Redundancy 2025

[Cartwrightandson]

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

Ooof! I was external examiner at Lancaster years ago, and have worked with a lot of colleagues there subsequently in research projects.

It was always financially tight (almost going broke in 1996) and I was impressed at what they did on the smell of an oily rag there. So losing 400 staff will be a huge cut - they were already very efficient in my view.

Lancaster is full of lots of mini empires, like an large institution/company etc the wheels of change grind slowly.

When the EU funding stream was coming to an end it was handled very badly and that was just 70ish redundancies. They just stuck their heads in the sand and ignored it.

They aren’t the only uni in this level of financial mess sadly.

A very old friend is at Lancaster, one of the cleverest people I know. They will be vulnerable despite their productivity. What a mess.

I'm at Lancaster too. In my school, we'll hear the specific numbers later this week. We're expecting about 16-25 to go from a pool of about 80 FTE academics. There will be a another phase in professional services too. The steer is that no single subject area or department will be closed, but all should expect to be reduced.

Just tried to message @fixtheironingboard about an issue but looks like they've deactivated their account. If you are still there (shouts into the ether like at a seance) feel free to DM me.

I see in the news that Scottish Funding Council have been told by the Scottish government to bail out Dundee Uni with £40million. This is on top of the £22 million they got earlier on in the year.

Whilst I sort of agree that they are too big to go under, and its not the fault of the students or staff that they are in this mess, the investigation suggests that senior mismanagement is to blame for a lot of their woes. I am annoyed that they have been essentially rewarded for their poor finances. That's £62 million out of SFC's pot. Which is for all Scottish Universities, not just Dundee. Money and funding is tight enough at the moment, without Dundee getting it all. Just leaves less for the rest of us. What happens when the next Uni goes bust, do they get £62 million too? And the next, and the next? Other institutions are bound to come into financial difficulties in the next few years, will they get such generous bailouts?

@Chesticles I did wonder when I saw that amount. There is no way they can do that for all the universities so where does it stop? Are the students at some universities considered less important than others?

I wonder if the reasoning is that propping up one university indirectly props up the others, because it avoids creditors getting nervous and calling in debts immediately, and it reduces the likelihood of prospective students getting nervous too. I don't claim to be an economist though.

If that's not the reasoning, it looks unfair to splurge so much of the cash on a single university.

I'm at Lancaster too. Dreading our update tomorrow. Me and DH are in the same discipline to make things even more fun. Our best hope currently is that one of us may still have a job next year, but we're already so overworked that we're not sure whether being the one made redundant or the one who stays would be worse in that scenario.

Massive sympathy for everyone in your position, @Excitingnewusername There's a huge human cost to all of this.

Thank you @bibliomaniathis last year has been the most stressful I can ever recall emotionally and professionally, and it is really striking how little actual acknowledgment of that there has been from the institution. I hope at least they are noticing the exhausted faces staring when we're being thanked for our energy and passion and being the heart of the place etc etc etc etc.

I think that this death by a thousand small cuts is almost worse than just taking the hit on one or two disciplines, in some ways. I suppose it's two different kinds of death ...

As we can see from reading the HE forum here on MN (a special kind of self-harm) parents & students have no empathy for departments & administrations which are being hollowed out. We're expected to continue as usual, and even more so, because students today lack the proper preparation & resilience to cope in harsher times. (up to a third of undergrads in my department have special learning plans or claim the need for accommodations of some kind, not always 'reasonable')

But so sad for Lancaster - it's a really good place to work, it always seemed to me.

Well the other Scottish ones haven’t been fixing the books so no immediate need to be bailed out. It’s not so much they can’t afford for that particular uni to go under, more that they don’t want Dundee as a city (town?) to become a wasteland - the uni generates local employment and a lot of local spending. Plus the general confidence in Scotland as a uni destination.

Id like to hope that the bailout requires them to accept reduced funding longer term, or the disposal of some assets, to pay back the taxpayer.

Oh God yes to the ZERO empathy.

We've been doing exam boards and so many students seem to think mitigating circumstances mean we can up their marks. Parents think so too and I've had several this year in "mummy will sort it out out for me" mode one way or another.

Thing is, unlike school, their adult child doesn't HAVE to come to university and they need to learn skills not just facts to pass an exam.
So what is the point in even going if you just want to be let off everything difficult?

Being cynical I think the Dundee bail out is because it is important as an SNP voting area. Lots of other Scottish universities are in financial trouble but I doubt they will be bailed out

This is interesting. There's some dark humour there in the 'objectives' being changed.

Wendy Alexander 'was asked to leave' Dundee uni role claim over finance questions - BBC News

I am especially sorry to hear about Lancaster. Colleagues there are really good

How are all the Lancaster people doing now we’ve had the faculty and school / department breakdown of the losses?

My unit will be losing about 23FTE from a pool of about 84 ish and we’ve had to pause all our CTP work until we hear which programmes they’re going to cut. We have the VR process first but we’ve just finished a VS scheme so anyone who wanted to go has already gone. It is going to be brutal. Morale is terrible.

And I’m still being contacted by students wanting extra summer tutorials and pastoral care discussions…

Ugh @YourLoftyTealTraybake that sounds awful. My knowledge of Lancaster is the faculty of Arts, and they’ve already restructured and restructured over the last 15 years.

It’s not a particularly well off university in the first place after the financial crisis they suffered in the mid-90s. If I were you, I’d be on annual leave until September.

Blimey that’s nearly a third. Is it academics or a mix of academics and professional services making up the numbers going? bad for those that go but also awful for those left behind if they end up doing their workload and some of someone else’s workload.

That’s just academics. There will be further cuts to professional services but we haven’t had those numbers yet.

coming back to this thread as life- including work - has been too busy to get on. And : oof! :( I’m so sorry to hear of others in similar situation in their institution and especially Lancaster as do know it a little.

For my place- waiting to see what the end of the month brings for the voluntary round. Already know some good folks going yet think they needed more volunteers or it’ll be CR
I don’t want to go and crossing fingers will be ok - I work in a research team made up of 90% research-only positions and grants covering our time (esp if some recent bids come through but if not …eeep). But it feels precarious and I also wonder when is the next round going to be/what could I do outside academia

Joining the thread because I think redundancy may be on the cards. After a spate of VS, there is a special meeting on Tuesday. We have been advised that we may need trade union representation. After the meeting, we will receive individual communication saying how this will affect each of us. I think I will have a jittery week.

Sorry to hear that. Was the meeting today or next week?