The UK higher education sector is, to put it mildly, in a bit of a mess. Current projections show that 45% of UK universities are facing a financial deficit for the 2025–26 academic year. Even more alarming, nearly 1 in 6 institutions are operating with less than 30 days of liquidity. Thanks to relentless inflation and stagnant funding, universities now receive substantially less in real terms per student than they did a decade ago. For years, international students were the “cash crop” used to plug the gaps, but those numbers are drying up – recruitment from China alone has plummeted by 11.6%.
Our local institutions, despite their popularity, aren’t immune to the squeeze. Queen’s remains in a relatively stable financial position, but even they felt the need to roll out a voluntary redundancy scheme last year to reduce costs.
Now, it’s Ulster University’s turn. Yesterday’s announcement of 450 job losses was a hammer blow, made worse by a technical blunder from the top. University bosses seemingly messed up the announcement logistics; only a thousand staff could actually access the Teams stream, meaning the majority of employees found out their livelihoods were at risk via news coverage. Not a great start for morale.
Staff were told that the university needed to make savings of about £25m. The university’s most recent accounts for 2025 recorded income of £304m but an operating deficit of £20.2m.
Voluntary redundancy schemes are always a mixed bag. On one hand, plenty of staff will be delighted to take the payoff. If you’re in your 50s with decent savings, the temptation to grab a massive pile of cash and get another job, pivot to self-employment or early retirement is huge. In fact, these schemes are often oversubscribed by people practically sprinting for the door.
The problem for the university is that they have very little control over who actually takes the bait. Ideally, management want to target the “dead wood” – and let’s be honest, every large organisation has its share of the utterly useless. But in reality, it’s often the most capable employees who jump ship first. They know they’re talented enough to walk into a job elsewhere with a redundancy cheque in their pocket. Meanwhile, the less employable staff are the ones most likely to cling on for dear life.
Word from the inside suggests the university is targeting “underperforming” departments, specifically in the arts and humanities. Unsurprisingly, this isn’t going down well with the unions. It brings to mind the old Oscar Wilde line: we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Everything now is about the bottom line.
There are also serious questions about how Ulster is being managed financially. The new Belfast city centre campus has been something of a fiscal disaster. Originally budgeted at £250 million, it ended up costing £364 million, a staggering £114 million overrun. Then there is the bizarre stuff, like the Ulster University campus in Qatar, of all places. Queens also has a campus in India. Am I alone in thinking that they should just concentrate on you know actually educating local students?
The real impact of these schemes is felt long after the payoff cheques are signed. The staff left behind are lumbered with increased workloads, leading to more stress and resentment. Academic staff are a bolshie lot, even in the best of times. If management isn’t careful, you end up in a “death spiral of grievance” where the remaining talent eventually burns out.
In an ideal world, Ulster University will emerge from this process “leaner and meaner,” ready to face a bright future. The alternative is much bleaker: an institution left with even more disillusioned staff and a permanent dent in its reputation.
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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