North East university warns it must cut £25m by end of 2026 as lecturers' strike goes on
A North East university in the midst of a lecturers’ strike has unveiled plans to make £25 million worth of cuts.
Staff at Northumbria University, in Newcastle, have been warned that the institution will be enacting substantial cost-cutting measures by the end of 2026.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are currently staging industrial action amid a row over an alleged “pension raid”, with a further 10 strike days announced this week.
University bosses want to save £11 million per year by having staff switch to a different pension scheme with lower employer contributions, which the union has claimed could leave employees significantly worse off.
Now, in an email to staff this week, vice chancellor and chief executive Andy Long has revealed that £25 million must be sliced off the university’s cost base by the end of December.
In that note, which has been seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Prof Long confirms that voluntary severance is now being offered to both academic and professional support staff.
He said that the UK’s higher education sector was in “one of the most challenging financial periods in its history”, owing to frozen tuition fees, declining international student numbers, and rising pension and employment costs.
Prof Long added that Northumbria’s student numbers had fallen by around 3,000 since 2021 and that staffing costs are “higher than they ever have been”, and that bosses were also planning to cut costs through a “reduction in campus-related expenditure, linked to a reduced estate footprint”.
He wrote: “I do not underestimate what that means for colleagues. But I am clear that this is the right course of action for the university, for our students, and for our long-term ambitions of our university.
“I also want to be clear about what this is not: Northumbria is not facing the kind of existential crisis affecting some institutions in our sector. We are acting now precisely because we are in a position of relative strength, and we intend to stay there.”
UCU regional official Lawson Armstrong pointed out that the £25 million savings target is the same amount the university is spending on the building of a space skills, research and development centre, in a partnership with the UK Space Agency and US defence and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin.
Mr Armstrong said students “don’t want shiny new buildings that only benefit a few people at some future date – they need motivated, dedicated staff, with secure jobs, fair pay and pensions, and decent conditions”.
He added: “Everyone knows higher education in the UK faces big challenges. Redundancies, freezing staff pay, or cutting pensions might seem like the answer but will make matters worse, sending the university into a downward spiral with massive reputational damage, and with negative impacts for students and the region staff are proud to serve.”
A spokesperson for the university said that initiatives like the space centre and a planned Centre for Writing and Publishing “are of national relevance and key to raising the region’s profile, making Northumbria distinctive in a competitive marketplace”.
They added: “We have transformed before: our journey since 2007, recognised in our remarkable rise in research rankings, our national awards, and the quality of what we deliver, has been built on our willingness to evolve. This is no different. In making proactive adjustments now we can continue to invest in our people and our future well into the next decade.
“We are proud of the role we play in Newcastle and the North East, educating thousands of young people from within the region and attracting many thousands more to study, live and work here. We support more graduates to enter highly skilled jobs in the North East than any other university.”