Second UK university faces strike action at start of next term

Staff at Sheffield Hallam University will take four days of strike action in September over job cuts and working conditions, the University and College Union (UCU) has announced. 

The industrial action will take place between 23 September and 26 September, after 87 per cent of staff voted to take strike action in a June ballot with a turnout of 53 per cent.

Following a voluntary severance scheme announced in December 2023, 140 academics at the institution have left, but UCU claimed that 400 professional services jobs were also being axed.

The union said that Sheffield Hallam managers wanted to save another £15 million this year, and it warned this was likely to lead to further academic job cuts. But it claimed that leaders had provided no further information on these plans and “no meaningful attempts have been made to address staff concerns”. 

Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary, said that while strike action was “a last resort”, staff “will not stand by and let management force through these scandalous cuts which would see teaching, research and academic standards torn to shreds”.  

UCU said the cuts came as the university has invested heavily on building projects and satellite campuses including a London campus, raising concerns over student experience and working conditions. 

The strikes will coincide with similar action at Goldsmiths, University of London, where staff are striking over the planned firing of 97 staff, reflecting the dire financial strains on universities created by the freezing of domestic tuition fees in 2017 at £9,250 and unstable numbers of international students. 

“Rather than reviewing its spending on new buildings and a satellite campus halfway across the country, Hallam management is threatening to slash jobs, jeopardise academic standards, and tear up staff’s hard-won terms and conditions. If university management does not stop these attacks on staff, they will face unprecedented disruption at the start of the new academic year,” Dr Grady said.

According to the university’s financial statement for 2022-23, Sheffield Hallam recorded a deficit of £4.7 million – down substantially from a £15.1 million deficit recorded the previous year. However, with pension adjustments excluded, the university’s underlying operational deficit stood at £1.1 million, compared with a £5.6 million surplus the previous year.

A Sheffield Hallam spokeswoman said that the university was “disappointed” by the announcement of industrial action and that it would “do everything possible to minimise the impact on our students and wider community”.

“Like all universities, we are having to make tough decisions about the way we operate due to various well-documented external pressures across higher education,” she said.

“We were able to reduce the number of academic staff earlier this year without compulsory redundancies. We have also made significant progress on changes within our professional services through voluntary means.

“As we move forward, we will continue to seek to avoid compulsory measures where possible and engage with trade union representatives as part of collective consultation.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com