Edinburgh University workers have renewed their call on the employer to rule out compulsory redundancies as 350 staff take voluntary severance

The University and College Union (UCU) at Edinburgh University, said that given significant savings are being made through the voluntary severance scheme, the employer should now guarantee it will not make any forced job cuts.

UCU is currently in dispute with Edinburgh University over the employer failure to rule out compulsory redundancies, and is balloting its members in a statutory industrial action ballot to ask members if they are willing to take part in strike action and action short of strike. The ballot follows the principal announcing to staff in an email on 25 February that he was looking to make cuts of £140million, a move which the union said would see the biggest ever cuts made in Scottish higher education history. UCU is clear that there is no need for cuts of this magnitude*.

UCU Edinburgh branch president, Sophia Woodman, said: 'The campus unions at Edinburgh are deeply disappointed that despite making savings from the voluntary severance scheme, University management is refusing to rule out further job cuts. Edinburgh is not in deficit, and there is no need for the extreme cuts being proposed. UCU is currently balloting members at Edinburgh University for industrial action over the employer's failure to rule out compulsory redundancies. We urge management to return to negotiations to avert strike action'. 

UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said: 'Continuing with this threat to jobs at the University, when significant savings have been made and when this is not a university in deficit is ludicrous. Edinburgh University is one of the Scotland's oldest and most respected universities with an unparalleled reputation internationally. University leaders need to reconsider these brutal cuts and focus on their responsibility to protect workers' jobs and the university's reputation and future'.

* See the Edinburgh University Joint Unions Finances Working Group posts, 'Management is manufacturing a 'financial crisis' to impose staff cuts' and 'Cuts could kill our university'

In an earlier consultative ballot, 75% of members said that they would be willing to strike and 85% said they would take part in action short of strikes, such as working to contract and refusing to cover for absent colleagues or undertaking voluntary duties.

The UCU statutory ballot at the University opened on 7 April and closes on 20 May 2025.