Staff in targeted programmes at Aberdeen University have been told they will supported with a voluntary exit as it faces a £15 million shortfall.
The university say that immigration laws have had a negative impact on their masters admissions resulting in a hole in their budget.
A current freeze on staff recruitment will continue, and workers involved with specific programmes will be “supported” in taking early retirement or voluntary severance.
The University’s annual budget was based on the assumption that student tuition fees would increase by 15%, from £96 million to £111 million.
Most of this increase was expected to come from the enrolment of international masters students, a key funding source tapped by the University in recent years.
Who is to blame for stagnate international admissions?
However, instead of increasing, international admissions stagnated. As a result, the historic institution has been left with a £15 million funding gap.
University chiefs pointed to several possible reasons for the plateau in enrolment, including international financial volatility and rising exchange rates.
University Principal and Vice Chancellor George Boyne also pointed the finger at the UK’s stringent immigration laws.
He said: “There have been changes in whether international students are able to bring their dependents to the UK and that has deterred international students from coming to us.”
“Other countries seem to be doing a better job of attracting international students through appropriate incentives and support.”
Professor Boyne said: “We can’t afford our deficit to run at that level, it then becomes too difficult to get back out of it again. Some actions need to be taken this year…”
“It is a difficulty, a significant difficulty, but not a catastrophe… My very strong preference is to avoid compulsory redundancies…”
CFO Mark White, the University’s head of finance, added: “(This) has put us in the position of having a much larger deficit than what we had anticipated, and also puts us in the territory of potentially breaching our financial covenants.”
Measures planned to ‘control costs’
A spokesperson for the university said it is important steps are taken to ensure the institution is on a “firm financial footing for the future”.
They said: “While we have had growth in some areas of student recruitment, our overall fee income is expected to be around the same this year as last year, which means that a time of high inflation, like many universities across Scotland and the UK, we need to take steps to address a potential budget shortfall.
“We are confident that action we are taking will reduce that deficit significantly.
“A wide range of measures are planned or underway to control costs and grow income – such as resetting our approach to student recruitment including expanding our portfolio of transnational and online courses, extending the international markets we recruit from, and ensuring our student programme offering is demand-led.
“These will ensure we are on a firm financial footing for the future.”
The student body has reacted on The Gaudie website.
