Mismanagement and the funding crisis have led to threats of mass university redundancies, and branches are fighting back but nationally, the UCU leadership needs to step up, argue Counterfire UCU members

Universities in the UK are once again in crisis. Cuts have been announced at a number of them as the fall in international students has hammered budget plans. These cuts are being passed on to staff in the form of redundancies. With university managements having put all their eggs in one basket, the chickens are well and truly coming home to roost.

At Brunel university in London, UCU is balloting members on industrial action following the announcement of 135 academic and 79 technical and professional staff redundancies. A joint statement with GMB, Unison, UCU, and Unite draws attention to how management are attempting to rush through a restructuring programme which had originally intended to take three years and will now be completed inside three months. A UCU newsletter highlights how concerns raised in the university council over recruiting increasing numbers of students from India were downplayed as international student fees were raised and the Tories brought in hostile immigration rules. Meanwhile, spending continued unabated on such essentials as football sponsorship, first-class and business-class international travel for the vice chancellor, and millions have been spent on consultants. Now staff are expected to pay for this mismanagement with their jobs.

At Dundee University, a forecasted £25-30 million deficit for 2024-25 is the background to compulsory redundancies. The branch is balloting for strike action and is demanding threats of compulsory redundancies are withdrawn, full disclosure of financial information underpinning the university’s financial position, genuine democratic consultation and negotiation on the future of the University of Dundee, and new governance structures for democratic decision making and transparency within the university. When staff were asked in a ballot if they had confidence in the University Executive Group’s ability to oversee, effectively and responsibly, the financial and strategic operations of the University of Dundee, a resounding 89% said no.

Newcastle University is facing around £35 million of ‘savings’ as international student numbers have dropped. Last week it was announced that 300 jobs are to go. A voluntary severance scheme has been reopened for the third time but if this fails to achieve the target, then compulsory redundancies will follow. A strike ballot is underway. To the credit of the branch leadership, rather than just focus on compulsory redundancies, the ballot also addresses the devastating impact these cuts are already having on casualised staff, many having lost their income as their work disappeared in the austerity measures already implemented. The issue of excessive workloads which will be exacerbated by any redundancies, voluntary or compulsory, is also on the ballot. A lively campaign is underway to ensure the 50% threshold required by law is passed.

There is also a ballot over job losses at University of East Anglia and at Sheffield Hallam over a refusal to implement the current pay deal in full. Newcastle University UCU has been instrumental in reaching out to other branches in the dispute. On Tuesday 28 January, it is co-hosting a ‘Fighting the Cuts’ workshop with the rank-and-file UCU Solidarity Movement to discuss and share strategies for resisting austerity and job losses in Higher Education (see below).

The question needs to be asked why the leadership of UCU is unable to show the imagination or creativity of branches. It is not the first time they have been found lacking. Disputes are being treated in isolation and there has been no attempt to draw them together into a campaign. It has been left to individual branches to make the links.

If universities are to get out of this mess, we do need improved governance and management as highlighted by Dundee UCU, root-and-branch reform is required. This cohort of incompetent managers and vice chancellors have to go, and democratic structures need to be established. In addition though, and crucially, the whole funding model for higher education in the UK, particularly England, needs to be changed. When we say education should be free, that means at all levels and central governments, in Scotland and the UK, need to fund the sector properly. Proper funding aligned with a change in the way universities are run, and a reset of their priorities can start to address the crisis which at the end of the day affects students the most.

 
Fighting the cuts – online workshop

Hosted by Newcastle University UCU and UCU Solidarity Movement

‘We hope this workshop will be of use both to new members across the union and also to experienced activists’
Tuesday 28 January 2025, 6-8pm  
For zoom link contact [email protected]