UEA staff to strike over ‘needlessly cruel’ job cuts

Staff at the crisis-hit University of East Anglia will hold a one-day strike over plans to cut more than 100 jobs.

The University and College Union (UCU) has called the walkout on 12 July, claiming that it was “needlessly cruel” to sack further staff as hundreds had already left through a combination of voluntary redundancies, voluntary severance and resignations.

UEA announced the changes earlier this year as it sought to close a £14 million deficit that had been projected to rise further in the years ahead.

Last month it said 113 jobs were due to be cut, 77 of which were in professional services and 36 in academic posts, with arts and humanities departments bearing the brunt of these departures. The university now says the number of roles at risk has been reduced to 48.

The UCU said staff under threat could receive redundancy notices “as soon as next month”.

The union claimed that at a recent meeting with arts and humanities staff, new vice-chancellor David Maguire said 400 jobs had already been lost, equivalent to 10 per cent of the institution’s former workforce. This was the result of a mixture of voluntary redundancies, failure to backfill vacant posts and the removal of planned roles in certain areas, the UCU said.

These cuts meant the university “has already made the vast majority of savings it wants to, and sacking further staff is needlessly cruel”, according to the union. UEA disputed the union’s depiction of the meeting but confirmed that 100 staff members had accepted offers of voluntary severance earlier this year and that 179 vacant posts have been removed, in addition to the 113 jobs that were at risk.

UCU regional official Lydia Richards said members were striking “because they refuse to pay the price for a financial mess that management has created”.

She called on the university’s management “to work with us to avoid further job losses”, adding: “If it refuses to do so, our members have said they are prepared to take further strike action. This could hit the crucial student induction period at the start of next term.”

UEA was plunged into financial difficulties after it missed its student recruitment targets in 2021 and 2022, with a large campus redevelopment programme adding to the outgoings at a time of frozen tuition fees and rising bills.

The situation has prompted authors and alumni including Ian McEwan to raise the alarm about the university’s highly regarded creative writing course, which they claimed was under threat from the cuts.

The university has insisted that it will continue to support all subject areas in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities and anticipated “very few” redundancies in creative writing.

But Jeremy Noel-Tod, a senior lecturer in the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing, said that while this might be the case, the cuts planned across the humanities subjects would threaten the wider intellectual activity and interdisciplinary culture, which is what “nourishes” the world-renowned course.

The UCU has called for a commitment from UEA that no one is made redundant through compulsory means in the 2023-24 academic year, that higher earners are encouraged to voluntarily take a pay cut and for the university to publish a “thorough and fit-for-purpose student recruitment strategy in which staff are meaningfully involved”.

A spokesman for UEA said: “We are aware of the planned local action by UCU members.

“In May, we announced proposals to reduce our staff numbers by 113 staff across the university in both academic and non-academic areas as part of plans to save £30 million in 2023-24.

“So far, our voluntary redundancy and redeployment schemes have allowed the number of roles at risk to be reduced from 113 staff to 48, and conversations are still ongoing with those colleagues affected. Compulsory redundancy remains our last resort.

“In addition, just over 100 staff accepted offers for voluntary severance earlier this year. This is a difficult time for our staff and we are working hard to support those impacted.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com