Cardiff University has said that it will cut the equivalent of 380 full-time jobs over the next five years ¨C equal to one in 14 posts at the institution.

Cardiff announced the move to cut staffing levels by 7 per cent after reporting a ?22.8 million deficit for the past financial year, and revealing that it expected to make another ?10.6 million loss this year. A turnaround plan called ¡°Transforming Cardiff¡± was agreed at a council meeting on 11 February.

The university has launched a voluntary severance scheme and said that ¡°no compulsory redundancies have been proposed to [the university] council at this stage¡±. ¡°However, like all universities, we cannot rule out compulsory redundancies in the future,¡± the vice-chancellor, Colin Riordan, said in a message to staff.

The decision to cut jobs has been taken even though the turnaround plan includes proposals to significantly increase student numbers over the next five years: by 4 per cent at undergraduate level, ¡°with a particular focus on growth in international student numbers¡±, and by 7 per cent at postgraduate taught level.

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Cardiff said that its staff costs had accounted for 59.6 per cent of staff costs in 2017-18, the highest percentage in the Russell Group. It wants to reduce this to 56 per cent by 2022-23, and argued that its plan to reduce staffing levels was ¡°manageable¡± compared with an average voluntary staff turnover of more than 6 per cent.

Other plans under the Transforming Cardiff programme include:

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• Merging three schools ¨C English, communication and philosophy, modern languages, and Welsh ¨C to form a new School of Literatures, Languages and Creative Practice
• Reconfiguring the School of Healthcare Sciences, discontinuing some programmes which are perceived to be underperforming
• Co-locating the School of Optometry and Vision Sciences and the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Professor Riordan said that the university wanted to ¡°align financial imperatives with innovative ways of delivering teaching, research and our civic mission¡±.

¡°We are committed to supporting our outstanding people, and want to manage this change programme over a five-year period so that we can retain and build on excellence,¡± he said.

Stuart Palmer, Cardiff¡¯s chair of council, said: ¡°Like all universities, Cardiff University faces significant financial challenges. Council is reassured that Transforming Cardiff will see the university move back into surplus in a way that minimises disruption to our excellent staff and students.¡±

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com