Industrial Dispute at UoE: FAQs
On this page, you’ll find answers to questions about the industrial dispute in 2025.
The page will be regularly updated to address new concerns and forms of industrial action. If you have a question that is not answered below, please e-mail: ucu@ed.ac.uk
What is the dispute about?
On 25 February 2025 the Principal Sir Peter Mathieson wrote to all staff, declaring University management’s intention to cut its expenditure by a staggering £140m over the next 18 months. This followed a previous email on 11 February where he warned that the cuts could include “restructuring, possible closures of programmes or even Schools, mergers or shared services between Schools, centralisation of some services, outsourcing of others: nothing is off the table.” (emphasis ours)
The Executive’s proposed £90 million savings on staff (the proportion of the £140 million to be saved from the budget for staff salaries) would be equivalent to around 1400-1800 redundancies. The harms are incalculable: to staff losing their jobs, to the health of remaining staff who will be asked to do more with less, to the student experience, to the quality of research and teaching, to the University’s reputation, and to the city of Edinburgh’s economy. As noted below, the harms of budget cuts and redundancies are already being felt.
We have initiated a local dispute to oppose compulsory redundancies at UoE, asking that they be ruled out until the end of July 2026 (the end of the current academic year). UCU has written to the Principal seeking assurances that there will be no compulsory redundancies. But the response from senior management has been to refuse.
This dispute is about saving jobs and valuing the people that work at the University of Edinburgh. Cutting jobs by making staff compulsorily redundant is counterproductive and will pose a serious threat to the student experience and the workloads of those left behind.
What impact will the cuts have? (What impact are they already having?)
Some staff may lose their jobs, which will be devastating for individuals and their families. ‘Hidden redundancies’ mean that some staff have already lost their jobs through non-renewal of contracts. Compulsory redundancies and job cuts will have a damaging impact upon the University’s reputation and its own strategy.
The impact on staff and students will be substantial:
Unemployment at a time when other universities have frozen recruitment and the cost of living crisis is causing enormous hardship;
A higher workload for those who remain in post; and
Poorer quality teaching, research and student support
This is a worrying time for students, and it is more worrying to see staff cut and the educational experience diminished. UCU is deeply concerned at the impact the proposed job cuts will have on the educational experience of our students and their opportunities on the graduate market. Staff working conditions are student learning conditions!
What does UCU want?
UCU wants this University to thrive. We want management to commit to no further compulsory redundancies, to halt financially driven restructuring at School level that is already eliminating jobs, and to work with staff to develop progressive methods for ensuring the institution’s financial sustainability. The University is very wealthy, with £3 billion in cash reserves at last reporting, and can afford to take better-planned and less drastic measures, and, if necessary, to reduce its expenditure or increase income over a longer period of time without the need for compulsory avoidable redundancies.
We want the University to negotiate with the unions to address its current challenges. However, at this time University management has declined to engage in any negotiations with UCU.
What is UCU’s perspective on the university’s financial situation?
Whilst University management has been slow to release relevant financial information, it has admitted that there is no budget deficit, and in fact, the University made an operational surplus of £104m in 2022-23 and £25m in 2023-24. Instead, management justifies mass cuts through the claim that the University needs to generate a 3-5% surplus every year, and the claim that, based on the current expenditure trajectory, a deficit is projected in the future. The assumptions behind this projection have not been shared with the unions. Meanwhile management refuses to spend any of its vast reserves (some £3bn at last reporting) to soften the blow of these cuts.
You can read more detail about the union’s assessment of the university’s finances in our blog post series here.
Why is the University projecting a deficit in 2025-26?
The best way to answer this is to ask management. They have sought to explain this on their Finances SharePoint site, accessible to all staff. They claim that expenditure is growing faster than income, and thus they need to take radical action to cut expenses. Since a large proportion of the budget goes to paying staff salaries, they propose a big cut to staff to achieve their goal of reducing annual expenditure by £140 million over 18 months.
However, despite some degree of disclosure of financial information to the Joint Unions, UCUE’s negotiators still have not seen sufficient detail to assess management’s claims. As of early August, we had still not been provided with the full budget for 2024-25, and our request for the budget for 2025-26 has been refused, although it was approved by Court on 23 June.
The Joint Unions Finance Working Group has published nine posts analysing publicly-available financial information. It is clear that overly ambitious capital expenditure, cost overruns and an assumption of endless growth in student numbers have put the University in this situation. It is also clear that some of the restructuring plans have been under consideration for some time, and management is profiting from the current ‘crisis’ to roll them out.
What is the union proposing as alternatives to redundancies as ways to address the University’s projected deficit?
In every meeting with management about the cuts, UCU Edinburgh has argued that UoE needs to reduce its capital spending. Over-ambitious capital spending is one reason for the University’s current financial position. This would be one way to reduce expenditure.
We also advocate that the University should use its very ample reserves to tide it over this period, rather than cutting jobs. UCU Scotland, and UCU branches in Scotland, are calling on the Scottish government to do what the Welsh government has done and call on universities to use their reserves to avoid redundancies.
Universities should consider using reserves to save jobs - minister (BBC News)
It is very difficult for the union, and others in the University community, to propose alternatives when we have limited access to the full picture of the UoE financial situation.
What should students know about the dispute?
Courses are already being cut and teaching staff asked to do more with less. Management seems to believe that students will not care, have too much choice already, don’t mind having bigger classes and less access to teaching staff, and are okay with less specialist teaching.
If you are a student and you DO care about these things, make it known to management! Write to Peter Mathieson with your opinion on these cuts, and join the Student/Staff Solidarity Network to get involved in resisting them.
What guidance is there on Action Short of Strike (ASOS)?
How can I support the union in the dispute?
Anyone can support the union by donating to our Hardship & Fighting Fund and writing to your MP & MSP.