We write as Translation and Interpreting staff at risk of compulsory redundancy at the University of Birmingham, together with the Birmingham UCU Committee.

In brief: a University whose Vice-Chancellor has called the closure of language courses “a national catastrophe”, and which holds a Silver Race Equality Charter award, is dismissing its Arabic, Chinese and Italian specialists – all of them from migrant or minority ethnic backgrounds – after a consultation in which every alternative was rejected and a decision sent to Council by e-mail. We ask Council and the Vice-Chancellor to halt these redundancies, release the equality impact assessment, and meet the affected staff.

A University that calls itself a champion of languages

The University has consistently presented itself as a champion of Modern Languages. Speaking at the British Academy SHAPE conference on 4 March 2026, the Vice-Chancellor described the closure of language courses across the country as “a national catastrophe”, warned that “important cultural assets” were being lost “by stealth”, and said the sector needed to deal with it. On 20 March 2026 the Vice-Chancellor wrote to all staff that “suggestions that some areas are in the firing line are simply untrue” and promised to be “as transparent and consultative as it is possible to be”.

Ten weeks later, five colleagues in Modern Languages were placed at risk of redundancy. In August, the University sent the proposal to Council to be approved by e-mail, without a meeting. The University has not explained the criteria by which these colleagues were singled out. Nor has it explained how removing its Arabic and Chinese expertise can be reconciled with its published REF 2021 statement, which committed it to “a strategic focus on non-European languages in terms of both recruitment to new posts and support for grant applications” and framed that commitment in equality terms: “structures that work to exclude research conducted on and in non-European languages and cultures, also work to exclude researchers and research subjects from outside of Europe.” Asked in consultation how the proposal could be reconciled with that commitment, the University replied only that “it has not been possible to create new posts”. A promise to grow non-European language research, made in the name of equality, is not honoured by removing the existing posts.

A consultation that was not genuine

Two weeks before the at-risk letters were sent, the Head of the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music announced the closure of the MA in Translation Studies and the MA in English-Chinese Interpreting. Redundancy consultations then ran from 4 June to 3 August 2026. They were supposed to be an opportunity to discuss and meaningfully explore alternatives to redundancy. They were not.

Every alternative put forward — teaching out the remaining modules of the distance-learning MA in Translation, taking on units in modules across and beyond the School (in some cases teaching that module convenors had already offered), and proposals for new MA programmes — was rejected without any figures or evidence being shared. Even the University’s own reviewers were “positive about the academic content and quality” of the new programmes, which were nonetheless ruled out on market grounds alone. Requests for clarification and for further information about the business case were, in most cases, refused. The University refused to provide workload modelling for the teach-out, produced a financial case with no figures, and rejected every formal grievance submitted before the end of the consultation without a hearing. Asked twice whether cost-saving was the main driver, the University’s HR representative confirmed that it was not.

A decision rushed to Council by e-mail

Staff had been told that Council would consider the outcome on 14 October 2026. Instead, the University announced that its executive board would consider the outcome on 10 August and that, if approved, the proposal would go to Council for decision by written resolution from 17 August — immediately after the close of consultation, and before the union’s members could respond collectively. The University said this was to avoid “a prolonged period of uncertainty for affected colleagues”. But a decision reached before representations have been weighed does not resolve uncertainty; it pre-empts it. Nor is it consistent with the legal requirement that consultation takes place while proposals can be influenced. Four weeks on, neither the staff nor the union has been told in writing what was decided.

A pattern of who is selected

At the beginning of June 2026, five members of staff in Translation and Interpreting — specialists in Arabic, Chinese and Italian, each of whom shares a protected characteristic of race under the Equality Act 2010 (colour, nationality, or ethnic or national origins) — received letters placing them at risk of redundancy. They are now facing dismissal.

This is one of six redundancy rounds since July 2025 to affect UCU members at Birmingham. In five of those six rounds, most of the staff placed at risk were migrants or from a minority ethnic background. In this round it is all of them. Throughout this process the University has refused to show its equality impact assessment either to the affected staff or to their union. What it has disclosed is that the assessment considers only sex, ethnicity and disability, because that is the data its HR system holds; nationality and national origin are not examined at all.

The University says the pool was chosen by the affected staff’s heavy involvement in teaching the two discontinued MAs. Yet other colleagues who were equally involved in teaching those programmes, but who do not share the same protected characteristics, were not placed at risk. The pool falls disproportionately on staff associated with Chinese, Arabic and Italian language specialisms – and under section 9 of the Equality Act 2010, race includes nationality and ethnic or national origins. We believe this amounts to race discrimination.

It is happening at a University that in February 2026 announced its Silver Race Equality Charter award, a national accreditation that recognises an institution’s commitment to improving the representation, progression and success of minority-ethnic staff. Three weeks before that announcement, on 29 January, UCU and UNISON representatives had sat in a redundancy consultation meeting for the University’s UoB Online team at which every member of staff from a minority-ethnic background was at risk of losing their job; the University’s own equality impact assessment for that round acknowledged that minority-ethnic staff were “over-represented” among those at risk. The Charter exists to hold institutions to account for how they treat minority-ethnic staff, not to be displayed in one communication while those staff are placed in job insecurity in another. Under the University’s own Ordinance 3.20.29, no member of staff can be dismissed for redundancy until the Vice-Chancellor has personally reviewed the redeployment record and confirmed that the University’s obligations have been met. The Vice-Chancellor who celebrated the award will sign off the dismissals.

Why this matters to everyone

What happens to Modern Languages sets the pattern for how anyone could be treated next. The University is already subject to an HSE notice of contravention for material breaches in its management of work-related stress, with corrective measures due by 30 September 2026 – failures that have been independently reported in the profession’s own press. The proposals would transfer the remaining teaching, supervision and marking to other staff. No workload impact assessment for that redistribution has been produced. Birmingham UCU has supported the affected staff throughout, but everything asked for so far — grievances, the equality impact assessment, the financial modelling for the teach-out — has been refused. If these posts are to be defended and redundancies prevented, we will need to organise, department by department, colleague by colleague.

What we are asking for

We call on the University of Birmingham’s Council and Vice-Chancellor to:

1.     halt these compulsory redundancies;

2.     release the equality impact assessment to the affected staff and their union, consistent with its public sector equality duty;

3.     extend the equality analysis to nationality and national origins, as section 9 of the Equality Act 2010 requires;

4.     refer and hear the grievances that have been submitted, as the University’s own Ordinance provides;

5.     meet the affected staff to discuss the alternatives they have already put forward; and

6.     confirm in writing to the affected staff and their union what the executive board and Council decided, and when.

What you can do

If you are a member of the public, the most useful thing you can do is sign and share this petition as widely as you can.

If you are a current or former member of University staff, please also share it with colleagues, make clear that any reputational damage is the responsibility of the University and not the staff it has put at risk – and, if you are not yet in a union, join one.

Please sign your name and help us win this fight

In hope and solidarity,

Translation and Interpreting staff at risk of redundancy, and the Birmingham UCU Committee

Birmingham, 9 September 2026

Sign and Share this Petition: https://www.change.org/p/stop-redundancies-at-the-university-of-birmingham