The University of Edinburgh’s Welcome Week this year included a plethora of activities, a whirlwind of meeting new people, and a week-long strike from the University College Union (UCU), protesting The University of Edinburgh’s recently announced budget cuts and redundancy schemes.
Over the past few months, the university announced the implementation of several budget cuts, including one of £140m last February. This has been disproportionately taken from staff funding, leading to redundancies, cutbacks, and, most recently, strikes.
The proposed budget cuts of £140m comprise 10 per cent of income for the University over the 2023-2024 financial year, according to a blog post by the UCU. Kate Davison, a member of the UCU I spoke with during the strikes, informs The Student that staff began receiving emails from the university administration in July of last year, claiming they would be taking a look at the budget. A series of emails followed, eventually informing staff that budget cuts would not be ruled out. The Edinburgh branch of the UCU believes these cuts are not necessary; the university is one of the wealthiest in the UK, and it reported earnings of £1,434m in 2024. The UCU argues that, as the university is not currently in deficit – it operated at a surplus of 5.8% last year– these cuts are not needed in the first place. Claire Duncanson, another UCU member, stresses that the university’s reserves could be used during this period of downturn.
It is not only the severity of these cuts that has received backlash from staff and the UCU, but the methods the university is employing to achieve them. The brunt of these cuts will be felt by staff. Davison informs The Student that £92m of the cut will be done through staff cuts; this has resulted in over 1,800 job cuts. The university has also been reducing staff’s guaranteed hours, failing to replace leaving staff and freezing promotions in certain schools. This means that, though management has not implemented mandatory redundancies yet, staff are already feeling the effects of these cuts. Davison also details how the university aims to divide these cuts: individual schools have been given budget-saving targets and the responsibility to achieve these. Each school is adopting different methods, which will result in vastly different experiences not only for staff but also for students.
The university also introduced a voluntary redundancy scheme, aiming to cut back on salary spending. Around 350 members of staff had taken voluntary redundancy through a previous scheme, a number which is now sure to increase. I spoke with UCU Edinburgh Branch President, Sophia Woodman, who explained the ramifications of this scheme. It is aimed at senior and higher-paid staff, who are being targeted and pushed out, bringing into question how voluntary these redundancies really are.
These budget cuts and redundancy schemes led the Edinburgh Branch of the UCU to conduct a five-day strike through Welcome Week, starting on 8 September. “We’re sounding the alarm on this situation,” says Woodman. The aim of these strikes is to convince university management to return to negotiations with the UCU, as the last negotiations took place in June. Woodman says: “We [the UCU] are strong. We are united.” Strikers’ morale is high: though, as Woodman tells me, “people are angry,” picket lines have provided connection and conversation between staff and students. On Friday the 12th, strikers gathered outside Old College and were met with support from passersby, including drivers and cyclists.
Every member of the UCU I spoke with stressed the importance of these budget cuts and resulting strikes not only for staff but for students as well. Duncanson explains how cuts to staff would lead to larger class sizes, fewer course choices, and overworked staff: “Staff working conditions are student learning conditions”. Woodman describes how cuts are already resulting in programme and course closures, and the necessity of university management to hold itself accountable for this. Ultimately, this affects students and staff alike; Woodman says, “management will tell you this is necessary for the sustainability of the institution to impose these cuts. But, if you wreck an institution, it’s not sustainable.”
“Old College, University of Edinburgh (24923171570)” by LWYang from USA is licensed under CC BY 2.0.