CARDIFF University has announced that it intends to cut 400 full-time jobs, along with whole course closures and department mergers; with nursing, music and modern languages among the subjects being trashed.
Cardiff UCU, the recognised representative trade union for academic and academic-related staff at the University, condemned the plans as cruel and unnecessary, vowing to ballot for strike action and fight compulsory redundancies tooth and nail.
From 11am on Tuesday January 28th staff were invited to a series of briefings in which the alarming scale and depth of the proposed restructure was outlined to them.
Many were left shell-shocked and in tears, fearing for their jobs, their students, and the future of what managers intend to be a radically altered university.
The announcements were wide-ranging, but included plans to cut entire departments and programmes.
Nursing, Modern Languages, Religion and Theology, Music, and Ancient History were all named.
The axe will be taken to 400 staff, 7% of the academic workforce, with the promise of further, possibly bigger, cuts to professional services administrative staff later in the year.
There will be mergers of many existing schools including the formation of a new school of ‘Global Humanities’ incorporating English, linguistics, archaeology, philosophy, history and Welsh.
Modern Language degrees are to cease.
Senior managers insist that these devastating cuts are needed to balance the books, but Cardiff UCU’s independent expert financial analysis suggests otherwise.
At the root of the cuts is a self-imposed plan to chase a 12% surplus on the budget.
This would make sense if the university were a business, with the need to pay dividends to shareholders.
It would also make sense if the institution had very low reserves (which is also not the case – Cardiff is currently sitting on £188 million in cash reserves).
Cardiff UCU President Dr Joey Whitfield, a member of staff in the threatened School of Modern Languages, said: ‘Like all of our colleagues, I’m absolutely shell shocked.
‘The cuts are cruel and avoidable. They’ll damage our members, our students, the city, and Wales as a whole.
‘We will continue to make the case for a more cautious and evidence based approach, but we’ll also fight any compulsory redundancies tooth and nail.
‘We are proud that Cardiff University is currently a world-leading institution. Sadly, after today, the Vice Chancellor is making us world-leader in doling out brutal cuts to its staff and students.
‘We are ready for constructive discussions, but there’s been little appetite for real dialogue from the University Executive Board so far.
‘We’re also balloting our members on strike action to oppose compulsory job losses.
‘We think that the widespread and callous nature of the proposed cuts across the institution mean members will be prepared to take decisive strike action in order to save jobs.’
Cardiff University Vice-Chancellor Professor Wendy Larner claimed the university would become ‘untenable without drastic reforms’.
The Royal College of Nursing said the proposal to shut the school of nursing ‘has the potential to threaten the pipeline of registered nurses into the largest health board in Wales’.
Madison Hutchinson, Cardiff University Student Union president, said: ‘We want to express our unwavering support with all students, and solidarity to staff who may be impacted.
Cardiff University is the largest in Wales, and a member of the Russell Group.
The subjects and programmes threatened with being cut include ancient history and religion and theology.
The university said the proposals would also include the following subject mergers:
- Chemistry, earth sciences and physics being merged to create the School of Natural Sciences
- Computer science and maths merging to become the School of Data Science
- Social sciences, geography and planning merged to become the School of Human and Social Sciences
- English, communication and philosophy, Welsh and remaining elements of history, archaeology and religion and modern languages merged into the School of Global Humanities.
The consultation will run for three months, with final plans for approval expected to be considered by University Council in June 2025.
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, 57, professor of ancient history at Cardiff University, said the news was ‘devastating’ and ‘shocking’.
He said: ‘Major sections of our teaching’ in the College of Humanity would be lost, with his own department being ‘taught out so it won’t exist any longer’.
‘How on earth are we to continue trying to teach over the next few years, with a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads?’ he added.
Criminology student Kristin Millward from London said: ‘I study criminology and sociology and hearing the announcement was scary.
‘My lecturer just now was saying he’s not sure about his job security – regardless of not being one of the university courses on the chopping block, it is very scary knowing I could be gone at any moment,’ she said.
‘You don’t expect to enrol, pay all this money and have this happen to you,’ she added.
The 20-year-old said her housemate studies nursing and does not know what she will do afterwards, but they are all worried about their future.
‘Cardiff is a really great place to be for uni, I really enjoy it and it would be a shame to have people not be able to stay here anymore,’ she said.
Cardiff University is the largest in Wales, with 32,725 students in 2023.
- Unite has expressed serious concerns about a race-to-the-bottom on classroom assistant positions at special educational needs (SEN) schools in Northern Ireland.
The union submitted Freedom of Information requests to all 39 SEN schools in Northern Ireland to ask how many were working in the position of temporary classroom assistants and how many of those workers held essential criteria for the job, how many had completed Access NI checks and where they did not, how many risk assessments had been conducted for the positions involved.
With responses in from all 39 SEN schools, a total of 1,179 classroom assistants were reported as being engaged through a temporary engagement form.
Only three schools said that all temporary classroom assistants at the school held the essential job criteria.
Disturbingly, a majority (21) did not provide a response to whether temporary CAs held essential criteria stating ‘that they did not hold the information requested’.
Responses indicated that 1,071 of the 1,179 temporary classroom assistants (90.8%) had completed their Access NI checks – however almost 10 per cent were working without these in place.
At the same time, schools responded that they had conducted a total of 277 risk assessments for temporary classroom assistants whose Access NI checks were not completed.
Regional officer, Kieran Ellison said, ‘These figures reveal the fast and loose approach encouraged by the education authority (EA). SEN schools prefer to take classroom assistants on temporary engagement forms with few employment protections and no job security.
‘Temporary posts are being used to sidestep employing those holding essential employment criteria and are Access NI compliant. Qualified workers are being excluded.
‘Unite has exposed a race to the bottom that reinforces the problem of low pay and poor conditions in this sector.
‘There are obvious concerns for safety of the most vulnerable children. The department of education needs to level up employment practices across all SEN schools and ensure the professionalisation of this sector.
‘Classroom assistants must be paid properly, treated with respect and given long-term job security.’
