Aberdeen University to cut jobs in bid to make £5.5m savings

The University of Aberdeen has confirmed that jobs will be cut in efforts to save £5.5m.

Last month the university confirmed it was considering voluntary redundancies, pausing recruitment and freezing staff promotions to plug an £11.2m financial black hole.

Now the institute has said it is trying to save around 2% of its total revenue, which equates to £5.5m.

In an effort to fill the financial hole, the university revealed it will create “a more student demand-led” range of programmes.

As part of the educational restructuring, a voluntary severance and enhanced retirement scheme is being offered to staff.

In a letter to staff today , seen by STV News, five schools will be offered voluntary redundancies. These schools include Business, Geosciences, Language Literature Music and Visual Culture, Natural and Computing Sciences and Social Sciences.

The university said it is expecting to see “a small reduction in the overall size” of the workforce during “a challenging time for the UK higher education sector”.

A University of Aberdeen spokesperson said: “The University is working collectively to generate extra income and is exploring collaborations to achieve revenue growth through our education and commercialisation opportunities.

“We are also considering ways to more effectively shape and enhance our educational portfolio to create a more student demand-led, academically sustainable portfolio of degree programmes. “

The University of Aberdeen Student’s Union believes the next round of job cuts would reduce the quality of courses, especially after around 200 roles were already made redundant by the university.

Vice president for education Miles Rothoerl has called on both the Scottish and UK governments to step in before future generations “pay the price for years to come”.

He said: “We are witnessing the consequences of a broken funding model. Cuts to staff are cuts to teaching time, wellbeing services, and the wide impact our university community creates.

“Students are already feeling the impact on their experience, and without urgent action things will continue to deteriorate.

“The university funding system is broken, and both the UK and Scottish Governments must step up.

“Scotland cannot continue to rely on volatile international tuition fees to patch domestic funding gaps, especially when current UK policies actively discourage international students from coming here.

“We need a sustainable model that recognises education as a public good, not a financial burden.”

The University and College Union added: “Staff are concerned that they’ve not been appropriately consulted on the proposals for voluntary severance and job losses, despite the lessons it was claimed were learned last year in the fallout from the Modern Language job cuts.

“This new round of job cuts comes on the back of a pause in academic promotions, which has already dented staff morale. So to be told that staff costs are spiralling, when the reality is university workers’ pay has declined by over 25% in real terms since 2009 is a further slap in the face to our members.”

It comes after Dundee University previously revealed that it would be “out of cash” by the end of June.

In efforts to fill a £35m deficit, the university initially planned to cut 700 jobs, however, the proposal was revised following backlash.

There could be a reduction of up to 300 roles through a voluntary severance programme.

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council will continue to engage closely with the sector as universities, including Aberdeen, develop their plans to address financial sustainability.

“There a number of factors impacting universities, including UK Government migration policies and the increase to employer national insurance contributions, which is estimated to cost Scottish universities over £48m.

“Universities make a valuable contribution to Scotland’s economy and wider society. Ministers listened closely to the sector in the development of this year’s budget, and we are investing over £1.1 billion in university teaching and research in 2025-26. Since February, we have announced an additional £25 million to be made available through the Scottish Funding Council, to support universities facing financial challenges.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “This government inherited a sector facing serious financial risk and has taken tough decisions to fix the foundations of higher education to deliver change for students.

“Whilst institutions are autonomous, we remain committed to boosting the sector’s long-term financial sustainability and restoring universities as engines of opportunity, aspiration and growth.”