The University of Cumbria has begun a consultation with staff over potential redundancies.
Although it has met its financial targets and grown its income by 30 per cent, it said like any business, it had to monitor staffing levels. It said it was aiming to reduce staff numbers in areas of low student demand and only a small number of staff could be affected.
It is estimated that fewer than two per cent of the staff could be affected.
The university says it employs around 1,000 staff.
A 30-day consultation process has started and the university said it was working with the trade union during this time.
We asked Vice Chancellor Julie Mennell to explain more about the situation. Here’s what she said:
As a Vice Chancellor with roles here in Cumbria associated with Enterprising Cumbria; Furness Education, Employment and Skills Task Force; Brilliant Barrow and Carlisle Town Deals, I know first-hand what significant role universities fulfil – directly and through collaborative working – in addressing place and skills needs.
It is a role which is increasingly tough for universities, not least given the challenges of a student fee freeze since 2017, rising staff and employer pension costs, increased inflationary pressures and changes in student demand.
University of Cumbria is not immune to these challenges.
However, despite these sector challenges we have had another progressive year of meeting our financial targets and have grown our income by 30 per cent in the last five years.
Alongside this we are investing and being invested in as part of our Towards 2030 strategic plan, including new campuses in Carlisle and Barrow and the establishment of the region’s first graduate-entry medical school, The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine.
At times, difficult decisions must be made. Like any business with competing demands for resources, we regularly monitor staffing requirements across all five of our campuses in Cumbria, Lancaster and London as well as staff who are based in industry to ensure that we direct our resources accordingly.
We have continued to increase our staffing as part of our growth agenda, in line with student demand and changes to our portfolio.
Sometimes however, we have to take difficult decisions to reduce staff numbers in areas of low student demand.
As we look to realign resources to those areas of continuing and increasing growth, this could potentially result in a reduction of a very small number of academic posts in those areas where projected students numbers are forecast to be low which may make some provision unviable.
We have started this 30-day consultation process and are working closely with our trade union colleagues during this time.
We all remain committed to the future success of Cumbria’s university and providing a quality student experience building on our strong foundations.
