Asked about the University of Edinburgh’s plans for voluntary staff redundancies, Sophia Woodman, president of the University and College Union’s (UCU) Edinburgh branch, was clear:
“It’s very counterproductive and unnecessary to be taking such a severe approach when this could be dealt with over a number of years.”
The Student’s conversation with Woodman, a senior lecturer in sociology, followed the announcement by university management last November of measures designed to address the “severe financial challenges” facing the sector by lowering staff costs.
These recent actions came in the wake of an effective hiring freeze and budget cuts of 2.5 per cent in July – a move criticised for coming after academic year spending plans were made.
UCU Edinburgh, one of the university’s three recognised unions, is not opposed to the voluntary severance scheme. However, Woodman questioned the lack of alternative “substantive” proposals, such as temporarily cutting back discretionary capital spending.
A university spokesperson told The Student that capital spending reductions were under consideration but that these measures would impact “both student and staff experience and our ability to deliver our core purpose: teaching and research.”
The university had a surplus between income and operational expenditures of £84 million for the year to July 2024, according to an annual report released after The Student’s conversation with Woodman, but missed its target.
Below the target of 7-9 per cent of total income, the figure was down by £64 million from 2022/23 bringing it to around pre-pandemic levels.
Writing in an all-staff email, Vice-Chancellor Sir Peter Mathieson said issues around international student recruitment, increasing staff costs, and the “multi-million pound increase to our salary bill” from the government’s national insurance hike meant action was required.
To Woodman, November’s announcement seemed partly to be an attempt to secure more funding from the Scottish government’s budget.
“[C]reating a crisis in universities is a way of signaling the government that there is a crisis and that they need to provide more funding for the sector,” she said.
highly inappropriate for a leader of a charity
Woodman called “effectively lobbying” for changes to core government policy “highly inappropriate for a leader of a charity,” pointing to Mathieson’s suggestion in 2023 that wealthy Scots should pay tuition.
She added that the UCU strongly opposes ending free tuition but would welcome increased government funding for the sector.
Current plans fall short of the compulsory redundancies, a red line for UCU Edinburgh, with Woodman mentioning that discussions on calling a local dispute to oppose their introduction “passed by a very significant margin.”
Yet, Woodman conceded that the unsuccessful and “precipitously called off” marking and assessment boycott from April to September 2023 was “a really bruising experience” for staff.
She added that her conversations with staff suggest they are cautious but not opposed to action if they believe it has a credible chance of success.
Woodman also noted that UCU Edinburgh has received good responses to a recent workload survey, particularly in light of the effective hiring freeze that has exacerbated a “culture of overwork” at the university.
Meanwhile, she also pointed to a failure to listen to staff providing advice on divestment from Amazon and Alphabet who are experts in this area, adding:
“The key problem has been one of delay and not actually taking into account what the experts in this area have said.”
On whether the university’s rector, who is tasked with presiding over the University Court and championing the views of students and staff to management, had succeeded at this since his election last February, Woodman cast doubt.
She said that “the position is a problem” having been “designed for another time.”
She repeated UCU Edinburgh’s previous suggestion that the position be paid as currently “it kind of assumes some rich person who has plenty of time on their hands or an excellent pension and wants to.”
Woodman also accused management of a “real double standard” in its commitment to freedom of expression by its removal of posters relating to the genocide in Gaza from staff offices.
“I’m not sure who is being harmed by a UCU poster saying ‘ceasefire now’ on it.”
Without directly addressing the “ceasefire now” posters, a university spokesperson said they can remove any materials placed on their property, particularly when complaints are received alleging that “the content is potentially threatening or could cause harm.”
“UCU Edinburgh Parliament” by Magnus Hagdorn is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.