HSS Reorganisation: what staff & students need to know

On 7th February, staff at QMUL were informed of an impending reorganisation in the Faculty of Humanities and and Social Sciences (HSS). In this post, we are sharing important information regarding the process, and particularly:

The lack of financial justification

The HSS reorganisation and Voluntary Severance Scheme (here and here) are being presented as a necessary response to the financial challenges facing the Faculty. The justification is based on a supposed £25-£30m “shortfall” in 2023/2024. This figure has been widely used in staff meetings and it is made to sound like a very serious problem, but it’s important to understand what this figure actually means. There are three key points here:

First, following savings already made this year, the “shortfall” is already down to £16m.

Second, this figure is not a deficit (where you have less income than expenses). Queen Mary continues to put more cash away from the surplus generated by your hard work – £44.5m in the first five months of the year, which was in line with budget targets.

Thirdly, the figure is not a decline in income either. Income is still growing year to year. According to the figures shared most recently with the unions, Queen Mary’s total operating income grew by 11% for the first five months of this year compared with last year.

Instead, the “shortfall” that management keep talking about is a shortfall against a target budget set by management as part of their Strategy 2030. The aim of this strategy is to generate more surplus cash to spend on capital investment (i.e. buildings). Cash generation broadly measures the amount of income generated over what is needed for day-to-day expenditure. Improved cash generation is one of the 13 KPIs of Strategy 2030.

Queen Mary is, however, not short of cash. It already holds cash or short-term investments worth around £350m (source). Furthermore, over time surplus cash generation is trending upwards (see graph below). Management talk constantly about shrinking sources of income and a rising, unsustainable cost base. But this simply isn’t borne out by the figures. It only applies if you compare present figures with the post-Covid peak, which followed a recruitment freeze and a massive decline in Estates costs due to online teaching. Projecting from the latest figures shared with the unions, even after the projected “shortfall”, Queen Mary is still on course to generate over £75m in surplus cash this year, which is more than in any year prior to 2021.

Chart — _{^{(Sources: QMUL financial statements; 2023-4 figure projected from five months of data shared with trade unions at the Joint Consultative Forum)}}

HSS makes a huge contribution to the university’s overall cash generation. Even after the financial “shortfall”, figures shared in Faculty meetings show that HSS is still forecast to generate £91m in surplus cash this year.

Moreover, HSS already has incredibly low staff costs. HSS spends a mere ~35% of its income on staff pay. This is compared to a sector-wide norm of 51% in 2012/2022, which was already a record low.

We are also told that HSS’s contribution to cash generation is now forecast to shrink because of challenges in the sector. Forecasts are inherently uncertain and the underlying data for these forecasts have not been shared. So far, they are just lines on a chart in a powerpoint presentation given by the Faculty VP. But even these data show that, even if no action is taken over the next few years, HSS will still be generating surplus cash of over £100m by 2027/2028.

This apparently is not enough for senior management, who want that figure to be closer to an eye-watering £140m in spare cash. These unsustainable growth targets come from Strategy 2030, which were devised before the recent sector-wide changes, including declining international student numbers.

Looking at all this data, the implications are clear. The university is in robust financial health, and so is the HSS Faculty. The Faculty is an incredibly lean operation, and our financial performance is actually improving over time and forecast to continue doing so. Staff are being measured against totally unrealistic targets which envisage huge increases in student numbers, a strategy of hoarding surplus cash, and massive spending on buildings.

The real story behind the restructure

So why are management really seeking to reduce staff costs in HSS, where the university generates most of its surplus and where staff costs are incredibly low?

There is already a sector-wide attack on the Arts and Humanities. Rhetoric from government frames these degrees as “low value” and of minimal benefit to the economy, which completely overlooks the huge contributions these disciplines make to society and the creative economy. Universities are unfortunately reproducing this rhetoric themselves, and have proposed cuts in these areas across the sector.

Despite its financial strength and strong heritage in these subjects, Queen Mary is now in danger of doing the same. Management are telling us that the School of English and Drama and the School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film are problem schools which need to be reorganised and merged. And questions are being raised about other Schools unless they can show the ability to attract more “premium PGT” students being charged international fees.

