Redundancy 2025

[Cartwrightandson]

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

Just seen on jobs.ac that Birmingham City is recruiting - looking at the roles (Deans of Schools, School Ops Directors) it looks as if they’re restructuring from Faculties to Schools, and presumably have lost lots in their current VS round. Not sure how they can square that circle!

Another round of VR has been announced at the uni where I work. Does anyone know what a typical/ bog standard compulsory redundancy pay calculation would be?how does one assess if the VR is worth it….

Redundancy pay is typically calculated based on years of service.

https://www.gov.uk/calculate-your-redundancy-pay

Thanks

I'm seriously considering applying for redundancy this time. It's a pretty generous offer in our institution. Starmer's attack on international students is only going to make things even worse. I really thought Labour might help the university sector - am very disappointed.

My university isn’t offering redundancy packages. Yet. But we had an email from the VC last week to say that our financial position is weak and that we need to take action to prevent it getting worse. They didn’t say what action that was though. It’s all just so depressing. Staff are thoroughly disillusioned with it all. I’m only 50, it’s a long time to retirement. But a career change at this point is scary. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I agree things will go from bad to worse in general. I am glad your VR offer is generous.

However Trump has rapidly caused such a huge deterioration in the American treatment of foreign students that I wonder whether the UK may benefit, even in the face of continued hostility? After all, as bad as it is here, relatively few UGs are explicitly affected as yet (AFAIK). They do get the awful message that we only want their dosh, but in my world this fits reasonably well with the plans many of them have. With America so unwelcoming and the number of good English language universities in the Commonwealth relatively small, where else will they go?

True - I hope you're right! I suspect Australia may become more benign again, but we should be able to capitalise on the dire US situation [and shame on Keir Starmer for not seizing this opportunity.]

My university is currently offering 7 months pay for anyone who has worked 5 years or more. They’ve just extended the deadline for applying for voluntary.

And then “further changes” will be announced in Sept. The union seem to think this is likely to be compulsory redundancy if there hasn’t been enough voluntary.

In case this is relevant to anyone Cumberland Council are advertising for a Research & Innovation Manager funded by NIHR

Partner recently accepted for severance. But he's been told he has to get a solicitor and the university will pay towards it. Please explain if anyone else has been through this ?

This is very standard procedure,just to make sure that you understand the terms of the severance agreement and have been independently advised on it. There’s usually a cap of what the employer will pay, is it about £500? This is bread and butter work for employment lawyers.

UK academia is in a terrible state right now. However, prior to moving abroad, academics should consider the following dynamic that specifically harms them in their career prospects internationally. UK academia is highly hierarchical, really a feudal system. In my experience, they prefer weak to mediocre colleagues who are in hock to them for privileges, than strong academics who have independent academic capital. They can even make the lives of the latter somewhat difficult, intent on diminishing them any way they can.

In my experience, they do play dirty, explicitly devaluing these colleagues by insisting on "quality not quantity" so that those very same colleagues end up with quite a paltry publication record. In other countries, they do not believe that quality and quantity are mutually exclusive and you are judged on the number of publications. They are altogether more traditional systems that do value publication. One can see, therefore, that the devaluation of colleagues is very insidious, attempting to decapitalise them so that they turn into pliable serfs who do the bidding of their "betters" and will accept any terms and conditions. Therefore, even if you are not thinking of accepting redundancy now, be aware of, and prioritise, your own needs and future, rather than blindly accepting institutional dictates.

I also predict that these successive waves of redundancy will have a detrimental effect on remaining colleagues, who will just wait for the next round, hopefully near retirement age, to leave. Here, one should remember that it is the number of years that determines your redundancy payment.

That's not the UK university system I recognise. And I've worked in universities in three countries, including the UK.

And I know that academia in other countries (I'm thinking of good friends in Germany, for example) experience far higher levels of sexism and hierarchy than I ever have in the UK. There's a reason that PhD supervisors are called "Doktorvater."

I also don’t recognise that at all. Like, not at all. And I’ve worked in five universities now

I think @maternaliconoclast is onto something, even if the specifics vary widely by institution, and even though other countries’ systems have plenty of their own issues.

Universities tend to encourage certain kinds of work to keep things running smoothly. And a lot of that work is highly specific to the institution. But if you’re trying to keep your external prospects open, it’s smart to be careful about how much of that you take on.

