UCU says Cardiff University’s Kazakhstan campus proposal ‘is in danger of rebounding’

The University and College Union (UCU) has said Cardiff University’s Kazakhstan campus proposal “is in danger of rebounding”.

In a statement, the union voiced its concerns about the project, claiming the university is “rushing” in its plans “without due regard for what’s left of our reputation”.

Cardiff University announced plans for a campus to be built in Kazakhstan earlier this year, and a recent update shared by the institution said the plans had now been approved by its council.

This comes as 1,400 staff members were told they’re “in scope” for redundancies at the university, last week.

The university’s director of people and culture, Sally-ann Efstathiou said: “This week we are informing colleagues currently in the in-scope pool for redundancy if they remain in-scope or are now out of scope. I know and recognise that being in-scope is very worrying and unsettling for colleagues.

“At the beginning of this process, 1,800 colleagues were in this pool. We are now able to remove just under 400 colleagues based on the related principles.”

This email was sent on Wednesday, days after Cardiff University announced its proposal to build a campus in Kazakhstan was approved.

However, this is something that has been met with backlash from Cardiff UCU who believes money should be spent on saving staff’s jobs, not on something that has “a danger of rebounding”.

The union warned that “compared to other universities, [Cardiff] has been late in the day in developing plans for trans-national education, and is now rushing its plans through in a manner which threatens the University’s reputation.”

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The spokesperson for the branch continued by saying: “Its plans for trans-national education appear now to be driven by opportunism rather than a carefully thought-out strategy. We mean no disrespect to the Kazakh people or their government when we say Cardiff University’s headfirst dive into their country is in danger of rebounding.”

Cardiff UCU additionally said it had concerns about nepotism, corruption, repression and human rights abuses supposedly happening in the nation.

Regarding UCU’s concern over these points, a Cardiff spokesperson said: “We know that there are several places where our values and Kazakhstan’s may not completely align. Kazakhstan has a neutral position on the invasion of Ukraine. Several of our staff have expressed concerns about human rights. We know there are concerns about freedom of association and assembly, religion and belief, independence of the judiciary, rule of law, and labour rights.”

“We have explored these issues as part of our due diligence process, taking advice from the many international actors who already have an established presence in Kazakhstan, and the UK embassy in Astana, and will complete a full equality impact assessment as part of our approval process.”

via Cardiff University

In a statement about the potential redundancies and Kazakhstan proposals, Cardiff UCU iterated that it isn’t opposed to transnational education but said “it is worrying that a Welsh University is cutting hundreds of jobs and axing whole departments at home at the same time as it is investing significant resources to provide education abroad in a hastily arranged deal with an NGO that’s existed for less than a year.”

The spokesperson continued by saying: “The chequered history of Welsh universities engaging in international adventures suggests this kind of agreement should be approached very slowly, and with lots of caution. But our members across the University, many of them at risk of redundancy, have already been put to work planning initial programmes of study in time for a September 2025 start to teaching.”

In response, a Cardiff University spokesperson said: “The rumour that we are spending large amounts of money on campus development in Astana is entirely false.

“We are not making a capital investment in Kazakhstan. To date, the only money we have spent on this project has been on due diligence – which we’ve done robustly, using a variety of companies.

“Development of the campus would be fully paid for by the Qualified Centre of Education Public Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation incorporated in August 2024. The QCEF is funded by Kazakhstani investors – on whom we have also completed due diligence. In addition to developing the campus, the QCEF will pay Cardiff’s costs, and the Kazakh government has offered 500 fully-funded scholarships for the first three years.”

If you wish to read more about the project, you can read the university’s full statement here.

Kazakhstan has been approached for comment.

Featured image via Cardiff University and Stan Zurek on Creative Commons