Thousands of staff at the University of Nottingham have been told to prepare for redundancy as part of swingeing financial cuts that academics say will harm the institution’s future.
The university’s administration sent letters to 2,700 staff on Tuesday, notifying them their role was at risk of redundancy after its leadership said it could run out of money by 2031.
The redundancies are the latest sign of the funding squeeze and slump in international student numbers affecting even highly-ranked institutions such as Nottingham, a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities.
The university wants to cut more than 600 academic and support posts through a combination of voluntary and compulsory redundancies in subjects and departments with low staff-to-student ratios, including physics, medicine and health sciences.
The University and College Union (UCU) opposes the cuts, arguing that Nottingham’s £85m budget deficit last year was the result of an ill-fated expansion campus known as Castle Meadow, which is now being written off, and one-off costs from the previous round of redundancies in which 350 jobs were lost.
Andreas Bieler, a professor of political economy and the UCU branch vice-president, said: “We would argue that there are a lot of homemade problems, including the Castle Meadow campus, but also their financial strategy of always turning surpluses directly into investment into new buildings. That has kept the university on the edge and this is not the first time that we are in a crisis, it’s just the most severe one.”
UCU members have passed a vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor, Prof Jane Norman, and backed a marking boycott that is likely to cause headaches for the administration in ensuring that students are able to graduate in the summer.
Bieler said: “Management underestimates what we can do collectively. We have started to prepare for a marking boycott this month and we have quite a lot of buy-in by members, so we are cautiously optimistic that we can change course on this level of compulsory redundancies.”
A university spokesperson said: “We know that change of this scale is not easy, and we do not underestimate what it means for many of our colleagues and students. We will be doing everything we can to support our people through the next few months.
“But doing nothing is not an option. Like many universities across the UK and globally, we face significant financial challenges and at Nottingham we are taking action to shape our future rather than have circumstances shape it for us.
“These are really difficult decisions and we have not taken them lightly. It is vital that we respond to the changing sector demands to ensure we are sustainable for future generations and continue to deliver world leading teaching and research and an excellent student experience.”
Lopa Leach, a professor of vascular biology and the UCU branch president, argued that the cuts to high-status departments such as chemistry would be self-defeating.
“They don’t seem to understand that these cuts will impact our global reputation and rankings and recruitment of future students,” she said. “The loss of so many academics and technicians will exacerbate further our research and teaching, let alone the heartbreak colleagues are undergoing.”
Nick Clare, an associate professor of geography and one of the staff who received a warning notice, said: “If you get rid of so many you’ve got no space for growth. You’ve made savings but where can you increase revenue?
“But they seem hell-bent on cutting deeply, so many people so quickly, that we will have a radically reshaped university that can’t then deliver what it should or respond to changing demand.”
