Edinburgh faces a £140 million financial black hole, equivalent to about 10% of the university’s annual turnover.
Those affected by the severance scheme will receive formal confirmation on April 30, and managers have been told to monitor workloads as staff depart.
Prof Mathieson wrote: “Around 350 staff have been accepted for voluntary severance. Even though this may seem like a relatively small number within our large university population, this will likely result in year-on-year cost savings of around £18 million – an important part of our drive to save costs.”
He added: “We have also agreed to pause academic promotions until we reach a more stable financial position. This means that there will be no application process opening in the academic year 2025–26.
“I realise that this will disappoint our academic colleagues, but this is needed to further contribute to our overall cost-saving measures. We will use this intervening period to make improvements to future academic promotions processes based on the feedback we received through the review held last year.”
Under the heading “Next steps,” Prof Mathieson said the university needed to “deliver further changes to our size, shape and ways of working.”
“I and others have previously stated that it is not possible at this stage to rule out compulsory redundancies.
“The subsequent level of staff savings that will still need to be made is being assessed, and budget holders have been working to identify proposed savings as part of the Planning Round decision-making process.
“This work is informing the development of an overall budget and five-year plan, for presentation to Court in the summer.”
Prof Mathieson said the financial challenges facing Edinburgh were “by no means exclusive to our university.”
“I will continue to call for a fairer funding model fit for the long term, and will keep you all updated as we progress with our financial sustainability improvements.”
The University and College Union (UCU) has previously warned that cuts to staff could have a serious impact on students’ learning and academic standards.
More to follow…
