More redundancies on the cards as Cardiff University plans to award £6m contract

Martin Shipton

Concerns have been expressed about a £6m online learning contract to be awarded by Cardiff University that is likely to involve further redundancies – or “professional services transformation activity” as the university prefers to describe them.

An academic at the university who wishes to remain nameless sent Nation.Cymru a link to an invitation to express interest in the contract.

They stated: “This relates to the university’s plans to create an Institute of Flexible Lifelong Learning, which I believe has just come into being via a ‘soft’ launch. It appears that the university is planning to spend somewhere between £5m and £6m on this over the next three to four years, at a time when it’s talking about further consultations and refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies.

“The tender relates to the creation of ‘stackable’ online provision for short courses at Masters level. This seems to be the main aim, from the university’s point of view, of the new Institute.

“What remains unclear is the place for the provision of the previous Division of Lifelong Learning, working with community groups, learners from across the Cardiff capital region and indeed beyond taking in-person and online short courses (at CQFW [Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales] levels 3, 4 and 5, rather than Masters level) for a variety of reasons (training, enjoyment, qualifications, returning to study after a break sometimes of many years), and the successful Pathways to a Degree programme (itself something that appears to have been overlooked in the creation of Foundation Years, recently announced at very short notice).

“In addition, the colleagues who have been placed in the new Institute of Flexible Lifelong Learning (from the previous division and the CPD [Continuing Professional Development] unit) are set to find themselves subject to a further consultation about reorganisation across the autumn-winter of 2026-27.”

The invitation to express interest announcement states: “Cardiff University is commencing the procurement for the supply of Online Programme Management (OPM) services on a pay per service basis.

“The university is currently undertaking a programme of work to provide the necessary insights and lay the groundwork for a strategic approach to fully online post graduate taught portfolio development and delivery, with a proposed start date for the first phase of the portfolio being September 2027.

“The estimated total value of the contract is £5m excluding VAT and £6m including VAT, with the contract running from March 22 2027 to March 21 2030, with a possible extension to March 21 2031.

The tender notice is expected to be published on September 15 2026.

Strategic activity

A spokesperson for Cardiff University said: “The university is currently in a pre-tender information period as part of our strategic activity to potentially develop a fully only PGT degree portfolio. As part of this process we are required to indicate to potential service suppliers the potential value of that activity to them. However, the funding of this would be directly related to the number of learners recruited on to the programmes and as such covered by the additional student income being generated by this initiative.”

Responding to the unnamed academic’s claim that the main aim of the new online provision would be short courses at Masters level, the spokesperson said: “This is just one aspect of the work of the Institute and has been identified as a potential new offering alongside existing provision as a way to diversify income and extend market reach/impact.

“As part of the establishment of the Institute both the existing Lifelong Learning and CPD teams have joined the Institute to bring together the expertise from these teams for a more co-ordinated approach to the full range of portfolio offering from the Institute and the work of both these areas continues as usual but within the Institute.

“While Pathways to Degrees and Foundation Years both seek to help learners access a Higher Education degree they serve very different learner groups. Pathways to Degrees are specifically designed for mature part-time learners who need more flexible study options with applications processed through the Institute, whereas the Foundation Years are made through the more usual UCAS application and specifically designed as a 1 year Full Time subject-aligned pre-undergraduate offer, building university-level skills and the opportunity to progress directly onto one of our undergraduate degree programmes and as such administered through central admissions teams in the same way as our Undergraduate Degrees.

“Staff from both Lifelong Learning and CPD were not part of the previous consultation process and as such have not yet been through the consultation process. Alongside a number of other Professional Service areas which were also not involved in the previous consultation the Institute will now be subject to the next phase of professional services transformation activity.”

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