Let’s be honest, none of us were really surprised when it came out this week that the University of Edinburgh is in fact not in a funding deficit. It didn’t take a crystal ball to guess that much like last year, the institution is financially sound, despite a strenuous year of cuts to staff and resources — so why should we even give this report the time of day?
The financial account confirmed suspicions that the financial situation of the university has been exaggerated to justify cuts, with a three per cent increase in income compared to the previous year, culminating in a £43m surplus. Given this promising turn over, how can the university possibly have justified plans for up to 1800 redundancies?
Whilst the UCU have been rightly intolerant to the financial decisions of the university, they made a deal in December, with a promise of no further strike action. Nevertheless, the UCU have criticised the actions of the university, particularly that of senior management, saying they refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
But here lies the importance in these financial accounts—as Peter Mathieson brushes over his devastating cuts that have taken place as “longer-term changes” for improvement, who takes responsibility for the impacts now? When will Mathieson and his team take accountability for the diminishing of this institution, and stop pretending to put out a fire that they themselves started?
From the Chrystal Macmillan Café to staff cuts across schools, students are feeling the fear and impact of cuts every day. Yet, students should be high priority stakeholders in the institution, making up 38 per cent of income through fees. Therefore, the arguments made by university management that cuts are necessary because this income cannot be sustained in the long-term is inadequate — English students in particular know all too well recently that tuition fees will continue to rise in line with inflation. Not to mention the increasing student numbers year on year, increasing class sizes and lessening support.
The university have not released anything that we did not already know — they have simply disclosed information that they are required to disclose. The constant fearmongering and ‘shock’ surrounding the University of Edinburgh’s finances is distracting us from the real questions — who gets protection, who gets sacrificed, and why are these choices constantly framed as inevitabilities rather than decisions from the top.
Image by Daniel Ghazi for the Student