University crisis will see over 10,000 staff lose their jobs, fears UCU

The announcement comes as UCU launches 'Stop the Cuts, Fund Higher Education Now', a campaign calling for urgent action from the Labour government.

So far, this academic year, university employers have announced their intention to cut over 5,000 jobs (5,361), while at least five other universities have asked staff to quit but refused to specify how much they want to cut from their staffing budget. Alongside this the sector has announced over £238m of cuts and declared deficits of at least £30m. Were university bosses to plug these holes solely through axing staff, UCU fears around 5,000 more jobs could go (4,739).

Courses presently under threat include nursing at the University of Cardiff; chemistry at the University of Hull; and business and languages at Northumbria University.

In response to the threatened cuts, UCU members went on strike last week at Brunel University, are striking today at Dundee and Newcastle universities, have won strike ballots at the University of East Anglia and Sheffield Hallam, and are being asked to vote yes to strike action in ballots at Sheffield and Durham universities.

UCU said the cuts are harming students and that the government now needs to stand behind the sector financially while it develops an alternative model of funding and regulation that protects courses and jobs. The Welsh and Scottish governments have recently stepped in to provide tens of millions of pounds in emergency university funding. The union also called on the government to launch a root and branch review of poor university governance structures and outrageously high vice-chancellor salaries, which average £325k.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'UK higher education is on its knees with thousands of jobs set to disappear from across the sector, this will be hugely damaging to students, and some courses are already disappearing. Our union is winning ballots and fighting to protect jobs and course provision for current students and future generations. But the cuts university bosses are trying to force through threaten provision across the country, and with it the sector's world-leading position. Unless the UK government steps in, as the Welsh and Scottish governments have, this may just be the tip of the iceberg. We need an emergency fund to protect jobs and courses in the short term. Then the government must begin looking at a new public model to fund and regulate the sector.

'For far too long vice-chancellors have helped fuel this crisis by fighting to hoover up domestic and international students, creating a cycle of boom and bust. When times were good, they failed to invest properly and now they are asking staff and students to pay for the price of their mismanagement. Bodies tasked with overseeing university governance have been hollowed out and are all too often asleep at the wheel, allowing vice-chancellors to act like reckless CEOs. Labour should launch a root and branch review of the sector's governing structures while putting an end to university leaders being rewarded for failure with gigantic pay packets.'