Durham University offers staff a voluntary severance scheme

Durham University is offering staff a voluntary severance scheme for the third year in a row, sparking conversations around the university’s financial position and staff workload. The voluntary severance scheme, according to The Northern Echo, is due to run from Monday 9th November until Monday 7th December.

However, BBC News has pointed out that this is the third staff exit scheme that the university has introduced within three years, which has faced criticism from staff and the University and College Union (UCU) as the university has said it is in a “secure financial position”.

The university has said that their finances are “tightly managed” and that the scheme has been implemented without “targets for specific savings or reductions”. They have clarified that they do not intend to close any departments and that they do not plan to reduce academic staff numbers. The aim of this is to maintain “a sound financial position”. However, the UCU has criticised this, questioning why the scheme is needed if there are a lack of targets towards staff redundancies.

The scheme could cause concerns that staff losses will lead to an increase in the workload for those that remain, especially as the university does not have an announced plan in place for this. Last year’s scheme saw a loss of one in twenty staff members and university staff taking industrial action over workload pressures earlier this year. According to The Northern Echo, 200 non-academic positions were impacted by a £10m reduction in staff costs, and a further £10m reduction proposed for 2026.

Most Read

Where Joran van der Sloot’s parents Paul and Anita are now, 21 years after Natalee disappeared

SKIMS issues statement after its £158 advent calendar sparks huge wave of complaints

Natalee Holloway: What happened to brothers Satish and Deepak Kalpoe after their arrest

The UCU have also brought up that staff are working longer hours with heavier workloads, noting the timing of the scheme being just before the Christmas period. Specifically, they have said: “[e]ighteen months ago, Durham ran a deep and wide-ranging Voluntary Severance (VS) scheme. Together, the trade unions prevented compulsory redundancies, but VS still cost us around one in twenty of our colleagues, most of them in Professional Services.” They have added: “departed staff are not replaced and fixed-term contracts are not renewed”, and “[n]o corner of the University has been left untouched, and we are still living with the consequences: longer hours, heavier workloads, lost knowledge and experience.”

A spokesperson for the university said: “Voluntary severance gives academic colleagues an opportunity to consider their future plans. It also helps the University to create sustained financial capacity to invest in priorities aligned to our strategy.”

Featured image via Google Maps.

For more of the latest news, guides, gossip, and memes, follow The Durham Tab on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.