Voluntary severance- again!

dylexicdementor11 · 2025-12-08T21:51:39+00:00

I’m feeling so angry, disheartened and worried about the future. My university has announced another round of voluntary severance. UK higher education clearly can’t manage without EU and international students. Please could someone reassure me?

damekindness · 08/12/2025 22:44

I’m taking VS this time as the alternative looks like CR for me and Im nearer the end of my career than the beginning. I won’t miss witnessing the gradual degradation of what we do whilst at the same time having to buy into the magical thinking that it won’t impact on the student experience.

No reassurance I’m afraid l guess this is the new normal - but solidarity

worstofbothworlds · 08/12/2025 22:46

We've finally had compulsory redundancy taken off the table (fairly 11th hour too, so you might get the same).

shoots · 08/12/2025 22:50

Sorry to hear that. Wish I could reassure but the situation is utterly dire. Are you an academic or PS? Feels like PS has been decimated in many HEIs already.

We haven't been threatened with another round of VS yet but lost so many staff last time around that I can't see how my university could function on any more job losses.... although our highly paid senior leadership team are still hanging on in there it seems 😏

worstofbothworlds · 09/12/2025 12:02

I should have said that, yes, CR has been removed from the table for academics but not for PS, we desperately need MORE PS staff not LESS!

FlappicusSmith · 15/12/2025 16:47

I took VS last year and I'm glad I did it as I was slowly losing the will to live in academia and the constant threat of the axe was just completely demoralising. And that's as someone who was relatively 'secure' (had been in post for 15 years). The whole job was becoming increasingly unrewarding and, to me, meaningless - in the face of the endless assault on HE/ critical thinking/ learning.

I don't think I regret it. I retrained for a year and I'm in the process of career 'pivoting' and am beginning to get work in my new area. While the job market is resoundingly terrible whatever sector you're in (apart from certain areas), I feel a little more confident that I'll find work in my pivot area than I ever was of getting another job in my specialism in academia. In fact, there are no jobs doing what I used to do. And I felt like the longer I hung on the less chance I had of forging a career in a new area (a bit like my colleague who also took VS, but was too young to take her pension but too old, realistically, to retrain/ do something different). I'm just about young enough to have time to do something new (fingers crossed).

kualitate · 15/12/2025 18:18

FlappicusSmith · 15/12/2025 16:47

I took VS last year and I'm glad I did it as I was slowly losing the will to live in academia and the constant threat of the axe was just completely demoralising. And that's as someone who was relatively 'secure' (had been in post for 15 years). The whole job was becoming increasingly unrewarding and, to me, meaningless - in the face of the endless assault on HE/ critical thinking/ learning.

I don't think I regret it. I retrained for a year and I'm in the process of career 'pivoting' and am beginning to get work in my new area. While the job market is resoundingly terrible whatever sector you're in (apart from certain areas), I feel a little more confident that I'll find work in my pivot area than I ever was of getting another job in my specialism in academia. In fact, there are no jobs doing what I used to do. And I felt like the longer I hung on the less chance I had of forging a career in a new area (a bit like my colleague who also took VS, but was too young to take her pension but too old, realistically, to retrain/ do something different). I'm just about young enough to have time to do something new (fingers crossed).

More and more of my academic friends are leaning towards this attitude - as am I. The precarity is so hard when it's relentless and you're trying to live your life around it and hold everything together, but it just feels like you're just waiting for it all to fall apart. What sector did you move to? I'm looking into alternatives too atm and curious what others have pivoted to in terms of working out what's feasible.

MatchaTea1 · 18/12/2025 22:06

kualitate · 15/12/2025 18:18

More and more of my academic friends are leaning towards this attitude - as am I. The precarity is so hard when it's relentless and you're trying to live your life around it and hold everything together, but it just feels like you're just waiting for it all to fall apart. What sector did you move to? I'm looking into alternatives too atm and curious what others have pivoted to in terms of working out what's feasible.

Show quote history

I took VS last summer from a kind of hybrid academic and PS role at a Russell Group uni, I am glad I did as colleagues left are now being 'mapped' to alternative roles and if they don't like it then there is now no option of redundancy, only resignation. I got a new job in the civil service, it took a few months and about 15 applications, but I got there in the end. What I found useful was inputting my work experience and skills into ChatGPT and asking for suggestions for roles to apply for and it came up with some that I wouldn't have considered but I had the skills and experience for.

It's crazy how quickly the sector went from stable to this absolute shit-show. A job at a university - PS or academic - could be a job for life until very recently. At my department the longest serving member of the PS team had been there for 42 years, and most others had been there for 10+ years.

FlappicusSmith · 07/01/2026 19:02

@MatchaTea1 yes I know what you mean. When I went into academia 20 years ago I never, ever believed I would do anything else. It felt like a vocation. I felt like I'd landed the jackpot, being paid to think, write and teach about the thing I loved (something lots of people anyway do as a hobby). But the sector changed irreperably after the increase of fees in 2012 and then the strikes around 2016(?17) where when the scales really fell from my eyes.

Congratulations on getting a job in the civil service! @kualitate happy to talk more about my pivot if you want to contact me via DM, but don't want to put info here as it will be outing.

ViciousCurrentBun · 07/01/2026 20:25

DH took VS last year as a head of dept, 6 of our friends have left HE taking severance over the last couple of years. All were old enough to take pensions between 55 and 62 except one. She has found another job working for the WEA. I took early retirement before covid.

It’s dire plus also what’s it like for the ones left. You haven’t put your age nor financial situation. One of DH close friends is 50 so couldn’t take up the offer though he wanted to.

kualitate · 10/01/2026 17:33

FlappicusSmith · 07/01/2026 19:02

@MatchaTea1 yes I know what you mean. When I went into academia 20 years ago I never, ever believed I would do anything else. It felt like a vocation. I felt like I'd landed the jackpot, being paid to think, write and teach about the thing I loved (something lots of people anyway do as a hobby). But the sector changed irreperably after the increase of fees in 2012 and then the strikes around 2016(?17) where when the scales really fell from my eyes.

Congratulations on getting a job in the civil service! @kualitate happy to talk more about my pivot if you want to contact me via DM, but don't want to put info here as it will be outing.

This is exactly how I feel! @FlappicusSmith As an ECR, I'm trying to get out/retrain before it's too late!! And thanks so much, I really appreciate it and will send you a direct message soon :)