Edinburgh University’s leader, professor Peter Mathieson, has revealed to staff that job cuts are among the measures being considered to address “the financial gap that we need to close”, which amounts to 10% of its annual turnover.
“Savings of such magnitude cannot be achieved by recruitment restraint or other small-scale measures,” Mathieson's email warned, as he stressed that rising workforce expenditure was “no longer sustainable and we must reduce it”.
The £140M deficit would be the largest forecasted by a British university during the ongoing funding crisis that has seen members of the University and College Union (UCU) go on strike.
Mathieson said: “There are several coinciding factors that have brought about the circumstances our sector is now reckoning with, many of which I have warned of publicly and privately for a number of years in a bid to abate this situation.
“These factors include years of income for teaching not rising in line with costs, steeply rising utilities prices, inflation, recent unexpected announcements on national insurance contributions, and rise in employment costs: these have all contributed to the fragility of the sector’s finances.
“Moreover, across the UK, we are facing a reduction in the attractiveness of the UK as a destination for international students.”
Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, argued the cuts being suggested are “off the scale”, suggesting a better alternative may be found in the university’s estimated £3B worth of assets:
“The University of Edinburgh is one of the oldest and richest institutions in Scotland with endowments stretching back through the centuries, so management’s threat to make cuts of this size is shocking.
“Prof Mathieson needs to use the billions of pounds the university boasts in wealth to protect jobs, protect provision and protect the university’s global reputation. Scotland cannot afford to allow one of its great public institutions to engage in academic vandalism of this scale.”
The announcement comes out of Edinburgh as a bailout fund worth £15M was unveiled by the Scottish government for institutions hardest hit by the funding crisis.