What 'everyday' cost-saving measures has your university put in place?

[YopMeMama]

I've NC for this but long-time poster.

As well as the 'big' stuff like removing our personal research budgets, the VS scheme, compulsory redundancy, push for massive income generation etc., my university also has a number of day-to-day cost saving measures which range from cruel to illogical to downright weird.

At my institution:

> We've been told no more tea/coffee supplied by the university. If you want a hot drink, bring your own supplies.

> The thermostats have all been turned down, our portable heaters have been removed, and we've been told no offices are to be more than 18C.

> Our printing is being closely monitored. No more than 200 pages of A4 per academic, per term. External printing (unless for specific things like big posters, recruitment materials etc.) can't be claimed on expenses.

> Lunch can only be ordered for events which last more than four hours regardless of what the event is and who's attending.

I get the point - taken together across the institution, these measures could actually add up to quite a bit of saving. But when I tell non-academic pals these things, they're just baffled.

What's happening where you are?

Printing really shouldn’t be an impactful cost saving- if it is it indicates that the university is either in an incredibly poor print contract or isn’t financially sustainable anyway.

the printing/ tea coffee is just about setting the scene and getting staff to realise the extent of the financial problems- sending a message.

universities are quite unique in that staff- academic staff particularly- are often pretty anti universities and anti the institution they work for.
Often then don’t really care about the financial situation of the institution, only caring about their students/ research/ teaching, and expect that everything they need should be provided with no thought for who pays for it.

I don’t blame them as some more traditional
universities treat them badly ie on tenure and they’re heavily unionised with sometimes mad unions who stoke the fire, but it doesn’t lead to employer employee collaboration

the printing/ tea coffee is just about setting the scene and getting staff to realise the extent of the financial problems- sending a message

Yes, that's a good point. In the context of a departmental budget, those things are absolutely miniscule. Less than 0.01%.

If you genuinely believe this is the case across your university, and have first hand experience of the full workings of your and the other faculties, then yours is really exceptional compared to the many I’ve consulted in

The admin part is incredibly frustrating. My programme used to have 2 PS running things, they were both let go and now their tasks have mostly been given to me and a colleague as our 20% admin time. Of course we can't cover the work of 2 FT people!

Everything is like that now, things that used to be done by skilled PS staff are now halfway done by academics who are often not great at these tasks, meanwhile there's more and more middle managers doing fuck all.

I’d be interested to see whether students would be attracted to a “no-frills” university. No employability service, no counselling service, no university accommodation, no hugely subsidised gym and “elite sport” programme - but also no admitting as many international students as humanly possible to cover costs, no shiny new buildings, no online teaching.

this did make me smile. Your “no frills” university is a standard post ‘92 😂

those international students aren’t available anymore, thanks to immigration rules

Snap! We pay for everything (even had to buy our own kettle!) plus our paper orders get cancelled as classed as on essential. We aren't even allowed a new tunic if ours breaks........

One dept I worked in did spend a fortune on food and entertaining but that stopped about 9 years ago. I had left by then but still have a couple of friends who work there. I remember a staff dinner at the most expensive Chinese restaurant in our city one year where about 30 of us went, also had an open bar. Free drinks reception for students and staff on exam results day, a monthly buffet get together just to make staff socialise, we did anyway and lots of schmoozing of politicians who came as guest speakers.

I worked in HE when it was a very different time. DH still works in academia, it’s dire now. They had a month long freeze of not being able to spend anything at all. A total freeze on all budgets.

many universities still have executive chefs- chefs who cook for the executive team- I have made a few redundant who would never have been employed in the first place in any comparable company

Really? I’m at an RG place and we’re seriously out-competed by the post-92s on most areas of “student experience”, perhaps because they’re not paying for (as many) people to do research. Much better welfare provision, skills tutors, study support, counselling etc.

Nope none of that ime. Sold off student accommodation years ago, employability is a subsidiary that has to cover its costs or it’ll go bankrupt. No subsidised sport or gym. Welfare in the handful of FTe posts and less than £20k budget PA. No counselling

even then, they needed as many international students as possible to pay for it

Absolutely agree with PPs about how much 'dead wood' is at universities.

Across mine and DP's universities (both RG, me SS, him STEM), there are tonnes of academic staff doing absolutely bollocks all, and hundreds of PS/management staff just inventing and justifying their own jobs.

Meanwhile, normal, hard-working staff can't even get a brew to help warm us up as we nither away in our 18C offices 🥶

The only dead weight we have are male profs who are big names but do no citizenship, admin and are usually not teaching. It makes me wonder how much citizenship the male profs that people fawn over on here do (Chris van tulleken I'm looking at you). I suspect not much.

The reason that they have been allowed to get away with withdrawing so many resources is that a substantial percentage of academics are "uncle toms", servile to the master and backbitting and horrible to their equals or who they view as their inferiors. I have often wondered if I was seeing the same person when they interacted with a boss, a previously gruff and totally offish person was transformed into a model of congeniality.In that type of situation, the uncle Tom will escalate his performance, aka brown-nosing, while, of course, looking for any opportunity to downgrade a colleague. If there was more solidarity in academia, It would be far more difficult to introduce these measures. The late, great David Graeber analyses this issues very well here

publicanthropologist.cmi.no/2017/10/11/academic-politics-of-silencing/#david-graeber.

We don't have that much dead wood, in the sense everyone is teaching and doing research, but we definitely have a lot of older male professors who don't do admin or citizenship or reply to student emails, and of course there are no consequences

Instead they keep imposing more and more processes on all of us when the real problem is the handful of people who don't do their jobs properly, so their laziness makes more work for us!

No dead wood within my department at all. There used to be, but they retired many years ago. Everybody more or less works equally.

I cannot comment across our whole university, but I certainly do not recognise these staff who’ve retired but still get paid in our department. Our HR would never allow this to happen. My god the chance would be a fine thing. Ours is quite the opposite with our workload micro managed to the nth degree. No idea if our v well paid university execs have a private chef.

I’m at a post 92 and there is student wellbeing, counselling, careers service, loads of library staff running excellent workshops, etc. student support is really good.

Talking of tea and coffee……there’s no longer tea, coffee or biscuits on open days for applicants or parents. Also no free pens, bags of jelly beans, etc that there used to be. I spend open days sat at an empty table and it’s rather embarrassing.

The worst cost saving is that we have cut travel bursaries which allowed care experienced applicants to attend our open days. The cost was minuscule but it went. And yet we still have a full wine cellar for official dinners and a full time chauffeur with a very fancy car for the principal

I found it counterproductive

In fact, there are several retired emeritus professors (me among them) who receive no salary and do service for the university. we literally volunteer our time!