Open letter sent from Newcastle University Universities and College Union (UCU) Negotiators to University Council chair members.

REDACTED VERSION [redactions due to imposition of strict confidentiality upon UCU negotiators. Of course, staff are free to ask for transparency on such questions at the upcoming Town Halls from the Vice Chancellor].

Letter to University Council, the Chair of Council,

Dear colleague,

Thank for taking the time to consider the following message. Apologies for its necessarily last minute nature. I have tried to get emails for all Councillors. I would appreciate if this could be circulated.

I am branch chair and a negotiator for the Newcastle University branch of university staff union, the UCU.

Firstly, I would like to offer as to present an employee counter-proposal regarding the declaration of a redundancy situation at the Council away day on Monday, which will presumably have to approve plans to enter the next stage of the process to make staff redundant. I understand that this offer has been communicated. I would like to repeat the offer or a future opportunity to do so.

Secondly, I would like to request that the meeting is postponed until all members can attend from the perspective of religious observance given that the clash with Eid Al Fitr the most important time of the Muslim religious calendar, rendering the participation of several councillor unreasonable.

Newcastle University is at a tipping point. The Council Away Day on Monday will decide its future.

So far this year, there have been a cuts package of travel bans, promotions freeze, non-replacement of posts. A third Voluntary Severance Scheme within the space of 14 months has just closed with the cumulative loss of around 44 academic and 99 FTE in PS February 2024 and 33.5 FTE in October 2024, in addition to the scheme just closed.  This has had a significant impact on working conditions and workload for many staff. The impact of this alone has had a demoralising effect on staff making their jobs more stressful and difficult. The impact of the declaration of the threat of redundancies has had a catastrophic effect upon morale. Every single member of staff—6455 employees of Newcastle University— was notified that they were at risk of redudancy on 21 January. Redundancy is recognised as a high-stressor and potentially traumatic event. In the current situation in Higher Education, many job losses will end careers after in many cases long years of service to the university. Even for those colleagues not made redundant this will have a demoralising effect, impinging upon the health and productivity of staff, a university’s most important asset and basis for financial wellbeing and responsiveness to the alteration in conditions.

No Genuine Redundancy Situation on Financial Grounds 

UCU has requested financial information from the university to establish that this is a ‘genuine redundancy situation’ on the financial grounds articulated in the consultation pack, as well as section 188 and HR1 forms. We understand that the university did not meet its targets of international student recruitment. However, those targets were based upon the false assumption that after the record recruitment in the previous year international student recruitment would increase once again and at the same rate. Failure to meet these unrealistic targets resulted in a shortfall of £32-35 million the figure that has been used repeatedly and widely misunderstood as a budgetary deficit requiring urgent action mentioned above to rescue the university from failure. The loss of income in comparison to the previous year is roughly half that. The £35m produced a budgetary shortfall not to be confused with a deficit. A deficit of £35m would be roughly a 5% deficit. The actual position is nothing of that order [details deemed to be strictly confidential]. Even if the university carried a modest deficit (on the basis of the ‘gap’ of £5.7m in the savings on staff), it could sustain this with ease.

The action that the University Budget Setting Group undertook from 21 September had the intention of rescuing the cash position of the university that was not seriously in danger. The university is in a net cash position, i.e. it has greater cash than its overall debt. Our cash position at the end of this financial year would not be seriously lower than the previous July [details strictly confidential]. There are only a small number of universities that are in this position. Compare the situation to Cardiff University with £400m bond and £103m (£33m the previous year); or Durham with an even starker cash position. We have done a more thorough analysis of our comparative position that is in the counter-proposal and we could present. We are worried about the decision making and lack of strategy of university senior management, working in silos and not mastering an overall brief.

There are interlinked dangers of decline through reputational damage and ability to maintain research culture. Investment in the university’s most important asset—its staff—especially in challenging moments is the sensible strategy. Newcastle University has the market advantage over many of its competitors that it can do this given its healthy overall financial position. It is a rainy day. That is what the cash is there for. Management are choosing instead to forego that advantage to pursue painful redundancies and restructuring in like fashion to others who are forced to do so. The threat of reputational damage—press coverage, NSS, league tables, student recruitment, disruption to education, attraction and retention of talent— is real. Consider the key categories in the global QS Rankings: faculty-student ratio, academic reputation, citation by faculty, employer reputation, employment outcomes, international student ratio, international research network, international faculty ratio, sustainability score. The current actions of UEB will damage each and every one of these scores, and if the decision to move to compulsory redundancies more profoundly. It is this ranking to which Chinese student recruitment is sensitive.

Ultimately, the impact of the decision about next steps upon the regional economy and the vitality of the university could be profound. Newcastle University is one of the largest employers in the region, and a vector of regional regeneration and growth, delivering skilled and dynamic young people into the labour market.

The government has no choice but to address the situation in Higher Education in the longer term and intend to review matters this summer, though this might not be all that we might want. In this context, the current action of UEB is precipitous.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to your response.

Best wishes,

Professor Matt Perry

Branch Chair and Northern Region National Executive Committee, University and College Union.