Nottingham University bosses warned cost-cutting plans will create ‘serious risk’

Bosses of the financially struggling University of Nottingham have been warned that plans to cut-costs risk pushing the university down the global academy rankings and causing further monetary problems.

The universities branch of the University College Union (UCU) has expressed concern that the proposal to increase the number of students per staff member would restrict academics’ research time and severely damage the quality of teaching.

Under the proposed plans, the ratio of students to employees would rise from 13 to roughly 20 students per staff member.

In November, the university announced that its intention to suspend courses, such as mental health and children’s nursing and modern languages, and later announced that it would be selling the barely opened Castle Meadow Campus despite investing more than £80 million into it.

More than 280 staff have taken voluntary redundancy as part of the university’s “Future Nottingham” restructuring project.

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Following the announcement and a council vote which approved these courses suspensions, the UCU said the university is looking to increase the number of students per staff member so it can “rightsize” its workforce.

Lopa Leach, President of the University of Nottingham’s UCU branch said the change poses “serious risks” to the university’s academic standing.

“The modelling makes clear that these changes would damage Nottingham’s research environment, harm the student experience and significantly weaken our national and global rankings,” she continued.

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The union has also produced a report with help from staff members and data experts which labelled the student-staff measurement a “crude headcount ratio” and claimed that increasing the number of students per employee would also reduce the amount of time academics could devote to research. According to the UCU analyses, the number would be decreased from 33 per cent to as low as 25 per cent of staff time.

It also found the university would drop roughly 25 places in the QS World Rankings if the student-staff measurement changes were put in place.

The UCU has said it had not received a formal response from either the university’s executive board or its council.

A University of Nottingham Spokesperson told The Nottingham Tab that: “We continue to have regular dialogue with our Trade Union colleagues as part of our joint recognition agreement and would encourage them to submit their counterproposals as part of the engagement process which is currently underway.

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