it’s going to get

Agreed. It's depressing. The model just can't work with student fees having remained flat for so long. We are going to see a series of mergers across the sector - that's a good idea, and the only way out at the moment. It will be a volatile time for staff.

Agree it is depressing Two mergers this year (Writtle/ARU and St George's/City). Rumours of one or big names collapsing entirely within a year. Many many more mergers, bankruptcies to come. Sadly universities are not priority for any political party.

The data that underpinned the WonkHE article I and @DoorPath linked to will be released for 2022/23 next month so look out for an updated version.

RG London uni here. Not at redundancies stage yet but a fairly significant cull of programmes/modules that are under-recruiting, and fixed-term staff have been told their contracts will not be renewed for next year, which is devastating for them. They've worked their tails off trying to do everything right to get a permanent position, and now they're just being cast away, it's awful.

My daughter heard today that the course she had an offer for from Kent has been scrapped following the consultation period.

Oh gosh, I'm sorry to hear that. Has she been offered an alternative?

That's awful @Eddmr, but better to find out now than after she'd started the course. Hopefully she has another offer that she's keen on?

I’m sure she won’t be the only one in this admissions cycle @Eddmr. It’s a fucking blood bath out there at the moment. Seems like every week another uni announces voluntary severance/ redundancy/ cost cuts. While you may not care about all the staff losing their livelihoods (with little prospect of finding work elsewhere) people will probably start caring more and paying more attention when kids aren’t able to take up the courses they want or whose courses are wound down mid programme, meaning they’re ’taught out’ by a skeleton staff of disenfranchised academics.

What? What does that event mean? Is she ok - I’d be raging.

She received an offer that she accepted and last week they emailed her lowering her offer. Received an email today to say that the course has been cancelled. Not sure where she stands with UCAS, getting a place at another Uni, a teacher is looking into it. I think it's too late to apply anywhere else for a September start so may mean clearing or taking a year out.

And obviously I care about the lecturers that have lost their jobs, I didn't say that I didn't. At this point in time, I feel disappointed that the University have left it this late to cancel a course starting in September.

Can you say which course it is? It seems like a weird time of year to cancel a course.

Philosophy, Religion and Ethics. I believe that they have made 57 lecturers redundant. Lots of subjects have gone.

Course can and do get cancelled at any point - as others have said better now than in the summer or autumn. Sucks though - so sorry.

I reckon the majority of unis, from all over the country, and across the range of mission groups, have or have recently had redundancies/VS schemes.