In the Dark

A petition is being circulated to halt a programme of redundancies at Newcastle University. Academic staff positions are being cut while the University, like so many others, suffers Death by a Thousand Managers. I understand that staff in Physics are directly threatened by the plans.

Here is the description of the issue you can find on the petition:

Newcastle University staff are in dispute with their senior management over the threat of ill-considered and unnecessary redundances that are imperilling the future of our institution. We call on the University Executive Board (UEB) to abandon this destructive policy.

On Thursday 8th May 2025, 153 academic colleagues were summoned at short notice to meetings with UEB where they were told they have been placed in ‘redundancy pools’ with 38 of them to be laid off. In an unpleasant twist, they will be forced to compete against each other in an academic equivalent of ‘The Hunger Games.’ 

To add insult to injury, on the day staff were threatened with redundancy they were also invited to a ‘Doodling for Wellbeing’ session. ‘Let your pen dance across the page,’ they were told, as ‘a perfect escape from the everyday hustle and bustle.’ 

Such crassness is emblematic of the disregard for genuine staff wellbeing that has dogged this unhappy episode. For example, for migrant staff members recruited only months previously, after paying for skilled worker visas, the NHS surcharge, and moving young families from abroad, dismissal threatens the loss of all that, and even deportation. 

For many more, these redundancies will be career-ending. But even for those not immediately at risk, the climate of uncertainty and fear unleashed by UEB is demoralising. As one academic put it, this ‘callous’ policy shows ‘no thought to people as people; we are just figures on a spreadsheet.’

We recognise that this is a tough financial environment for universities. But Newcastle has a relatively strong cash and borrowing position. Through voluntary redundancies and other cost-cutting measures, we have achieved £15.8m of savings against a target of £20m. Nevertheless, UEB is pressing ahead with compulsory redundancies, even though other institutions have stepped back. 

There are other options. Debts could be renegotiated and the pace of cuts slowed. Recently announced capital expenditure projects – including a £274m student accommodation block replete with luxuries like a cinema and gym, and even plans for a campus in India – should be reviewed or delayed. 

Costs could also be cut by pruning management salaries and structures. Since tuition-fee rises in 2012, the number of staff drawing six-figure pay-cheques has mushroomed. 

Worried about their own futures and the future of the university, hard-working frontline staff are taking industrial action. As a result of the turmoil unleashed by what the UEB euphemistically calls ‘Workforce Resizing,’ many academics are looking for jobs elsewhere and students are seeking to transfer to other universities. Reputational damage will make future staff and student recruitment harder. Current redundancy plans risk forcing our great university into a death cycle. 

We urge the University Executive Board to abandon these cuts and work with all their colleagues to secure the future of Newcastle University.

Please sign the petition here.