New Aberdeen University principal 'can't rule out' further job losses

The new principal professor at the University of Aberdeen has not ruled out further job losses, as the institution looks to balance its books and battle a multi-million-pound deficit.

Earlier this year, the university introduced a range of cost-saving measures to tackle its £5.5 million funding gap, including opening a voluntary severance and enhanced retirement scheme. Staff recruitment was also frozen and promotions paused.

41 staff have since left the institution, including 14 from the business school which was the most affected.

The institution has now reduced its gap, but £4.3 million deficit remains. Unions warn there’s still uncertainty over the future of staff roles.

In his first sit-down interview since taking up the role of principal, Professor Peter Edwards said the university could not rule out any options, including further job losses and restructuring of the current school model.

“I think we’re looking at all the options at the moment,” he told STV News.

“We have a new change programme called ‘Adapting for Continued Success’ and as part of that, as you would expect, we are looking at a range of different options. We’re looking at the current twelve school structure that we have at the University of Aberdeen if it’s right for us going forward in terms of delivering our strategic ambitions.”

The principal said they were looking at staffing numbers and where staff are aligned with the academic objectives and professional service requirements.

When asked if he could rule out further job cuts over the next couple of years, he said: “I think at this stage it’s too early to say what we’ll need in terms of staff numbers going forward. I’m really keen we do this in partnership with the university community and other stakeholders because I think it’s really important we get the university into the right shape for the future.”

A recent internal review found reports of a “toxic culture” at the University. It said there were significant cultural and behavioural challenges and that a lack of trust and respect existed between different layers of its governance. The university agreed to act on the review’s recommendations.

Principal Professor Peter Edwards says he’s determined to work on the institution’s culture.

“The SUMS report was commissioned by the university looking into all aspects of our governance, the efficiency of our governance and how our committees operate, how the court and senate operate, all the different organs of the university governance,” he said.

The University of Aberdeen’s Senate is the highest academic government body, working in parallel with the university court and senior management teams.

Professor Peter Edwards added: “The report does highlight aspects of culture, but I think it’s important to recognise that in parallel with the SUMS report we conducted a survey of our academic senate members and what was noticeable was that the senate survey highlighted again there was some issues around behaviours but some of those were behaviours of senate members to other senate members. This is a complex issue and involves a range of different issues within the university, but culture is something I am absolutely determined to work on as new principal.”

The principal professor admits that it has been a financially unprecedented time for the wider sector over the past few years.

Almost 190 roles have made redundant at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Although the majority were voluntary around 18 staff lost their jobs through compulsory redundancy.

Around 300 staff have also left Dundee University as they grappled with their financial black hole of £35 million pounds.

“The university of Aberdeen was probably one of the first universities not only in Scotland but in the UK to recognise the financial challenges that we were going to face following the decline in international students and I think in some ways Aberdeen was bold identifying the issues and started to take action much earlier then perhaps alot of others in the sector,” Professor Edwards said.

“Of course, that created its own challenges, it meant we were very much in the public eye when we starter to enact changes and savings a few years ago and it’s also clearly been a challenging time for our staff. I’m really keen that we can try and move forward and we can try and get the university finances in a more stable position so we can get back to the core business of the university which is to be excellent in terms of our education and research.”

Looking ahead to the future, the emphasis now will be balancing the books by its 2028 deadline.

“We’re making good progress. We have seen student recruitment exceed our expectations which is positive and I’m hopeful this year we will continue to see trajectory where we will reduce the deficit even further,” Professor Edwards said.

But a union at the university says there’s growing concern among staff about the future safety of their roles.

“This is a big worry for all staff across all levels,” Daniel Cutts, co-leader of UCU Aberdeen told STV News.

“We have the plan for Adapting for Continued Success, but senior management have not ruled out compulsory redundancies. We would ask that university senior management consider this and rule it out to remove that anxiety that many staff are feeling.

“The workload pressures are significant, and they are not getting any better. There’s alot of weight on the Adapting for Continued Success to resolve these issues however if that results in less staff that’s going to mean more workload for the staff that are here.”