Students call on Cardiff University to ‘open the books’ as cuts concerns continue

Martin Shipton

Cardiff University students are demanding that the university authorities answer a series of searching questions following a traumatic year in which more than 1,800 academics were originally put “in scope” for redundancy.

While a huge campaign spearheaded by the University and College Union (UCU) secured a commitment that there would be no compulsory redundancies until at least the end of 2026, there are still major concerns about the university’s future plans.

The Student Senate has now passed a motion calling on the University Executive Board (UEB) to “open the books” and explain:

* Why it aims to make a 12% surplus from academic year 2025-26 (this is a standard for businesses but is not required for Cardiff University, argues Cardiff UCU);

* Whether it believes having £184m in unallocated reserves is in keeping with rules of the Charity Commission (it may not be and is a larger stash than most UK universities according to Cardiff UCU);

* Calculations made regarding how its ‘Academic Futures Consultation Document’ creates what it calls ‘headroom (time and investment) needed for new activity’ as claimed in its proposal document;

* Alternative scenarios it considered before finalising its ‘Academic Futures Consultation Document’;

* All financial modelling it has done in relation to its Academic Futures proposals;

All market data analysis it has done in relation to its Academic Futures proposals (the university’s projection for 1500-1600 international taught postgraduate students per year is very low; and similarly, the projection for all overseas students of 4310 is lower than all intakes since at least 2018, and this significantly reduced baseline is unjustified in the proposals, according to Cardiff UCU. Furthermore, staff and schools of the university have said the data received from the UEB to back up Academic Futures proposals has often been incorrect, and their evidenced counter proposals have been rejected without reason);

* How much it receives (and has received) in additional funding from the Welsh Government, and the date when it receives (or has received) it, and how this is (or has been) used (the Welsh Government announced £19m for universities in February).

The motion also mandates the elected sabbatical team of Cardiff Students’ Union to lobby the university to:

* Abandon plans of running a budget surplus in years where cuts to staff and educational provision are undertaken:

* Assess using its reserves to alleviate the effects of redundancies and cuts to education provision until new income streams mentioned in the Academic Futures proposals (eg new transnational education and lifelong learning provision) – yet not accounted for in the job cuts calculations, bear fruit;

* Create a strategy for managing staff workloads (staff have reported ‘unsustainable workloads and administrative disarray’ caused by losses of colleagues and increasing student to staff ratios and extra workload from developing courses for the new campus in Kazakhstan. Student to staff ratios at the university are currently on average 13.9% higher than the Russell Group average and 9.6% higher than the sector average. The Academic Futures proposals proposed target student to staff ratios on average 35.7%, 30.6%, 17.7% and 7.3% higher than the Russell Group median, UK universities sector median, Russell Group upper quartile, and UK universities sector upper quartile, respectively. Students have already noticed in recent years, especially this year, the rolling back of provision, for example a reduction in the number of teaching staff on many modules – and therefore the amount of support that can be given by staff – and a reduction in the number of optional modules);

* Create a strategy for maintaining long term research capacity required to remain a Russell Group university (the Academic Futures proposals risk replacing more expensive research staff with general teaching staff. Also, the uncertainty created by scope for redundancy means many staff are currently not applying for research funding);

* Ensure all students in all schools affected by the cuts get a chance to ask questions to and provide feedback in person (eg a town hall setup) to a member of the management team. Students in the Schools of English, Communication and Philosophy; Medicine; Geography and Planning; Social Sciences; and postgraduate students in the School of Welsh have not yet had this opportunity, other than the town hall with Vice Chancellor Wendy Larner in February which was open to all university students and during which she took questions for just 37 minutes before running off and leaving most unanswered;

* Conduct a consultation through the Students’ Union on its new Professional Services Excellence Model;

* Harness staff expertise to explore diverse avenues of income generation, including greater integration in local community initiatives and the public and private sector in Wales, including setting up direct lines of employment for graduates (eg by adopting the degree apprenticeship model, or postgraduate models of co-funding such as the one in operation at Nottingham University);

* Replace the current Chief Transformation Officer (Dr David Langley, a ‘disruptive innovator’ who admitted the cuts ‘risk breaking a lot of things at once’) when his current contract expires in April 2026 with someone who is elected by Cardiff University’s senate of academic staff, and who has worked at Cardiff University for at least five years.

* Run a campaign to educate students about the university’s financial plans.

* Run a campaign to educate students about the neoliberal ideology behind the university’s Academic Futures cuts programme, and campaign to raise student and stakeholder support (eg, through writing open letters, starting petitions, distributing educational materials etc.) for the UEB to abandon this ideology.

Cuts

The motion concludes: “Many of the cuts made to humanities subjects in the Academic Futures proposals are reportedly ‘word for word’ the same as cuts done at Victoria University in New Zealand, when Wendy Larner (currently vice chancellor at Cardiff University) was part of senior leadership there.

“Carefully evidenced and costed counter proposals from schools have been rejected without reason by the UEB, showing it is not just a financial issue.”

We invited Cardiff University to respond, but it did not do so.