Update on planned savage job cuts and staff morale demoralisation at Sheffield Hallam University
Last week, academic and research staff at Sheffield Hallam were briefed by the university on proposed job cuts totalling up to 200 posts. The proposed cuts affect every School and most research units within the university. They include posts across the grade range, with a particular concentration on reducing the number of senior lecturer posts. The university proposes to replace experienced lecturers and professors with poorly paid academic tutors. UCU believes that loss of experienced staff will seriously diminish the university’s ability to deliver high-quality education and research.
The university is now inviting staff to apply for voluntary severance (VS), with the threat of compulsory redundancies if the proposed staff cuts are not met through VS. UCU believe that the university is coercing staff to take voluntary severance payments and terminate productive academic careers, rather than risk redundancy.
As evidence of the impact that this situation is having on staff, UCU Sheffield Hallam is preparing a report on staff experience based on anonymous comments from our members. The preliminary version of this report (SHU UCU Report into the Human Impact of the University’s ‘Death Spiral’ ) indicates substantial stress being suffered by staff who dread the decline of the education that the university can offer its students and serious personal difficulties, with many distressing testimonies of the impact of redundancy on individuals and families.
Staff remain upset and angry that they are bearing the consequences of the university’s poor governance and financial mismanagement of recent years. As we announced previously, UCU has invited the University to review its budget plans and has requested further information relating to the proposals in the spirit of meaningful negotiation. UCU is currently balloting its members for industrial action to defend staff against the raft of attacks on jobs and terms and conditions.