King's College London ignored credit agency warning not to axe jobs

A report by a leading credit rating agency warned King's College London against making any more cuts to its staffing body, stating that more job losses would threaten the quality of courses, and in turn damage the university's reputation and income.

UCU has demanded to know why King's chose to ignore the warnings in the report and push ahead with plans to sack 57 staff.

The report, by Standard & Poor's, issued a strongly worded warning against cutting more staff, following job losses five years ago.

It stated: 'Further staff-cost curtailment will be quite difficult, in our opinion, as King's has already decreased costs since 2008-2009 and pressure to maintain its academic and non-academic services will weigh on its ability to cut costs further.'

The report makes explicit reference to the reputational damage King's could suffer through loss of staff which will affect its recruitment and in turn income.

It stated: 'Conversely, if King's reputation for teaching and research suffers, affecting its ability to generate revenues from overseas students, and if King's consequently decides to post deficits, funded by its reserves or larger borrowing than expected, then this could put pressure on the rating.'

The report also identifies risks associated with the university's enormous £662m building project, due to end in 2018, as a potential 'weakness' of the institution. 

UCU has questioned why the governing body of King's College, the College Council, opted to ignore the warnings sounded in this report, published last July, and has pressed ahead with the current redundancies process.

KCL plans to make £23m of 'efficiency savings' over the next two years, with a total of £12m cuts planned for the College's Health Schools.  The university has ranked academics on the basis of their research grant income and teaching hours. Consultation will shortly start with 57 individuals, but it has been made clear that any posts vacated will not be filled. Academic redundancies have also been announced in the Department of Education and Professional Studies. 

UCU regional official, Barry Jones, said: 'This report paints a picture of a university that is in robust financial health but is getting jittery about its huge building project so has hastily turned the screws on its staff.

'As the report makes clear, this is a counter-productive strategy. The loss of more academics will affect the quality of courses at King's College and damage its very strong reputation, which is a key currency in the developing higher education market.

'Why has the College Council chosen to ignore the very clear warnings sounded in this report and press ahead with these very damaging redundancies?'

A leaked email showed that King's College London has controversially asked members of staff to volunteer to cover the teaching of specialist health school modules to undergraduates, outside their areas of expertise.

UCU members at King's have taken a day's strike action as part of their fight against redundancies, which coincided with a planned visit from Princess Anne that the university duly cancelled.  Staff are now working strictly to contract and boycotting performance development reviews.

A copy of the S&P report is available for the press office. UCU members at KCL have created an alternative consultation document which can be found here.