A dejected lecturer claims careers are “being turned into dead ends” as Aberdeen University freezes promotions, slashes unpopular courses and rolls out redundancies in a bid to save millions.
The ancient institution is taking drastic action to keep costs down.
It comes after dozens of employees took voluntary redundancy last year as a financial storm engulfed Aberdeen University.
Just two months ago, principal George Boyne claimed there would be no plans for voluntary severance or early retirement “at the current time”.
However, frustrated teaching staff were today told that a number of courses are now being placed on the chopping block due to low demand.
They were also told of a freeze on promotions, a new round of voluntary redundancy and a ban on recruitment.
What courses are getting the chop?
Last month, the university announced it was launching “immediate steps” to address rising costs.
An initial estimate of £.4.7m has now been upgraded to a £5.5.m budget gap.
Now, staff in five schools will be offered voluntary redundancies.
It’s understood these schools include Business, Geosciences, Language Literature Music and Visual Culture, Natural and Computing Sciences and Social Sciences.
This morning, staff were gathered for talks on the “grim” situation as higher-ups revealed more details of their “hack and slash” savings plan.
What did anonymous lecturer tell us about talks?
One staff member told us that those working hard to get a promotion feel they have had “the rug pulled out from under them”.
They added: “The mood is really grim and morale is extremely low.
“A lot of colleagues are early in their career. They have worked tirelessly on these promotions, only to have the rug pull pulled out from under them.”
And the lecturer claimed Mr Boyne’s “rosy” take on events had also left staff disgruntled.
They continued: “The mood from the principal tends to be consistently overly positive and rosy.
“Anything that he says in that way should be taken with a massive grain of salt… There’s been no willingness from senior management to take pay cuts to help the university.”
‘Our jobs are being turned into dead ends’
Asked to sum up how staff were left feeling as the meeting at King’s College concluded, the lecturer was blunt.
“It is dire, and the mood is dire,” they told us.
“This morning has been miserable, because we are looking at people’s careers ending – career which they have poured their lives into.
“This is the same old hack and slash method of trying to fix this thing.
“Here are our academic jobs are being turned into dead ends. This is a race to the bottom. It’s going to kill the institution.”
‘Staff morale had already been dented’
Meanwhile, the University and Colleges Union told us the news would come as a “slap in the face” after modern languages cuts caused an uproar about 18 months ago.
Mary Senior, Scotland official for the body, said: “Workers are asking why the burden of job losses are falling disproportionately on a small number of academic schools.
“This new round of job cuts comes on the back of a pause in academic promotions, which has already dented staff morale.”
What does Aberdeen University say about redundancies plan?
A university spokesperson said the cuts come at a “challenging time” for the sector.
They added: “The university is addressing a £5.5m budget gap which equates to around 2% of our total revenue.
“We are also considering ways to more effectively shape and enhance our portfolio to create a more student demand led, academically sustainable portfolio of degree programmes.”
What do you think of the cuts plan? Let us know in our comments section below
They say the required job losses should be achieved through a “voluntary severance and enhanced retirement scheme” within some disciplines.
The statement adds: “Depending on the take-up of the scheme we expect this would see a small reduction in the overall size of our total workforce.
“These measures will help to ensure our future financial sustainability.”
The spokesperson stressed that bosses were “working collectively to generate extra income”.
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