UCU vowed to fight devastating cuts at Staffordshire University.
In a consultation document shared with UCU, the university has put over 100 jobs at risk of redundancy, with staff set to go as soon as next month. The cuts include up to 65 academic job losses, which equates to over one in 10 academic staff, and swingeing cuts to professional services staff.
The proposed cuts to academic staff include up to 31 jobs in the school of justice, security and sustainability; eleven in the school of health, science and wellbeing; eight in the school of digital technologies and the arts; and six in the institute of education.
The university's management claims it needs to make the cuts because of a supposed reduction in income, high inflation, and the burden of what it describes as a "cost-of-living" 5% pay award made to staff for 2023/24. Staffordshire brings in over £150m per year but less than half of that goes on staff. It has cash reserves of £73m and made a £13m surplus last year. The university recently spent £3.5m expanding its London campus and just last month announced a £2.9m Esports investment plan. Three of the staff it wants to sack are Esports academics.
