University of Hull carbon neutral campus plans go 'up in smoke' as strike ballot opens

The latest round of cuts comes after the closure of a voluntary severance scheme in May (2024) that led to 107 employees already leaving the university.

UCU can also reveal the vice-chancellor has admitted the university's long-heralded commitment to become carbon neutral in 2027 'is now impossible to achieve'. The university has borrowed at least £86m to help fund the plans, which were due to coincide with its 100-year anniversary, but now lie in tatters. The union believes the extreme job cuts are down to financial mismanagement by the university, including the now failed multi-million pound carbon-neutral campus.

In a video briefing shared on Hull's staff intranet from Monday 17 June (2024), University of Hull vice-chancellor Professor Dave Petley said a much touted solar farm that was central to the carbon neutral plans would no longer be built as the university had belatedly realised the national grid won't be able to use the electricity it would generate until at least 2034.

The ballot will run until Friday 27 September and a successful result will pave the way for strike action if the university refuses to halt all compulsory redundancies. The 127 staff are due to be sacked by Monday 9 December (2024) as part of a programme of cuts to save £23m over two years. In a letter sent to UCU earlier this month, the university claimed it needs to make the savings because of an apparent £7m fall in domestic and international student income and to meet the requirements of its banking covenants with lenders.

UCU believes at least 95 of the staff set to be sacked are academics, which would mean a loss of around one in 10 of the already reduced academic workforce. In some areas the cuts are much deeper, including in biomedicine (20%) and the faculty of science and engineering (22%), where around one in five staff are set to go. The plans include the closure of chemistry with existing students only guaranteed instruction until the end of this academic year (2024-25).

The university's most recent accounts show income is up over £10m to £209m and that it holds over £100m in cash reserves. In 2019 the university completed a £130m private finance backed campus regeneration.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'Management at the University of Hull bet big on huge scale green capital investment, paid for by debt and private finance. But has now binned its much-lauded solar farm and admitted that plans to become carbon neutral by 2027 have gone up in smoke.

'Now, senior leaders expect staff to pay the price for their failed pet projects and financial mismanagement. Our members are angry and will be voting yes for strike action, as they are clear there is no point trying to create a shiny carbon-neutral campus if the university has sacked the academics who should be teaching in it.

'Hull still holds large reserves and the risk of banking covenants being breached is very unlikely. There is absolutely no need to further cut the academic workforce in this way. Management now needs to halt the redundancies, be honest about its plans and work with us to take a more prudent approach before attempting to slash jobs.'