UCU says UEA risks "double reputational hit" if it makes redundancies for savings
UEA's Vice-Chancellor announced this week that they need to find an extra £11 million in savings
The co-chair of a higher education union at the University of East Anglia is warning the uni's reputation will be hit twice as hard- if it decides to make staff redundant, in an effort to save money.
It's after the UEA's Vice-Chancellor announced this week that they need to find an extra £11 million in savings - due to rising costs and a recent fall in international postgraduate student numbers.
"It once again feels like staff are being thrown under the bus"
Nicholas Grant is from UEA's University and College Union:
"I think as staff members we'd be looking at the executive team, who are on huge salaries, to be thinking how and why has this happened again. Along with how they have't been able to weather this storm when it comes to the external factors shaping higher education, at the moment.
"We were kind of assured that there's been positive moves, in terms of the financial sector. There's are some really challenging external circumstances here. But I also think there's been a fundamental inability to attract students to the UEA, to weather those external storms.
"Staff are the heart and soul of UEA. That's people who are working as lecturers, supporting students and beyond. You cannot grow a University by significantly cutting staff. It once again feels like staff are being thrown under the bus."
The Vice Chancellor's statement:
Professor David Maguire said:
“Our staff have been informed that although our long-term finances remain sound we need to identify an additional £11m of savings from expenditure of around £350m to stay on track with our financial sustainability plan.
This has arisen because of inflationary cost pressures and reduction in international postgraduate numbers.
“Our student recruitment numbers reflect the typical sector-wide drop in postgraduate taught international students resulting from the last Government’s immigration changes, negative rhetoric and threat to the Graduate Employment Route.
“The financial impact of this drop in international students means we cannot rule out redundancies. I stress that compulsory redundancies will always be a last resort.
“I recognise that this will be unsettling news for the UEA community.
I have assured our staff that we will continue to provide clarity on progress and timelines, and staff will be given more information on provisional plans in early November.
We will seek to mitigate the impact of any measures we need to take, and any reductions will be made in a targeted way, driven by data, to protect as much of our community as possible.
“We have been open about the significant challenges being faced across the sector with the erosion of the value of undergraduate tuition fees, which are now worth around £3,500 less per student in real terms than when they were introduced. The Office for Students cites that 40% of universities were in deficit last year and that is estimated to rise to 80% by 2027.
“We have already worked to make savings in areas where no significant impact will be felt on our university.
Though the scale of the challenge is significant, we are one year into our three-year savings plan and we are confident that we will remain on track.”