The University of Brighton is considering closing its Falmer campus and has put unions on notice it wants to rewrite its agreements with them – a move described as “alarming”.
The university today told two of the biggest staff unions – University and College Union and Unison – it is scrapping its recognition agreements from June next year, meaning the unions will no longer be able to collectively bargain on their members’ behalf.
It also said existing agreements would be cancelled.
It emailed all staff and students today to say it was planning to close the Falmer campus, basing itself solely at Moulsecoomb and the city centre campuses from 2030.
The Falmer campus is currently home to its School of Education, Sport and Health Sciences, as well as two halls of residence housing 600 students.
Shortly after the announcement, dozens of Unison members held a rally outside the university’s city centre campus in Grand Parade.
A University of Brighton spokesperson said: “We have started conversations with our staff and students about two important elements of our transformation programme: the future of our campuses and the future framework that underpins our employment arrangements.
“On our campuses, we are exploring a preferred option to bring the university together on two world-class campuses at City and Moulsecoomb from 2030.
“”We believe this could create a more connected and sustainable university, with world-class facilities, modern technology and outstanding spaces for learning, research, collaboration and innovation, while strengthening our relationship with the city, its communities and employers.
“We have also begun discussions with our recognised trade unions about a future framework for employment arrangements and a new recognition agreement.
“We greatly value the role our trade unions play in representing colleagues and contributing to university life, and we remain committed to working collaboratively with them throughout this process.
“We are approaching both of these conversations openly and transparently. We value the insight, expertise, challenge and creativity that our colleagues, students, trade unions and partners bring, and we want them to help shape the future of the University of Brighton with us.”
Unison general secretary Andrea Egan said: “University workers are bewildered why this is happening. They just want to create the best learning environment possible, but feel undermined and undervalued.”
Unison south east regional manager Liam Kenny said the decision is “disappointing and alarming”.
He said: “Silencing the collective voice of workers who care deeply about providing students with a fantastic university experience will be hugely damaging to the University of Brighton’s reputation.
“There is still time to do the right thing. We urge the vice chancellor to reconsider, talk to us about their concerns and keep working with the unions.”
UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “For the University of Brighton to even consider removing the rights of its staff to join a recognised union is scandalous.
“Rather than disenfranchising staff just as the new academic year begins, management should be working with staff and trade unions to ensure a more secure future for staff and students across Sussex.
“We are taking to the streets at TUC Congress in Brighton to show that we will now allow our members rights to be trampled on, and call on the university to rethink its plans.”
Any reason why? Are student numbers dropping?
Most likely financial pressures. I suspect David Hall embezzling £2.5m was just the tip of the iceberg. Dropping the Meads campus was clearly part of a longer term strategy to drop healthcare courses as they are very expensive to run and the NHS had gutted their funding for them. They will leave a big hole when they close this down as outside London there aren’t many Universities in the south east pushing the healthcare anymore. No idea what this means for the medical school as that’s a joint venture with Sussex.
International student numbers are, for sure. The frozen student fees and increased cost of doing business mean that even if home student numbers stay fixed, the uni is doing worse over time.
Excellent point.
University numbers have been the same and even increasing on one courses – fees though haven’t increased for a long time, foreign student numbers are capped, costs of running institutions have gone up and other higher profile Universities are hoovering up students in vast numbers to pay their own costs… Plus there’s been 20 years of financial mismanagement and white elephant project in Brighton Uni – the Moulescoomb build, Hastings closure, the million quid bridge over the Lewes Road etc etc
This used to be a uni with a bright future they might as well call it: The Shrinkton University!
I wonder how many highly paid non-teaching ‘professional’ staff have been recruited in recent years and what they are contributing? This is an absolutely disgraceful move, demoralising and punishing front-line staff and ultimately students for the results of poor decisions made by neither.
Students from wealthy, predominantly white backgrounds who have a limited mind who’ve never had a job go on protest about social injustice. What do these arty types know about financial pressures
It’s the staff, not the students, protesting. Read the article properly. And given the amount of debt the average student takes on, I’d suggest they are more than familiar with the concept of financial pressure. And I’m sure some of the science and tech undergraduates would be surprised to be called “arty”.
I’m not sure it’s the students with the “limited mind”.
Can anyone else smell an incoming proposal for a new housing estate on the Falmer site ?
Not a bad idea, housing is in demand and I’m sure there will be worse ideas for the site.
‘World class campuses’? What a load of nonsense.
Mithras House…. “world class” – at least someone has a sense of humour!
I worked at the UoB for over thirty years, for the first two-thirds of that period we were encouraged to develop research-led teaching, and for many years this thrived, we over-achieved in research assessments, the culture was broadly positive and collegiate. Somewhere along the way it all changed, the new management (a bit of a cliquey old network, for sure) became insular and non-communicative and turned to favour the ‘pile-’em-high-teach-’em-cheap’ thinking that has devastated the sector overall. It was the only way they said. In subsequent years I have watched, dismayed and appalled, as, with its new leadership at the helm, the University’s has plummeted down the rankings tables. So poor was their collective governance and oversight that one of the university’s financial controllers was able to embezzle over £2m; they gambled on the Moulsecoomb development at a time when student numbers were falling and student debt increasing, such that they were left with several white elephants to offload; they closed the old Virgin gym facility at Falmer to refurbish and house a sports development department relocated from Eastbourne and now, all bets are off for that too. A terrible mess, all told. So finally, the management has turned on the staff, whose goodwill has been exploited and taken for granted for years, and the unions who have represented them. Led by donkeys is not the half of it – the stories I could tell.
I wonder if someone’s made them an offer for the Falmer campus, now they have built all that new stuff along Lewes Road and they are presenting it as having to shed staff to avoid VR payments.
Bang goes my burger flipping Doctorate.