Other evidence suggests that these disciplines are being deliberately targeted by senior management for political reasons. When Queen Mary Principal Colin Bailey was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Manchester, he pushed through cuts to Modern Languages there as well (see here and here). 18 months ago during a lawful marking boycott, he made a direct threat to close the world-leading Film programme at QMUL unless staff returned their marks. In January this year, he singled out the School of English and Drama in a letter to the Guardian when they published a story about his draconian response to industrial action.

The previous careers of other members of senior management also contain cautionary tales. The HSS Faculty VP was previously Pro-Vice Chancellor of Social Sciences at UEA, which has been undergoing significant financial retrenchment since she left. UEA undertook extensive staffing cuts, particularly in the Arts. Thankfully they avoided compulsory redundancies following a fightback by staff and students, but much damage has already been done. What led to the financial problems they faced at UEA? An unrealistic strategy premised on inflated student recruitment targets and extensive unnecessary building projects (see here and here). Instead of focussing on what they already did well, they tried to become something they weren’t and paid the price. Does this sound familiar?

The pattern of avoiding consultation

The way in which management have approached the reorganisation so far also gives major cause for concern. The process seems designed to create fear and uncertainty. Management are seeking a fait accompli by persuading staff they need to get on board with making management-led changes or risk their jobs, all the while avoiding meaningful consultation with the trade unions. Meanwhile, students have still not been informed about the impending cuts, restructure, and potential changes to programmes.

The campus trade unions only learned about the reorganisation plans in an email sent at 4:30pm the evening before they were announced to staff on 7th February. Union reps were offered an informal meeting “if it would be helpful”. But Queen Mary’s own Reorganisation policy requires management to consult at an early stage before proposals are made to discuss any financial challenges facing the university and the best ways to address them. The law also requires collective consultation with trade unions in the event of redundancies.

The UCU regional support officer wrote straight away to senior management asking them to pause the reorganisation process to prevent any further breach of university policy. But Faculty meetings with affected staff went ahead regardless, and at these meetings the Vice Principal started to announce to staff that there would be a merger of two Schools and a Voluntary Severance Scheme. When challenged on whether there would be compulsory redundancies, she said staff should have this “at the back of their minds”.

Meanwhile, the joint trade unions tabled a request to discuss the HSS proposals formally at the regular Joint Consultative Forum (JCF) meeting with trade unions scheduled for 26th February. They were prevented from putting the item on the agenda of the meeting. They were instead told that the matter would soon be presented at the relevant JCF sub-committee meeting which discusses reorganisations. But when management representatives were asked if a restructure was being proposed, they denied that there was any restructure.

The following day the trade unions were then formally told there would be a Voluntary Severance Scheme in the Faculty commencing on 6th March. The consultation with trade unions was scheduled to take place at the subcommittee meeting on 4th March, a mere two days before it was proposed to be launched.

So far, this process has created unnecessary fear among colleagues and undermined trust that any meaningful engagement with affected staff is being sought.

What staff can do now

Queen Mary UCU have already passed a branch motion which calls for:

An immediate pause to the reorganisation process and VSS scheme.
A timetable for meaningful consultation with the campus trade unions.
A commitment that there will be no compulsory redundancies as part of the process.

If management do not give these assurances, the branch will organise an indicative ballot for industrial action. The more staff stand behind this position, the stronger it will be. Now is the time to reach out to colleagues and encourage them to become a member of a trade union. Depending on their role in the university, they can:

Join QMUCU: UCU is not just a ‘lecturers union’, whatever the shorthand in the press implies. QMUCU has members among academic, research and teaching staff, as well as professional staff in IT, libraries and administrative roles, mostly between Grades 4-8. More information and link to the joining form here.
Join QM Unison: Unison represents professional services staff, in security, cleaning, libraries, IT and administration roles, mostly between Grades 1 to 4. More information and the link to the joining form here.

You can help spread information about collective work by distributing these flyers about what is happening and about how we work collectively.You can organise a meeting in your department to discuss the HSS reorganisation. Gather and share information (collated on our webpage) with colleagues about what is going on.

Join letter from the campus unions to the Senior Executive Team.
Letter to our governing body, encouraging them to reconsider the relation between strategy and reality.
Overview of the redundancies across UK HE.