UK HE shrinking

This is a live page of all the redundancies, restructures, reorganisations, and closures taking place across the sector at the moment. Solidarity to all. This sector is vital to the country’s future and the vandalism to it unconscionable.

The universities on this list are the ones with announced and confirmed redundancies as well as restructures and interventions that drastically transform the working and learning conditions in their institution. More are rumoured about, and even more have been shrinking staff by not renewing fixed-term contracts or reducing hours of fractional contracts. These cuts are not as visible but are equally impactful, reducing programmes, stretching remaining staff, failing to have any flexibility when a member of staff falls out and the ensuing delays of support for students, etc.

Tag us on socials (@qm_ucu) or comment below if you know of any others we should add — ideally include a link to reliable information. Please do not email the coordinator address, those are other teams in the branch.

Current redundancy programmes

• Aberdeen, where management in November 2023 announced they would fold Modern Languages. The public response has been immense, compiled here by Aberdeen ucu. In March, they announced compulsory redundancies would be off the table after all. The university is looking for £12 million for the current academic year though it is unclear whether this is a deficit or a shortfall against projected cash generation.
• Aberystwyth announced they would axe the entire postgraduate teaching course (PGCE).
• Aston University put 60 academics in the college of engineering and physical sciences at risk of redundancy. There is a Voluntary Severance Scheme open for the entire university.
• Bangor University’s International College is cutting in administrative staff and permanent tutors. In previous years, Bangor has been cutting posts and programmes, including its entire Chemistry department.
• Bedfordshire restructured in the summer of 2023 and all but closed Performing Arts, made redundant 8 members of staff in Media, and reduced the School of arts and Creative Industries dramatically.
• Bolton has gone through two ‘Mutually Agreed Release Schemes’. MARS1 announced before Christmas, around 40 left, MARS2 currently awaiting decisions. The VC proudly announced the Office for Students agreed to a consultation on a name-change though…
• Bournemouth University has opened a voluntary severance scheme and compulsory redundancies are on the table. The university is also proposing to cut standard research hours allocation by 50% for all staff. They’re looking for £15 million which is a shortfall against projections.
• Bradford is cutting staff to find £10 million.
• Brighton, who have been in dispute for months. Their senior management tried to make 130 members of staff redundant on 4 May 2023. They have been in dispute for much of the time since, reaching 100 days in their strike. In early January 2024, they were treated to another email announcing a voluntary severance scheme.
• Canterbury Christ Church is getting ready to ‘shrink staff’ and have opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme.
• Cardiff is planning to cut Ancient Languages. You can sign the petition against that here.
• Cardiff Metropolitan University has opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme.
• Cumbria is dealing with redundancies.
• Coventry, who have to make £100 million in savings. There is a BBC report and a discussion in University World News. Every department has been hit.
• Durham had a Voluntary Severance Scheme open between November 2023 and February 2024.
• Edge Hill University announced redundancies in the Creative Arts department. You can sign the petition challenging these cuts.
• Essex is planning to force academics on a 45-week teaching programme, which would essentially destroy the idea of university as no research could take place. They’re reneging on the (poor) pay increase negotiated nationally as well as on staff promotions to find £14m to deal with a shortfall, not deficit.
• The University of Exeter has opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme (or ‘Exeter Release Scheme‘ as they call it…).
• Glasgow Caledonian opened a ‘Mutual Severance Scheme‘ on 4 March 2024.
• Goldsmiths has been going through rough restructuring for the past few years. And now they’re there again. Management has claimed a £13.1m shortfall from budget (not deficit!). They’ve already recovered £10.1 through savings in recurrent costs through VSS, post deletions and cuts to research, and Goldsmiths has healthy cash reserves. The proposed cut of 130 posts would amount to 25% of staff. The local branch has set up a support fund to enable them challenging this; and they are sharing helpful resources.
• University of the Highlands and Islands has had multiple Voluntary Severance Schemes, redundancy rounds, and course closures affecting the constituent colleges.
• Huddersfield put 100 jobs at risk in the umpteenth iteration of redundancy processes. In Spring 2024, management announced they were seeking 12% cut in staff (or 200 posts), all compulsory redundancies, after the waves of voluntary severance.
• Hull has opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme.
• Kent had a threat of compulsory redundancies, which some voluntary departures seemed to have averted, and then the compulsory redundancies came back. Since February 2024, they’ve got a portfolio of what has to go. By late March 2024, the university announced cutting some of the key departments in the arts, humanities, and social sciences, including Anthropology, Art History, Health & Social Care, Journalism, Music & Audio Technology, Philosophy/Religious Studies, Human Biology and Behaviour and the MSc in Ethnobotany. Kent is axing not only jobs, but entire programmes and departments. 
• Kingston has put its world-renowned Philosophy department ‘under review’.
• Lancaster is terminating a number of fractional contracts.
• The University of Central Lancashire is seeking to make 5% of its staff redundant. They have opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme and is looking to cut 165 posts. Thi comes after multiple restructures in the last few years, in 2019, 2021, 2023, and now 2024.
• Leeds Beckett opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme.
