Uni jobs under threat as Brexit blamed for falling applications
MORE than 100 jobs are at risk at a Welsh university after it blamed Brexit among the reasons for a drop in student applications.
The University of South Wales is consulting with staff on making 139 redundancies across all four of its faculties and support departments in its Cardiff, Treforest and Newport campuses.
The losses represent 4.6% of the university’s workforce. It is understood management jobs are most at risk. The news comes just weeks after it emerged there has been an 8% drop in numbers of applications to study at universities in Wales, from students across the UK and the EU.
Domestic applications from Wales have also fallen 7% – the steepest decline of any of the UK nations – against a backdrop of universal tuition fee grants being scrapped, figures from university admissions service Ucas showed.
At the time Universities Wales, which represents the sector, said universities face a number of challenges such as Brexit and competition for students.
Announcing its job cuts, USW said it hoped most of the jobs would go through voluntary redundancy as it began a 45-day consultation with staff and unions.
More than half of USW’s spend goes on pay and pensions and it is facing a 3% rise in costs.
It said external influences, including the effect of Brexit on applications from EU students, are a long-term and not a one-year phenomenon.
A University of South Wales spokesperson said: “USW is sustainable and financially sound. Although we’ve broadly maintained our UK student numbers, we’re in a market where the overall number of people going to university is reducing, and recruitment from overseas will be affected by Brexit.
“Like many universities, our costs are rising by over 3% a year while our income is staying the same.
“It means we can’t preserve structures and staff headcount in aspic because if we did this the university would, over time, lose its stable financial position. We are not prepared to let that happen because we want to keep investing in staff, courses, and facilities so that we can thrive and compete.
“We’re proposing to streamline both non-staff budgets and our management structures. Although the proposed reductions in total represent less than 5% of the University’s workforce, we know that this is difficult for staff who are affected.
“We’re offering a voluntary scheme to support colleagues for whom the decision to leave now may be the right time, and because of the desire to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.
“We’re consulting with our recognised trade unions, and senior managers are meeting personally with the staff whose roles are affected.”
Across the UK other universitates are also cutting posts.
Herriot-Watt in Edinburgh is making 100 redundancies because of the market, and has also blamed Brexit as a reason. London Met is losing 400 jobs and closing two campuses because of market changes and Manchester Metropolitan is closing a campus with compulsory redundancies not ruled out.
Welsh universities which have made voluntary or compulsory severance schemes in the last couple of years include, Bangor, Cardiff, UWTSD, and Wrexham Glyndwr.
Responding to the triggering of Article 50 to begin Britain’s exit talks from the EU, Cardiff University ViceChancellor Professor Colin Riordan said it was vital to continue welcoming students from abroad.
He said: “There are currently more than 1,300 students from other EU countries studying at Cardiff University and almost 1,700 staff from EU countries.
“They bring great benefits to Cardiff, Wales and the United Kingdom. This diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and is an important part of our culture.
“We are also a beneficiary of the EU’s current flagship research and innovation programme, Horizon 2020, and recently held an event to mark receipt of our 50th grant, making a total of £24.5m to date for our world-leading research.
“With all that in mind, it is vital that the UK continues to be a welcoming place to EU students and staff, and that universities continue to be able to access valuable and collaborative European research networks.”
The University of South Wales Group Unison Branch Secretary Dan Beard said: “Our members have had years of constant restructures, redundancies and uncertainty over long-term job security.
“Caerleon campus was closed last year ending our presence in the town. Our branch calls on the university to commit to protecting frontline staff and if necessary dispense with the increasing practice of retaining and recruiting highly-paid management staff which has been the norm in recent years.
“The union will robustly defend our members’ interests and will be consulting them once the full facts of the proposals are disclosed to consider the next steps that may be necessary.”