FAQ’s from OUR MEMBERS regarding changes to staffing and redundancies taking place at AUB in 2025 – responses provided by the AUB Vice Chancellor and CEO

 

What are the changes being proposed?

Like many universities in the UK that have seen a drop in student applications and enrolment, AUB is proposing to make some staff redundant. The total number of staff that will potentially be made redundant is approximately 74FTE, however this number is changing all the time (decreasing) due to measures being taken to reduce it as much as possible. The university is legally required to.

 

Why are the changes being proposed?

The changes are being proposed because the university is going through financial challenge due to a falling number of student applications and enrolments, the diminishing value of the fees provided for HE courses, and the continual rising costs of salaries, national insurance, utilities, and overall inflation. The fee has not been raised in alignment with the ongoing rising costs over many years and therefore is not sufficient to cover all our costs as a university.

 

What are you doing to protect and ensure my course is able to run with the appropriate staff and resources for the rest of my time at AUB?

We provide a clear commitment to all AUB students to deliver the right number of teaching hours for each level and type of study. The redundancies we are planning will not have any effect on our ability to deliver our commitment, and therefore resources will not be reduced below what we are committed to delivering.

 

Why are you targeting technicians?

All areas of the university are affected by the redundancies, not just technicians, the impact on the three main staff groups, Professional Services, Academic and Technical Services. I previously sent an email to all of you to let you know what the figures were for each area, the Technical Services figure is now less; approx. 25FTE will be made redundant.

 

I've heard that 100 technicians'jobs are at risk?

This is incorrect. The original proposal presented approx. 31 FTE redundancy, we don't have 100 staff in the technical provision and therefore it is not certain where this information has emerged from. We employ approx. 90 FTE technical services staff; this includes those that don't do any type of delivery.A NEW proposal that was presented after working with staff feedback and trade union UNISON has reduced the number to approx. 25 FTE. This is as a result of the Collective Consultation period. The number may still be reduced further as we continue with the Collective Consultation.

 

We've heard that technicians should only be providing up to 2 hours a day of helping students, but they work very hard and do way above this. They help ensure our projects are well led, done correctly, and done passionately.

This information is not correct. Technical Demonstrators usually spend more than 2 hours per week delivering sessions to students across the university, the formal amount of time they spend delivering sessions to students is far more significant than this and we know that they also spend time supporting students outside of formal delivery.

We value their commitment to students very much, but we do need to express the need to be careful about controlling their workloads as not being on call 24/7 to students and this is not sustainable not expected by the university.

 

Our course is accredited externally; we are really concerned that the proposed changesand redundancies will adversely affect the external accreditation and quality of our degree in the future. What assurances can you provide?

The accreditation bodies are not in place to scrutinise how we run our courses or manage our staff. If we feel that our course needs adjustments or becomes overstaffed at any point, we are at liberty to make changes, we need to ensure that we do not diminish the professional expertise of the staff team overall and we are well aware of that requirement.

We will be protecting the skills carefully and ensuring that no action puts us in danger of jeopordising our accreditation, this would not be a sensible outcome for the university and it not one we will allow to happen.

 

What does the term contact hours mean (in student terms)?

It is the time that we commit to you / our students in order to deliver the learning that you need to successfully complete your course. AUB publishes the hours that our teaching staff well deliver via the Learning Teaching and Assessment Framework, this is to ensure that you / students are in a position to understand what you can expect and hold us to account.

Contact time, broadly speaking, would refer to lectures, workshops, seminars, tutorials, presentations etc. This will vary for different courses and the learning teaching and assessment framework lists the type of sessions that AUB considered to be contact.

 

My course has had 5 classes cancelled so far as a result of the redundancy consultation process, what can be done about this lost time?

I will need further information to investigate this and find out what is being done to replace this time. It is not acceptable for any member of staff to cancel a class without putting cover in place for the sessions they cannot deliver. This is not something that I or AUB would condone and I would expect to explore this further if I am aware of the courses / sessions that were cancelled.

 

What health and safety considerations are being made with fewer technical staff?

Health and Safety is paramount to AUB and is being taken very seriously within the considerations and proposals. There will be no Health and Safety risks taken.

 

What other areas of the Universities finances are being reviewed?

Many different areas of cost cutting have taken place over the last 24-18 months at AUB. These have included reducing the cost of VTs, cutting non course and non-staff budgets, tighter spending controls, review of our suppliers to ensure we are receiving the best value deals with contracts, staff recruitment freeze, significant reduction to VC salary, redundancy of a senior management post holder. Redundancies were the very last resort, and this was mentioned to all staff last academic year via all staff Town Halls.

 

How do the changes affect the money being spent on refurbishing buildings and providing new facilities?

The money we are spending on refurbishments of buildings and providing new facilities is minimal; we need to ensure that we maintain our buildings and continue to refresh and build on what we offer and how we project as a creative university and education provider. This includes ensuring that we are building on the course and subject areas that are in demand and providing spaces for them to grow. It is the role of the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that planning for the long-term future of the university is taking place and understanding where and how we can continue to build on what we offer is key to that. We are making sure that our campus is utilised to maximum effect. If we don’t continue to introduce new elements we are accepting that we are in decline as some of our existing and long standing courses are showing a declining interest from applicants.

 

Many technicians have diverse specialisms, if a specialism is lost how will this be addressed?

We will not lose any specialism that is needed to deliver our courses.

 

Are you closing some courses?

No courses are closing for 2025/26 academic year.

 

Are the changes being proposed only affecting staff on the ground, academics,technicians and professional services?

I don’t understand this question. The redundancies are affecting all three groups of staff at the university, Professional Services, Academics and Technical Services.

 

When will we know what the staff support for our course will look like for the future?

AUB is going to run sessions during September and October (for students) to ensure that there is an understanding of how support happens at the university for 2025/26 and what to expect. We don’t expect any major differences that will affect students. For example: student support services are untouched by the redundancies.

 

Should I defer my studies for a year whilst you sort this out?

The change that is happening at the university this year is not something that should deter you from wanting to study at AUB next year. By mid-August the adjustments to staff will have taken place and we will begin the new academic year with a renewed energy and positive outlook for the future of the university. We hope that you will be part of that, there are positive plans to take the university forward, to do that we must also do hard things to overcome some elements that are affecting the entire HE sector.

 

How are students involved in the consultation process on which changes are being made to the university?

There have been a few meetings taking place with students, both with myself and the Academic Directors of Schools. We cannot share the redundancy proposals with students as these proposals concern our staff and their jobs and it would not be right, or ethical for us to do so. The Senior Leadership Team are responsible for making decisions and running the university and we are keen to hear student feedback in many areas of our work and often seek feedback through a range of methods, however, in the current situation regarding redundancies, we must protect confidentiality and professionalism when it comes to the details of our staff and their jobs.