• Lincoln is closing their language department, and has announced a voluntary severance scheme. They are looking to make 220 redundancies — about one tenth of all staff. Up to half may come from the initial VSS, but over 100 jobs will be scratched through either further schemes or compulsory redundancies. The sum of savings sought for keeps changing: it started at 20% of budget, which became £20 million, and then £30 million. Management has by now announced they already made savings of £24 million through VSS and other cost cutting measures but is not ruling out compulsory redundancies.
• Liverpool Hope had a Voluntary Severance Scheme open over Christmas for staff on Grade 7 and above — i.e.: getting rid of securely-employed and adequately-remunerated teaching & research posts. Watch out for upcoming fixed-term posts to do the same teaching, we guess?
• Middlesex is making its entire theatre department redundant (13 academic posts). This comes on top of the closure of the Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture with the loss of 4 jobs. And the proposed removal of the Interpretation & Translation academic area with the loss of 6 academic posts, and potentially more jobs on the line in Music and in Dance.
• Newcastle has a voluntary severance scheme across all faculties without targets or numbers.
• Northumbria is slashing staffing budget to find £12.5 million. Their ucu branch shared a petition to fight compulsory redundancies. They achieved that at the end of March: compulsory redundancies were ruled out thanks to the local branch’s efforts and solidarity from students and from across the country.
• Nottingham Trent is under threat of restructuring and the resulting redundancies. At the end of February, the branch could announce that no compulsory redundancies would take place, but they lost valued colleagues through voluntary severance and early retirement, and some full-time roles were reduced to fractional appointments. This wasn’t the first restructure, following one in Modern Languages in 2021.
• Open University has a voluntary severance scheme and is currently targeting Associate Lecturers as well as staff in Professional Services.
• Oxford Brookes on 15 November 2023 proposed folding their music department. Their branch outlines the communication here. In the first round in November, 20 people left, in the second round about 10 people left. In March 2024, they avoided many compulsory redundancies, though still not in music. In April 2024, another Voluntary Severance Scheme was announced, sent to over 800 members of staff, through which the university sought to lose 150 colleagues. The university is the number 1 indebted university in the country due to covenants to cover new buildings (some of which are now being mothballed).
• Plymouth announced a round of cuts that will affect the Business School, Institute of Education, and the humanities (History, Art History, English, Politics). They’re starting with a voluntary scheme in May and will move to compulsory in July. The numbers imply 16-22 job losses. The university previously spent £27 million in severance payment in four years from 2016-17 to 2019-20.
• University of St Mark & St John in Plymouth (Plymouth Marjon) proposed 27FTE redundancies in late November 2023. Roughly 24 FTE have left by Spring 2024.
• Portsmouth has put 400 members of staff at risk. The university is planning to make 50 redundancies among full time academic roles but and the risk further affects staff in all roles; this elimination of a large numbers jobs ini one swoop will effect a huge effect on the city. The university just made a £250m investment in estates though.
• QMUL has opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme and is planning to merge two Schools, the School of English & Drama, and the School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film. We keep track of all info and news on this webpage.
• Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh opened a Voluntary Exit Scheme.
• Robert Gordon University opened a voluntary severance scheme for qualifying staff across the university.
• Roehampton has once gain opened ‘Flexible Futures’ schemes to encourage staff to leave. This comes after they put half of their academics at risk in 2022. AdvanceHE was deeply involved in this slashing.
• Sheffield Hallam is trying to appease banks, as reported in Times Higher Education. Mid-December 2023, they opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme. The local branch’s response to a briefing raised key questions. In March 2024, Hallam declared 120 staff faced redundancy. By April, that was 225 academic jobs up for axing, with up to 80 staff facing compulsory redundancy
• SOAS is firing-and-rehiring staff in their Foundation Programme.
• South Wales is opening a voluntary severance scheme without articulating how much they have to save, how many people they want to leave, and whether the cost saving would go towards filling a deficit or a shortfall against target cash generation.
• Staffordshire is cutting 100 posts, as reported by the bbc.
• Sunderland is seeking to close the unique National Glass Centre.
• Surrey already went through redundancies in 2019. That they’re back at the stage where they’ve opened a voluntary severance scheme shows how little redundancies solve the problem. This petition outlines the situation and urges a rethinking. The university is looking for £10 million but didn’t not outline how many posts they’re aiming to cut. Over Easter 2024, 130 staff took voluntary severance, and the university has announced 45 professional services and academic staff are at risk of redundancy.
• At Swansea, nearly 200 members of staff already left under a Voluntary Severance Scheme.
• Teesside opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme ‘to review how we deliver our business’…
• UCL is getting rid of double figures of fixed term staff in their History department, drastically reducing the module offering, sacrificing student-staff long term support, and increasing the workload of remaining staff.
• The University of the West of England announced they needed 100 colleagues to leave via a ‘voluntary’ severance scheme.  
• Winchester was served notice of proposed cuts. The university is proposing job cuts of up to 40 jobs and detrimental changes to the workload allocation model.
• Worcester has opened a Voluntary Severance Scheme.
• The University of York had a Voluntary Severance Scheme for staff in Professional Services in 2023, and a wider voluntary severance scheme in April 2024.
• The University of York St John announced they’re going to find £4-5m in savings this financial year, on the back of staff. This comes after multiple rounds of Voluntary Severance Schemes in previous years.

