Staff at UEA striking today - as threat of redundancies looms
In February, 82% of University and College Union members working at UEA voted in favour of strike action
Last updated 26th Mar 2025
Staff at the University of East Anglia are striking today - as they fight planned job cuts of 163 full-time equivalent roles.
Management there say they need to make £11 million in savings to stay on track with their long-term financial plans, and haven't ruled out making compulsory redundancies.
In February, 82% of University and College Union members working at UEA voted in favour of strike action.
Negotiations between the Union and senior decision-makers at the organisation remain on-going.
"Our working conditions are their learning conditions"
Dr Nick Grant is co-chair of the University and College Union at UEA:
"The message to students would be to support members of staff at the University.
"We don't take this action lightly and we believe that we're striking for the best interests of students and the entire institution.
"Our working conditions are their learning conditions."
He says there could be serious long-term consequences from these plans:
"If this were to happen there would be a lot of work for the executive team to do, to re-build trust with staff.
"We also think it would be detrimental for the student experience, when staff morale would be so low after losing some of their colleagues down the corridor.
"If they would then be picking up the workload from this, we worry what impact that would on staff's ability to teach."
According to the business case published in November 2024, management intends to cut:
-At least 30 staff in the faculty of medicine & health sciences
-25 in the faculty of science
-22 in the faculty of arts & humanities
-At least 90 from departments across professional services.
This dispute follows over 400 posts being removed in 2023 due to management's projected £40m deficit in that year.
Something that was done through voluntary severance, voluntary redundancy and the removal of vacant posts.
What has the University said on this?
A UEA spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the UCU has taken this decision but we assure our students that we will make every effort to ensure their student learning experience is protected and they are made fully aware of support services available to them.”
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