The University of Sussex is planning to cut at least 200 jobs – in the wake of more than 500 staff leaving voluntarily in the last 12 months.
The university today launched a 45-day consultation on its plans to slash the equivalent of 200 full time posts, across both academic departments and areas such as admissions, student support and IT.
The Unison union says the cuts will add to the strain and uncertainty facing colleagues left behind, and lower morale.
Although staff are initially being offered voluntary redundancy, the union fears compulsory redundancies could follow if insufficient numbers come forward.
The cuts are being driven by the university’s plans to reduce annual spending by £35 million, following a reported loss of 4,000 students.
Separately to the university cuts, 17 jobs are also at risk at the university’s students’ union and a dozen at the Institute of Development Studies, a leading research organisation and global charity.
Unison’s south east regional secretary Jo Galloway said: “Staff have already endured wave after wave of cuts and uncertainty. It’s unacceptable to ask remaining employees to carry even heavier workloads after hundreds of colleagues have gone.
“Universities cannot cut their way to stability while expecting staff and students to pay the price. These proposals will cause huge anxiety across the higher education sector and the South East, and the union will do all it can to protect staff and prevent job losses.
“Students will also feel the impact. Cutting jobs in student support and services risks damaging the quality of students’ education and their overall university experience.”
The university’s vice chancellor, Professor Sasha Roseneil, said: ”Like many universities across the country, the University of Sussex is facing the continued need to make very difficult decisions to address the impact of the financial sustainability crisis affecting UK higher education.
“This crisis results from the long-term underfunding of teaching and research, ongoing inflationary pressures, and a steep fall in international students driven by government policy changes.
“Since 2023/24 Sussex has significantly reduced expenditure through non-pay savings, vacancy management and cutting our capital programme, and 528 staff have left the University under two voluntary leavers schemes.
“Despite this, we still need to make further savings. That means we must now strategically reorganise our operations and academic delivery to ensure our long‑term financial sustainability.
“As the proposal to reorganise our operations and academic delivery may result in the loss of approximately 200 (full time equivalent) roles through redundancy, we are now consulting our recognised trade unions and our staff about this regrettable situation.
“Sussex has a deeply committed community of staff and students, and I am very sorry that we have not been able to avoid this announcement of job losses.
“The process on which we are about to embark will not, however, distract us from our focus on giving our students a rich, inspirational and high-quality education, and on supporting our staff as they make distinctive, inventive, and positive contributions through their world-leading research.”
US used to employ around 3,000 staff and be one of the city’s main employers, but had a big round of redundancies in 2020 during covid. I wonder how many staff will be left after this? Around half the original number? Strangely, a bit like the council, none of this cost-cutting ever seems to include fat cat managers/directors, just the bods on the ground who actually do the work. And they carry on ruining the campus with boil in the bag blocks for dwindling student numbers which would leave original architect Sir Basil Spence spinning in his grave. We knew things were bad when the 25 bus stopped going further than Old Steine. The students are not spending much money in town any more. They have put shops on the campus in a desperate attempt to get students to spend all their time and money there.
About 200 less staff, I’d imagine.
Universities UK estimate that government policy changes will cost the university sector £3.7 billion between 2024-2029 – dreadful that so many are struggling to stay afloat and dreadful that the government doesn’t seem to recognise the value of higher education and doing more to support the sector. For any geeks out there, more info on the financial damage being inflicted on universities as a direct result of government policy can be found here: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/latest/insights-and-analysis/financial-impact-government-policy
Am not just Labour bashing, as the Tories have a lot to answer for when it comes to not investing in education, but it is worth people being aware of why many universities in the UK shedding staff at the moment.
Just to add – dreadful for the staff affected though and am sorry they face the uncertainty of going through redundancy processes.
The University sector lost its way decades ago when Tony Blair decided that 50% of youngsters rather than 8% of youngsters should go, irrespective of academic ability. Universities were then forced to dumb down their courses, offer Mickey Mouse degrees and commodify themselves for the mass market, devaluing the whole point of attaining a university degree. Many academics spoke out against it at the time and either resigned, emigrated or retired early in disgust, leaving an academic brain drain not filled for some years. Then the course fees were ramped up and international students were aggressively pursued. The chickens are finally coming to roost 30 years later. The only surprise is that this unsustainable situation has lasted so long – where graduates are not only often failing to get graduate jobs after, but are finding that getting on the housing ladder and having children have also been postponed for years owing to crippling uni debts. Root and branch reform is now required which will mean the loss of many underperforming universities.
Housing crisis has very little to do with gradates and universities. There is also no evidence of a systemic exodus, pure myth. Implying widening access devalues degrees is contradicted by labour market data. Graduates still have better long-term employment and earnings prospects. https://ifs.org.uk/