In recent years

• Birkbeck (the unique university with evening classes built to enable workers to get a university education) tried to cut 140 jobs.
• Chester
• The University for the Creative Arts closed their campus in Rochester and moved to colleges in Surrey. This move resulted in redundancies and programme closures. The building in Rochester is now possibly being turned into flats.
• De Montfort University tried to get rid of 58 colleagues — to big public outrage in the petition against it. The branch’s analysis is forensic and a helpful template to draw inspiration from. UCU national helped the industrial action.
• In 2021-22, Kingston axed subjects that had been excelling in research for years, including Politics, International Relations, Human Rights, History, etc. The local branch kept a record here.
• Leeds cut heavily in its Music and Performing Arts School in 2023, getting rid of about a fifth of its full time academic staff.
• Leicester went through a gruesome and ideologically-driven restructure. Those who got made redundant have recently won their employment tribunals.
• Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts threatened compulsory redundancies in 2022; these became a voluntary severance scheme.
• Plymouth had a round of redundancies in 2018, 2019 and carried into 2020
• Salford
• Sheffield has been forced through so many restructures it is unclear what management is trying to achieve.
• There multiple consultations at Southampton in 2017-18, with both voluntary severance and compulsory redundancies.
• UEA got dramatically restructured, with many facing months of uncertainty about redundancies (and a couple of people leaving). Their VC got a nice bonus upon departure.
• UCL had a voluntary severance scheme in 2022-23. The Academic Board discussed it 13 September, the webpage went live 14 October, the Scheme itself was open for applications from 28 November 2022 to midnight Sunday 15 January 2023. Unions were not meaningfully consulted despite records to the contrary.
• Wolverhampton threatened 250 jobs in July 2022, to fill a £20 million deficit. 138 colleagues were made to leave.
• The University of York had a Voluntary Severance Scheme for staff in Professional Services in 2023.

Branch responses and counter-arguments

• De Montfort University had a thorough response to the job cuts in 2022.
• Oxford Brookes drew up a financial analysis and a helpful overview of strategic demands.
• QMUL has no actual financial reason for the drastic slashing into staff resource, as we outline in this blogpost.
• Royal Holloway’s ucu in 2011 challenged the financial rationale in not one but two documents.
• Sussex breaking down the “Size & Shape” project.

Where to start?

Here are five first steps for anyone new to university work, new to union organising, and for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to start.

1. Help amplify the questions asked about the financial justifications and feasibility of the cuts. You can find branches communicating publicly via this list.
2. Talk to your local branch officers and see if you can bring your expertise to bear on a campaign – analysing financial statements, developing communication, assessing equality impact. Find your branch here, and examples of branches countering their management’s accounting here.
3. Read and share stories about university workers who have successfully fought cuts, who have won better rights, who have improved their working conditions. University of London IWGB members fought for their right to be in-house and won; University of Liverpool UCU members blocked compulsory redundancies.
4. Talk with students, let them know what is happening, find out what they know. Students can encourage their local Student Union to ask questions about the consequences of the staff cuts and why no other solutions are discussed. (the cuts will hit students; see this thread)
5. Write to your MP and make sure they know the public is watching HE and is concerned about the lack of concern for a sector that is key to local communities and builds towards the future of the entire country. You can find your MP here.