By Fred Byrne & Emily Reid
Staff have retaliated against plans to remove degrees and cut jobs across 23 departments in five schools at UoA.
In two separate motions at the latest Academic Senate, staff and student senators voted to condemn the latest cost-saving plans and to reinstate single honours language degrees.
Earlier this week, University Principal George Boyne announced voluntary severance and enhanced retirement schemes for academic staff in order to close a gap of £5.5m that needs to be filled in 2025/26 to hit a target deficit of £6.5m. This comes weeks after details emerged about pauses on academic promotions and nearly all staff recruitment to save costs.
Senior management’s latest cost-saving measures were announced earlier this week followed by heated meetings with staff. Staff and student representatives on the Academic Senate voted to “express surprise, concern and dismay at the announcement […] of the savings targeted at academic staff in particular Schools and Disciplines,” with 54 voting in favour, 21 against and nine abstentions.
The passed motion continues: “Senate condemns any ‘reshaping’ to teaching and research provision which will fundamentally change this ancient university and […] demands a pause on this process pending consultation, further information and the provision of a detailed, evidence-based plan for financial recovery.”
At the Wednesday meeting, a staff senator from the Business School, where the departments of Accountancy, Economics, Finance and Real Estate will be impacted, said: “Let’s be realistic. Given the timeframe [of this announcement], the main solution is for people to leave [their jobs]. We are given very little time to plan for anything else.”
Another staff senator from the impacted Anthropology department said: “A lot of us are reeling, and we need to compose our thoughts. The University’s proposal looks rubbish to me.”
The Geography & Environment, Geology & Geophysics, Planetary Sciences departments in the Geosciences school will also be impacted, along with the Chemistry, Mathematical Sciences and Physics departments in the Natural & Computing Sciences. Additionally, all 12 departments of the School of Language, Literature, Music & Visual Culture are at risk, too.
In 2023, senior management targeted the modern languages department, prompting the #SaveUOALanguages and garnering international attention. Later, the University commissioned an inquiry from senior Law lecturer Greg Gordon who produced a report drawing lessons from the controversy. According to the report, “a formal Change Management Process should not have been initiated in MLTI in October/November 2023.”
The contents of the ‘Gordon report’ has been kept confidential by the University, but was referenced by staff at the latest Senate meeting. They questioned whether recommendations made in the report were being taken on board by Senior Management.
“Single Honours language degrees were paused [about a year ago] due to circumstances which were very unclear. The degrees should not stay paused because of a faulty process,” said one staff member ahead of the vote to offer modern language degrees again.
The passed motion reads: “Senate resolves to resume admissions and transfers to Single Honours languages degrees immediately and to return to full UCAS recruitment for academic year 2026-2027.” While the motion received 55 votes in favour, 19 votes against, and 14 abstentions, a student senator representing languages students shared reservations that newly reinstated language courses may lack quality given lower staffing.
Reacting to the latest cost-cutting announcement, Mary Senior, UCU Scotland official, shared in a statement:
“Staff are concerned that they’ve not been appropriately consulted on the proposals for voluntary severance and job losses, despite the lessons it was claimed were learned last year in the fall out from the Modern Language job cuts. This new round of job cuts comes on the back of a pause in academic promotions, which has already dented staff morale. So to be told that staff costs are spiralling, when the reality is university workers’ pay has declined by over 25% in real terms since 2009 is a further slap in the face to our members.”
Miles Rothoerl, AUSA VP for Education, called on the UK and Scottish governments to “step up”. He criticised reliance on international students for revenue and government inaction:
“Scotland cannot continue to rely on volatile international tuition fees to patch domestic funding gaps, especially when current UK policies actively discourage international students from coming here.”
Mr Rothoerl pleaded: “We need a sustainable model that recognises education as a public good, not a financial burden.”
In a University-wide email, Vice-Principal Jo-Anne Murray assured students that changes to programme offerings will only apply to future intakes, “however in some cases where courses have very low enrolment, there may be adjustments.”
After Wednesday’s meeting, Senators mingled outside a sunny King’s Conference Centre, one proclaiming: “we’re going to fight.”