In more stable years, it’s possible to build a solid portfolio if you keep a balance across teaching, research, and service--whether that’s committee work, public engagement, knowledge exchange, or leadership.

And if your institution genuinely values those contributions when it comes to promotions, it can still be a meaningful and fulfilling career.

But if you need to pivot quickly then all that institution-specific capital becomes a liability. It doesn’t transfer.

Worse, the institution might shift direction overnight, cut programs, or de-prioritize areas they once relied on, leaving you completely exposed.

If your CV doesn’t translate outside your current context, you risk being stuck.

I left during the last round of layoffs, and my biggest regret is having been too trusting. I invested heavily in roles and responsibilities that mattered internally but suddenly meant nothing. My CV didn’t track well externally, and couldn't see any openings coming up soon in any case. So, game over.

It’s like the LA wildfires--whole neighborhoods wiped out, even if people had done everything right, installed sprinklers and so on, and even if the area was considered low risk.

Those whose houses are still standing might not fully get it yet. To be fair, academia runs on attribution bias as a defense mechanism. I was the same.

So people might watch and sympathize, but they won’t really understand until the email lands in their own inbox.

I do not think that publication quantity is a good independent metric, at least in my field, and I don’t find the UK particularly feudal although it is more old fashioned than the US.

I do think schools and departments can take against people who go against trends. The late Nobel laureate Sir Peter Higgs felt castigated as a dreamer for a while until the physics world caught up with him. Probably this is worse during hardship, as now. A country that practises greater academic freedom or simply supports research to a greater degree can afford more tolerance.

@WroteOffSunkCosts has said something important and true. I have seen it particularly affect women in STEM

Higgs may have felt people thought he was a dreamer, but he was still promoted to professor, supported in the department, given space and time to do his work. That’s not a bad deal!

You are certainly correct as far as it goes, @bge. But Higgs did not get his professorship at Edinburgh for 16 years after his seminal research was published. Significant honours had started to flow.

I don’t mean to suggest that he was one of the most hard done by.

Similarly Sir Timothy Gowers was a Reader at UCL when he won the Fields Medal (one of the highest honours in mathematics) in 1998. He then took up a named chair at Cambridge.

Another example where UK academia apparently did not recognise talent of the highest order until forced to. He is now based in France though maintaining a Cambridge position

Yes, I agree with that. And I certainly agree with keeping an eye always on how your CV looks externally rather than taking on service jobs.

Thanks @bge!

The challenge is when the 'service job' is substantial and part of a bespoke package. I don't mean overcommitting to roles such as libraries liaison or academic malpractice chair (though the latter role is strategically important and I did take it seriously!)

Lol at overcommitting to libraries liaison 😁

yes I understand. Truthfully the only thing that matters is money but when promotion rewards jobs that take so much time you can’t write big grants, and then your department goes under - I can see the issue

Lol at overcommitting to libraries liaison 😁

We've all seen it!

I left during the last round of layoffs, and my biggest regret is having been too trusting. I invested heavily in roles and responsibilities that mattered internally but suddenly meant nothing. My CV didn’t track well externally, and couldn't see any openings coming up soon in any case. So, game over.

That's a bit of a rookie error, frankly. And one that a professional should try to avoid. I learnt early that I should always assess how far I should exploit myself & for what gain. And that to be quite careful about signing up for administrative roles which don't play to strengths that are recognised externally as well as internally.

We all would do well to remember that we need to keep doing stuff that we can take with us to the next job (research, grants).

But I was really well mentored in this balance, and now try to pass on that mentoring.

I've never shirked my collegial responsibilities. Being a Head of Department or Research director are roles I have taken on for most of my career, once I reached a sufficient level of seniority. They are really onerous roles, but they also offered amazing opportunities. So there was a balance between overworking & serving the institution, and learning & developing solid leadership skills which were legible externally.

It's about finding the sweet spot for your interests and your institutional fit.

We are striking very soon….not sure if that’s good or not. 🤷‍♀️. If individual establishments get a reputation for strikes will our student numbers just get worse? And then more redundancies will be needed.

Our UCU branch are adamant that the finances aren’t that bad and redundancies aren’t needed. The university say they have to act proactively in view of falling numbers. Who do we believe?