The university has announced a major restructuring exercise, and while most of the details have not been explained there are themes emerging from early conversations, including between UCU and University representatives. 

Context and objectives.  

• Specific objectives of the major restructure are unclear and have not been announced.  Announcing a major change to university organization without motivation is unsettling.  
• The university says it is currently profitable, but expects challenges ahead.  International student numbers are expected to decline dramatically in coming years (source unknown).  
• While ‘curiosity-driven’ research is not currently subject to change, UKRI has reorganized its funding to stress alignment with government priorities (possibly involving fewer, larger interdisciplinary centres with a focus on economically important areas).  Grant funding may be harder to access and more concentrated.  
• One aim that has been mentioned is to improve financial sustainability while freeing up investment capital (whether this includes investment in human capital is unclear).

Proposed direction.  

• Both the VC and other communications have suggested major changes to the college structures (fewer colleges have been mentioned).  
• The 5-10% reduction in headcount  over five years that the university had previously announced remains a baseline (but there appears to be a change from this target as a final goal.  This now looks like a minimum).  
• Languages and music are under review, with a tension between cultural value and financial cost.  While the university intends to remain a ‘comprehensive institution’, a ‘tightening of scope’ is expected.  
• Four categories of ‘departure’ have been mentioned:  1) Voluntary leavers schemes; 2) Voluntary severance; 3) Voluntary redundancy; 4) Compulsory redundancy.   More than 20 compulsory redundancies in one go is considered possible (more than 20 requires a formal consultation), but 
• There will be a targeted approach to specific areas (look for an exercise near you: ‘voluntary’ redundancies in the Rail centre, Biosciences and UoB online are recent examples.  Staff lost to a ‘targeted’ approach and VLS at UoB are not substantially fewer than at universities who have had large and public redundancy ‘crises’.  The approach is different, but the overall risk to staff is not).  
• The process of restructuring will be iterative with multiple starts rather than a single big restructure (this sounds like waves of change that unfold over time).  There are a number of change programmes currently in process
• Professional services will be restructured first, before a College restructure. 
• The number of modules taught should be reduced (which suggests how a 5-10% reduction of staff is possible without lowering the student body.  The consequence:  Larger courses, higher workloads). 

UCU reflections.  

• While change is not automatically bad, and the challenges facing the university sector are obvious, the discussion of staff loss, despite a claim of financial stability, is unsettling and the process is not defined as one that will unfold organically over time to meet strategic goals.  
• There have been recent major exercises considering reorganization of large units and involving outside consultants (e.g. LES and CMH) that concluded that existing structures were preferred.  These have been expensive and time-consuming.  
• The lack of clear objectives, beyond a lower headcount and cost savings, is also unsettling.  
• The connection between the objectives that have been mentioned and changes is not clear. There are, for example, many paths to fostering interdisciplinary research, but a college reorganization does not have this as an automatic outcome.
• The value of specific disciplines is not determined by short-term costs and a view of costs that devolve them down to individual units and even individual researchers is not aligned with a community devoted to learning and innovation (where innovations frequently lead to benefits that were not foreseen at the time the work took place – a narrow focus on immediate benefit guarantees forfeiture of a much larger pool of future benefit).
• An emphasis on capital over human capital misjudges where organizational value is located

UCU will be asking the university to:

– Plan to avoid compulsory redundancies

– Ensure safe workloads for all staff

– Carry out a thorough equality impact assessment (unit by unit changes can lead to systematic unfair outcomes in cumulative totals)

– Protect fixed-term and casualized workers

– Conduct meaningful consultation with staff (UCU member contributions will be important – tell us what you think)

Open meetings to discuss reorganization plans – members and non-members welcome

BUCU will hold two open meetings to discuss re-organization plans. 

Tuesday, 17 March, 1-2pm, 60 minutes, in-person only – Strathcona SR10 (113) – down the hall from our new union offices 

Thursday, 19 March, 12:00 to 1:15pm, 75 minutes, online only. Contact branch secretary Andrew Olson for the meeting link.

Agenda:

• UCU will briefly present what it knows
• The floor will be open for questions, concerns and discussion