Thousands of University of Nottingham staff told they are at risk of redundancy

"The university's administration sent letters to 2,700 staff on Tuesday, notifying them their role was at risk of redundancy after its leadership said it could run out of money by 2031. The redundancies are the latest sign of the funding squeeze and slump in international student numbers affecting even highly-ranked institutions such as Nottingham, a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities."

"The university wants to cut more than 600 academic and support posts through a combination of voluntary and compulsory redundancies in subjects and departments with low staff-to-student ratios, including physics, medicine and health sciences. The University and College Union (UCU) opposes the cuts, arguing that Nottingham's 85m budget deficit last year was the result of an ill-fated expansion campus known as Castle Meadow, which is now being written off, and one-off costs from the previous round of redundancies in which 350 jobs were lost."

"We would argue that there are a lot of homemade problems, including the Castle Meadow campus, but also their financial strategy of always turning surpluses directly into investment into new buildings. That has kept the university on the edge and this is not the first time that we are in a crisis, it's just the most severe one."

"UCU members have passed a vote of no confidence in the vice-chancellor, Prof Jane Norman, and backed a marking boycott that is likely to cause headaches for the administration in ensuring that students are able to graduate in the summer. Bieler said: Management underestimates what we can do collectively. We have started to prepare for a marking boycott this month and we have quite a lot of buy-in by members, so we are cautiously opt"

Letters were sent to 2,700 University of Nottingham staff notifying them their roles were at risk of redundancy. University leadership said it could run out of money by 2031 and plans to cut more than 600 academic and support posts. The cuts target subjects and departments with low staff-to-student ratios, including physics, medicine, and health sciences, using voluntary and compulsory redundancies. The funding squeeze and a slump in international student numbers are cited as contributing factors, even for a Russell Group institution. The University and College Union opposes the plan, attributing a budget deficit to the Castle Meadow expansion and one-off costs from earlier redundancies. UCU members voted no confidence in the vice-chancellor and backed a marking boycott that could disrupt summer graduations.

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