Redundancy 2025

[Cartwrightandson]

How is your institution doing? I recall last year there was a lot of redundancies and VS...

@Chrysanthemum Our PS staff gradually left for better jobs and were not replaced. Our department just can't cope without them - that's everyone's view, including that of academics. I'm sorry you have been the recipient of such talks.

Our uni has had a few VS rounds. Last term it announced there would be a new one this year and they didn't know if they could keep it voluntary:(. We haven't heard anything yet this term but it's not looking good.

Our offer is so poor it is pretty much accepted that it won't attract enough people so we will be facing compulsory soon

It's not like there's anywhere to go either.... my colleague who took vs is talking about retraining.

@ghislaine do you have a link to that blog?

That’s a terrible position to take, colleagues in other departments who have already gone through the PS restructuring are suffering from the lack of PS support and are struggling with all the extra admin they’ve had to take on since their PS were centralised. I guess people don’t appreciate what they have until it is gone!

@Chrysanthemum5 sorry, here it is. The official UCU Commons blog is very wordy and procedurally focussed. I was actually referring to this blogpost by a UCU Commons member on Medium, which was much more direct and factual:

https://medium.com/@DyfrigJones/wtf-hec-56ffe7787f93.

Cardiff has announced 400 redundancies - 10% of the workforce. Whole depts to close - one of which is Nursing. Not just the humanities then!

https://www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-universities-2025-1-university-of-east-anglia-to-cut-163-jobs-amid-11m-deficit/

Such a worrying time for university workers - both academic and PS staff - at the moment.

So depressing. And, that headline in Research Professional is misleading. Kent and UEA aren't the latest institutions to join the wave - they're now on their second and third round of redundancies. It feels like it's not even a case of insitutitons making redundancies but embarking on a continual round of them. At what point will it stop? What will be left?

Honestly if I had to predict the next 20 years I think we will have scientific research institutes attached to RG universities, and teaching-only universities for humanities, which are much smaller. Fewer people will go to university and some will go bust. Humanities research will almost disappear

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/durham-university-plans-cut-hundreds-30879624.amp

Durham also cutting jobs.

I just saw the news re Cardiff, seems like they are closing all the humanities. I'm in STEM (not at Cardiff) but collaborate on a fairly hefty Centre grant with humanities people. It's so short sighted.

We've been told that a huge chunk of PS work is coming from centre to our department. But the PS department has no idea what we actually do - no idea of how our academic procedures work and is suggesting things that we should do that could actually be grounds for discrimination if we got them wrong (and we have no relevant professional knowledge to do this).

Does anyone know / have data on what redundant academics go on to do next? I am safe at my institution for now but in five years, who knows. I've been doing this for 25 years, pretty senior, not wanting to uproot family, too young for early retirement but too long in the tooth and overqualified for an easy pivot. What on earth do people do next?

No data but I was thinking of a move a while back and several people seemed to have gone into a related area of the civil service.

There are also agencies who recruit tutors for uni students. I don’t know how viable that is. In some ways I think I’d have liked schoolteaching, except one hears such horror stories these days. I’m in one of the subjects that would get a nice tax-free bursary which would help . . .

Jeez. I am a senior professor at vice-dean level, not sure I want to go back to undergrad tutoring or the classroom...

Yes, saw a colleague who took VS talking about new job at a small local charity. A quarter of the previous wage. She had least gets a decent chunk of money from ACLS and royalties but this is what it has come to.....

Yes, colleague took VS to do a similar thing. She taught law, so probably more of a salary, and she said she is really happy with the work life balance and lack of stress. I took VS and retired as an emeritus. It was a little earlier than I thought, but I’d had about enough and we’ll be fine. I’m still doing academic things…running a conference and writing books, but only doing what I want.

Public schools like people with doctorates. 6th form wouldn’t be that much different than freshers, really, I wouldn’t suspect, and the facilities would probably be nicer.

Well our union branch has just let us know that our university will be going back into Vs and probably compulsory redundancies this spring. Straight off the back of a scheme that ended late last year, and in which our VC told us that acting early and decisively would save us having to go down that road again. Absolute joke. Our Ueb don't seem to know their arse from their elbow.

The mistake was taking the VC at his or her word. Our branch learned that pretty sharpish. I'm sorry to hear about the redundancies. The way things are going, I do think the majority of faculty in the next decade in the humanities will be on zero hours contracts.

Has there been an announcement of strikes (or moves towards strikes) at anyone's university?

Mines heading that way. Seems absolutely futile given its a national, sector-wide issue. What does UCU actually expect the outcome to be?

Our local UCU branch has voted to strike. I'm not a member, waiting for communication from own union.

Our university has just announced a complete restructure of PS, it’s been coming since last year when we had an interim Executive. We had a new VC this time last year who got rid of all the interims as they messed up the restructure the first time (and the person who messed up is now doing the same at Cardiff).

Academic registry, in which I work, has been decimated. Not a single person assimilated into a role, all the grade 6 and 8 jobs gone and pretty much whoever is left will be downgraded. All the roles are generic, no specialist knowledge. I’ve been there 20 years and I’m taking VR, I think a lot of us will be.

@Letsgetthiswrongagain I am so sorry to hear this and I fear it will be the path at my institution. Hope you find a great new job that respects your skills