Meeting held between university and union over financial reforms

A meeting has taken place between Coventry university leaders and union representatives after the group's latest financial report.

The meeting took place on Monday.

A Coventry University spokesperson said:

“We can confirm that we held our regularly scheduled Joint Negotiating Committee meeting on Monday, 14 April, involving Unison, Unite and UCU representatives. These meetings are held every semester and as such this was very much planned.

“We have reiterated in the meeting the university’s financial position and our change programmes - the Group is now in the second year of an accelerated change programme to reform and reshape the organisation for future growth, while also implementing separate resizing changes to match the forced decline in student numbers. Both are on target to deliver the required savings. The Group is progressing as planned towards 2025/26 when we will be able to add to our cash reserves, which are already more than double what the regulator expects.

“The 2023/24 accounts include sales of assets for more than £19million, an economic decision taken which delivered a gain of more than £4million to support the Group’s financial performance. Our academic union suggested that we should prioritise selling property below value over making staff redundant. This would not be a sound decision nor support long-term sustainability, and would therefore have challenged the Group’s responsibility for the use of assets.

“We have been transparent with staff regarding our finances, with detail on the annual report being discussed during our regular Vice-Chancellor roadshows across the university group over the last several weeks. These give colleagues the opportunity to ask questions of the Vice-Chancellor, as many people have done over the course of the latest series of events.”