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.

I had no idea that redundancies were actually underway, I thought it was just threats at the moment. The list of affected departments is quite sobering.

So many are under knife. I didn't realise that students who thought they had places would be affected. Thought they'd honour the offers. God damn it. Getting very serious.

I feel sorry for those with offers now losing places but also pity the current first and second years even more. The staff will be seeking jobs elsewhere so who teaches out the course? Minimal staff, quite possibly staff from a different department being told to teach a subject which is not their specialty. It will be a shit show.

My uni have said all courses safe for Sept 24 but have now said that they will be looking at reducing courses for Sept 25.

And I imagine we will find out which those courses are fairly soon because there won’t be any need for open days for those courses in June/July and obviously they won’t be open for the next ucas cycle in Sept/oct.

Again the staff will start looking elsewhere once they get wind of anything and current students will suffer.

The problem is that for some of us there is no ‘elsewhere’ to get a job. There are zero jobs in my discipline. Let alone my specialism within my discipline and at my level. If (when really) I lose my job I will also be losing my career - one I’ve been building up for 20 years. I don’t think there are that many other jobs where you can be very good at what you do and well regarded but know that if you lose your job you won’t be getting another one doing what you do.

Quite. I certainly won’t be working in academia again if I lose my job. But I’m thinking of setting up as a dog walker or similar. Maybe working in a friend’s shop. What I won’t be doing is teaching out a degree if my university scrap it.

It's not at all too late to apply to another uni. Literally anywhere will take her - we are desperate for student numbers.

@Eddmr yes she can still apply elsewhere. If she has used all 5 ucas options already and doesn’t have an offer (and Kent should release her from the offer now) then she can use UCas extra to add another.

Some places take direct entry too, like Brighton, Birkbeck, North Eastern etc.

We had a whole load of compulsory and voluntary redundancies last year and a merger of two huge departments. The merger has been an absolute shit show.

I've been on a 'temporary' acting up contract for the last 3 years. It's usually been a rolling contract which renews on the 1st April. I've not had my new contract through yet and nobody will tell me whether it will be renewed or not. I'm in the middle of some huge projects which bring in a significant sum of money.
If they don't renew then I go back to my old job which isn't a disaster ( just a 9k pay cut 🙈) but I'm pissed off that they are keeping me hanging. It's not how you treat people.
Plus there would be nobody to continue the projects and work I'm currently doing.

We've also been told to expect more change.

Indeed. My course was actually scrapped last year, but I was able to move sideways to teach on other programmes, so have kept my job for the time being. They're not my area of expertise but I can manage. But if those courses go, I'm screwed. There are no other providers of university courses in my area, within almost 100 miles.

The number of people on the jobs market in Arts and Hums is huge. It will not be easy to just go elsewhere, especially if not ECR.

Useful page to keep up with stuff.

qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

Useful link though not fully completed - Bournemouth has a voluntary severance scheme running at the moment too (or it did, closed on Friday). Programme closures imminent here too. All a bit grim. Hang in there, folks

That link is interesting to see some universities which had significant redundancies a few years back at it for round two. Which potentially suggests either things are getting worse /things are so bad to start with that redundancies aren’t ever going to make a difference. Or perhaps they didn’t cut enough the first time. 🤷‍♀️

Hello fellow BU'er.

Does anyone know if there is a set timeline for these things?
Once voluntary severance has closed, how soon after are redundancies likely to be announced? I imagine all universities have this planned, but they just don't share it with staff!

So VS has just finished where I am. Compulsory redundancies next. I’ve been told people will be out by August. They can pay money in lieu of notice.

The notice period for a compulsory redundancy is generally less than my 4 months in my contract. It says a week for every year you’ve worked. 12 weeks once you’ve worked 12 years but no more. But they can pay you off and make it less.

• govt website says;
• 20 to 99 redundancies - the consultation must start at least 30 days before any dismissals take effect
• 100 or more redundancies - the consultation must start at least 45 days before any dismissals take effect

so I am expecting consultation to start immediately after Easter. It’ll take 45 days. So maybe by end of May people will know if affected or not. Then a few weeks notice and off you go. Three months if you’re lucky. Done and dusted for Sept and new academic year.

grim.

Waving wearily at you @ohhhhhhhhbiscuits! (Good username btw!)

Very weary waving back! With all the changes at the top, who knows what the long term plan is! Do they have one?

This is the Academic Common Room, the bit of Mumsnet where HE professionals talk to each other about our professional livelihoods. (You might notice that there are WORLD-LEADING RESEARCHERS up-thread worrying about losing their entire CAREERS). It is not yet another board on which helicopter parents are encouraged to fret and hector about Georgina's specific course needs, Sebastian's claims about online versus in-person ratios, and the relative merits of Exeter and York for History for Araminta .

Can't we have one tiny corner away from the sharp-elbowed fucking parents to be professionals?

It certainly sounds like there is a lot of cuts happening. I know applications are down this year (6% all iver isn’t it?) but ffs!

Well this is certainly what the UCU locally are saying. My university has a lot of money in the bank according to their financial statements….more than usual. Current student numbers are higher than ever. They managed to spend £17 million on a building refurb last year (for professional services).

UCU have raised this and the insinuation was it’s about making cuts to maximise income/savings.

The university are adamant there’s a shit storm coming and they are trying to streamline to protect themselves over the next few years. And certainly what I’ve read (I’m no expert) backs that up……talking nationally about how the predicted drop in overseas students is so massive not every university is going to survive

@AcademicBurnOut there is a shitstorm coming, no question. Different for different universities but definitely HE Armageddon.

When you say a lot of cash in the bank do you mean reserves? Because reserves ≠ cash.

Yes reserves I think. I fully admit I’m no expert in university financial statements so wasn’t sure what it all meant.

However they have more reserves than ever before and more students than ever before and more income than ever before. So the panic stations was initially hard to swallow.