As many as 10,000 university jobs could go as higher education in the UK faces an ‘unprecedented crisis’, a union has warned.
New data from the University and College Union (UCU) showed 5,361 positions are currently at risk, with it claiming that thousands more workers could also lose their jobs during this academic year because of a funding gap.
According to the UCU, a minimum of five other universities have requested staff resignations but have not disclosed the target reduction in their staffing budget, while the sector has revealed planned cuts of £238 million.
The announcement was made as the union launched a campaign called ‘Stop the Cuts, Fund Higher Education Now’, urging the government to take immediate action.
Reacting to these threats, UCU members have taken strike action. Last week, members walked out at Brunel University, and strikes take place today at Dundee and Newcastle universities.
There have also been successful strike ballots at East Anglia and Sheffield Hallam, and voting is underway for strike action at Sheffield and Durham universities.
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “UK higher education is on its knees with thousands of jobs set to disappear from across the sector. This will be hugely damaging to students, and some courses are already disappearing.
“Our union is winning ballots and fighting to protect jobs and course provision for current students and future generations. But the cuts university bosses are trying to force through threaten provision across the country, and with it the sector’s world-leading position.”
Courses currently at risk include nursing at Cardiff University, chemistry at Hull University, and business and languages at Northumbria University.
The union warned the cuts were harming students and insisted the government should support the sector while it establishes an alternative funding model and regulation to protect both jobs and courses.
Grady said: “Unless the UK government steps in, as the Welsh and Scottish governments have, this may just be the tip of the iceberg. We need an emergency fund to protect jobs and courses in the short term. Then the government must begin looking at a new public model to fund and regulate the sector.”
The UCU also wants a “root and branch review” of what it calls “poor university governance structures and outrageously high vice-chancellor salaries”, which it claims now average £325,000.
Grady added: “For far too long, vice-chancellors have helped fuel this crisis by fighting to hoover up domestic and international students, creating a cycle of boom and bust. When times were good, they failed to invest properly, and now they are asking staff and students to pay for the price of their mismanagement.
“Bodies tasked with overseeing university governance have been hollowed out and are all too often asleep at the wheel, allowing vice-chancellors to act like reckless CEOs. Labour should launch a root and branch review of the sector’s governing structures while putting an end to university leaders being rewarded for failure with gigantic pay packets.”
Universities UK, which supports and represents 141 universities, highlighted that vice-chancellors had been forced to make very challenging decisions and called for the government to take ongoing action to help the sector achieve financial stability.
A spokesperson said: “The financial challenges facing universities in all four nations of the UK are real and serious. It is the responsibility of university leaders to ensure that they remain financially strong. This has meant that vice chancellors have had to take some extremely tough decisions. Universities UK is leading a major Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce to support them as they do this.”
According to Universities UK, “sustained action” is needed to “put our great universities on a firm financial footing”.
The spokesperson added: “We need governments in all four nations to grasp the nettle to avoid the slow degradation of our fantastic university system.”
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