There will be no compulsory redundancies among planned changes for non-professional staff, the university has said, as it called staff to meetings this morning
Cardiff University has announced more huge changes today with non-academic staff offered voluntary redundancy. The announcement follows a round of bruising cuts and job losses among academic staff as the university grapples with a £30m shortfall.
The university’s chief operating officer, Dr Paula Sanderson, has written to all staff impacted, as well as all other staff today (November 6) setting out the proposed changes and the consultation process. There will be four areas of professional services impacted.
A university spokesperson said the restructuring of non-academic staff wouldn’t mean compulsory redundancies, although voluntary severance was on offer and a formal consultation has been launched because roles and teams will change.
Affected non-academic staff are being called into meetings today to explain the changes and consultation process.
The changes follow controversial widescale cuts, department closures and job losses among academic staff as the university grapples with rising costs. Sign up for our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here.
The university’s council approved the previous “painful but necessary” plan for academic staff which sees departments close and jobs lost to save £22m a year. But it warned then that the move would still not close the financial hole the institution faced.
The university insisted today’s proposed changes for non-academic staff were not a cost-cutting exercise and there were roles for everyone in the proposed new structure and no compulsory redundancies were planned among that group. Some posts would need to change though, it said, and those who didn’t want to remain could apply for voluntary redundancy.
Dr Sanderson told staff: “I understand that some of our professional services colleagues may decide they do not wish to continue the journey with us, and we are opening a voluntary redundancy scheme to eligible colleagues.
“The scheme provides the same terms offered to academic colleagues during the collective consultation for Our Academic Future, and we aim to notify staff who apply for this scheme of the outcome no later than 19 December. “
A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “We have today (Thursday 6th November) announced a consultation on proposed new structures for Professional Services (PS) staff working in our Colleges and Schools, Education and Student Experience (ESE) Services, Postgraduate Research and Graduate School support and Hybiau.
“It is important to stress that these proposals are not driven by cost-cutting. There are roles for everyone in the new proposed structures and no compulsory redundancies are planned. Many of our staff will see no significant change. However, some posts will need to change and teams will need to adapt.
“Because of this, we are following a formal consultation process to ensure that our employees’ rights are protected and everyone has a voice throughout the consultation period. In the event that a post changes, support and training will be provided as part of the consultation and implementation process.”.
The consultation will run until February, 2026 and unions would be involved in that.
The University Council’s agreement in June means that under academic cuts the departments of ancient history, religion and theology will shut while nursing, modern languages and music will remain but be smaller. There will also be higher student to staff ratios.
As this term began, nearly 200 Cardiff University academic staff were still in scope for redundancy – months after the huge cost-cutting drive which has already seen 170 full-time posts shed, was formally approved.
The 187 affected academic staff in the schools of foreign languages, history, religion and music have been warned the university cannot rule out compulsory redundancy for them.
