In light of the £35 million deficit that Newcastle University is facing, they have declared in a recent communication to staff that they are looking for 300 people to take voluntary severance (staff will receive full pay for 9 months) from both academic and professional services staff across the different faculties. However, the University stated in their email to staff that they “will continue to plan for the possibility of compulsory redundancies”, ultimately looking for a 5% reduction in staff costs.
In response to this, the UCU branch at Newcastle University have voted in favour of industrial action. In their press release on the 11th of February, they cited the University’s plans to axe 300 jobs “in response to falling numbers of international students” as the cause. As of Friday 14th of February, the UCU have declared strike action affecting dates throughout March.
The University had also previously “sparked anger among staff in September” with a promotion freeze, ban on travel expenses, and halting of staff recruitment in their attempts to fill in the £35 million deficit. In his interview with us, Matt Perry also highlighted that the job loss had already started as casual staff simply “just didn't get the email” in September. David Bates clarified that the strike action would be about job loss as a whole - not just focused on the losses that would impact full time staff. He stated that this was “the red line” the Union felt had been crossed.
In their interviews, both Matt Perry and David Bates spoke of the next steps. As the University is talking about redundancies, they legally have had to enter into a consultation period with the trade unions. David Bates said that it is during this time “that employees are entitled to put forward counter suggestions” and that in order to do so, they need the University “to give us a lot of financial information, which we're currently waiting for. So there's quite a bit of water to flow under the bridge yet”.
Ruth Valentine told The Courier that she is “really hopeful that there's constructive discussion with the unions” in order to “get through this year and make sure that the students all get the teacher that they're here for”. She emphasised that “we don't want to be in strike action or action short of a strike”, even going so far as to say she was “really disappointed that [the UCU] met the mandate [...] because my worst nightmare is that there are strikes and it affects the student experience”. David Bates agreed that from the Union’s perspective “we hope it won't come to [strikes]”. He said, prior to the announcement of the strikes, that “we're gonna fight tooth and nail for it not to come to that”.
Indeed, this wave of redundancies, and the consequent industrial action, is coming amidst a wider crisis in Higher Education. Matt Perry, Ruth Valentine, and David Bates all agreed on the point that the current system is flawed. David Bates stated that “if you rely on international recruitment to subsidize everything, then it's a recipe for disaster”. Ruth Valentine also said: “I agree with UCU on this, we can't just keep relying on international students” as there are “about 14% less international students in the UK”, a massive drop that Newcastle University did not anticipate. Despite monitoring the situation, the University, like the rest of the sector, was caught unawares, “but obviously we are learning from that” Valentine added.
"I agree with UCU on this, we can't just keep relying on international students”
Ruth Valentine
According to David Bates, the crisis the Higher Education now faces is “the culmination of something that started in the early 2010s when the Tories got rid of the Block Grant and increased tuition fees”. He called on the Labour government “to act and act quickly, because it will damage the economy of the North East, and it'll damage the aspirations of young people who want to do a degree”. An article in the Guardian spoke of an estimated 10,000 job losses across the Higher Education sector. The UCU branch’s website at Queen Mary’s is dedicated to keeping track of Current redundancy & Restructure programmes happening nationwide.
Matt Perry spoke of how the UCU are facing the crisis on the national scale, beyond Newcastle University. He said that “the industrial action will run alongside a wider campaign: a political campaign in relation to Bridget Phillipson”. Bridget Phillipson is currently the MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, working as Labour’s Minister for Education. The UCU have written an open letter to the MP asking for reform. David Bates said “we need publicly funded higher education”. Matt Perry rounded off that “there's a Financial crisis in HE and Bridget Phillips is playing Tory culture wars”. Ruth Valentine compared our government funding with the much larger amount that many European governments put into their universities, stating that “you could say a government grant would be a helpful option” to avoid “putting the pressure on students to pay more”.
However, despite agreeing on the wider issue at hand, the UCU and the University both differ on how best to handle this flawed system in the meantime. According to David Bates, the University “seem to have taken a particularly draconian approach” in terms of the required 300 staff cuts, “so they need to have a look again in my opinion, or let other people have a look”. However, Ruth Valentine said “we are really hopeful that the voluntary severance scheme will be successful this time, and we don't have to go down redundancies”. Whilst David Bates said “we're taking industrial action, you know, because that's unacceptable. You've got to listen to us. You've got to negotiate in good faith”, Ruth Valentine felt that the University had “been open and transparent all the way through”.
When asked what else the University would be changing in light of the economic deficit due to relying on international students, Ruth Valentine’s answer referred to the University’s investment in their international campuses, despite agreeing “with the union that higher education funding is flawed”. She spoke of the scholarships they had launched to attract international students, that “we are looking at other possibilities of branch campuses”, the reason for Chris Day’s recent visit to India. She highlighted how this would “diversify our offer” and “enhance all of our student experience by having those opportunities”.
Matt Perry spoke of this investment, coupled with the fact that Chris Day is on a salary of £407,000, as frustrating for staff. He said that “it's the culture of turning universities into businesses when primarily they're funded by public finance”. He highlighted how this only exacerbates the stress staff feel whilst their jobs are at risk, which David Bates identified as “a mood of anger and defiance”, whilst Matt Perry said it caused “a lot of pain for a lot of colleagues”.
... the increasing cuts both funding wise and job wise were creating concerns about workload ...
Matt Perry also pointed out how the increasing cuts both funding wise and job wise were creating concerns about workload, and how that impacts a teacher’s ability to interact effectively with students. He highlighted how the “World Health Organization has said for over a decade now that the biggest workplace hazard is stress”. David Bates concurred, speaking of the frustration many are feeling “that it is their jobs that are going to be on the line, when really it's an issue of the mismanagement of the sector a very high level”, especially as “the unions have been warning about this for a long time”.
Despite the different measures proposed, Ruth Valentine assured The Courier this would not have drastic impact on current students. She said that under no circumstances would courses be cut whilst there were still students on them. However, in order to increase timetable efficiency, she said that, like every year, they will review and cut modules “instead of having 1000 modules in the database”, whilst she maintained that “its really important that we’re not reducing the research capacity”. However, Matt Perry talked grimly of the future of academia under this plan, of how “the culling modules and programmes where there isn’t high student demand” as well as cutting jobs creates a real danger of introducing “a dysfunctionality that gets worse each time you go through cuts”, reducing research areas.
Academia is “a career for life”, Matt Perry explained, “you spend eight years training, you eventually get a job in academia, and then we go and then we're all under threat of redundancy”. Matt Perry ended on the statement: “it is political dynamite”. The Courier will continue to monitor the situation to see where it goes next.
If any students have any questions for the University, you can use the links in this article for undergraduates and this article for post-graduates.