Strike action over Newcastle University’s attempts to plug a £35m shortfall has come a step closer after a union balloted its members.
The institution’s University and College Union (UCU) branch has been granted permission to hold a ballot for industrial action next Monday. According to a statement issued by the UCU this morning, more than 1,000 union members will be balloted following the University’s promotion freeze, travel restrictions, and a voluntary redundancy scheme.
A previous consultative ballot, with a turnout of 44%, found that 74.6% of members were in favour of industrial action.
In September last year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service found through internal university emails the Newcastle institution was facing a £35m deficit due to a decline in international students. The email stated while £15m had already been found in mitigations, £20m had yet to be recovered.
Following this, the University implemented travel restrictions, a review of capital projects, a promotion freeze, and a voluntary severance scheme for academics.
Newcastle University UCU branch chair Matt Perry said: ‘Our members refuse to pay the price for management’s unrealistic projections, bloated salaries, and misspending on buildings; we will be voting for industrial action because the cuts profoundly damage us, our students, and our research.
“Management refuses to rule out compulsory redundancies, nor will it share its plans for the next stage of cuts, which come after the second voluntary severance package in a year. We want to open the books and independently assess the university’s financial situation. University management now needs to negotiate a resolution to the dispute that does not put staff in the firing line so we can avoid industrial action.”
In response to the news, a Newcastle University spokesperson said: “We are not immune to the challenges currently affecting the UK higher education sector and like many universities, we have implemented a range of cost-saving measures, including voluntary severance schemes, tighter controls on recruitment and restrictions on non-pay budgets. These measures will strengthen our position and enable us to continue investing in our people so that we can deliver world-class education and research for the benefit of the region and beyond
“We recognise this is a challenging time for colleagues and we are being as open and transparent as possible.”
Universities across the region, and the UK, are facing similar financial problems and threats of industrial action. The UCU backed down from a walk-out in March last year after Northumbria University agreed to rule out compulsory redundancies.
In September last year, the UCU reported that more than one in 10 academics at the University of Sunderland faced job losses. At the time the university blamed the situation on the decline of international students admissions and the freeze on human student fees.
In November 2024, the government announced that tuition fees would rise for the first time since 2017, from £9,250 a year to £9,535 a year for full time students. The UCU has called on the Government to re-think higher education funding, describing the current system as “unsustainable”.
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