The University of Brighton is looking to make 110 of its staff redundant, blaming inflation and a freeze in tuition fees.
Staff were yesterday asked to take voluntary redundancy – but warned if not enough come forward, it will be forced to make compulsory redundancies.
The move was criticised by the University and Colleges Union (UCU), which tweeted: “Today the University of Brighton has announced its intention to make more than 100 redundancies saving £17.9m. But our senior management team have just spent a similar amount buying Virgin Active out of a lease.
“We will fight this failure of management.
“Brighton Uni has the 97th worst student-staff ratio in the UK now. Cutting 100 academic jobs will make things worse for our students.”
Among those whose job is at risk is former Hanover councillor and university lecturer Elaine Hills, who stepped down as a councillor as of yesterday because her job was becoming full time.
She tweeted: “Not the best news to hear on election day, yesterday.
“I stood down as a Green councillor to take up a full time lectureship and now my job’s among those at risk of redundancy.”
The university, which is in the middle of a comprehensive redevelopment, closed its Hastings campus in 2019 and is closing its Eastbourne campus, while developing a new campus on Lewes Road, with plans for more development at Falmer.
The university bought the Virgin Active lease in order to redevelop the site for its sport and health science courses, which will be based there from next year.
A spokesperson for the University of Brighton said: “As a provider of high-quality, skills-based education, there are significant opportunities for us to continue to strengthen our position as we look to the future. The proposals for change we have shared with our staff today will help us to do that.
“Like other universities and businesses across all sectors, the backdrop to these changes has a significant financial dimension.
“The decade-long freeze in undergraduate tuition fees has reduced their value in real terms by around a third, while the increase in our costs as a result of generationally high levels of inflation has created further pressure.
“By addressing the immediate financial challenge we face, we can make the most of the opportunities available to us and continue to ensure our future sustainability and success.
“We recognise that this is a very difficult and concerning time for our staff and we will be doing all we can to support those colleagues impacted by these proposals.
“We are hopeful that we can achieve the necessary changes in staff numbers through voluntary means, with compulsory redundancies only as a last resort.”
I will never understand how universities mismanage their funds so much, considering the inflated intuition fees they suck up yearly, they should know how their money will be spent.
Ultimately, this will hurt the students education, at a time when a class action lawsuit is already being pursued for low-quality tution failing to meet contractual standards nationally.
The problem is that the fees have NOT inflated, actually. Regardless of whether you like tuition fees (I certainly don’t) the cold fact is that Universities basically have a fixed income, and their costs have shot up in the last eighteen months just like everywhere else. Even with well-managed funds, if outgoings are higher than income you’re stuffed.
They’ve built the new residence blocks as a bit of a gamble, essentially. They’re hoping they draw in more students (especially overseas ones from rich nations who pay through the nose) than the project costs. The alternative, not building any new residences, carries significant risk of a lower student intake. Students can be very shallow, and simply decide not to come based on how shiny the facilities look on an open day.
Based on national figures, it looks like there’s a significant downturn in student numbers coming anyway. As such, the universities will be fighting tooth and nail for every possible enrolment.