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UNIVERSITY union the UCU demanded answers today after the principal of one of Britain’s wealthiest universities warned staff that “nothing is off the table” in the quest to cut costs.
University of Edinburgh principal Professor Sir Peter Mathieson emailed staff on Tuesday to inform them he had extended the period to allow applications for voluntary redundancy.
He said: “The gap that needs to be closed to secure the university’s financial sustainability is large enough and urgent enough for us to have to confront the likelihood that other measures will be needed in the near future.
“These might include restructuring, possible closures of programmes or even schools, mergers or shared services between schools, centralisation of some services, outsourcing of others: nothing is off the table.”
The move comes after UCU members at the university backed a vote of no confidence in Prof Mathieson by 265 to 25, amid a cuts programme they say is completely unnecessary at an institution which saw the value of its assets grow by £181 million between 2022 and 2023 to £2.7 billion, and in 2023 had an operating surplus of £12.3m a month.
Calling on the university to rule out compulsory redundancies, UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This is a deeply worrying time for workers at the university.
“UCU has already lodged a failure to agree with senior management over its refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies as it undertakes this current restructure process.
“This is an employer that wastes millions on capital projects, but is now seeking to cut the very staff who deliver the teaching, research and student support that make the university the successful institution that it is.
“Management now needs to change course and guarantee workers will not be forced out the door.”
Prof Sir Peter Mathieson, vice-chancellor and principal of the University of Edinburgh, said: “We are not immune to the challenges the higher education sector is currently navigating and, as they grow in urgency and severity, we need to ensure that Edinburgh remains strongly placed for our immediate and longer-term future.”
