Cardiff University announced that it will be cutting 380 members of staff over the next 5 years to tackle its £22.8m deficit.
The plans were unveiled in an email sent to staff last night by the university’s Vice Chancellor, Colin Riordan.
In the email, seen by CJS News, Professor Riordan said, that he hopes to put the university back into surplus by the 2019/20 academic year by cutting 380 members of its staff over the next five years.
“This is manageable when compared to an average annual voluntary staff turnover of more than 6%,” he said.
“I would like to stress that no compulsory redundancies have been proposed to Council at this stage. However, like all universities, we cannot rule out compulsory redundancies in the future.”
However, the Cardiff branch of the staff union, UNISON, said in a statement: “We don’t believe the university is giving the trade unions the full story.”
The university posted a deficit of £22.8 million last year after seeing spending rise by 5.2%, whilst its income only rose by 2.5%.
Among the reasons for the cuts, Professor Riordan cites rising staff costs.
He said, “For 2017/18, staff costs were 59.6% of total income, which is the highest percentage in the Russell Group.”
The Russell Group is an influential association of the top 24 universities in the country.
Cardiff University in numbers:
- 6600 staff
- 30,400 students
- £482 million turnover
Source: Russell Group.