Oxford Brookes University has announced plans to cut jobs that academics fear could amount to some departments being reduced by nearly half.
The University and College Union (UCU) has warned that 48 posts are at risk at the institution. The university blamed “external factors” for its financial problems, including inflation, the frozen undergraduate fee level and increases in staff pay and pension contributions.
The university enrols staff in the Teachers Pension Scheme (TPS), which faces contribution hikes of 5 per cent from April, and also participates in the national bargaining system that added between 5 and 8 per cent to staff pay this year.
But Nick Varney, the southwest regional official for UCU, claimed it had been told only weeks ago that the university was on a stable financial footing.
