Staff at the University of Liverpool have called for more “clarity” after the launch of a voluntary redundancy scheme was announced this week.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) claim that the university was not being transparent about future plans as they attempt to tackle a forecasted financial deficit for the 2024-25 academic year.
The decision to cut jobs and offer a Voluntary Leavers Scheme to the university’s teaching staff follows nationwide plans to majorly reduce salary budgets at many of the UK’s Russell Group universities.
The University of Liverpool bosses wrote to all staff last week to inform them of the scheme’s launch, which is open to all core staff that have served a minimum of two years of teaching at the university.
They also insisted that staff were in control of their opportunity to leave the institution.
“It is entirely voluntary and there are no plans for compulsory redundancies at this time” said a spokesperson from the University of Liverpool, BBC News reports.
Staff members involved in the University and College Union have demanded further clarity from the university regarding the scale of the job cuts.
The president of the UCU, Mark O’Brien said: “They won’t give us a figure, we have pressed them on that”.
The scheme is one of a range of measures bosses are putting in place in an attempt secure the long-term financial sustainability of the university.
“When this has happened in the past they give us an amount they are trying to save from the total budget.
“They haven’t done that on this occasion and we find it hard to understand why they aren’t more forthcoming about their plans”.
It is not yet confirmed how many staff members are expected to comply with the scheme, or the extent of the university’s budget shortfalls for the academic year.
The University of Liverpool said the scheme was “one of a number of measures to help secure the long-term financial sustainability” of the institution.
“The UK higher education sector is facing well publicised financial challenges and, like many other UK universities, we are currently forecasting a small financial deficit this year” a university representative said.
This offering makes the University of Liverpool the second institution to employ budget boosting measures this year, as Edge Hill University have also informed their staff of similar job cutting measures.
They contacted their staff earlier this month, illustrating a need to “move forward with more cost-cutting measures with a particular emphasis on reducing our expenditure”, the Liverpool ECHO reports.
