Strike over language cuts at Aberdeen called off after jobs saved

A strike at the University of Aberdeen has been called off after the institution backed down from threats to make dozens of redundancies in its modern languages department.

Because of declining student numbers, Aberdeen revealed last year that it was to close single honours degrees in languages in a bid to reduce its £1.5 million deficit – but opted to save its joint languages courses.

Now, the university has lifted the possibility of compulsory redundancies facing staff in modern languages ahead of a six-day strike by the University and College Union (UCU), which was planned to begin on 12 March.

UCU had previously said 26 jobs were at risk of redundancy, across subjects including French, Gaelic, German and Spanish.

The university has been running a voluntary severance scheme, and the union said that while it was sad to see people leaving the university, the fact that no one was being forced out was a win for members.

“It’s good that, in the end, university senior managers listened to staff, students and the wider community, and have withdrawn the threat of compulsory redundancies,” said Rachel Shanks, the Aberdeen UCU branch chair.

“Hopefully, university staff can now focus on teaching and supporting students, carrying out research and knowledge exchange and all the other activities that our members do.”

Karl Leydecker, Aberdeen’s senior vice-principal, acknowledged that the ongoing uncertainty had been “extremely difficult” for staff affected, as well as for the wider community. Last week, the university also lifted the risk of redundancy facing Gaelic staff.

The university said both decisions were enabled after the institution’s governing court endorsed the outcomes of a consultation that took place into modern languages.

“We were able to take this step after receiving a strong set of proposals from staff in modern languages to grow income and reform the curriculum,” added Professor Leydecker.

“Together with clear signs of progress towards cost savings, we see a sound basis for future academic and financial sustainability, which we will continue to monitor for effectiveness.”

The UCU branch had voted in favour of taking industrial action by an 80 per cent majority on a 60 per cent turnout.

Previous figures had shown that just 27 full-time equivalent students joined the university’s languages programmes last autumn – to be taught by 37 staff members.

Professor Leydecker added: “We would like to give our thanks to our many colleagues who worked so hard to formulate these comprehensive proposals, with actions already under way to ensure that the plans are implemented at pace.

“This includes continuing to offer a full range of undergraduate joint honours degrees in modern languages, translating and interpreting, including Gaelic, together with taught and research postgraduate programmes, and continued support for research.

“New interdisciplinary undergraduate degrees are also planned that will incorporate languages and be an exciting and competitive offering for our future prospective students.”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com